Filed under: Cult of Mac, PowerBook
Goodness, gracious, great balls of (PowerBook) fire!
If it bleeds, it leads. If it goes boom, there's room. Fire inspires and there's no shame in flame.
What's the opposite of flamebait? It's when your PowerBook really does catch fire and nearly kills you--and you write a love letter like Jimm Lasser did. After his PowerBook burst into flames, he didn't lash out at Apple. He grew to love them even more. He writes, "a Mac almost killed me, and I came out of the whole experience feeling more strongly about Apple as a company." TUAW rejoices that Lasser survived and has been able to move on from the whole experience, but reiterates that this kind of bonding, consumer-trust-enhancing experience is not typical.
Via Real Fake Steve
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Larry Pan said 1:18PM on 10-10-2007
w00t 1st post...
I also feel very strongly for the apple brand.
My first mac, after returning to the brand was a snow ibook g3. And it had been plagued by the common logic board problem.
I however didn't have any of the screen flicker or random shutdowns until well after the warranty expired.
Even a year after applecare expired, I took it to the apple storefront. The geniuses graciously took the computer into their care, and replaced it for a brand new ibook g4. Needless to say I was elated.
Couple years later, i am still true to the brand. I work daily on a powerbook g4, and will soon get a macbook pro. Customer service is the most important in my book, and they are certainly keeping me happy. I can only hope the same can be said about my iphone, only time will tell.
-L
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Beau said 1:18PM on 10-10-2007
Weird story of the week?
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Tucker said 1:28PM on 10-10-2007
Tomorrow's news story: PowerBook bursts into flames as Larry Pan writes a "first post" that's not first, grows to love Apple even more.
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Quix said 2:06PM on 10-10-2007
"w00t 1st post..."
Heh, pwned.
Seriously, people. It's 2007. Let's move on from the lame "1st post" nonsense, OK? This is a Mac users blog. We're better than this.
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ZinkDifferent said 2:18PM on 10-10-2007
TUAW, or rather Erica, could learn from Jimm Lasser's experience and conclusion about Apple who did (as they usually do) the right thing by Jimm and sent him a brand spanking new Mac Book Pro.
Insted, we get puerile (I might add, moronic) linking to the Stockholm Syndrome wikipedia entry, and a final jab in the closing paragraph - in effect, reducing Erica to no more than whiny little bitch (for lack of using a stronger word), and further dragging down the editorial integrity of TUAW.
Well done.
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ZinkDifferent said 2:23PM on 10-10-2007
Seriously, who's in charge of TUAW (Erica ain't, that's for sure) and who can someone write to in order to properly complain about the way some of these authors/writers need to be reigned in?
The only other option, short of finding a central figure of authority, would be to write to every single of the sponsors on these pages (BestBuy, AOL, etc...) and strongly pointing out that their brands are being harmed by association with this blog - as that is simply a fact. It shouldn't have to come to this, and this weblog should not be a personal sandbox for Erica's immature grievances.
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Ralph Daily said 2:33PM on 10-10-2007
Good story, I enjoyed it. I am looking at my G4 PowerBook a little more warily though. I hope it doesn't turn on me.
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Ken Sykora said 2:53PM on 10-10-2007
I don't think it's really fair that you define a link between his experience and Stockholm syndrome - In Stockholm syndrome, the victimizer is intentionally abusing the victims and then later the victims become emotionally attached. There's no reasonable argument you can make that Apple was intentionally abusing this person and wanted his G4 laptop to explode.
While I see similarities, I disagree with your direct link between the two.
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Liquidmark said 3:04PM on 10-10-2007
The comparison to this wonderful story and Stockholm Syndrome is incredibly LAME!
Look, seriously. the guy's Poowerbook went up in flames and Apple gave him a NEW Macboo Pro.
Had this been ANY other company (I'm looking at YOU Dell), they would have just told him that his warranty was up and hung up in his face.
How can one NOT like a company that looks out for their customers?
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Steven W Riggins said 3:15PM on 10-10-2007
I am put off my erica's link to stockholm syndrome as well. Very passive aggressive post.
One more like this and I am off TUAW. This type of journalism has ruined this site.
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Johnny said 3:32PM on 10-10-2007
Wow... You all need to go get a sense of humor. Damn. This is typical writing style for any member of TUAW or sister blogs for that matter. It's called sarcasm and I thought it hysterical when I clicked the link. Obviously, Erica is also a loyal Apple customer so it's not really like she's slamming them, just making a joke. I just wish we could get back to being on topic. For a while, there were a lot of intelligent and mature comments here, but now it's all just hate. It's THAT, and not Erica's blog entries, that is ruining this site.
However, from TUAW's standpoint, I think there are more comments from people complaining lately than there used to be on-topic, and you know what they say... "No publicity is bad publicity".
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Quix said 3:42PM on 10-10-2007
"in effect, reducing Erica to no more than whiny little bitch (for lack of using a stronger word), and further dragging down the editorial integrity of TUAW." - ZinkDifferent
How about a way to filter out the constant commentary from the "whiny little bitches (for lack of using a stronger word)" who insist on griping about Erica's every post? Don't like? Don't read. It's how the Web works.
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grimfandango said 4:36PM on 10-10-2007
lol.. first post got me pwn3d....
I'm a sysadmin for a lab large university.. and dell was once our preferred vendor.
But last year many of our dells died shortly out of warranty (all the computers had motherboard failures). I was under the impression that the education and business accounts would have support not outsourced to india. Out of 10 broken computers in a lab or 50, only one was "graciously" fixed by dell. The support agent made it seem like he was doing me a favor.
These pcs have been replaced by lenovo thinkpads, and their support has been much better.
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artifex said 4:46PM on 10-10-2007
Quix: trolls are just wannabe terrorists, striving to disrupt instead of develop. Appeals to rational behavior will not make any difference.
Now, did the guy deserve a new machine for leaving his old one charging on the carpet, after obviously knowing it was the wrong thing to do? Maybe they were just afraid of him because he thinks his computer talks to him? :)
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ZinkDifferent said 4:53PM on 10-10-2007
Quix / #12 : "How about a way to filter out the constant commentary from the "whiny little bitches (for lack of using a stronger word)" who insist on griping about Erica's every post? Don't like? Don't read. It's how the Web works."
Great, if you can provide me some way to effectively filter out by using keyword 'b*tch', it should clean up reading TUAW a great deal. Maybe if someone started taking their editorial responsibilities more seriously, we would end up with non-iPhone related news (as this story) getting hijacked and marred by the submitters chip on her shoulder.
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JeffDM said 5:34PM on 10-10-2007
I think the proper fail-safes either failed or were non-existent. Stuff like this shouldn't be happening at all. There should be temperature sensors and cutoffs that prevent the battery from getting anywhere near thermal run-away temperatures.
Unlike something hined above, I don't think leaving a charging notebook on carpet constitutes abuse. The battery may get warm, but it shouldn't catch fire.
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Mike Schramm said 6:01PM on 10-10-2007
Zink, you're cruising for a bruising (or a banning, at the very least, though that doesn't rhyme as easily). Cut out the personal comments, not cool.
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Chris said 6:34PM on 10-10-2007
Know what #12? If you can't deal with the heat, get out of the kitchen.
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ZinkDifferent said 1:02AM on 10-11-2007
So, is that what this has come down to now - total censorship of opposing viewpoints, even if they are formulated in a civil way?
Seems my response to Mike Schramm 'somehow' got lost on the intertubes.
Just hope that no one here is caught screaming bloody murder about Apple deleting messages from their feedback forum :-)
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