SON of MacBook!

One should never purposefully anticipate the worst, and believe me folks, I’m not!

My new MacBook is charging along — hasn’t shutdown once without a prompt — and all’s right with the world. I have the RAM maxed out, the trackpad button on this one works a little better [note to Apple: it still sucks compared to the one on my battle-weary Rev. A TiBook], and I totally love the shiny screen and two-finger scrolling. Every now and then, though, there’s a whiff of too-hot plastic when the fans come on. Oh well, it’s a new machine, and why look for trouble when there is none?

But this morning something caught my eye: a post at The Unofficial Apple Weblog references a German article about the Great Random Shutdown Problem which hypothesizes that a cable too near the heatsink sags just enough from expansion due to heat to melt the insulation, whereupon the Mac shuts down. In the comment section, several users wonder why it seems to take some MacBooks weeks or even months to show this problem (if at all). A vaguely plausible explanation could be that the cable insulation may take a while to melt away enough to cause a short. Well yes, and maybe George Bush has a heart. It’s really hard to tell, and only the creator (God or Cuptertino) has a clue.

All That Is has better things to do than reassure the rest of us on things we’re supposed to take on faith, however. But there is this funny smell from time to time, and Apple isn’t God, so they have no excuse. If something’s fishy with the industrial design, it’s time to say so, loudly and clearly, once and for all, with liberty and justice for all.

Personally, I think they will. I also think this is the best computer I’ve ever owned.

The speed is glorious and invigorating, especially with DSL and a zippy wireless router. I haven’t used Tiger before this, and I love the OS like I birthed it myself. My Tiger, my MacBook. The wonderful ineffable essence of owning a high-zoot Mac. It carries me through the day. I look forward to coming home and flipping back the lid, the known world at my fingertips.

The coolest thing is that I hardly ever read “analog” any more. No paper for this fella! I make a sandwich, grab the shiny little MacBook, and hit the RSS feeds without ever getting ink all over my fingers. Well, peanut butter maybe. I feel like I’m on Star Trek. Everything I need to know is in my hand, encased in shiny plastic. I know this is the future.

I just hope the heatsink in the little jewel isn’t melting insulation on a cable to a sensor, somewhere deep inside. [sniff, sniff…] It doesn’t smell right now, so what the hell: I say if you want a new Mac, jump right in. I’d never consider anything else, no matter what.