Part of the reason I've been dark since OSCON is because shortly before OSCON my G3 iBook failed and I had a long, drawn out discussion with Apple over the validity of my Applecare. Ultimately they fixed it. A couple weeks ago it failed again. In the same manner. That's number four for those keeping track. Apple--
Fortunately I don't have to deal with inhuman Applecare phone support. They recently opened an Apple store here in Pgh. Its white and shiney in that THX1138 sort of way. More importantly it is populated by actual humans. Humans that can see on your face that you are Very Displeased. Humans that don't like it when you start throwing around words like "Lemon" and "Defective" around their customers. Humans who have the healthy desire to please irrate people within striking distance. Which is to say, I got good service.
Apple Genius: "Four times? That seems like a lot. *tappity tappity in Applecare records* Whoa, yeah."
Me: "Yeah."
"Ok, we'll fix this in a jiffy."
"I'm not taking that lemon back."
"Oh. *Talk to manager* Ok, we'll replace it with a brand new one."
"What about my data on the unbootable laptop?"
"We can transfer that for a small fee."
"I won't pay for problems caused by your defective computer."
"Ok, we'll do it for free."
"And the airport card that probably doesn't work in the new iBooks?"
"Your new machine will have one."
"And the extra RAM I paid for? Its now only useful to me for tiddly-winks."
"We'll put the same amount of RAM in your new machine."
"You have made me happy."
A week later I have my machine.
So with only small loss of time and stomach lining and a minimum application of Angry Customer I have received a "free" upgrade from an unreliable G3 800 to a G4 1Gig that's quieter to boot and the little rubber feet actually stay on this model. That little performance boost has made OS X go from "a little sluggish" to "comfortable". Probably extended the life of my investment by two years. Apple++.
I'd count the performance increase between a G3 800 (my iBook) an a G4 1GHz (my powerbook) as significant. When you've got the two machines side by side the difference is quite profound.
Re:Ah ha
jonasbn on 2004-10-10T08:42:29
Hehe... we JUST got one in Copenhagen...Re:Ah ha
schwern on 2004-10-10T17:36:32
I'd count the performance increase between a G3 800 (my iBook) an a G4 1GHz (my powerbook) as significant.In that case you also have faster hard drive, faster RAM, faster motherboard, faster video card...
However, I'd suspect that the jump from G3 to G4 is pretty important seeing as how Apple has special gcc optimizations for G4/5 but not G3.
