lcd woes

I've been experiencing some 'technical difficulties' lately. A few weeks ago I cracked my nearly brandspanking new powerbook's LCD display in a freak 'frame falling off of the fireplace mantle and hitting my screen' accident. The frame survived the fall. My powerbook did not. For those of you who don't know what a cracked LCD looks like I'm posting a photo of one for you. It's not a pretty site. This wasn't taken from my computer screen because my digital camera was out of commission when this 'catastrophe-to-end-all-catastrophes' occurred. But trust me, if you've seen one cracked screen you've seen em' all.

But hey, it's all a learning experience in the end, right? So what did I learn from this experience?

1. Crying and excessive cursing won't help. Apparently, whacking the outside of the case a few times doesn't either.

2. LCDs don't grow on trees. Replacing one is not cheap by any means. Unless you are ready to shell out $700.00+ bucks it's best to protect that pretty little screen with your LIFE.

3. Steve Jobs is a cold hearted bastard. Although my Mac is only about 4 months old, it isn't covered under Apple's one year warranty. It has something to do with the fact that I'm the one responsible for scratching the screen. You would think they might at least offer a discount on 'accidental' damage under their one year warranty. Sure, it's my fault. But c'mon Apple, have a heart. Can't you provide some kind of 'idiot' warranty for idiots like me, damnit?

4. When you walk away from your powerbook you should close your top case. Close it, you ninny! (Why didn't they mention that in the manual?)

5. Powerbook 'withdrawal' is a real and serious affliction. Living without your powerbook for the first few days can be tough. You might find yourself aimlessly wandering through the streets and muttering at trees. But it's ok. Eventually the fog clears and you remember that you did actually have a life 'before' your powerbook (although it wasn't nearly as meaningful and fulfilling, obviously).

Weeks later and all is well again and I'm back online and ready to post some updates for my blog. The biggest news of the week is that the new preview site of the Zoto 3.0 interface is online for testing (Zoto is the online photo hosting and sharing site I work for as a designer). It's not the full release and there are still plenty of formatting issues and bugs that need to be fixed. The full release of the actual site won't be ready until November or December. Until then we are letting our users sign up to help us break (I mean test) things out on the new site. I should be blogging about the homepage redesign later this week. Till then, cheerios and cheers!

Related Linkage:

This nice company fixed my LCD for a competitive price of $644.00 which included the cost of overnight shipping. They sent me an idiot proof box. I sent it back with my computer and voila...new LCD! Very fast turnaround. I don't have any complaints about their service (just empty pockets).
http://www.macservice.com/

Wanna make someone with a powebook cry like a little girl? Install this cracked LCD wallpaper on their screen, then sit back and watch them totally FREAK out. (don't forget to hide/remove their desktop icons)
http://www.fontblog.de/C1413545161/E1863918477/index.html

My favorite wallpaper-of-the-moment.
http://files.myopera.com/gausz/albums/52249/snooze_by_rndl.jpg

Beta test the Zoto 3.0 preview site. Go ahead. Test it till it breaks. (this is a working development site)
http://www.zoto.net/

http://www.zoto.net/kbarrett

The Zoto official site. (the old site is still online while we work on the new one)
http://www.zoto.com/