Today was the first day that I woke up without knowning what to do next! Yesterday, I unofficially finished my undergraduate life at Hamilton College. The slightly-revised version of my Honors Thesis in Computer Science was handed in (yes, I got honors!), the last exam was taken, and my Ferry building (Computer Science department) key was returned. I’m done. Between now and graduation on May 21st, I can relax and enjoy the final days of college life: relaxing in the sun, wining and dining with buddies, and of course, spending as much time as possible with the closest friends.
Perhaps the best thing yesterday though was getting an official offer of employment from the company I’ve always wanted to work for: Apple Computer. Returning from a run with a friend, I had one of the best phrases known to mankind left on my voicemail, “…we have exciting news for you.” Returning my recruiter’s call, I found out that the position I had interviewed for on Monday, Mac OS X Product Release Engineer, was officially mine if I wanted it. Long story short, I had been interviewing with Apple since February for a position, first with the iCal team, and now, with the Mac OS X team. The offer is very competitive and I’ve more or less decided that I’ll be taking it. I should receive a written copy of the offer on Tuesday and after I look through it, I’ll be getting back to my recruiter with my decision. So, it looks like Phantom Planet’s lyrics, “California here we come,” will be holding true.
October 25, 2005 at 16:40 was the official start, at least in my mind, of winter here at Hamilton: it snowed. For a good twelve hours or so, a light snow shower happened, covering the wet campus with a layer of white, which while pretty, simply means that winter has begun and that for the next five months, we’ll have to deal with upstate New York weather. Oh well, we did watch a screening of the 1956 Godzilla movie for my Japanese class last night…
On the iPod video front, you guessed it - it’s heading straight back to Apple for replacement because of a malfunction. The hold switch on the top of the iPod no longer locks the iPod’s controls, rendering the switch entirely useless. I phoned up AppleCare and after spending fourty minutes with three different tech support representitives, they declared it a DOA and will be replacing it much like they did with my G5. Oh well, we shall see what happens.
On a more positive note, I’ve gone ahead and updated my radio show playlists with yesterday’s show.
On Friday, I received the new iPod with video directly from Apple. After having sold my 4th generation iPod just weeks before the announcement, I had a hard time keeping myself from ordering the iPod and after a few days of contemplating the new features, I went ahead and used my educational discount, the money from the sale of my old iPod, and a few extra $20 bills to purchase the 60 GB White iPod. There’s no real way to describe this new iPod except as fantastic. It’s simply better than the previous versions and even if you’re not interested in watching video on the screen or looking at photos, it makes an excellent music player. I’m not going to recreate reviews such as those found at iLounge or ArsTechnica but I will post a couple of thoughts.
iPod with Video
First, the iPod, contrary to the pictures featured on Apple’s site is no larger than previous versions. It is simply an illusion from the larger screen and slightly smaller click wheel. It is though slimmer and it’s hard to imagine how they were able to accomplish such a task. The 60 GB version I have is a bit larger than the 30 GB version but still slimmer than the previous 20 GB one. They also made the front face flat, removing the curved sides on the top. This makes the iPod look much more like the iPod nano and is generally an improvement. It fits just as well in your hand as before and looks a bit more classy.
You may remember me writing about my past computer problems with my PowerMac G5. To recap the problem, it simply wouldn’t turn on. Mid-June, I was working on it, finishing up an image in Photoshop when it suddenly turned off. No warning, it just turned off. Since it was on UPS, I knew something was wrong, especially as it had been doing odd things beforehand. So, after phoning up AppleCare and running through some basic troubleshooting, it was time to bring it in for repair. No big deal I thought, they’d simply replace the power supply and as I had the three year extended warranty, it wouldn’t cost me anything.
Fast forward two weeks and it’s the end of June. I’ve gotten the computer back but it still doesn’t turn on. Since I’m leaving for Finland, I decide to let it sit in my room until I get back in the first week of August. August rolls by and I bring the computer back to the repair center. It still doesn’t turn on and they discuss the possible remedies: new logic board, new processor, or new power supply. Two weeks pass and it’s still not working.
At this point, I’m fed up. This is the third time the computer has broken down and I don’t want to deal with this anymore. So I phoned AppleCare and asked to speak to a supervisor. After a bit of being transferred around, I spoke with a product specialist name Justin. He listened to me describe the problems I’d been having and while he couldn’t authorize replacing the computer at this point, he did say he’d phone up the store and see if he could be of assistance to them. He also promised me that if after attempting to fix it once more it failed, he would go ahead and authorize a new machine. The next day I received a phone call back from Justin. He explained that he had spoken with the store and that they’d like to try two more fixes: replacing the power supply and the power button on the machine. I agreed as the most important thing for me at this point was to get the machine back in working order for the start of the new semester and to get my data off of it.
Yesterday I received a phone call from the store where I had dropped off the machine. Bill, the technician, explained to me that he had replaced the power supply and power button and the computer had turned on, leading him to believe that it would all work out. He told me that come Monday, after he had run a couple more checks, he thought I would be able to pick up the machine. So at this point, the CPU, logic board, power supply, and power button had been replaced (the logic board and graphics card had actually been replaced earlier on too). I was happy. It wasn’t going to be a new, problem free machine but it was going to be in working order. A few moments later, Justin phoned me back, explaining that the issue should be solved and that come Monday, I would get the machine. It was nice to know that he was personally following up with the case.
Twenty minutes later, as I was setting up for a BBQ, I received another phone call from Justin. He told me that the computer had failed once again in the store and that it would be best to simply replace the machine. Asking if I had a minute, we set up the exchange of my machine. So, as soon as I send back my old machine to Apple via a label they’ll email me (Monday or Tuesday), I’ll be receiving a brand new Dual 2.3 GHz PowerMac G5. This is quite a step up from my single processor 1.8 GHz machine. Not only is it faster, it has an additional CPU, dual layer 16x DVD burner (as opposed to a 4x one), slightly better graphics card, and a larger hard drive (250 GB as opposed to 160 GB).
Now, the only problem is getting my data off of the old machine’s hard drive.
Wow. So both of the Apple computers I own are out of commission, in the process of being repaired! This afternoon, after work, I did a bit of minor troubleshooting by myself to see whether or not I could fix my PowerMac G5 that wouldn’t start up. I checked that all the components were connected properly, checked to see if the RAM was seated properly, and of course, tried the machine both plugged into the UPS and directly into the wall. Nada. Last ditch effort on my part was to reset the PMU and see if that would help. Nope. So it was time to phone AppleCare (whose number is quite elusive although now memorized, 1-800-275-AAPL).
I was connected immediately. Yes, immediately. No wait time, no hold, an immediate connection. I was overwhelmed! I spoke with the tech who unfortunately seemed to be new at the job, although eager to help. We reset the PMU and left the machine unplugged for 3 minutes but no luck. He decided it would need to go in for repair. Now, although I have a three year AppleCare warranty and on-site repair is part of the deal, the tech suggested that I bring it into a dealer so that they could use parts on hand to diagnose the situation. As Connecting Points is only about a 10 minute drive away, I agreed. So, as of now, Lynx (my G5) is sitting in a shack in New Hartford awaiting surgery. The person I spoke to in the store said it would be ready by mid next week. So, here’s to hoping my PowerBook comes back by the end of the week!
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