Saturday morning

Awakened by dogs. On the road a little before 9 for my 10am appointment at the Genius Bar. The verdict for the iMac doesn't look particularly good. There are a couple of swollen capacitors, which may be causing the Silk Screen of Death issue. This would mean a new logic board, which would be a $500-$600 repair minimum. Even if the issue turns out to be something else, the logic board will fail eventually. So. I will get the final word toward the end of the week, but it is likely time to think about replacing the desktop.

I may be able to put that off for a while, though, because it looks as though my Genius was able to fix the iBook issue. He reset/rebooted/zeroed out/whatever the ports, and now the internet cable port recognizes a cable again. Since I had been told that the issue might point to a failing mother board...I really hope the reset takes, and that the m-board is fine. With luck, I can make do with the iBook-as-backup for the foreseeable future.

On the way home, stopped at Whole Foods to pick up a few things. I hadn't been in one in years. Now I know why they're nicknamed Whole Paycheck. But, I did get nice, crusty rolls, a lovely little cake, and Applegate Farms organic hot dogs, which to me taste more like old fashioned hot dogs than other brands. Yes, I've had Best, Hebrew National--none of them taste like the hot dogs I had as a kid. Applegate isn't perfect, but it's close.

So of course, after the successful hotdog hunt, I had a turkey sandwich when I got home. Now I will set up the iBook. Then I need to get to work.

Update: The iBook is now set up. Since it still has Tiger, I was able to get it to talk to my old HP 1100 printer, which is connected via a juryrigged parallel:USB cable. I had a devil of a time finding drivers before, but a couple minutes' hunt on the internets unearthed the comment that HP 4-series drivers work with many other models. So I picked that driver choice from the list of pre-installed drivers, and damned if it didn't work. So after months of not working due to an inability to communicate via Leopard, my old printer is apparently up and running again. I wouldn't care so much, but it has been a darned good printer over the years, and I still have 2-3 unopened toner cartridges to use up.

The iBook is even talking to my backup hard disk, which I have connected to the Airport base station. Found the Office network icon. Managed to remember my password. (French word--French word--I know it's a French word--ah-hah!). Now I can transfer files back and forth easily between MacBook and iBook and print the book if and when needed. Fingers crossed--even if the iMac turns out to be toast, I still have two working systems.

Saturday morning

Awakened by dogs. On the road a little before 9 for my 10am appointment at the Genius Bar. The verdict for the iMac doesn't look particularly good. There are a couple of swollen capacitors, which may be causing the Silk Screen of Death issue. This would mean a new logic board, which would be a $500-$600 repair minimum. Even if the issue turns out to be something else, the logic board will fail eventually. So. I will get the final word toward the end of the week, but it is likely time to think about replacing the desktop.

I may be able to put that off for a while, though, because it looks as though my Genius was able to fix the iBook issue. He reset/rebooted/zeroed out/whatever the ports, and now the internet cable port recognizes a cable again. Since I had been told that the issue might point to a failing mother board...I really hope the reset takes, and that the m-board is fine. With luck, I can make do with the iBook-as-backup for the foreseeable future.

On the way home, stopped at Whole Foods to pick up a few things. I hadn't been in one in years. Now I know why they're nicknamed Whole Paycheck. But, I did get nice, crusty rolls, a lovely little cake, and Applegate Farms organic hot dogs, which to me taste more like old fashioned hot dogs than other brands. Yes, I've had Best, Hebrew National--none of them taste like the hot dogs I had as a kid. Applegate isn't perfect, but it's close.

So of course, after the successful hotdog hunt, I had a turkey sandwich when I got home. Now I will set up the iBook. Then I need to get to work.

Update: The iBook is now set up. Since it still has Tiger, I was able to get it to talk to my old HP 1100 printer, which is connected via a juryrigged parallel:USB cable. I had a devil of a time finding drivers before, but a couple minutes' hunt on the internets unearthed the comment that HP 4-series drivers work with many other models. So I picked that driver choice from the list of pre-installed drivers, and damned if it didn't work. So after months of not working due to an inability to communicate via Leopard, my old printer is apparently up and running again. I wouldn't care so much, but it has been a darned good printer over the years, and I still have 2-3 unopened toner cartridges to use up.

The iBook is even talking to my backup hard disk, which I have connected to the Airport base station. Found the Office network icon. Managed to remember my password. (French word--French word--I know it's a French word--ah-hah!). Now I can transfer files back and forth easily between MacBook and iBook and print the book if and when needed. Fingers crossed--even if the iMac turns out to be toast, I still have two working systems.