"Maybe It's a Piece of Dust" (theoutline.com) 529
An anonymous reader shares a report: I was in the Grand Central Station Apple Store for a third time in a year, watching a progress bar slowly creep across my computer's black screen as my Genius multi-tasked helping another customer with her iPad. My computer was getting its third diagnostic test in 45 minutes. The problem was not that its logic board was failing, that its battery was dying, or that its camera didn't respond. There were no mysteriously faulty innerworkings. It was the spacebar. It was broken. And not even physically broken -- it still moved and acted normally. But every time I pressed it once, it spaced twice. "Maybe it's a piece of dust," the Genius had offered. The previous times I'd been to the Apple Store for the same computer with the same problem -- a misbehaving keyboard -- Geniuses had said to me these exact same nonchalant words, and I had been stunned into silence, the first time because it seemed so improbable to blame such a core problem on such a small thing, and the second time because I couldn't believe the first time I was hearing this line that it was not a fluke. But this time, the third time, I was ready. "Hold on," I said. "If a single piece of dust lays the whole computer out, don't you think that's kind of a problem?"
wrong (Score:5, Funny)
Courage! (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:wrong (Score:5, Interesting)
I actually had a computer that would exhibit odd behavior, somewhat based on positioning.
I opened it up to change some RAM out of hopes it would be an inexpensive fix.
Ended up that is was a screw rolling around shorting stuff out (I found the loose screw), bigger than dust, but seems possible based on the symptoms described (your joke is what made me thing of it).
I'd say more likely a metal shaving that's a little bigger than dust.
Re:wrong (Score:5, Insightful)
It kind of sounds more like a mechanical problem with the butterfly switch than an electrical problem. At least the fix is the same in either case though. Just $700 or so for a new top case, and the metal shaving or piece of dust or whatever is no longer a problem. Until you get the same problem again, but rest easy, it's just $700 to replace half the case.
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Apple Pixie Dust (Score:2)
He meant to say Apple Pixie Dust!
I think I know the problem (Score:5, Funny)
Mac laptops are designed for a very specific operating environment -- sitting in a coffee shop and "working on your screenplay" while desperately hoping the cute hipster girl at the next table over asks you what you're working on, so you can casually mention your screenplay. You probably weren't doing that, thus it's your fault.
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Haha! Tired cliche! Ancient repetitive humorless humor!
Huh, odd. For some reason I'm picturing you on a Shakespearean stage reciting this response, as the audience tries to ignore that coffee stain on your tights...
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When most people talk about "IT pros", they mean guys involved in programming...
I don't think that's true. I think that when "most people" think about "IT anything" they think about the guy they call when their printer doesn't work.
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Speech controls are so 2016.
Now if you want to quit a program or change browser tab, you make a facial expression into the camera.
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And it will take *courage* to remove that keyboard; but it will all be for the best.
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I use a hackintosh as my main dev and engineering machine and it's just fine. It's currently on OS X 10.10.5, but I will be updating it soon to 10.11. With modern Clover the set-up is not a big deal anymore - it does require some hardware-specific tweaking, but once it's done, it's done, and then works fine across the given minor OS version. IOW, stock Apple install images work for me. So I don't quite see the reliability ever being a factor. It's not as if the whole thing somehow randomly crashes any more
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Alternatively you could let people do and say as they please and then perhaps you wouldn't come off a an ever bigger twit.
It would not be smart for the human race to try and silence Wisdom or Common Sense, no matter how unpopular both may be with the IDGAF YOLO generation.
Doing so would leave Experience as the only teacher, which would invariably cause an exponential increase in Darwin Award winners.
I haven't had _that_ problem... (Score:5, Insightful)
But holy crap, the touch-bar is a bad bit of UI design. I'm constantly accidentally triggering it. When I'm typing it offers spelling tweaks, so if my finger grazes the touchbar I wind up changing the word I typed unintentionally. I hit the escape (or cancel) button frequently. It's a nightmare. I was curious to try it, but now I wish there was some way I could switch back.
