TWO MONTHS FROM THE LIFE OF A TECHNOLOGY CASUALTY

1. Sometime during August 1-10, 2006: Laptop starts doing weird things. Weirder reason discovered.

2. August 15th: Laptop ships out to the Honourable Certified Apple Service Providers AIS Systems (Damn them!)

3. August 30th: Delivery of laptop expedited by courier (40$) after painful wait of 15 days. Laptop is back with logic board apparently replaced. Airport (Wireless Internet) not working. One memory chip missing. Blame game begins.

4. September 2nd, 2006: Laptop ships back to AIS (Curse them!). Logic board turns out to be defective. Blame game begins.

5. September 20th: After 20 phone calls, I reach the stage (called 'Nirvana' in Hindu philosophy) where I just stop caring. I am in a completely serene place, beyond frustration or agitation. I like this place, but not the fact that I don't have my laptop yet.

6. September 27th: I am surprised by drumrolls announcing the arrival of the laptop. Suprised because I had stopped caring so much that I had forgotten about the 17 inch, 2800$ beast. Memory chip still absent. I call AIS. Blame game begins.

7. September 28th, Morning: I discover that I cannot hear audio on YouTube. While a small nuisance for others, it means the end of the world for me. Luckily, the electronics technician agrees.

8. September 28th, Afternoon and Evening, 5 hours in all: Flash Player uninstalled and installed 5 times. Laptop booted from external hard drive. Laptop booted from another laptop...I can hear folks on YouTube now.

Mac OS X reinstallation pondered. Just then, prodigy from the one-room College of Computing finds what the snag could be on the web. YouTube is broadcasting, but I cannot hear because broadcasting frequency is not compatible with audio output. I keep thinking how we are still in the age of radio. Geek on the Internet had same problem, was advised by Megageek to simply launch Garage Band. That resets the audio output frequency...uhh...identification system.
Probably the most bizarre solution to a bizarre problem that I have encountered. I console myself by remembering that there are things more bizarre in the world, such as people eating Alphonso Mango Juice mixed with Rice.

And then there was sound. And sound was good. Attempts to recover memory chip abandoned, cost procured from multimillion dollar drug windfall.

9. September 28th, Just before leaving for home: Mass email sent to everyone advising never to do business with AIS systems.

P.S. This is actually in no way a criticism of technology, only of the human beings who service it, and those who insist on using it.