How many of you have ever found yourself in a position where some form of technology failed you? A piece of software….a computer…. A gadget of some sort?
If you’ve ever been in that situation you’ll understand when I ask the question,”Why is it that they always decide to quit, break, or stop working just when you need to use it the most?”
It’s Sunday and as usual I should be wrapping up this week’s issue of PlaneBusiness Banter. One problem. My laptop’s display unit died last night. No see. No write. No nothing.
The good part? The friendly folks at the Apple Genius Bar were able to determine the problem this morning. Even better, Apple is picking up the tab to fix it.
The bad part? I was told to come home and clone my hard drive and bring the computer back in … TOMORROW. And the new display unit won’t be in stock until TUESDAY.
So here I sit with external drives daisy chained and two laptops chugging away ( had to use target disk mode to boot up the MacBook Pro because… Well…..there is no display!)
Meanwhile I sit and twiddle my thumbs and contemplate what kind of happy pills Apple must give those guys who work the Genius Bars. I don’t see how they do it. And how I’m going to try and get an issue written.
And….how am I going to get all this done and be back to the Swamp to take my Dad for eye surgery at 6 a.m on Tuesday?
As the guy at the Apple Store said…”There are always Margaritas.”
Every piece of equipment more complicated than an egg timer has what is know as a Critical Task Detector. It was first identified in copying machines decades ago, when people noted that failures always occurred just before a big meeting, or a briefing for the boss. Its task is to detect high stress levels by the operator or user, and then to shut down the most needed equipment.