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It definitely isn't fun when using vi... However, I've used a Lenovo laptop a couple years back that had a similar touchbar, and that was even worse, as they decided to move the caps lock and "\" key somewhere random as well. After that experience, the Apple touchbar isn't that bad.
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My question is how do you accidentally graze the touchbar that's on top of your keyboard when you're typing. I never touch any of the function keys when I'm typing, my fingers are on the bottom half of the number keys if I even have to reach them.
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Their editor makes use of the Esc button extensively. It's up there on that smudgeglass zone on the new Applebooks.
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I never hit the touch bar by accident (or on purpose) and have no problems with typing on my new MBP.
Granted I have it buried on my desk and hooked up to a Dell USB-C dock, monitor, and logitech KB/Mouse. It seems to work just fine for me! It is a bit difficult to use TouchID though until I take the crap off of it.
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But holy crap, the touch-bar is a bad bit of UI design. I'm constantly accidentally triggering it.
I never hit the touch bar by accident (or on purpose) and have no problems with typing on my new MBP.
Man, I love the balanced viewpoints on this site. Do we have anyone who does accidentally trigger it, but only sometimes? So far we have constantly and never, is there anyone else?
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I'm pretty sure they're just trying to put VI and EMacs to rest by making the ESC key too much of a pain in the ass to activate reliably. I've been using one for a few months now and I'm still certain it's a giant step back.
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it takes courage... to hold it wrong.
The Shine is Off the Apple (Score:5, Insightful)
I purchased the second Macintosh model (Fat Mac) in college and had Macs up until about 10 years ago.
So it is with some sadness that I say Apple is no longer special. Whatever Karma Jobs left behind has worn off and now Apple is merely another Tech Company.
Their idea Vault is empty, their commitment to be "insanely great" has waned, and investors are on the verge of turning management into just another, "beat the quarterly earnings forecast" collection of MBAs and bean counters.
I feel privileged to have lived in the time of it's creation, ascension, and total domination. I fear that I will also live to see its demise in the manner of so many alternative computer companies before it.
Re:The Shine is Off the Apple (Score:4, Interesting)
Oddly enough, I'm seeing Dell start to be what Apple was, especially with their new Latitude models. Some of Dell's items are better MacBook Pros than Apple's offerings, especially because they include much-needed ports.
Of course, there is the customer service difference, but with Dell, the trick is to buy the business class, and their pro level of support, and it is decent.
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The Precision line always has been. (And it's been priced accordingly.)
My current laptop is a machine from 2012. You can find full teardown manuals online. (They were designed to be fixed by in-house IT). Parts are easy to find. I was even able to swap the processor to a faster version.
USB, Displayport, HDMI, VGA, eSATA, Gigabit and Firewire.
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Of course, there is the customer service difference
Yes, Dell will send a tech out to fix your problem while Apple makes you make an appointment with a "genius" who will sit there and pick his nose while declaring everything a "logic board problem".
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Everything *is* a logic board problem on the newer Applebooks, because it's all soldered together.
Your hard drive is corrupt? It's part of the logic board.
An area of the memory seems corrupt? It's soldered onto the logic board.
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...investors are on the verge of turning management into just another, "beat the quarterly earnings forecast" collection of MBAs and bean counters.
Sadly, this tends to highlight the value of private companies.
Greed tends to shit all over every other company mission, and doesn't care.
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So, what happened? (Score:3, Insightful)
Did they find the fault, or have you made three visits and each time been left with a faulty computer? Were you abandoned with a still broken computer? The summary seems incomplete.
Is this a warning that we need lemon laws for computers as well as cars? At what point does Apple recognize that a repeatable and verifiable problem, even if intermittent, requires a product replacement?
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I don't even get WTF the point of the comment is.
