May 2006

Well, I got paid today, so welovemacs.com got 200 bucks, and I'll get a new superdrive some time this week. So hopefully by next weekend, I'll once again have a working CD/DVD drive in my iBook. Luckily, this new drive is a SuperDrive, not a Combo Drive. So I get a DVD burner in with the mix. Which is nice; 6x as much space on a single disc, and my copy of DVD Studio Pro will be useful for something besides making ISO images.

So it's time to dry out the ice cube trays again. Yes, I said ice cube trays; the Apple service manual actually recommends 'em for holding all of the tiny components (screws, springs, etc) when disassembling an iBook. Now if only I had a "black stick". Meh, the chassis is already scratched up pretty mad, a few more nicks won't hurt anything.

Apple - MacBook Family: Drool. Now I just need to find a couple thousand dollars somewhere, so that I can acquire one of these.

Thanks, Ryan. I spent like 10 minutes filling this thing out. But at least it took up 10 minutes of my day that would otherwise have been filled with me thinking "why isn't it 8:00 yet?"

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Maybe I should just start replying to every poorly-written aim message I receive with these three addresses.

Well, it finally happened. After failing to burn discs a few weeks ago, it appears the cd-rom drive in my iBook has finally given up the ghost. With the CD for my new cell phone stuck in the drive, and no manual eject button.
Meh, it's supposedly just windows-only software anyway, but it's still irritating that the drive has failed. I did find somewhere online that'll sell me a SuperDrive (apple branded and everything) for just under $200, or a replacement Combo Drive for $110 (plus shipping, I'm sure). But it's just irritating to have to open the thing up (again), pull the old drive, and install a new one. Mainly because there's like 3 zillion tiny screws involved. I'm tempted to open it up and just reseat the IDE cable, to see if that gives me a little more life out of the drive (anything is better than completely dead), but again, it's a huge pain in the ass to disassemble the case. Oh, how I long for those long-lost days of desktop computers, with their simple thumbscrews (or even no screws).

Bah. I guess it's time to start saving for a new CD drive. Ooh, or maybe it's time to start saving for a completely new computer. In theory, the new MacBooks (not the Pro models) should be out before the end of summer, so that Apple can get in on the purchasing cycle for school districts...