During our recent trip to Europe my four year old Apple laptop started to experience "kernel panics." When this happens a gray screen pops up telling you--in four languages--to restart the computer. After a while I was able to get it to work long enough to read email and get through a few other essential tasks.
So, as soon as we got home, I made an appointment to visit the "Genius Bar," at the local Apple Store in San Diego's Fashion Valley Mall, to find out if it could be fixed. The young woman "genius" told me that for 280 dollars they would send my aged iBook out for repair and either fix it or not charge me. If they repaired it the warranty would only be for 90 days. She speculated that I had a bad Airport card or, much worse, a flawed logic board. She said that for another 50 dollars they would back up all my data. I decided the first thing I would do is back up the data myself and talk to a few folks who know more about these things than I do. After considering my options I decided to buy a new laptop and try to work with the old computer for as long as possible. It works reasonably well if the Airport function is turned off. (For those not familiar with Apple lingo, "Airport" is the WiFi component on Macs).
Back at the Apple Store the sales folks told me my best option for getting the new computer configured just the way I wanted was to buy it online and have it shipped to my home. I wanted a few upgrades to the higher end MacBook, which is not as expensive as the MacBook Pro. I ordered the new laptop a few days ago and have been following its progress to San Diego with the online tracking tool. This morning I found out the newly configured computer was shipped last night from Shanghai, China. This was a bit of a surprise for me but really should not have been. For some reason I was expecting the new machine to be coming from Cupertino, California, where Apple is headquartered; alas, I should have known better. In the global economy, adding a chip in China makes more sense than modifying memory in Silicon Valley.
For thsoe of us who depend on our laptops and other gadgets to keep us connected, having a failure far from home at first makes the panic in kernel panic seem highly appropriate. What quickly becomes clear is that if we don't have access to email or the ability to connect electronically for a few days, even a few weeks, we adjust, maybe even relax about it. After all, in Copenhagen and Paris finding a computer is no more difficult than finding a Carlsberg Beer or a finely made croissant. As long as we are in first world cities, connections are everywhere. But we do gain something, however small it is. By not having our own reliable laptop or Blackberry right at our side, we can look at things a little differently if we choose to do so. Those of us old enough to remember life before cell phones and personal computers recall that we got along just fine without them. Failures in technology force us to focus on where we actually are, physically and psychically, to be aware of the current moment. We ought to do this anyway, create pauses to be mindful of the present.
As I look forward to the arrival of my new computer, I do so with great anticipation. If you like technology and gadgets, getting a new computer is an exciting time, not quite as big a deal as a new car, but similar. As I reflect on kernel panics and other glitches I will try to remember that voluntarily disconnecting can lead to connections far more important and powerful than the additional RAM they just added to my new MacBook, in Shanghai.
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