Offline (Sort Of)

My Mac Mini died a few days ago.  A minor matter of a toppled glass of wine...  It didn't seem to hit the computer, but when I picked it up to clean under it, it stopped sending to the monitor.   I hoped it was the exposed adaptor cable (insulation loose at one end and split at the other - its old).  I spent Friday trying to get a replacement adaptor cable, and by the time I did, and tried it out, it was too late to get the Mac Mini to a repair shop (they are few and far between around here).

Since the only "near" repair shop for Apples is closed weekends, it probably doesn't matter.  I'll be delivering it Monday morning.  It will probably take 2 days to clean and/or repair, so I am mostly off-line until then.

How am I online now, you ask?  I still have my old Mac Deskpro.  It can do a little bit of work still (like access my blog account).  It's mostly an expensive doorstop these days, but I'm glad I kept it around.

It was great at it's time...  TWO 2GB hard drives and whatever passed for serious RAM and processors in 2006. 

I can't get email on it because both it is set up for an ISP I no longer use AND the memory is too little for my current system.  When it failed in 2010, I COULD have seriously upgraded it after thorough cleaning and parts replacement.  EXCEPT that the failure was due to cigarette smoke accumulation (causing overheating) and Apple repair shops will not clean a computer with that problem.  "TOXIC ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARD", according to Apple policy.  It would have been nice if they had advised me of that when I bought it.  Yeah, I know, "serves me right for smoking"...

PC repair stores don't care about that.  They used to just clean my old PCs and replace the overworked fan.  If you smoke and are considering buying Apple products, be aware of that.

The Mac Minis don't work the same way as large desktop units.  I don't know why.  Maybe they use flash drives and no fan.  All I know is that after 3 years, when I took the Mac Mini cover off (an adventure in itself) it looked sparkly-clean.

I'm not defending smoking, I'm ready to quit.  But it IS interesting that PC repair shops are all independent and THEY will clean any smoker's PC while Apple stores (with a virtual monopoly on repairs) will not.  Its their right to do so...

Forgive the minor rant.  I'm conflicted between my desire to have a computer cleaned and repaired, and my understanding that smoke debris is probably not the best thing to have to clean out.  I'm just annoyed all over again about the $3,500 Mac Deskpro doorstop that's been sitting around for years.  But I AM glad I kept it around.  Otherwise I wouldn't be able to even post this.

PS - If you are very anti-smoking and want to tell me how bad it is, please don't.  I already agree with you.  Seriously, I feel stupid enough about smoking as it is.  And I am at the point where I really WILL stop.