Ryan j Budke

Fair warning, this post only tangentially deals with the iPhone, so if you were looking for some great insight on it, go elsewhere. No, this story is about how Apple managed to really alienate a “Mac convert” very quickly.

The power converter for the MacBook Pro, in typical Apple fashion, is set up really slick so that the wire leading away from the brick to the computer can wrap around these two little “pegs” that fold out. Nice for when you’re traveling so you don’t have a jumbled mess, but it puts a lot of strain on a little wire. The power on my MacBook Pro had been acting funky for the past week or so, with it suddenly dropping on to battery even though it was plugged in, and there seemed to be a little bulge right at the point where the wire hits the brick. I was worried that there was a short in it, so I ordered a new power cord via our corporate help desk.

Well, while I was using it yesterday, the power dropped out completely for a minute before flickering rapid fire on and off. I quickly unplugged it, picked up the brick to make sure nothing was physically wrong with it, and set it down next to me. After giving it a few minutes to cool down, I plugged it back in and it worked fine. Probably and hour or so went by and then there was a loud pop next to me. The power cord had “exploded” (nothing dramatic, I didn’t get flung across the room or anything, I just can’t think of a better word) and was currently on fire. It burnt a hole in my jeans (I have a nice blister and welt on my leg) and the carpet was on fire. I yanked the cord out and smacked out the fire real quick.

As with all setbacks, this couldn’t have happened on a worse day. I’ve been working on a big upcoming project for Netscape, was in the middle of about a half dozen important chats and waiting to hear back via email on another dozen. I thought I’d have a chance to wrap everything up, and then go get a replacement as I wanted a second cord anyway, nope. As a bonus, whatever happened left my battery with all of about a five minute lifespan. I grabbed the cord and ran down to the Apple store, completely forgetting what day it was. I got there, the gate was down, and a line of about 30 or so people had formed. In retrospect, I should have just stayed there, but there was a Circuit City right across the parking lot, so I headed there. As I was walking I called the closest Best Buy, who told me that they were out of stock of the supplies. After waiting for a Circuit City employee to let me know that the power supply he swore he had had apparently disappeared, I turned and headed back to the Apple store, and that’s when the problems really kicked in.

In the maybe 20-25 minutes that I was gone, the line had grown to well over 200 people. Aggravated more at myself at this point, I got back in line. I apologize to any of the excited people around me who were trying to talk to me about the impending awesomeness waiting in the store, I was in no mood. After over an hour wait, I got in to the store, had an iPhone put in front of me, but when I politely declined, I was bluntly told that unless I was getting one, I’d have to come back tomorrow. Friday June 29th was iPhone day and that was it for Apple, I couldn’t even buy a new cord. Completely flabbergasted, I left. Went back today, got a new power supply.

So here’s the deal, I’m not oblivious to the fact that yesterday may have well been Apple’s biggest day ever. Up until that moment, I was one of many that were beyond excited with the iPhone. I was lucky enough to travel to Macworld with the TUAW guys earlier this year and had a (more or less) front row seat to his Steveness’s iPhone introduction. It was awesome. I wasn’t ever sure if I wanted to get one, but I was excited not only for Apple, but for the huge changes that would come out of this announcement across the board.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t aggravated by the physical/technical aspect of this, but I understand completely random stuff like this happens from time to time, but the way that a company who prides themselves on their customer experience treated me yesterday has left me severely scorned. This MacBook Pro was my first full-time Mac computer, I’ve been thrilled with it, and over the past year, I’ve been the poster boy for “converting to the church of Mac”, now though… I’m going to have a hard time recommending them. Everyone is out to make money, but yesterday Apple put that above everything else.

As I said, above, this whole incident really left me up the proverbial creek when it came to work yesterday, so I’m still really aggravated. Maybe I should have chilled a day or two before writing. Maybe I won’t feel this way tomorrow. Somehow I doubt that.

UPDATE: Here’s a few pictures and a link to the entire set.

She got out a couple of days ago, but everyone seems to still be obsessed about Paris Hilton getting out of prison. Whoop-dee-do, she got what she deserved, except for the attention. Crap like this happens everyday, but you don’t hear about it because they’re not famous. I’m not going to go into how I don’t think Paris isn’t famous because that would just be a self-perpetuating cycle and everyone has had that argument with someone already. I will share with you my favorite piece of coverage from the entire “crisis”:

I just watched BIG for the first time in years. I’m amazed at how much I loved it, but for entirely different reasons. When I was little and watching it, all that I wanted was to be big. An adult, job working for a toy factory. Have a car. A girlfriend. Now, all that I want to be is a kid again (no jokes from the peanut gallery). To be blissfully ignorant again.

