It gets worse

Yesterday, I was really depressed about how Apple broke my laptop and then refused to fix it. So, I went home and decided to escape reality by vegging out in front of the TV set. So, I hit the remote to turn it on.

The TV set then died. Yes, Tom's pride and joy, the TV that's the centerpiece of our living room. Things have gone from bad to cursed.

The TV set is (also) under warranty, and hopefully Sony won't say that using it in conjunction with non-Sony equipment voids their warranty. ("You're using electricity that didn't come from Apple? Sorry, we don't support that configuration. Oh, and we don't sell electricity, so by definition actually using your laptop isn't supported." Grumble.)

Following up on yesterday's post: the Apple Hardware Test says that things are fine. I'm currently using Carbon Copy Cloner to take a full backup, at which point I'll call Apple Support again and see if throwing myself on their mercy will accomplish anything.

Later update: today's second tier guy was much less interested in dumping blame elsewhere and was happy to agree to send me a fix-it box. So, once again, in my baby goes to Apple. We'll see how long turn-around takes this time—I wouldn't complain if it takes longer, so long as it comes back in working condition.

Still No Joy

For those keeping track at home, my Mac is still crashing intermittently. Created a new user; same result.

I tried the Apple Hardware Test CD and it said that my hardware was fine (I was wondering if maybe it was a RAM issue). I'm now installing OS X on my new FireWire drive to see if running off that makes a difference.

If you have any suggestions whatsoever, please pass 'em on. I'm desperate here, folks—I haven't had a working Mac for over a week.

3:30 pm note: It took me about an hour to install 10.2.6 on the new drive, but it took me less than 5 minutes to crash it. That rules out any kind of software-related issues, right?

3:45 pm note: I'm now on the phone with Apple tech support. He said, and I quote,

If your Mac works fine with one monitor, but not another, then it's not an Apple issue, as the problem monitor may need too much juice.

I successfully avoided asking him if that was orange juice or apple juice, although I did get him to verify that he was talking about video RAM and not electricity. He declined to agree that if this same Mac was running this same monitor last week with no problems that that, by definition, meant that this Mac should "have enough juice" to run this monitor. I asked to speak to the next level of support, and I'm on hold waiting for them as I type this.

4:15 pm: No garbage about "juice" with the higher-level boys. The bad news: a PowerBook hooked up to a non-Apple monitor is not a supported configuration, i.e., not their problem. His suggestion: try running the Apple Hardware Test CD in loop mode overnight and see if that causes any errors—if it does, they'll take it back and fix it. If not, I'm on my own.

Have I mentioned sufficiently how much I hate intermittent errors?

Now working, maybe?

I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but deleting the plist file that holds monitor resolution info (as described in this tip) seems to have done the trick. Wish me luck!

Cursed myself

Spoke a little too soon on how wonderful that Apple repair was. Now I'm getting intermittent hard crashes <sigh>. I'm trying to narrow it down to figure out what might be causing it, but no joy as yet.

If you've sent me email, please have patience—the #1 app that's crashing is email, so I haven't been able to read much or write at all.

8:00 pm note: It appears to be a problem with the video card on the new motherboard. The following is 100% duplicatable:

1. Start up with 2nd monitor attached
2. Launch System Preferences
3. Choose the Display Panel
4. Make a modification to the way the 2nd monitor appears (for instance, try to stop mirroring)
5. Both systems go gray, and all that can be done then is to force-restart

If anyone has any ideas on things to try, I'd love to hear them! And yes, I know that resetting the PRAM is voodoo, but that didn't stop me from trying it, with no joy.

9:15 pm note: took the Powerbook home, hooked it up to my old monitor—and this setup works just fine. I'm thoroughly stumped. Maybe it's the dock at the office???

AppleCare rocks!

Remember a few days ago when I said that my TiBook had to go in for repairs? Here's the timeline:

Tuesday night: figure out that said laptop had a problem.
Wednesday afternoon: Call Apple and report the problem. Because I called late in the day, they couldn't send a box out until Thursday.
Thursday: Apple shipped the box overnight.
Friday: I received the box, called Airborne to schedule pickup, took two backups, and packed up my laptop.
Saturday: Airborne picked up the laptop for Monday delivery.
Monday morning: Apple received the laptop and replaced both the motherboard and the upper case.
Monday afternoon: Apple shipped the laptop back to me for Tuesday delivery.
Tuesday sometime (expected): My laptop returns to me in glorious working order.

Assuming that that last one holds true, I feel like my purchase of AppleCare is definitely paying for itself. Nice turnaround time, esp. considering that the local Apple-certified hardware shop quoted me two weeks just to diagnose the problem.

Political War

Good article by Ron Brownstein of the LAT: In the Political Arena, the Gladiators Are Now Engaged in Total War. It makes the excellent point that both major political parties - and the country - are the losers from the vicious political culture that has been growing since the 1980's.

Quanta Gold 3.6

Here's a new one on me: Quanta Gold 3.6. Looks like HomeSite, works in Linux, Windows, and OS X, and only costs $39.95 (for the download version; the packaged version is $49.95). I have to check this one out. OS X is in dire need of a decent text editor that handles CSS and costs under $50. This one looks like it does a lot more than that.

Let the Cannibalism Begin!

Well, now that they got what they wanted, the people who pushed recalling CA Governor Gray Davis are starting to turn on each other. This LAT article, GOP Challengers Spar as Davis Campaigns to Remain in Office , shows Issa, Simon, and McClintock beginning the circular firing squad. There's no primary, so this free-for-all may continue until the October recall election. Today was a rally on the Capitol steps, with each contender doing the I'm-more-conservative-than-thou thing. In the meantime, Issa's campaign staff was already beginning to toss the slime:

[Issa campaign manager Scott] Taylor also took a shot at Michael Huffington, the 1994 Republican nominee for U.S. Senate. Huffington, a wealthy former congressman who lives in Brentwood, released a statement Friday that he might run for governor as a moderate. Taylor said Huffington, who is openly gay, was not a serious candidate.

"I just have the feeling voters aren't going to embrace the first bisexual gubernatorial candidate," Taylor said. Minutes later, Issa's communications director, Jonathan Wilcox, said Taylor's remark about Huffington had been "reckless."

"Might I ask you not to print that?" he asked.

Heh. By the time they're done, the California state GOP might just disgust the voters enough so that they lose even more seats in the next election. Let's see; they're wasting $35 million on an election when the state is in a budget crisis; they may manage to make Gray frigging Davis a sympathetic character; and they cement the GOP as the party that's always up for outrageous, undemocratic power grabs. From the 2000 election, to the Texas redistricting mess, to the recall, Republicans can be trusted to put partisanship over governing.