Good and Bad at once, and Genericon

[seawasp]

So Kathy's screen (17" Powerbook) started to glitch out regularly. The computer's had a host of problems through the past year or so, including Epic Fail of the DVD drive (not only doesn't the drive work, the computer denies it has one). My own computer's drive has started to act up too (still shows on the system, won't accept any discs for burning, etc.) and it has some other smaller problems.

At Apple, the cost to fix Kathy's was $700-$800. Mine, $500-$600.

So I bit the bullet and bought new machines.

The latter is the good news, of course. Now I have a brand new MacBook 13" -- larger screen than my old Powerbook 12" and VASTLY more powerful, and Kathy has the 15" MacBook Pro, which is considerably more powerful than my new one (and prettier, too). They also feature the magnetic attachment power cords, which eliminates the single greatest point of failure in our prior computers.

Genericon is this weekend; for the first time, I think I'm going to have a minimal presence there. Too many things have happened over the last several weeks. I'll be there on Saturday and that's it, unless they've scheduled me for a panel on any other day. Saturday is the Cosplay, which I will MC.

Comments

[noctyrnus.livejournal.com]

I kind of went through the same thing with my HP Laptop. The damned screen started to cut out and loose color , they told me in different places that repaired laptops that it would cost more to replace the screen, then to buy a new laptop , so I ended up getting a new laptop.

[shana.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on the new machines! May they give you many years of trouble-free service!

Have a good time.

[laptop-mechanic.livejournal.com]

Slot loading drives are made of suck and fail. Doubly so when these mechanical and failure prone devices are not easy to remove from the machine for service/replacement (which is pretty much every Apple machine made starting with the TiBook). That being said, replacing them shouldn't be THAT expensive. But you say it has other issues as well, so that's probably what the extra cost is. You might want to see if somebody else can just install new drives in the machines for a reasonable sum so you have some backup machines.

The new unibody design looks to be much better than the old machines, at least from a rigidity standpoint. The case panels appear thicker, so hopefully they wont dent if you look at them funny like the old ones did. We'll see how they do once they're out for a while and get some wear on them.

I'm pondering getting myself a ThinkPad in March. Probably an X200 or a T400. I wish I could afford an X301, since its probably one of the best 13" units on the market. Doubt I'll be able to swing the cost of one, however.

I hope you have fun at the Con. I haven't been to one in ages, myself. I need to see which ones are in my area that are any good.

[seawasp]

Well, the prior laptops survived like 4+ years, so I can't gripe too much (i.e., the 3-year AppleCare had long expired on both). And now I have something with modern processors. Among other things, that means I can finally try Civ4 which I got as a gift and found that it wouldn't run on my machine.

[noctyrnus.livejournal.com]

CIV 4 is awesome :)