Can we solicit comments of all the shit Dell, HP and Microsoft has told me throughout the years while pointing the finger at each other?
Re:So, what happened? (Score:5, Informative)
From reading TFA.
They keyboard is so integrated - and the spacebar so fragile - that they have to replace the entire top of the MacBook. After the warranty expires, that's a $700.00 repair.
So a piece of dust under the spacebar can lead to a $700.00 repair bill. Nice.
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I think it's just bitching that the minimum wage computer techs at the Apple Store don't know how to fix a computer.
Double spacing, I think perhaps you have the key repeat/delay screwed a bit too high and/or you don't know how to type.
I know your problem. (Score:5, Insightful)
The audacity of Apple giving some minimum-wage tech schlub the title of "Genius" says *everything* about Apple, its branding, and the customers it serves.
Slashdot is a tabloid. (Score:2, Insightful)
Slashdot is a tabloid.
Re:Slashdot is a tabloid. (Score:5, Interesting)
Sometimes just copy-and-pasted headlines from other click-bait factories. Shame really. Comments section still has good people and you occasionally learn something. But the whining kids have increased in number. Probably baited by the clickbait headlines. C'est la vie.
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And yet this is one of the most commented on articles in the front page. I guess that means the clickbait is working.
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Having noticed the trend in comment #'s over time, I guessed that it meant that the old audience has mostly moved on.
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I heard people saying that since 2002
If a single piece of dust... (Score:3)
If a single glass of water dumped on it keeps lays the whole computer out, don’t you think that’s some sort of problem?
Um, no. Most failures of most systems are caused by a "single" thing.
Re:If a single piece of dust... (Score:4, Insightful)
Perhaps so, but most "single" things aren't so common as dust. You can be careful with a glass of water, but it's damn near impossible to maintain a dust-free environment.
Debris in a keyboard is a pretty common issue. Especially for laptops. Dust, hairs, crumbs. It's gross in there.
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It's still pretty hard to destruct a MacBook with moisture, most decent brands actually are fairly resistant these days. I've had plenty of people run into my office with a wet laptop, I turn it upside down with some paper towel and let it dry, 80% of the time, they survive, I've only had 1 failure of a 2012 MBP due to water spillage.
tl;dr version (Score:5, Funny)
Man who apparently breaks the keyboards on all the Mac Book Pros that he has ever owned is upset that all three times he has taken his new Mac Book pro into the Apple Store, the people there have offered him the same solution.
BUY MACALLAN WHISKEY
Finally, on the third trip, he allows them to fix the issue and bitches that it is a more involved process now than when he broke the keyboards on his previous versions.
BUY MACALLAN WHISKEY
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It is a somewhat odd story for Slashdot - but congrats to the submitter for getting his rant published.
Also, LAPHROAIG.
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Well, they do go into various laptop keyboard mechanics, and if the story had just been a segway into a detailed article on such, I wouldn't have minded such an article here, but as it was, it did just seem to be a rant. Honestly, the site wasn't near as click baity as most seem to be, but the whiskey ads were very conspicuous.
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GLENMORANGIE.
BTW, how is Laphroaig compared to Bowmore? I've never had an Islay, but my friend swears by Bowmore.
Re:tl;dr version (Score:4, Funny)
Ah, I see the problem: It's the spirits in his keyboard.
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Send those Genius' to Fort Bliss (Score:2)
Genius (Score:5, Funny)
RIP Thinkpad (Score:5, Informative)
Sometime around 2005, I bought my first Thinkpad - second hand because they were pretty expensive machines - from a guy who had bought it overseas. I used it everyday as my work/home machine for about three years including travelling all over the world and taking it out on various work sites.
One day, the left shift key on the worn-smooth keyboard fell off. The clip had worked its way lose and the key no longer had a proper detent. I thought I had had a pretty good run with the thing, but figured I'd see what a spare part would cost. To my amazement, the machine was still under IBM's global warranty. I rang them up on the toll free number, gave them the serial number, and asked if the keyboard was still covered. They said the parts were, but not labour, and asked if I would be able to change the keyboard myself. About 3 days later a new keyboard was couriered to me. I screwed it into place and got another year of use out of it before it just became too slow.
