FWOOM
Max let me add some cool fire to this one. I’d show you the originals, but they’re on my main computer, which is currently borked. Fortunately, I have a laptop which can be used for those all-important 3MM and GyreWorld updates, and I do have a recent backup of my files.
Still, a hard drive failure is always a bit disconcerting — rather like having a dangerous stranger suddenly appear in a burst of flame while you are trying to get some evil done. (How’s that for a segue?)
It’s not like I didn’t have some warning. The machine had been running slower and slower, and the Finder would choke on minor searches, giving me the Spinning Beach Ball for minutes at a time. Converting AVCHD video files into something remotely editable took forever.
And to top it off Apple kept sending me messages saying things like “Hey! Your 2010 iMac has known issues with the hard drive! We’ll replace the drive for free! Just bring it in!” But of course I would ignore these, because I had work to do, dammit. Besides, I had a nice arrangement of armed female action figurines hotglued to the top. One does not lightly desecrate such effort.
But finally the computer, in a petulant fit of stubborness, stopped working altogether. I tried all the usual fixes recommended in the Guy User Guide: powering it off and on a bunch of times, smacking it on the back, smacking it on the side, and Leaving It Off For A While And Then Coming Back In And Turning It On Real Casually While Pretending Not To Look. Surprisingly, none of these things got me anything more than the perpetually spinning beachball. I began to hate that beachball.
Now, I do know a very good Mac technician, but as it happens he is also the artist for this comic, and I have been trying to wangle a cover for the 3 Minute Max Volume One Graphic Novel out of him for weeks so I can get it off to the printers. He’s already been wasting way too much time doing nonstop commercial storyboards for major product lines that pay him vastly more than I do. So I wasn’t about to give him an excuse to slack off even more by fixing my computer.
Instead, I decided to take Apple up on their offer. All I had to do was fill out a form, including the computer’s serial number.
Dear Apple:
The serial number on the base of my iMac is much too large and easy to read. Could you possibly make it smaller? Also, I appreciate your efforts in randomly scattering the letter “O” and the number “0” in there, but I do think you could work a little harder at making them even more identical-looking. Thanks so much!
Yours,
A Raging Fanboi
Fortunately, I have a number of reading glasses, and by stacking several on top of each other I was finally able to make the number legible. It did mean tipping the machine over on its face, which dislodged all my armed female figurines into an orgy of impossible anatomy, skimpy clothing, and weaponry. I decided to leave them like that for further perusal.
But the machine itself is now off with its makers, theoretically being repaired. Max sent some rough art for the cover, which looks fantastic.
And I have decided I want a beachball. To set on fire.
— Bob out
Hey, being a big Mac user myself (though not a Graphics professional), I would highly encourage buying an external hard drive for your iMac (USB, Firewire, whatever you can afford and feel comfortable with) and set it up to use TimeMachine. It’s a free backup solution that comes with your Mac and it works great. Since I also work on Unix and Windows servers as a living, I’d probably also recommend that you work on getting an external RAID (a two-disk box is fairly inexpensive) to put any serious work you’d like to keep, but that is entirely up to you. The good thing about Time Machine is that you can restore your old machine from the backups once you get it back. The bad thing is that you can’t run directly from it. Good Luck! Love the comic so far.
Ernie
Thanks, Ernie! I do in fact have a 3TB external dedicated to Time Machine, which has already saved my butt a few times when I’ve deleted files that I discover I need again a couple of days later. So I’m reasonably hopeful that once the HDD is fixed (should be today) I won’t have lost anything.
Time machine saved me when my old G5 iMac died the 2nd time (motherboard capacitor failure) and took the internal hard drive with it. I bought a 2010 Mac mini and was able to be up and running pretty quickly. Glad to hear you have protection. :-). Not everyone who uses computers thinks of such things as that. I once had to rescue an Air Force General officer when his almost 10-year old Mac hard drive failed and his only copy of the draft of his 2nd book was on the drive. No pressure, though. ;-).
Impossible anatomy, skimpy clothing, and weaponry sounds like the start of a great weekend.
Apple? Mac? Are they still around? I haven’t seen one in a decade or more!