My night....and welcome to it.
Apr. 23rd, 2010 08:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogWe were all pretty exhaustipated when we left RIT yesterday afternoon. Enough so, that (a) I didn't think it was necessary for Em to practice any Thruway driving on the way home, and (b) I wanted to keep all of us out of the kitchen last night, so I offered to get takeout before we got home. This latter step involved calling the restaurant, but when I tried to do so, my phone, which I'd dangerously drained the battery on during our long visit, kept saying "NO SIM" and then not connecting any calls even after a reboot.
Moments later, we had two possible causes: either the battery drain, or a more literal kind that had come from Emily's lunch-leftover beverage in the same cupholder I was using to stow (and charge) my phone. After we ate, I headed to the local AT&T place, and then on their instructions to Da Mawl to the Genius Bar, to see which it was.
I got there not long after 7:30 and snagged one of the last appointments at 8:30. With nothing else to do, I cruised the room full of MacThings and, told they were freely available for surfing, started typing Google searches and whatnot.
More "not" than "what," as it happened. The smallscreen Mac didn't budge when I tried to tap the address into the location bar. Medium and largescreens, no better. Were they locked up, demo-only, like many of the PCs I've demo'd over the years?
Erm, no. Despite having seen my first-ever Mac in a girlfriend's apartment in 1980-freaking-four, I'd never actually computed on one. Ever. Finally, I noticed that there were no buttons below the touchpad. And wow, that touchpad seemed, somehow, BOUNCIER than the ones I'm used to.
Press down, presto. Good god am I a luddite. Naturally, there's nothing on the keyboard or display to explain this to you, unlike Microsoft products which go out of their way to convert you from false religions. Still, I intuit-ed it; that only got me to the point of being thoroughly confused by the keyboard, which, as QWERTY as this one, still had enough extra spacing between the keys to make that one post last night take most of the hour I had to kill whilst writing it.
----
By my 8:30 turn, Resident Genius was still working with the dude to my left who'd never sych'd his iPhone to a computer but couldn't deal with either wiping it clean or coming back later after backing it up. While they argued, I somehow got a minorly visible screen on mine, enough to adjust brightness settings, and, magically while I waited, to bring it back to life.
Half-life, I'd have to say. He checked it in the back, and discovered it was, in fact, melted ice damage preventing them from just switching it out. It seemed to work, so rather than drop two Benjamins to replace it, he recommended just backing it up early and often. Since then, it's been wonky (it still forgets its SIM anytime it goes to sleep for more than a few minutes), but a reboot/repowering combination has thus far brought it back. Plus there's a guy over by Parkside who advertises in Artvoice that he can fix such phones twice as fast as Apple and for half as much. Worth a shot, yo.
----
Since I squeezed an extra day (at least) out of the beast, I did get to download the pics from yesterday's RIT adventures. Sadly missing from them is one from a dorm room showing roommates named "Amy" and "Emily," thereby sparing you the remark about the Indigo Girls going back to college without telling me.
As for the rest of them:
Saw this one in the library stairwell. My reaction was, "why are they so worried about extroverts in the stacks?"
----
Paley white thighs. Or, rather, Paley white architecture- Albert's a local sculptor of note, and this is certainly one of his bigger installations.
----
I do loves me the senses of humor in this place:
Yes, Terri, we thought of you:)
----
I almost singlehandedly stopped the second tour getting a shot of these stairs in one of the science buildings- pi worked out to several hundred places. Although why they did it from top to bottom with the numbers going up, I have no idea.
----
One more, from the many representative student-group handbills still plastered (as is the chalk on the sidewalks, and the paint in the windows) just like they were back in our day:
The biggest student organization on campus is the Anime Club, and this one looks to be pretty popular, too. I'm just glad she'll be getting ample opportunities to improve upon her BRAINNNNNNNNS!
Moments later, we had two possible causes: either the battery drain, or a more literal kind that had come from Emily's lunch-leftover beverage in the same cupholder I was using to stow (and charge) my phone. After we ate, I headed to the local AT&T place, and then on their instructions to Da Mawl to the Genius Bar, to see which it was.