I guess you payed for it in the price back then, but that is how you do customer service.
Saw this article online last night ..... (Score:5, Interesting)
Honestly, it's kind of amazing how quickly it was picked up by all different web sites and blogs! I've probably read 5 different discussions on the original article already this morning.
The thing is? The "Genius" used the wrong terminology, in my opinion, which made things sound worse than they really are. A speck of dust is most assuredly NOT enough to jam up one of the new Apple keyboards. CRUMBS, however, from people eating by the machine? Absolutely possible.
I had one of these "New Macbooks" when it first came out. Ordered the "high spec" configuration to test it out at work, using it as my own personal work computer, to get a feel for what it was and wasn't really capable of doing for us. (We have a lot of highly mobile employees who care more about a computer being lightweight and easy to carry around, plus long battery life, than raw CPU power. So it was potentially a good fit, vs. the Macbook Air 13" machines we've issued to most of them for years.)
I really despised the keyboard design on it. Practically no key travel and just too easy to mistype things when I wasn't purposely typing extra slow. The 2017 edition has a slightly revised variation of the original keyboard and I tried that out at an Apple Store. IMO, still pretty awful, though MARGINALLY better tactile feel.
I finally resold the thing after concluding it just wasn't enough of a full-fledged notebook computer for our needs. (I'd really just classify it as Apple's high-fashion/style idea of a netbook.) But I never had sticking keys on it. With that little bit of key travel though, it's clear to me you're going to have to take extra care to keep this machine clean. (Wash your hands before typing on it if you were just eating some toast or bread, for example.) It won't take much to get some crumbs or grains of sand or salt or what-not in there, messing up one of the small scissor type key-switches under the key-caps.
I'll also say though, in Apple's defense? I've been using one of the latest models of external keyboards that's wireless, with the built-in rechargeable batteries that charge when you connect it via USB. After typing on that one quite a bit at home, still no real key issues. I try to keep it as clean as I can, but don't go to extrodinary lengths to do so either. Maybe the external ones just hold up a little bit better, or it's the fact they're not getting taken around so many different places where the environments aren't always as clean? Whatever the case, it's worked as well as can be expected. Still dislike the limited key travel on the new designs though, vs. what they had previously.
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The thing is? The "Genius" used the wrong terminology, in my opinion, which made things sound worse than they really are.
You have overlooked the fact that "speck of dust" was used by multiple Apple employees. That makes it an institutional problem either way.
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CRUMBS, however, from people eating by the machine? Absolutely possible
This observation may be true but expecting a front line employee to say it to a customer of the general public is out of touch in a special way.
Re:Saw this article online last night ..... (Score:5, Insightful)
> The thing is? The "Genius" used the wrong terminology, in my opinion, which made things sound
> worse than they really are. A speck of dust is most assuredly NOT enough to jam up one of the
> new Apple keyboards. CRUMBS, however, from people eating by the machine? Absolutely possible.
Dust, crumbs, pollen, dandruff, boogers... whatever. I've been using computers in the same environments for 20+ years and laptops for 15+. If Apple's newly-designed keyboard cannot deal with the same things that EVERY SINGLE OTHER KEYBOARD has successfully handled in that time, APPLE FUCKED UP. Period, full stop, <local terminology of your choice>.
I've been using Macs for 20+ years. I'm using one right now. This is what my ~ten- or fifteen-year-old keyboard looks right now. [imgur.com] (Apple fans will know that they shipped these clear & graphite ones with early G4s. Later G4s came with white-and-clear keyboards, or maybe that started with G5s or white iMacs. Whatever. It's still pretty damn old. PowerMac G4s were discontinued in 2004.) You can see all the crumbs and stuff that have worked their way all the way underneath it. You can only imagine what's actually among all the keys right now.
