iSick

in a dazzling display of technological sympathy pains, my iBook decided to follow my digital camera's lead. i spent nearly four hours with a "mac genius" at the apple store on regent street yesterday (all things considered, there are worse ways to spend an afternoon!)

the diagnosis was that my hard drive was on the verge of imminent failure. in fact, some time during transit between my flat and the store, it had frozen and would not reboot when i got there. we managed to start it up off of their external hard drives; ran every type of disk rescue and first aid; and retrieved my files - after i was persuaded into an emergency purchase of an external hard drive of my own.

during the time it took to retrieve the files, my genius tech managed to break for an hour's lunch and serve one other customer as well. i went through my mobile and deleted about 100 text messages; read a few chapters in empress orchid; and did some serious people-watching.

the iBook has now been sent off for repairs. hurrah for applecare protection! and for apple's recent decision to honor applecare protection all over the world, not just in the country where you purchased your equipment. and to s for finding the article that announced the decision. and to mom for finding my account information. my computer will come back in about ten days with a new hard drive, new keyboard (the C, S, and D have all nearly rubbed off), and an upgrade to OS X tiger - another emergency/impulse purchase that i decided i needed sooner rather than later. s pointed out that i will most likely have to invest in iLife 06 as well. so be it :)

in the meantime, s, ever-patient and generous, has offered to let me use his laptop. hurrah again! my hero...

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incidentally, i took the picture of the apple store above for my sister's birthday blog. check it out... free stuff is cool.