I got there not long after 7:30 and snagged one of the last appointments at 8:30. With nothing else to do, I cruised the room full of MacThings and, told they were freely available for surfing, started typing Google searches and whatnot.
More "not" than "what," as it happened. The smallscreen Mac didn't budge when I tried to tap the address into the location bar. Medium and largescreens, no better. Were they locked up, demo-only, like many of the PCs I've demo'd over the years?
Erm, no. Despite having seen my first-ever Mac in a girlfriend's apartment in 1980-freaking-four, I'd never actually computed on one. Ever. Finally, I noticed that there were no buttons below the touchpad. And wow, that touchpad seemed, somehow, BOUNCIER than the ones I'm used to.
Press down, presto. Good god am I a luddite. Naturally, there's nothing on the keyboard or display to explain this to you, unlike Microsoft products which go out of their way to convert you from false religions. Still, I intuit-ed it; that only got me to the point of being thoroughly confused by the keyboard, which, as QWERTY as this one, still had enough extra spacing between the keys to make that one post last night take most of the hour I had to kill whilst writing it.
----
By my 8:30 turn, Resident Genius was still working with the dude to my left who'd never sych'd his iPhone to a computer but couldn't deal with either wiping it clean or coming back later after backing it up. While they argued, I somehow got a minorly visible screen on mine, enough to adjust brightness settings, and, magically while I waited, to bring it back to life.
Half-life, I'd have to say. He checked it in the back, and discovered it was, in fact, melted ice damage preventing them from just switching it out. It seemed to work, so rather than drop two Benjamins to replace it, he recommended just backing it up early and often. Since then, it's been wonky (it still forgets its SIM anytime it goes to sleep for more than a few minutes), but a reboot/repowering combination has thus far brought it back. Plus there's a guy over by Parkside who advertises in Artvoice that he can fix such phones twice as fast as Apple and for half as much. Worth a shot, yo.
----
Since I squeezed an extra day (at least) out of the beast, I did get to download the pics from yesterday's RIT adventures. Sadly missing from them is one from a dorm room showing roommates named "Amy" and "Emily," thereby sparing you the remark about the Indigo Girls going back to college without telling me.
As for the rest of them:
Saw this one in the library stairwell. My reaction was, "why are they so worried about extroverts in the stacks?"
----
Paley white thighs. Or, rather, Paley white architecture- Albert's a local sculptor of note, and this is certainly one of his bigger installations.
----
I do loves me the senses of humor in this place:
Yes, Terri, we thought of you:)
----
I almost singlehandedly stopped the second tour getting a shot of these stairs in one of the science buildings- pi worked out to several hundred places. Although why they did it from top to bottom with the numbers going up, I have no idea.
----
One more, from the many representative student-group handbills still plastered (as is the chalk on the sidewalks, and the paint in the windows) just like they were back in our day:
The biggest student organization on campus is the Anime Club, and this one looks to be pretty popular, too. I'm just glad she'll be getting ample opportunities to improve upon her BRAINNNNNNNNS!
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no subject
Date: 2010-04-24 12:24 am (UTC)lol! It's amazing where zombies turn up... ;) (the zombiepocalypse will be 1/11/11. pass it on).
no subject
Date: 2010-04-24 01:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-24 01:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-24 01:55 pm (UTC)By the bye, the Apple keyboard has the same spacing between keys as a standard PeeCee keyboard, but the flat keys with their shallow strike distance do make a bit of a change, as does the big clickable touchpad. Personally, I stuck with the keyboards like the IBM M-Series and other buckling-spring types for years (my typing sounded like a pitched machine gun battle), but I've learned to love the Mac keyboard and now feel clumsy with others. Funny how Apple design can make all other contenders feel like something manufactured in a Soviet tractor factory...
So, when are you going to check out RIT's Dubai campus?
no subject
Date: 2010-04-25 02:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-25 05:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-25 02:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-25 02:35 pm (UTC)