As Apple has become more popular, it seems that the reports of bad service have been on the rise. This makes sense--if you increase market share, more people will be upset. However I have friends who have experienced extremely bad service.

My G5 iMac has had its mainboard replaced once and until today its power supply once, both covered under Apple Care. A few days ago, my iMac started spontaneously shutting off in an un-ceremonious way. I'd be in the middle of something, and the screen would just go dark. Then two days ago, it just STOPPED powering up entirely. This is just the same behaviour as I had seen when the first power supply went bad. I sighed and set up a Genius Bar appointment for today over lunch. Because Apple Care on this computer had expired and because the power supply was over 90 days old and I really wanted my computer back up and running with the least fuss I was resigned to the following:

1. I am going to have to buy the part
2. I am going to have to pay for labour
3. I am going to have to wait 10 days + to get my computer back

I went into Apple Store and sat down to wait for my turn braced for a miserable experience. I was called up a full 10 minutes earlier than my appointment time. Then the events kind of blew me away.

On Friday I got my iMac back. Indeed, it was the power supply that had gone bad. In fact, there were capacitors inside it that were bulging. It is, apparently, a known problem and Apple is addressing it as folks show up with iMacs in tow.

If you have a G5 iMac and it starts shutting down on its own or it won't start up at all, chances are that your power supply has gone bad. Even if you aren't covered under Apple Care any longer, the Apple Genius indicated it would be covered as a free fix.

The repair took a day and I am happy to say that the machine is running smoothly once again. What was the first thing I did? A backup.

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE my iMac. I bought it in January of 2005. It has a gorgeous big screen and runs all the software I really need.

In December of 2005 it started acting fritzy until it stopped working entirely. Bringing it into the Apple Store, they determined it was a motherboard failure. In went a new motherboard and it has been working like a champ ever since. I wrote about buying a new backup drive and extra storage last week. I started a backup and it was working like a champ--until the computer shut down on its own. I restarted the computer and tried again--boom, it shut down. This cycle went on until I finally just gave up.

Today my work laptop updated to 10.4.9.  It was a large update with many seeming  security holes.  Right now the balance of our Macs are getting the update as well, Intel and PowerPC.

10.4.9 seems pretty final.  I've never seen Apple have an official release that was something like 10.4.9.1.

I think this means that Jaguar is right around the corner.  I can almost smell that kitty cat.  Will I buy it when it is released?  You betcha.  Can I say the same for Vista--no WAY.

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The creators of Kazaa and Skype have announced a partnership to create a Internet TV service called Joost.

Viacom had forced YouTube to remove all of its copyright content from the YouTube.  It has announced that it will deliver content from its various interests like MTV, VH1 and Paramount.

Joost has announced a beta program to test the Interface.  They have also announced that while it currently is Windows only, 250 Intel MacOS testers are in the process of working through a Mac version.

This isn't a flaw in Qumana.  It isn't a flaw with Blogger either.  When I post to my Drupal site, the process is seamless.  I type in the Qumana screen, edit, spell check, link, embed.  The process is slick and quick.  In many ways it is a better experience than typing into the blog itself.  This morning, when I connected via DUN, and posted my previous entry it was lightning fast even on the Treo 650.  In other words, I think that Qumana will ultimately make me more efficient.  I may well load it onto my iMac at home as well as the portable I carry for work.

I decided to check on when InfoTech registered the name iPhone.  It was in 1996.  At this point Apple had never used the "i" in any of its products.  In fact, it wasn't until 1998 that Apple released the iMac.  The iBook was released in 1999.  In 2001, the iPod was released.The point that I'm making here is that the use of "i" didn't have a lick of precedence when the orginal trademark was made.