emsquared’s posterous

Just picked up an audio book (Yes Adam I took the lazy option) from the library that's in the playaway format which I've not tried out before. It was this or 22 CD's which I didn't fancy faffing around with. It's a tiny pocket device that's been supplied with x2 rechargeable AAA batteries. You use your own headphones. I had assumed that it'd perhaps be reasonable quality low bitrate  AAC/+ or more likely protected WMA loaded into an internal digital memory but sadly evidence of quite severe bitrate crushing is audibly evident so perhaps I should have suffered the suitcase full of CD's instead (well it is unabridged so I guess they have to compress like crazy but do they really now in this day and age?). The audio can be speeded up or slowed down without the pitch being shifted and the device remembers the point at which you were last listening. A new experience technologically anyway.

   

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Took our half fried Mac to an Apple store today in vain hope of a not too expensive repair quote though I wasn't especially hopefull. Admittedly an indoor electromagnetic lightening pulse is not the sort of force of nature that's likely to treat electrical items kindly. The Mac was off at the time but the router was on and got fried by the lightening pulse and most things on the network went the way of the pear too.

Basically the Mac is a walking wounded casualty in that:

    * She turns on (Macs ARE femme aren't they?)
    * No output is found from the DVI port
    * Add a DVI to VGA adapter & voila a desktop returns (I had my diagnosis murder head on for that one)
    * USB ports and network port is dead
    * Bluetooth is functional
    * WiFi is functional

The Mac store Genius bar expert wasn't keen to try an Apple bluetooth keyboard to see if it would work with the Mac as it stood (my pet  'band aid low cost solution' theory for keeping the Mac functioning in order to extend its life a bit longer  or at least enable me to clear the hard drive before offering it up for spares/repair). Instead I was given a price for a full logic board replacement plus labour (sharp intake of breath resulted in the labour cost being slashed by £35) plus VAT which whilst not exceeding the cost of a new Mac was still a bit pricey for a 3 yr old Mac and then only comes with a 90 day warranty.

As I have to buy a new router and replacement netbook I wasn't overly keen to throw money at the Mac. If I can get hold of a bluetooth keyboard I'll see if this makes the Mac usable for a bit longer networking via WiFi until such time as I'm able to replace it.

In truth I’m using few Mac specific applications and more and more web based applications.
I’m still awaiting the arrival of a new cable modem in order to get our cable broadband access back.So our backup Internet access for now is via a dusted down G4 Mac tower and a pay as you go USB 3G dongle which works quite well for what it is. A quick speed test for the 3G dongle is shown below.

Try broadband speed test

It's quite 'happy clappy shiny happy people' in some of those Apple stores isn't it? Whilst I've been a long term Mac user I'm not sure I'm fully into the whole 'cult of Mac' experience as it's being presented sometimes. Or maybe that's just my dour Brit genes coming to the surface

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