Leah and I were sitting on the couch last night, watching TV and chatting idly about my crazy scheme to get a new Apple MacBook laptop and give my beloved 900MHz iBook G3 to Leah’s mom in an effort to bring her at least into the late 20th Century.
I actually had the iBook sitting on the arm of the sofa next to me as we talked. At one point I turned my head to look at the TV briefly, and I thought I saw the iBook’s screen flicker out of the corner of my eye.  When I looked back at the computer, the screen flickered again. Then some more. The keyboard froze. I restarted. Nothing. “Bad screen cable,” I thought. So I booted into FireWire Target Disk Mode and took the iBook out to the back room to hook it up to my server. It mounted, but not for long. Clearly, this was more than a bad display cable.
Naturally, this breakdown comes about 30 days outside the limit of my AppleCare contract, so getting the iBook fixed would likely cost me a bundle (probably nearly as much as the computer is worth, but not as much as a new computer). So, now we debate whether to get the iBook replaced. To my surprise, Leah seems in favor of the idea. I’m not entirely convinced we need a new laptop, and I’m eager to see how we get along without the convenience of one for a while. Or at least until November 24th, when Apple’s having its own Day After Thanksgiving Sale. I swear, it’s like there’s some software code in these machines that kills them on the eve of new product announcements or big sales.