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I'm banking on the fables of the far, far better things we do
I am posting from Bertie Owen. He aten't dead. Thank you for all the candles. Keys Q through O, however, have packed it in. A popular row. This post was composed with the majority assistance of copy-paste. I guess today I spend looking for a new new keyboard. Everything hurts.
[edit] ALL HAIL THE VERY OLD AND VERY TANGERINE KEYBOARD THAT BELONGED TO MY MOTHER'S iMAC G3 IN 1998. IT IS A TERRIBLE-LOOKING OBJECT BUT UNLIKE MORE RECENT APPLE TECHNOLOGY IT WORKS JUST FINE HAVING LIVED IN A FILE CABINET FOR THE LAST DECADE OR MORE. I FEEL SURPRISINGLY TRIUMPHANT AND ALSO DISORIENTED BY HAVING A DESKTOP KEYBOARD BUT NO MOUSE.
I mean it also works without the caplock held down, but you see where I'm coming from. My mother is a hero of the revolution.
[edit] ALL HAIL THE VERY OLD AND VERY TANGERINE KEYBOARD THAT BELONGED TO MY MOTHER'S iMAC G3 IN 1998. IT IS A TERRIBLE-LOOKING OBJECT BUT UNLIKE MORE RECENT APPLE TECHNOLOGY IT WORKS JUST FINE HAVING LIVED IN A FILE CABINET FOR THE LAST DECADE OR MORE. I FEEL SURPRISINGLY TRIUMPHANT AND ALSO DISORIENTED BY HAVING A DESKTOP KEYBOARD BUT NO MOUSE.
I mean it also works without the caplock held down, but you see where I'm coming from. My mother is a hero of the revolution.
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I spilled hot water on it, so any survival is no slouch. But that is part of what hurts so much. I was being so careful with the new keyboard—I swiffered cat fur carefully off its keys, I made sure my hands were clean so that I wouldn't get fluff or schmutz or grit in between them, so that it would not take the same wear and tear as the old one—and yet I forgot simple, obvious things like keeping mugs of water away from the keys.
Bertie Owen is some survivor and I am glad of it.
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I think he must be benign. I don't think he'd have come back to life so many times if he were not.
See update! My mother heroically excavated her office closet and located a keyboard that works with Bertie Owen! I still have to buy a new keyboard, and God knows if Bertie Owen will survive a third installation, and nobody knows what happens to me if he does not, but I can talk until then!
[edit] My father points out that spilling things into keyboards is a time-honored failure mode and I don't actually have a history of it; the previous two keyboards wiped out from overuse, not liquids. I am trying to calm down.
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I've been using plug-in or wifi keyboards with my laptop since before Christmas, the keyboard having lost functionality on T, O and several other essential keys. I'd replace it if I could figure out how to get into the damned thing*!
* It physically doesn't match the instructions given on Youtube for that model. This is what happens when you buy what turns out to be an end of line, probably built after a pub-lunch, model.
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That's like the time my aunt's parked car was totaled by a pizza truck that had been parked up the hill from her. The truck's brake failed. Neither driver was in the vehicle at the time. They both got back from their respective errands and stared. Wow.
It physically doesn't match the instructions given on Youtube for that model. This is what happens when you buy what turns out to be an end of line, probably built after a pub-lunch, model.
Just out of curiosity, what is it? (Bertie Owen got his name because he has only one fan. His model is supposed to have two.)
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It's powerful enough, but I'm seriously not impressed by the build quality. It isn't three years old yet and has already needed a new power supply and keyboard. One of the hinges has recently given way, that's partly my fault, I fell asleep, and it slid off my chest from sofa height to floor - I woke as it slid and caught it, so it didn't get the full impact, but a crack in the plastic backing to the screen has slowly spread and just recently snapped the hinge. If I can't patch it with superglue and some decent plastic then I may start looking for a replacement. Considering my previous Toshiba lasted me a decade, HP has failed to impress.
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Electronic keyboards really are delicate little beasties, wtf.
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Thank you! See edit to this post! My mother found him an interim keyboard!
Electronic keyboards really are delicate little beasties, wtf.
I think the real problem is that Apple really got into the planned obsolescence racket and I was designed by neither nature nor cash flow to buy myself the latest model every year.
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--Everyone, please use a keyboard skin! A slosh of beer took out my keyboard on this MacBook several years ago. When I replaced it, I got a skin, and the skin has done its job and prevented other spills from being catastrophic. At the very least it gives time to blot fast.
As for the robustness, the older MacBooks like yours are holding up really well, and many people are repairing/upgrading instead of going to newer ones, for all kinds of reasons. (Mine: I must have that SD card port and FireWire, and I do not want to lug around more cables.)
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It was only water and one of the reasons I waited until this morning to turn the machine back on was to see whether the other components had gotten into the act. I appreciate the encouragement. I once had a trackpad come back after three days of total freeze, so I am willing to wait a little while for nine keys. Everyone is hoping it's just lingering water rather than an actual short.
As for the robustness, the older MacBooks like yours are holding up really well, and many people are repairing/upgrading instead of going to newer ones, for all kinds of reasons. (Mine: I must have that SD card port and FireWire, and I do not want to lug around more cables.)
I do not want a newer MacBook for all sorts of reasons myself. If I have to replace Bertie Owen, I want it to be with the same generation. This may be tricky but should not be impossible. I would prefer Bertie Owen himself, however, and I am working toward that end.
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Here's hoping!
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Thank you!
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Amen!
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P.
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Thank you.
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I use an external keyboard with my Macbook Air is probably the only reason why the actual built-in keyboard hasn't given up the ghost. And even then I am prone to failure mode: the previous external keyboard (an expensive ergonomic keyboard that I use because of RSI) I killed by spilling Dr. Pepper on it...
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Thank you! My father's midnight advice was also instrumental: I shut Bertie Owen down and turned him upside down and left him that way for eleven hours.
I use an external keyboard with my Macbook Air is probably the only reason why the actual built-in keyboard hasn't given up the ghost.
Yeah, Bertie Owen's previous two keyboards died through sheer dint of use. I had a wireless external keyboard for a while, but it turned out to have died because the batteries exploded while it was stored—I thought—safely and quietly and coolly in a drawer. I am feeling rather inimal toward recent Apple tech at the moment.
And even then I am prone to failure mode: the previous external keyboard (an expensive ergonomic keyboard that I use because of RSI) I killed by spilling Dr. Pepper on it...
Sympathies! I keep feeling there must be some way to design keyboards so that they are more spill-proof, it's such a common hazard. I am just lucky that it took me until now to cause major damage.
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Yeah, I wish they'd invent spill-proof keyboards too! I've only killed one this way and that's kind of a miracle. These days I keep my drink on the desk, the keyboard on a level above (since I'm using a standing desk hutch), and the laptop on the top level of the hutch (again for ergonomic reasons, so the screen is at eye level). But that means that the drink might spill on my papers instead. XD
May Bertie Owen endure!
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AND CONFUSION TO THE GENIUS BAR.
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TOUJOURS GAI
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Thank you! I cannot explain the persistence of my nine-year-old laptop, but I am grateful for it.
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I am seriously beginning to think of him as an electronic Fisher King.
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That may be the most endearing thing anyone has ever said about my computer. I have given his monitor an affectionate but not condescending pet for you.
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IT IS EXTREMELY GRATIFYING.
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WE'VE GOT PLENTY WHERE THOSE CAME FROM.
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Thank you!
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Nine
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It's kind of amazing, honestly. No complaints.
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Thank you! Avert!