That picture is from today. You can see this post in the background. And I shot that pic with my iPhone. I like Apple stuff just fine. Like I said, I'm using a Mac right now, and I've used this keyboard since it was new. I've never had this or any other keyboard fail for such a trivial reason as DUST. Or even (God forbid) CRUMBS. Jony Ive needs to step out of his glorious white room and spend some time in the real world.
Who knows, maybe he'll have a epiphany and make phones 2mm thicker and fill that space with battery. Hey, a boy can dream...
Bouncy-Bouncy—debouncy (Score:5, Informative)
"Key bounce error".
When you depress a key, any key, the contacts do not perfectly connect; they bounce. Electrical engineers fight key bounce error — basically by trial and error — with debounce by adjusting the computer to read the key input then wait. If there are other bounces within a few milliseconds, they are ignored. Then the computer starts looking for keyboard inputs, again.
When keys go bad— one way that keys go bad is the contacts don't contact-and-release as quickly as expected, and, the computer reads a second key input.
That's why, on some keyboards, the "space bar" goes bad, or the 'E' or the "T" or "A" or "O" or "N"...
"Bouncing is the tendency of any two metal contacts in an electronic device to generate multiple signals as the contacts close or open; debouncing is any kind of hardware device or software that ensures that only a single signal will be acted upon for a single opening or closing of a contact."
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It seems like dust could cause a "bounce error" too.
Put something with some vertical size in the right place and the circuit could be closed twice, with the particle acting like the fulcrum on a seesaw.
Unless Apple completely redesigned how those keys work, there is a plastic/rubber key over a spring of some kind (sometimes a rubber nipple) which presses a membrane with conductive material on one axis "across" through a second membrane with holes, that line up with a third membrane with "down" axis conduc
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Moving toward no keyboard (Score:5, Interesting)
Eventually, they will probably replace the entire keyboard with a touch-board of some kind and expect that users will simply adjust. I think they've lost the plot somewhere.
Note this is not my original idea -- Merlin Mann mentioned it on the Back to Work podcast and I think he's spot on. And he's a huge Apple fan.
Depends... (Score:3)
Space bar isn't laying out the whole computer... (Score:2, Funny)
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I'd just like to compliment you for understanding the difference between training and intelligence.
The tech was trained to use this answer (Score:2)
Shows a complete lack of understanding... (Score:5, Informative)
Either way, the solution is simple: REPLACE THE KEYBOARD!
Also, what they hell kind of "diagnostic" are they running that displays a progress bar in a non-interactive way? If there is a problem with the keyboard, you need to interact with it to test it!
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Getting *TWO* characters sounds to me like a cracked trace.
Right now I have an early 2011 Mac Book pro that is my main machine. The H, J, K and L keys started working intermittently a while back (which is a bit of a problem as to unlock the computer I need to use the J key). Obviously a cracked trace.
I called Apple to ask about a replacement keyboard and the person on the phone couldn't/wouldn't tell me how much it would cost.
I called a local non-Apple Apple store and they told me it would be about $400 and take about 1 to 2 days to actually replace it. I didn't
Macbook keyboards are interesting. (Score:2)
I can't comment on recent ones, but I have a 2011 17" MBP in the kitchen doing light duty. I picked it up cheap because it wouldn't boot. The problem was a bad keyboard, which I replaced.
The keyboard, at least on the old MBPs, feels very solid, but when you get the replacement it's incredibly thin and flimsy; the metal body is little more than foil. You could easily fold it in half like a piece of paper. It's basically a flimsy dome switch keyoboard with a mechanical gizmos added to the key to give it a
S-Drive (Score:5, Funny)
You see, spores (such as from Psilocybe cubensis) are the basis of the universe.
