Dead Mac

There will be no fancy picture on this post because my iMac has died. It’s rather frustrating as the week it went down I was planning on backing everything up as the HDD contains my novel, my photography, my websites and designs. I’m just hoping the data is recoverable.

It also means I haven’t been able to update my Flickr properly with progress on how the extension is coming on. Suffice to say it’s doing okay. We had the schedule put on hold due to the gas board not being able to move the gas meter until the 20th October – yes, we’re still waiting for it to be done. But we’ve managed to get all but one of the walls plastered, the floor is mostly in and we’ve ordered our interior doors.

This week is looking to be the busy one with the gas board coming to move the meter, the floor being finished off, stud wall being built, plastered and suchlike. I think we’re also meant to be having the electricians in as well.

Unfortunately, the Apple Care ran out on my iMac and our nearest Apple Store is too far away to be convenient. Has anyone had any experience of authorised Apple repair outlets as it looks like I’ll have to take mine to one of those.

I’m hoping normal service will be resumed soon as my new Blackberry arrives tomorrow and there is also Forza 3 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 looming on the horizon.

Oh and yes, I did hear about Kate Beckinsale being voted the sexiest woman in the world. But we knew that anyway, as you may have noticed from these pages.

http://www.esquire.com/women/women-we-love/kate-beckinsale-pictures-1109

My Concerns About Macs

You may remember I posted this entry exactly one month ago today about my PC breaking. It was subsequently fixed and worked for almost a month until Friday, when it broke…again. I thought it was the power supply as the computer just turned off and refused to turn back on again but those motherboards are crafty and had made me believe it was the PSU.

I took it down to my tech guy (who is a fantastic chap) to whom I’ve very loyal and he’s giving me a call back today to sort out prices for what I want to do.

Whilst I dislike my PC breaking in the first place, I do know that I have a chap I can go to who will fix it quickly and won’t charge me the earth for doing so. It’s reassuring.

However, I have my Mac Mini as a spare for when my PC does give up the ghost and it also means I can split work and ‘play’. That being said, having two screens is giving me an RSI in my neck I think, constantly switching between them. Ideally I would like to combine my computers and run just the one.

I would probably donate my PC to my mother and get myself an iMac which I can use as the PC replacement. I’d go for the 3-year protection plan because technology seems to dislike working for me but the thing I’m worried about is what happens after 3 years if/when the iMac goes wrong? My tech guy won’t touch Apples, he just works on PCs.

I don’t know whether I’ll be able to afford to replace it in its entirity (if I can it’s not an issue) but I’ve had my PC for about 10-15 years. It’s been upgraded completely (in stages) but I’ve had it for that long.

Am I worrying justifiably or does anyone have any suggestions which will put my mind at ease and sway me more to the iMac?