How A Lone Nickel Almost Cost Me The Price of A New Mac

My MacBook Pro has been extremely reliable and loyal over the last two years, even after I foolishly chose to crush its monitor in a rented convertible at Spring Training in early 2008, forcing significant repair. But in April of 2009, I was sure I was going to have to take the laptop into the Apple Store, ostensibly to repair it at a steep cost of hundreds of dollars, or even be forced to upgrade, costing me a couple thousand dollars.

In addition to the occasional slowness one always perceives even with the fastest of last-generation computers, my laptop seemed to have loose parts in its housing. I was sure the CD-ROM mechanics were broken, as I couldn't insert discs and the machine would rattle when I picked it up to place in my computer bag, or moved from room to room. One knows it's never good to hear a rattling when they move their laptop around, and I was sure that the next time would be the last time I would start it up and it wouldn't crash for good. I even thought just maybe one of my memory sticks had broken away - which would be a perfect excuse for the perceived slowness.

Though I don't use CD-ROMs often, it became embarrassing to hand a CD to a friend (using Windows of course) at the office and ask them to put the disc's contents on the network for me to see it. What was wrong with my laptop, they asked... and I had no idea. But it was broken for sure.

I talked with my younger sister, who works in Apple Retail, what she thought I should do. She said to take it to a Mac genius. I would probably lose access to the computer for a few days, and the hardware repair would be in the high hundreds, assuming I wasn't covered by AppleCare. (Which I most likely am not.)

But on the night of April 24th, I looked down at my laptop to see the curve of a coin peeking from the CD-ROM drive. I deftly removed it, and it was a boring old nickel. (See my annoyance) Hopefully, I tilted the computer back and forth, and heard no rattling. It was a stupid nickel the whole time. And, as my twins are too young still to be up to such shenanigans, I knew the responsible party had to have been me. Somehow, I had a nickel loose in the laptop bag, and somehow, that nickel just so happened to get into the CD-ROM drive (as Apple doesn't have CD-ROM drive bay covers).

In the last month - no issues. CDs go in the drive just fine. The machine doesn't rattle. And I saved myself a good deal of potential embarrassment from having to go to the Apple Store and have them find out... it was a nickel.

So - am I the only one stupid enough to go through these things on a regular basis? I doubt it. Let me know if you've ever crossed the line from geek respectability to tech flunkie.

Twitter's Real-Time Search Hits Pause. Six Hours And Counting.

Darn it Twitter. How can a company with so much potential and so much perceived momentum seem like they just are asleep at the switch? After this week's visible discussion where we clearly outlined how your real-time search database is so broken that it barely has any value past the last 48 hours, you had to go ahead and break the real-time aspect of it as well - doing so on a long Memorial Day weekend when it seems nobody is around to hit the big shiny red button to turn the blasted thing back on.

Yes, your base product is working. I can Tweet. It can get to people. But your Twitter Search product is completely on pause - and has been all evening. Forget about using Twitter during an emergency or an earthquake, or even to see other people's top trending hashtags. The ones you have listed now are themselves six hours old. The Lakers' NBA game is still in the second quarter, according to you, even though ESPN tells me they won hours ago.


Go Lakers! No, wait. You're saying the game already ended?
It's getting to the point I even feel guilty pointing it out - considering how often you get hit for database inconsistencies, odd behavior and downtime. But all that goodwill that had built up as you were at the tip of the spear of a phenomenon many are calling the real-time Web is just wasting away - even as you take down your partner infrastructure, like TweetBeep, TweetDeck and Twazzup down with you.


So, is the Twitter Search team on holiday?
It's like I asked you at 11 tonight, @ev, @biz and @al3x, "if there is a box I can reboot, just tell me where to go." On behalf of your growing, and in theory, loyal, user base, I will do this, because it's the right thing to do. I just wish you guys were more on top of it, and could at least tell us what is going on - and how much more fail we should expect.

I don't want to care this much. I want your product to just work the way it is supposed to work so we can benefit from it and so you can find a way to make money. But right now, you're making real time look like a joke.

Chart Your Favorite Films of All Time With Flickchart

What movie did you like better - Forrest Gump or Pulp Fiction? What about Pulp Fiction or Star Wars? Star Wars or Rocky? Rocky or Schindlers' List? Toy Story or Field of Dreams?

Before you start to tell me that you can't compare the films because they're "totally different", know that deep down, you really do like one more than the other, and if forced, you could make a choice. Flickchart, a fun crowdsourced site focused on the film industry, will have you making decisions like that over and over again, helping you find and rank your favorite films of all time, and seeing how your choices compare to those of your friends, and the community at large.

Given it's a Memorial Day weekend, and movies have always been a tradition for this holiday, Flickchart is opening up in limited release to readers of this site if you use this link to get in - getting you a headstart of a few weeks to the general population.


Pick one. Which do you like better?
The premise of Flickchart is fairly simple, to start. Once you have registered, Flickchart presents you with two posters representing two films. If you have seen both films, and have a preference as to which was better, click the poster of the one you like more. If you haven't seen one, click below to say you haven't seen it, or click "Haven't seen either" to dismiss both.


Flickchart thinks it knows my favorite films.
As you choose films over one another, they start to file themselves in your all time favorites. Simply put, if you rate a movie ahead of one you had previously at #8 overall, the new film will take #8's spot, bumping it down to #9. It's survival of the fittest. This becomes especially important when you are faced with a quandary such as rating your #5 overall film against a cult classic. You may want to pick the cult classic, knowing you enjoyed it, but you will have to live with the potentially false consequence of the film living in your #4 slot for all the world to see.