They are everywhere, sometimes manifested in our physical plane, but always existing
everywhere on the mycoplane of Space. At the lowest level, biology is physics, and
physics recapitulates biology -- they are the same thing. It's all quantum, you see.
Your problem is that you've got a stuck spore. You need to energize it properly,
and it will instantly transmit (quantum spore teleport) the key's signal to any part
of the UNICODE. Your brain will function as the quantum sentience that directs
the action, so that instead of a SPACE, you'll get the correct symbol pressed.
(This is related to why sometimes electronics gear that has not been stored
properly for a while will spew out "dust" when you fire it up, or why sometimes
it seems like there are dead cockroaches or mouse turds inside the box.)
SOLUTION:
The Genius Bar is actually stocked with dehydrated tardigrades.
If the moisture (liquid spill incursion) sensor in your Mac has not been triggered,
an Apple representative can insert a tardigrade into your machine along with an
eyedropper of water. Using horizontal DNS zone transfer (I think that's what it's
called; something to do with binding, anyway) the tardigrade will interact with
and energize the spore, curing your SPACE key bounce problem. This is known as
a "key de-bounce" procedure. If your tech doesn't seem to know all this just
have him look it up in the knowledge base; it's standard.
Just make sure he doesn't hold the tardigrade wrong, or your laptop will
start spinning and twisting, ad the end result will not be pretty.
I paid $6 to learn all this, by the way.
Mac repair extortion racket (Score:2)
Remember when MacBook keyboards were actually repairable? A few seconds without tools and anyone could swap it out.
Now they're fused into the "top case" which is effectively half of the computer chassis... also with the battery epoxied in. So you're faced with a lengthy full-disassembly repair plus a very expensive part for any exhausted battery or bad keyboard. You know, TWO OF THE MOST COMMON PARTS YOU NEED TO REPLACE ON A LAPTOP.
Not to mention that the new keyboards are shit... no key travel whatsoever,
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Think of it as a learning experience (Score:2)
Like Cain, I now behold this chain of events that I must break
In the fury of the moment I can see the Master’s hand
In every leaf that trembles, in every grain of sand
Bob Dylan
Apple no longer designs for resilience: Film at 11 (Score:2)
Only rich people can afford to buy junk.
Goods that are valuable last a long time and that usually means repairable. Disposable is typically synonymous with irreparable. Apple hardware (I'm looking at you, Mac Pro full size tower) used to be repairable, using very high quality stock parts. Their last great laptop, the 17 inch, similarly was similarly repairable.
However repairable also means you can modify it, upgrade it and extend its value. Apple has stopped being that company. Their repair program is 'thr
What they're really trying to say... (Score:3)
What they are really trying to say is, "stop eating over your keyboard. You've got so much cruft in there, I'm surprised any of your keys work. Dried Pepsi, cat hair, and Cornflakes are not good for your keyboard."
a few things (Score:5, Informative)
Firstly
From TFA: "The tradeoff for enhanced hygiene and the slimmer profile is that scissor-switch keys are more difficult to separate from their base than rubber-domed ones, but it's not impossible."
Side note, a cat can do this very quickly. Like, five or six keys in less than a second. I've witnessed this personally. I even managed to get most of the keys back on.
Secondly, although he doesn't specifically say, I strongly suspect the root cause wasn't "a piece of dust". He describes the problem as one (1) press of the space bar (where do astronauts go for drinks? never mind) consistently causes two (2) spaces. I'm sorry, that's not mechanical, it's electrical. There's something wrong with the circuitry. Were it a mechanical problem, the symptoms would not be so precisely reproduceable.
As someone else mentioned, "it's dust" is just something the "geniuses" say to appease the unwashed masses. It should be taken with a ... well it shouldn't be believed at all. These are Mac "geniuses" we're talking here.
And finally, if you buy an electronic device that's not meant to be repaired, don't be surprised when repairs are costly, or impossible. There's a lot to be said for (a) staying one or two generations behind the bleeding edge, and (b) buying your products with reliability and maintainability in mind. That is, if your objective is to get work done. If your objective is to own the thinnest laptop on earth, your mileage may vary.
