Well, same ol’ same ol’ Mac, for now. The genius did this and that with it, recommended this and that, said we didn’t have to get medieval on anything just yet, and sent me home with a prescription to do an archive-and-install system software thing, maybe reset some deeply buried preferences in there that are making the thermostats go blooey. And maybe shoot some compressed air through the heat vents, too.
If all this fails, it’s back for the $75 diagnostic. My guess is, I’ll be buying a new MacBook sometime in the new year.
So many computer problems have a human equivalent: abdominal pain. Abdominal pain is the Pacific Ocean of ailments. Could be anything from nervousness to bad clams to a rotten appendix to cancer. For now, we’re treating with Alka-Seltzer. No need to pull the plug on the patient just yet.
I was the second person through the door at the store at 10 a.m., and the place was full within minutes. They haven’t set up the iPod-only register yet; that’ll be later in the Christmas season, I expect. But if you’re a longtime Mac user, if you’ve come through the time when PC dipshits would say, “Oh, look, a toy computer,” then it’s pretty gratifying. Apple is still a fraction of the market and always will be, but I’d say they’ve gotten their act together, and I wouldn’t use anything else.
LATER: Did the software thing, blew out the vents. Things seem to be running cooler, but I’m now officially in backup-every-48-hours mode, preparing for the worst. In my troubleshooting I did discover something, however: I’m down to my last 2 gigs of hard-drive space. How the hell did that happen? Pictures and music, that’s how.
Elsewhere yesterday, for the first time in a long time, my attention was taken by events back no-longer-home in Indiana — the county GOP chairman seems to be having some domestic problems. I could write 10,000 words about this guy, but I won’t, in the name of bygones, etc. But here’s what interests me about all this: How the story is an example of how media consumption is different now. Note, for instance: Three bylines on the newspaper story, including that of the very conservative columnist, who I assume was brought in to get the quote from the chairman.
(And what a quote, too: “I want the public to know how challenging it can be for families: finances, children’s problems, drugs,�? he said. “Family values are important … but life isn’t perfect. I have yet to find an Ozzie and Harriet. This is part of life.�?)
When three reporters work on a simple police-incident story, dear readers, it’s a tip-off that it’s time to go spelunking. Ten years ago, I’d call around to people who keep up with stuff, ask them. Today, I check the blogs and find, ho ho, it’s the county Democratic chairman who’s been bird-dogging the story, and has been for some time. There’s also a good question that this involves more than a marital dispute, which may be touched upon in a 911 call, and the state police are withholding the 911 call and transcript.
I told Alan last night that five years ago, there’s a very good chance this story wouldn’t have seen the light of day at all. We had an editor who was hesitant to look at people’s private lives, even public figures’. No charges filed? A broken-off key in a car ignition? Oh, this is hardly domestic violence. We very well might have looked the other way.
Now, I’d be willing to bet the GOP organization is telling a few people to get their good suit from the cleaners and be ready to put on the red tie on a moment’s notice. Thanks to the internet. The brave new world.
brian stouder said on November 29, 2006 at 1:22 pm
So many computer problems have a human equivalent
Indeed, and including the metaphysical, as when you said some deeply buried preferences in there that are making the thermostats go blooey
I know that that sums me up, more or less!
Regarding the chariman, I guess the internet thing to say is “Developing…”
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brian stouder said on November 29, 2006 at 1:24 pm
Oh, hell!! I forgot to close the &%$#@ tag!!
I guess I am back on suspension, starting now
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Adrianne said on November 29, 2006 at 3:39 pm
I like Steve Schlime’s explanation of what happened with his wife…a disagreement and then the “car key broke off” … as if by magic!
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Daron Aldrich said on November 29, 2006 at 3:53 pm
Steve needs to go back to reading the news on Ch 55…it was a simpler time then…car keys didn’t break…911 wasn’t called…it was like Ozzy & Harriet.
d
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basset said on November 29, 2006 at 4:17 pm
the line I like to use with PC snobs… is that the Mac’s market share is about the same as BMW’s and Mercedes’ combined. unverified but plausible .
is that the same Steve Shine who was general manager of WBWB in Bloomington back in the late 70s? I worked there in… let’s see… ’79 or and remember a real young guy in a Porsche 911…
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nancy said on November 29, 2006 at 5:46 pm
Almost certainly the same one, Basset; he had a long career in radio and broadcasting. Hard to imagine there could be two.
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colleen said on November 29, 2006 at 10:18 pm
“Abdominal pain is the Pacific Ocean of ailments.”
Yeah. while out dancing this July, I dipped my toe in the Pacific. We went home, and 24 hours later, I was having my appendix out. Huh. I guess it really WAS a bad tummy ache!
That is the same Steve S, Basset….my husband was a college classmate of his in Radio/TV classes at IU.
Thus far, I think local media has been handling the story pretty well. I think news people are on the lookout for any special treatment that might come around because of political affiliations, but I haven’t seen any particularly “gossipy” coverage.
That said….it would really suck to have your major family problems played out in public.
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John Brown said on November 30, 2006 at 12:26 am
Several years ago, one of the papers did a piece on Steve Shine that pointed out how he kept to a strict schedule every day. Day in and day out, never changing it at all. Something very disturbing must have been going on for him to be back at the family home on a workday morning.
What now, rehab or a teary confession with a local member of the clergy on hand?
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peris said on November 30, 2006 at 4:11 pm
Regarding your fan: sounds like it IS a software problem, if some errant system process is actually chewing on the CPU. Check your CPU meter next time the fan takes off, and if it’s pegged, drill down on the guilty.
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basset said on November 30, 2006 at 5:51 pm
I guess I can tell this, then… I worked at WBWB for a few months in the spring of ’80. Steve used to come in and fiddle with the audio controls, specifically with an I-forget-how-many-band graphic equalizer, trying to get the station to sound like he wanted. tinker, drive around in the Porsche and listen awhile, come back in, tinker some more.
finally he pronounced the sound to be correct.
we never told him the piece of equipment he’d been playing with wasn’t hooked up.
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MichaelG said on December 1, 2006 at 12:24 am
I’d guess he wants to just put all this behind him and move on with his life.
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Jessica said on December 1, 2006 at 3:43 pm
DO NOT run your system with only 2GB available. Buy yourself an external hard drive – you can get them at places like buy.com for under $100.00 – and put some of your pictures on it.
Your computer will run faster after that, since it isn’t trying to jam things into a small amount of temporary disk space.
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John Good said on December 4, 2006 at 9:58 pm
A local GOP blogger and his readers have blamed Knuth and I for “ruining Steve Shine’s life”. Funny. . .all we did was report what the local MSM wouldn’t touch. Local news involving someone they rub elbows with. Welcome to the “new media”. . .
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