Don’t ever grow up.

I love Digg, I work for Netscape, but I still love Digg. Although there’s a lot of information overlap, and I see stuff on Digg that I’ve already found elsewhere, I always seem to find that random little nugget there that I don’t find anywhere else. That said, my use of Digg is very passive. I read the links, but that’s it. I’ve long since given up on commenting, and today I stumbled across a perfect example of why.

This submission appeared on Digg’s front page earlier today: Gorgeous close-up wasp in flight picture [pic]. I’m a sucker for nature pictures and programs, and Digg’s userbase as been drumming up more and more great pictures recently, so, like a sucker, I clicked on it. I was pleasantly surprised for a split second when I saw that the page loading up was a Flickr page, but just for a split second. This is the picture I was greeted with:

Uploaded with Skitch!

I can’t say for sure, but I can probably give you a play by play on what happened here: The story was submitted to Digg. The story became popular on Digg and made it to the front page, thus exponentially increasing the Digg users visiting the photo. Someone noticed that they could post a note on the picture, and posted a note. Others noticed this too. There were probably a few interesting notes on the photos (This is the thorax), a huge amount of moronic ones (This is the sky) and a ton of redundant ones that could have gone in the comments (Great photo! or Have you noticed all the notes on this photo? L0Lcatz!!11!!! ). The reason I can’t say for sure on how to do this? Well some jackass took it one step further and made the entire picture a note so that even the other notes can’t be read:

Uploaded with Skitch!

Digg long ago turned into a mob mentality who’s costs are now starting to tip and not be worth the benefit you would get from their traffic. This latest piece of web graffiti is just the most recent poignant example. Imagine going to here a professor speak on a subject you’re earnestly interested in at a college campus. Now imagine that since their were flyers handed out everywhere, more people start showing up, again, this would probably be a good thing since more discussions would be provoked. Finally, imagine that there happen to be about 10 frats walking around that night, they all got handed flyers as well, and guess where they’re going?

Trying to read or participate in comments at Digg, or anywhere the pack travels, is an absolute mess, and I’m not talking about the mess with the threaded comments either (much love Jay). It’s like standing in a lecture hall with 200 frat boys screaming “I WANNA HEAR MY VOICE!” It’s a matter of being respectful, and that’s something that the large majority of Digg users don’t seem to, and may not ever, grasp.

Oh, and here’s the original photo for reference, it really is an amazing shot:

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Every so often I try to make a big change in my life. Just a couple of months ago I made arguably one of the biggest and moved out to Los Angeles. I love change and I like the idea that I won’t be the same person tomorrow that I was yesterday or am today. Although these changes normally have long lasting effects, they normally don’t take too much time or effort on my side outside of making the choice. I’ve tried to get in better shape a few times and don’t keep up with it, and other such positive habits normally fall by the way side. So I’ve decided to give myself a challenge, it’s long term, but doesn’t require too much effort on my part, will be good for others, and hopefully be a gateway challenged to others. I’m going to grow my hair out for Locks of Love.

For those that don’t know, Locks of Love is a foundation where people can donate their hair to be made into hair pieces for children that have cancer, and as a result of chemotherapy, have lost their own hair. It’s a great cause, and something I’m personally very invested in. According to their donation rules, the hair has to be 10″ in length, and according to this, I’ll grow about 6″ of hair a year, but my hair grows really fast, so I’m going to give myself an extra inch for good behavior. So with my hair currently being about 2 1/4″ long, and knowing that I can’t just shave my head as soon as I reach 10″, we’re looking at sometime in the fall of ‘08 before I can cut my hair again.

Again, with this trying to be a “gateway” habit, I’ll be updating with my current hair length every month on the 25th of the month (I’m already racing towards Christmas…), so that should hopefully get me blogging a little bit more as well.

UPDATED: Here’s a picture, see you guys in a month.

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This is the funniest s#!t I’ve seen in a while.

The MTV Movie Awards weren’t nearly as good this year as they have been in the past. Normally one of the best things to look forward to is the movie parodies that they annually do, yet this year they decided to let “normal people” submit them ala YouTube. a) Not everything on YouTube is funny. b) People that have had their own show on Comedy Central are not your everyday run-of-the-mill user. Sarah Silverman was funny, she almost made Paris Hilton cry, but I just think most of the audience didn’t appreciate her style of humor.

The one real standout for me was this video (lame MTV for pulling it from YouTube, at least let your videos be embedded if you’re going to put it on a subpar player). It’s hilarious, and even funnier because I know at least three people who suffer from this horrible affliction.