Modding with Fire.

Posted on February 13th, 2008 by phiber811, under John, Service Rants, main.

Every now and then, someone asks me “why should I buy a Mac?” My response is of course, why shouldn’t you? I’ve been a mac person for my entire computer using life and have no problem with that. Its a good thing. But of course, once in a while, something comes along that serves as a reminder of how well built the Macintosh computer is. I offer it as a good example of why you should buy a mac.

Yes, the picture above is an iMac. Your standard 20″ iMac G5. They’re good machines all told. Granted there was an REP on the power supply and logic board, but one can hardly hold Apple responsible for Foxconn getting a batch of bad capacitors. But I’m digressing. Notice that this mac isn’t pristine white. Its yellow. Its black. Its gray and sooty. The plastic has bubbled and started to melt. Yes, thats right. This mac was caught in a fire! I came into work this morning, and this machine had somehow made it into our possession, post customer. The shop folks were getting a good look at it, since Mac techs always enjoy a look at the extreme destruction that can befall one of MotherShip’s fine machines. Of course, with this unit’s life cycle ended, the guys just opted to leave it for the recycling pile.

I couldn’t let it go though. We can only imagine what this machine saw. How the room around it went up in flames. How, sitting on its desk, it was engulfed in an inferno and managed to still be upright. This machine had obviously made it through a baptism of fire, literally. But how well had it survived? I had to know. It was almost a moral obligation to try that which most people had already written off.

Would this horribly thrashed and discarded machine, who sacrificed all to protect it’s hard drive, power on? And if it did power on, would it boot up? Yes. I had to know.

I went ahead and set the unit up on its own surge protector, just in case. I hooked up a keyboard, mouse, power and ethernet. The usual basics. Then, while compressing the warped back plate assembly, I pressed in the power button. I caught the sound of a fan spinning, a scent of burnt plastic, smoke and ash. Then, the unit elicited the famous mac startup chime. What!?!? It passed POST! (Power On Self Test) To coin an internet acronym, OMFG! The thing not only powered on, but POSTed. Jesus Tap Dancing Christ.

At this point. I had to step back and marvel for a minute. I’ve seen a lot of machines take some seriously impressive beatings. But I’ve never seen one take this kind of damage, and still function. This machine was subjected to temperatures hot enough to completely color cook, bubble, and melt its plastics. Its entirely possible that the machine itself may have for a time, been on fire. And it powers on and passes the self test. I don’t think I could possibly be more impressed. Well, maybe if it asked me for a stiff drink and pooped out the keys to a ferrari, maybe. But this is reality. All my Liquor is at home. I couldn’t offer it a drink, even if I wanted to. But I’m digressing again.

So, as I’ve said, the unit powered on and passed POST. As I sat there marveling at it, I was even more surprised when the thing found my NetBoot server, and began to boot up. It loaded up the desktop and sure enough, this machine that was given up for dead, sat here on my workbench, patiently waiting to be used. In my mind, all I could imagine was the “Little Computer That Could” sitting on my desk, and despite its battle damage, hollering out,

“Dude! Wait, I still function! I can still make an iMovie, or check your email! We can hit the iTunes Music Store, or like, maybe check out Slashdot! I’m not done yet! I can still be useful!”

This machine impresses me thoroughly. It embodies the idea that you’d be surprised at what you can live through. Likewise, its a testament to how well constructed Mac’s are. This one survived a fire, and it still works. Sure, the plastics are toast, literally, and the screen is a loss, but it powers on, and wants to do its job. I don’t know if I can say that about any other piece of technology that I own or service.

This little Mac had been cast to the recycling bin, given up as a loss. Its precious data was retrieved, so the machine could head for the trash. However, I don’t think I can let that happen. I have too much respect for this inanimate object. I’m going to find a good corner of my work area for it, maybe clean it up a little bit, and keep it around. Why? Maybe as a reminder of how good Mac’s really are. Maybe because you don’t really know what tough means until you see it first hand. Or, maybe because its just so damned cool that it got roasted and can still check my email.

You rock hard little iMac. You totally do.

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Feeling the need for a change.

Posted on February 7th, 2008 by phiber811, under John, main.

Apple recently updated the Mac OS. The new look is pretty spiffy. In looking at my personal web space, mygeeklife.com, I realized it needed some serious updated, which it got. Then I looked at poor old MYM, and realized I havent done any kind of decent updating in a while. To that end I’ve updated wordpress, cleaned out a lot of the garbage that was languishing in the database, and slapped on a new Tiger style theme. Will I keep this theme? I’ve no idea. But its good for now.

Seeing as how we’re still averaging about 10K hits a month, I’m going to put it to you, all the people that check out MYM, to suggest something. If you have or know of a wordpress theme that you think would be rather good or representative of MYM, comment on this post and suggest something!

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