Cakism!

No, not a reference to the shenanigans in Downing St this week. I have nothing original to say about that.

This week has been rather frustrating in my technical world. On Tuesday, my Mac laptop ('Angua', a 13" 2015 MacBook Air) was working normally.

On Wednesday afternoon, Angua was unresponsive, as if she had been left to discharge. But her power-cable had been plugged in all the time. Some experimentation got her to boot but then she'd again act as if the power-cable had been left unplugged. Also, the menu-bar battery indicator didn't appear.

On Thursday, an AppleStore techie confirmed Angua's battery is dead. However, thanks to a PRAM-zap, Angua would work so long as she was connected to power. I decided to bring forward the purchase of a new MacBook Pro, and not get Angua's battery replaced. The physical AppleStore didn’t have an MBP with the specifications I wanted: 16” display, M1 Max chip, 64GB RAM, 4TB of storage.

That afternoon, I tried to order the MBP online, but delivery would be when I’m on holiday. It’s not fair to ask my neighbours to be responsible for a £5000 device, and I don’t want a courier leaving it in a safe space. The online AppleStore didn’t offer a facility for specifying delivery dates. So I phoned Apple: I could get delivery to the physical AppleStore but after a week they would return it. (I’m due to be away for 3 weeks, and if I ordered now the MBP would be delivered during the first week I’m away.)

But I was told that Apple effectively builds to order, leading to the delay in despatch that would cause delivery to happen while I’m away. So if I want a brand-new machine, and want to avoid delivery issues, I could delay ordering until I’m (nearly) home. Just now, Apple simply doesn’t have the device I want in stock.

Except it might: the advisor asked if I’d be interested in an Apple-refurbished MBP. It would be as if it had just come off the production line: same guarantees, same option of AppleCare, same quality. It would just arrive in a plain white box rather than normal packaging. And if an MBP with the desired specifications was in stock in the refurb-store, it would be despatched the same day for delivery the next day (i.e Friday). One was into stock*,  but by the time the advisor had explained the qualities and caveats of Apple-refurbished machines, someone else had snaffled this one. 

I was persuaded to stay on the line, and after about 10 minutes of bantering with the advisor, another one came into stock, so I tried to buy as quickly as I could. This was delayed by my bank denying the transaction, but a reply to my bank’s text seemed to unblock this, and I was told the purchase was successful. An email from Apple confirmed this, and stated my order was being ‘processed’. This was in the middle of the afternoon.

My order was still ‘processing’ until about 10 am on Friday morning, when it became ‘cancelled’. I phoned Apple in some concern: had I accidentally cancelled it? It turns out that someone else had latched onto the same machine, and paid faster, so Apple had cancelled my order. I’m not happy with this. Firstly, Apple didn't contact tell me about the cancellation until I phone. Also, it should not charge if it can't deliver - and the payment had hit my card. I was promised that the money would be returned, but I was very dubious until I saw this happen in the early evening.

So I’m back to plan A: get the MBA repaired so I have a laptop that works (while plugged in) until I go away. When I get back, order the MBP. So Friday evening included a nuke-and-pave of the MBA so my data didn’t get into anyone else’s clutches. The MBA is now has AppleID buggered.battery@gmail.com** so it doesn’t even have my emails on it.

So today (Saturday) was like this:
- 10:00: physiotherapy
- 11:15: home, normal end-of-week administrivia
- 12:00: pick up new glasses
- 13:00: pick up the adaptors*** I’d ordered in anticipation of having the MBP by now, and put the MBA in for repair. She’ll be back with me in about a week. Meanwhile, domestic computing will be done on my Mac Pro. Any mobile computing will be done on my heavy and crap**** work laptop.
- 13:20: coffee and lunch with my wife, in Holy Cow. This is where the Blip was taken: two other customers had decided to try a piece of every cake available. (The customers were happy for me to photograph their cake-stravaganza because I was clearly enjoying it through my eyes. My taste-buds wanted to emulate them but my pancreas was other ideas.) The much-better-half and I got at personal best on the Guardian quiz (extra Blip).
- 14:00: we picked up our bikes from being serviced. Mine feels so much better, thanks to replacement of the rear derailleur and chain. He also looks better thanks to new bar-tape.
- 14:30: visit the place we’ll be staying for later this month while our flat’s laminated flooring and carpets are being replaced.
- 15:00: home, more admin, pack clothing both for holiday and for staying away from carpet installers. I’ve yet to dismantle my desk and pack my electronica - that will happen next week, just before we need to get out of the way of the installers.


* Apparently, occasionally people return devices because they don’t suit them. I don’t understand this: surely people would ensure they really do want expensive devices before paying for them. But humans are verrucht, as my German teacher would say.

** Apparently there are too many Apple IDs associated with my iPhone, and Apple won’t authenticate a new iCloud.com address using my dumbPhone. 

*** USB-C to lightning, USB-C to ethernet, USB-C to USB2/3

**** Remember, MacOS merely sucks, while Windows both sucks and blows (alternative formulation)