Blogging from Cicada’s Computer
It appears that my iMac at work is toast. We went out to lunch yesterday, and when we got back, my computer refused to wake up all the way. Instead it froze up and gave me a grey screen of death. I guess it was somewhat more aesthetically appealing than a Windows blue screen of death, but it wasn’t any less troubling. I was instructed to restart my computer, which I did.
Unfortunately, that didn’t seem to help anything. It hung on the grey screen (where it usually displays the Apple logo) while making loud clicking noises—the kind that are sometimes produced by broken hard drives. Eventually it displayed an icon of a file folder with a question mark on it.
I tried booting from the OS installation DVD, but it refused to reinstall the OS (probably because of the aforementioned suspected drive failure). It froze when I tried to do a disk repair. Strangely, the hardware diagnostic program said everything was okay. And now it won’t even let me boot from the disc anymore.
So I have no computer, and the IT guy (who admitted that he is not familiar with Macs) who was trying to help me yesterday is gone today. Luckily Cicada is also gone today, and she said I could use her computer. So here I am, trying to be productive and not worry about the possibility that I lost most of a week’s work.
Tell me again how Macs are so superior.
COMMENTS
9 thoughts on “Blogging from Cicada’s Computer”
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Brinestone
It looks so funny to see you in the office I have seen so many times on her blog. Also, you look positively bored out of your skull in that picture.
Wm Morris
A week’s worth of work1? You mean the company you work for doesn’t require you to either work off of (or at least daily back up work to) a share drive?
Jon Boy
Require? No, not that I’ve ever heard of. And it wasn’t a full week’s worth of work; my computer died yesterday at noon, so it was at most three and a half days’ worth. I’ve worked on a few other things this week, too, but that was the bulk of it.
Dan
I think anybody who says that Macs are great is not qualified to say what computer is great and what is not. On one hand, when I see that commercial where a MacBook Air is pulled out of an envelope, I’ve got to admit that the concept of a computer that small is pretty awesome. For that, you gotta hand it to those apple people. On the other hand, once I buy that computer, what can I do with it? Probably about 10% of what I can do with Windows. So really, all I’ve got is a really thin piece of junk that cost me over $1000. Macs look nice, but so do supermodels. When it comes to brains, though…you get my point.
Jon Boy
$1000? Try $1800 and up. For a laptop without an optical disc drive. I’m not sure why anyone would need such portability over functionality, but maybe that’s why Steve Jobs is rich and I’m not.
Sure, they’re pretty, but I’d be happier if I could install XP Pro on it. You might get a kick out of this video, Dan. Oh, and this one too.
David S.
Doesn’t the new Mac OS (Leopard) have that Boot Camp thing that allows you to install Windows? Or does that not work with XP Pro?
Jon Boy
I think any version of Mac OS X (or maybe just the versions that work with the Intel processors) will let you use Boot Camp and install Windows or another operating system. But I’d have to have a license for that, and we’d have to buy Windows versions of all the software, and I don’t think they’d approve those expenses.
Dan
I enjoyed those videos. I thought the part about the sox matching was funny, and the brain lasers was hilarious. They really did a good job stereotyping the mac and linux fan-bases. I am now running both Mac OS X Leopard and Ubuntu Linux on virtual machines on my Windows Media Center PC. I have my reasons. But when I use those OS’s, I still say to myself, “what makes this so much better than windows?” NOTHING. I’ve noticed that whenever I want to do something technical with OS X or Linux, step one of the instructions always reads: “1. Open up a terminal window and type…” Why is there still software like it’s 1981 working on a 80 columns by 24 lines screen when my monitor is capable of outputing beatiful colors at 1920×1080, with a 46″ diagonal. Why is there no GUI? Why do I still have to open up a stupid terminal?
emma
Hi,
I have a favour to ask you – I’m the President of the Society of Editors WA here in Australia, and i was wondering if we could reprint one of your Arrant Pedantry blog posts in our newsletter. It’s sent out free to our members each month, and i would love to put your post about prescriptivism and descriptivism in an upcoming issue.
Of course, you would retain all rights blah blah blah … i’d just like to share it (and the link to your blog) with the other members.
If this would be okay, please let me know. If not, i guess you should let me know anyway.
Cheers.