Computers, particularly those that can access the Internet (which is most personal computers these days, I imagine) hold out the promise of instant gratification, of quick access to anything from books (to read online or order from a bookstore with an inventory larger than the Library of Congress–at least, so it seems) to commentary philosophical, religious, or political. And all at the speed of thought, or at least the speed of your broadband connection.
But every now and then, something goes wrong. Like the graphics card on my barely two-year-old MacBook Pro. Tuesday night, in the middle of an email, I shut the lid on it to keep my nearly-two-year-old son from interacting too closely with my barely two-year-old computer. I wouldn’t want the lad to damage the thing, after all.
And, yup, you guessed it, after I got the lad out of the room so I could get back to my email, my computer screen was black. Computer was on, drives were functioning, etc., but I couldn’t see anything on the screen. Try “safe boot” (holding down space bar while booting up). No luck. Try resetting PRAM (holding down P key while booting up). No luck. Try resetting NRAM (remove battery, remove AC adapter, press start for 5 seconds, reconnect, reboot). No luck. Call AppleCare, who run me through the same steps. No luck.
Long story short: the graphics card in the computer chose Tuesday night to die, and my laptop is FedExing (another attempt at instant gratification in our modern world) to the repair center in Houston (or in Tennessee, the Mac “Genius” didn’t know which one it would route to).
And I get a lesson in patience.
Thank Jobs for the Time Machine backup system, though. I am on my wife’s 4-year-old laptop, having “lost” only 12 hours’ worth of email, and an hour or two’s worth of files. And when my machine gets back to me (in 5 to 7 business days), it’s possible that even those emails and files will still be on it.
I just have to be patient.