Dang. Hoosiers, or Field of Dreams? I'm going with the baseball.
Flickchart lets you do more than just select from all time favorites. You can choose from one of the movie industry's many sub-genres, including Horror, Comedy and Drama to pit similar films against one another. You can even rate movies from specific decades or even a single year - helping find your personal favorites for the 1980s, or even the year 1997. (Here's mine for the 1980s and 1990s)


Global Flickchart data for The Shawshank Redemption
As you go, Flickchart remembers how many times a specific movie has "Won" in your rankings, as well as how often all Flickchart users have had that movie win. For example, Star Wars, one of the most popular movies, has been ranked nearly 2,100 times by Flickchart users, of whom 93% report having seen it, and the film wins almost 76% of all matchups.

But if I feel that Star Wars, or any other movie, is too high or too low in my list, I can go directly to that film and force Flickchart to help me rank it - going head to head with three more films in a row. (Here's that link for Star Wars and the same for American Pie)


Force ranking Titanic against three other films in Flickchart.
All the accumulated data is sorted into charts that reflect the Flickchart community's preferences - selecting "The Best Movies of All Time" down to "The Worst Movies of All Time". You can also see the community's feedback by year or decade. (See: 2009 or 1997 for years and 1990s or 1970s for decades.)


The world's best films, according to Flickchart users.
It's likely also no surprise that the site keeps tabs on users who are most active, or have gained the most popularity through friend connections, like any good social network. Some of the most active users have made thousands of movie selections.

Flickchart is more than just a Hot or Not for movies. It's a fun way to tap your brain and see if you really know just what type of films you like, and how that sets you apart from the world at large. It will have you making the hard decisions - did you like Good Will Hunting or A Few Good Men? Good Morning Vietnam or Goodfellas?

Get started with this exclusive link. Find me at: http://flickchart.com/louisgray. And should you find any bugs, remember it's a new service and they are very responsive to those I've found.

Personal Heresy: What OS You Use Is No Longer Critical

Last September, when Google's Chrome Web browser was first introduced, I told you how I spent the day on Windows, just to use it. While Google is making headway in bringing their Web browser to the Mac platform, or so I've been told, it just hasn't happened yet. In the interim, Apple introduced Safari 4 Beta with many of Chrome's much-awaited features, and Safari has remained my browser of choice, as I tend to find Firefox too slow and too bloated, especially as extensions are added.

Today, I came across an article by Rick Klau, who works at Blogger for Google, saying how he was using Chrome on his Mac, also through VMware, but most importantly to me, as a result of Microsoft's new Windows 7 evaluation program, which lets you gain access to the operating system for free for a year. With my nose in the air, I've watched from my Mac laptop the struggle Microsoft has had with Vista, and how users are begging for Windows 7 to arrive. I've seen Steven Hodson and others talk excitedly about what's planned from Redmond, and largely, I haven't cared. I didn't think it applied to me.

But think of what Rick told us. Any Mac OS X user who has VMware Fusion (or Parallels, I assume), can get access to Windows 7 today, just by downloading the 32-bit version of the .ISO file from Microsoft and getting started. No CDs. No hassles. Just an evaluation key, and letting VMware do the work. The geek in me overruled my Mac bigotry today, so guess what? I'm writing this post in Chrome on Windows 7 in VMware on Mac OS X. It just works.


What? Windows 7 installing on my Mac?

Windows 7? Mac OS X? Does It Matter Any More?

So - back to the focus of the post. For the better part of two decades, I have ranted and raved that Macs are superior, whether it be for the hardware or the OS. The Mac vs. PC commercials on TV are very amusing and help cement the belief I've got a better product. I can largely ignore malware, and know I can get a consistent experience from Mac to Mac for the most part.


Logged Into Windows 7 And Checking the Computer

Sharing My Desktop Between Both Mac and Windows

But I'm starting to think more and more that it really doesn't matter any more. I won't be ranting about the cloud and saying all software is dead, but within an hour, I've got my Web browser set up to all the bookmarks and social services I constantly use. I have iTunes in VMware on Windows 7 seeing all my music from the Mac. I have an FTP client I can use to post to the blog. Practically all I really need the Mac for is the Adobe Photoshop family, Microsoft Office and the comfort of knowing my e-mail is saved locally as well as through MobileMe.


A Typical, Active Web Session, But On Chrome and Windows 7
(Click for a larger image)
I don't feel I need to go feature by feature of Windows 7 and see if it has all the bells and whistles that Mac OS X does. Maybe it does. Maybe it doesn't. But with very few exceptions, I could switch to Windows in this environment, and not lose too much sleep - something that would be made even more possible were I to push all my mail to GMail and take my word processing to Google Docs, for example.

Also in September of 2008, I speculated that the new world of browser choices is all about the hooks, especially from each company's mobile platform. The iPhone loves Safari, as you know. But Safari is also available on Windows, and the iPhone can be synced on iTunes on my Windows 7 partition. Hmm.

The line between what is an Operating System, and what is a Web browser, is getting increasingly blurry. And the traditional benefits of the Mac that always had me red in the face and starving of oxygen when trying to convert non-believers are going away. Maybe that's why I stopped caring about Apple rumors, as I told you last week.

If I do run into somebody willing to listen about what operating system they should choose, I can without hesitation say the Mac, because it's still what I know best, and I have had such a good track record with Apple. But Windows 7, so far, is good enough for most people, provided they can avoid bugs, malware and other irregularities.

So you tell me, am I out of my mind, or finally seeing the light?