albatross

finally done!!! a major project that's been long overdue has finally been completed.. it's a relief. It's kinda shocking that it's 2006 already! For the first time in over a decade I decided to make a new years resolution - I've resolved to learn how to wolf whistle before the year is up. wish me luck.

this morning at 4 am I was woken up by a book on tape that I had going when I was falling asleep.. and now, I can't fall back asleep... dah

harddrive failure

was the source of my mac mini problems - apparently it wreak havoc with my firewire bus and posed start up issues... anyhow, I got my computer back from the apple store with a new hard drive and none of my old data.. doh. i have a month old backup that I'm trying to port into the new setup... backup backup backup! especially before your hard drive fails... :P

more video amusement

new fangled technology backfires on an asshole driving a Mercedes Benz

i'm amused by this (memoirs of a geisha redux)

smart ass wait line music DJ...

while waiting for the AppleCare operator to get back to me about why the store decided to replace the harddrive before they replaced the logic board (despite explicit instructions by the Apple Genius Bar to the contrary) I managed to make it through 4 songs before Elton John's Rocket Man comes on... the refrain of course is:And I think it’s gonna be a long long time.. over and over again.... still on hold and we are on song number 8...

my poor spasmed back!!!

Ever since my return to New York - my back has been hurting like crazy. I think it's a materialization of the stress that I'm under trying to finish up overdue work... dah!!! i need to see my massage therapist, STAT! I could go on about how much I love the massages I get from him.. his hands are like buttery steel the way they just go at my tense back muscles. I will be very sad if his acting career ever takes off, and he no longer has to rely on massage as his livelihood...

smoky nightclub... or crack?

There is much brouhaha about Lindsay Lohan's interview with Vanity Fair where she talks about her eating disorder and her drug habits - apparently it's not surprising that she's dealt with the two, but rather that she's talking about it candidly and openly... feh.

One article on CBS writes: Lohan is in a Miami hospital right now, recovering from what her family says was an asthma attack, and Cagle notes, "This hospitalization was terrible, terrible timing, just because it's going to raise all that speculation. But we do know that she suffers from asthma and she was out at probably a smoky nightclub on New Year's Eve, so we have to give her the benefit of the doubt there."

The only problem is that there's no smoking allowed in nightclubs or bars in New York... even the bars that let patrons slide a bit.. never even begin to approximate the degrees of smokiness of bars in other cities I've been to.... however, there do seem to be quite a few studies about how cocaine use exacerbates asthma symptoms - namely Prevalence of cocaine use and its impact on asthma exacerbation in an urban population and New-onset bronchospasm or recrudescence of asthma associated with cocaine abuse...

Time spent at the Apple genius bar

Having recently spent quite a bit of time waiting at the Apple Genius Bar, I was impressed with the fact that I was actually able to get service on December 31st and January 2nd. Of course, it would have been nicer if my computer hadn't crapped out, and that the first genius had just sent the computer off to get repaired rather having me take it back home with the advice, keep an eye on it... Like all tech problems, the first time I took it in, they plugged the computer in and everything worked I remeber when you'd be lucky and have to pay through the nose to get tech service on the weekend.

When I read posts like Seth's and the type of stupid ass responses it generated, I get annoyed. Yes, they posted a while ago, but the gratuitous sense of entitlement that people imagine they "deserve" just because they drop a couple of grand, still annoys me to no end. And they don't let people comment on their blogs, so I decided to type something up on my blog.

Sure... Apple could segment out it's customers and give priority service to the person with the powermac rather than the ipod.... but doesn't part of Apple's long term growth plan include converting some of those $300 customers into $6,000 customers? (I myself have purchased three macs this past year - so pbbbt to those wanna play the sour grapes card).

I think it's a great idea that every customer can have enough time with someone who can address their concerns - whether it's with a fried logic board or busted iPod. Plus, since Seth's post, it seems like they have iPod geniuses and mac hardware geniuses... which solves the problem without having to resort to pre-paid mailing envelopes.

It seems like rather than segmenting customers, Apple should just increase resources to be able to deal with everyone's needs. Which is a less whiny, less entitled, more idealist, restatement of Seth's concluding point. I think we've got to keep in mind that Seth's second less than positive experience involves trying to get something fixed on a Saturday night - Saturday night - c'mon - which other company isn't going to charge you time and a half to even _speak_ with a tech? Give the customers an inch and they'll scoff at not being given a mile.

That said, the Genius Bar really needs a better way to deal with running late when people have already made reservations on-line. Waiting an hour and a half after my appointment slot was not fun. I'm a bit dissapointed that Apple has introduced ProCare - so that people can pay for better service, rather than just providing that type of service to everyone off the bat...