Late Post

I know that about 95% of my readers visit the Curiosity Shop using a PC computer and that many of you choose a PC because when something goes wrong you get to meet wonderful people from all over the world like Bob from Bangladesh before you have to pack the machine up and send it back to the manufacturer who changes the tape on the box and mails it back to you. Let me tell you my experience today.

After three years of hard use, my Macbook began to act strangely over the weekend, and today it froze just as I was about to publish the blog. A shut down and reboot brought a clicking sound from the hard drive and a folder with a question mark on the screen. It looked like my hard drive had died, and I might have lost everything I hadn't backed up (honest, I really do back up occasionally). Feeling a dead hard drive would be too costly to repair, I used a school computer to design a brand new $2,000 computer before taking myself and the deceased machine to the Mac Store in Braintree. Entering the store I learned that I had to make an appointment to have someone look at my computer. Appointment is mac speak for having a guaranteed place in line to get help-the employee (in official mac speak they're called "geniuses")  told me he was entering a description of me in the system (black briefcase, sox hat, sad look?) so they could come and find me when it was my turn. After fifteen minutes of checking out all the gadgets in the store, Matthew called me over. We quickly determined that the hard drive was not completely dead, but I'd definitely need a new one. There was also hope that he could get the data off the decrepit drive and onto the new one. Unfortunately, my three year warranty had just run out in March! Not to worry, Apple has a "close enough" policy that would give me a completely new hard drive free, and, oh, how about a new top to the case because see, there's that little nick there in the corner-and oh, we'll throw in a complete cleaning inside and out. All free! How long was this miracle going to take-I figured at least a week. Nope, "we'll give you a call and you can pick it up this evening," Matthew said. Clearly, the man really was a genius. It's 8:15 and everything is fine again, my applications work, my data is back, the new top to the case has a sandpapery feel that keep my hands from slipping, and I can see the screen clearly again after three years of sneezing at it. Long live Steve Jobs! Kind of missed talking to Bob, however. I hear his mom's recipe for Mulligatawny Soup is sensational.

Back to Greystone Way in the next post.