Re:frist (Score:5, Funny)
Re:frist (Score:5, Funny)
If a single piece of dust can spoil your "First!" post, don't you think that's kind of a problem?
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IItt aappeeaarrss tthhaatt II aallssoo hhaavvee dduusstt iinn mmyy kkeeyybbooaarrdd........
GGeenniiuusseess ssaavvee mmee!!
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Re:A sign of times (Score:5, Insightful)
One of the things I've learned working in retail; it's better to bullshit than admit ignorance. One gets into a whole realm of magic words and phrases to keep peevish customers from going into asshole mode, and plausible excuses are an important tool. Even if an employee develops a thick skin, the store's customer satisfaction surveys will not.
Think about how many religious people believe "We don't know what happened before the big bang." is a weakness in the theory, or indeed a weakness lurking behind all cosmological science.
In any case, the article says the apple employees were almost certainly correct, so I dunno what you're referring to.
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Think about how many religious people believe "We don't know what happened before the big bang." is a weakness in the theory, or indeed a weakness lurking behind all cosmological science.
As a religious person, I've never understood this. Science says "there was a point in time when nothing existed, and then everything existed." Isn't that what Genesis says? I would think that "Science can't explain what happened before that" isn't a weakness to either science or religion.
Re:A sign of times (Score:5, Insightful)
Science says "there was a point in time when nothing existed, and then everything existed."
No scientist in their right mind would say that, since by the standard model, time itself was created with the big bang, so there was never "a point in time" at which nothing existed. It doesn't make sense to ask for the "before". So please check your statements, especially when you're trying to speak for science.
Now, the main difference in this matter between science and religion appears to be that religion actually sees it the way you described, i.e. "at some point nothing (except time itself) existed, then some intelligence appeared and created everything else", while science goes the "we don't know, we can't fundamentally find out, therefore speculating in this direction means leaving the bounds of science". There's a slim hope that once we have the right model, going back to t=0 and looking at what's going on COULD provide us with some understanding about how the big bang came to be in ways that we can't anticipate yet.
Either way, pretty big difference, if you ask me.
Re:A sign of times (Score:4, Interesting)
There may have once been nothing, not even a substrate or set of laws from which things could emerge. This idea breaks causality. There may always have been something, or at least a substrate or set of laws from which things could emerge. This idea breaks causality. The universe can't possibly have begun, and the universe can't possibly have always existed. Yet here we are.
Scientists don't claim to know why, which many religious people consider a sign of weakness. Religious people claim they do know why, which many scientists consider a weakness. One thing I think we can all agree on is that Apple's design philosophy sucks.
Re:A sign of times (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah. Genesis just implies it happened about 14 billion years more recently. If you're willing to accept the bible as period-appropriate ancient fairytales constructed to convey deeper spiritual truths, rather than as a literal record of events, then yeah, there are a *lot* fewer conflicts. Unfortunately that interpretation also tends to rob the clergy of much of their political power, and so you don't see it expressed much within organized religion.
Also, incidentally, there are some theories that assert nothing is still all that exists in aggregate - it's just been divided up in such a way that the pieces no longer cancel out. As a gross oversimplification: gravitational potential energy is all negative - we only see gravitational "holes" that things fall towards, not "hills" that they fall away from. And the positive mass-energy of the "stuff" creating the "holes" would perfectly cancel out the negative energy created by the "hole" itself. Shove the entire universe - space, time, mass, and energy, into a sufficiently powerful blender and hit "frappe", and the whole of it will combine back into non-existence.
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From the perspective of their relative 'policy statements', I'd think that science would say "We need to characterize 'nothing' beyond our current understanding of spacetime and matter/energy", rather than "You don't know either, so you suck" (sorry if I'm misstating this).
Of course, humans typically identify better with the latter, which is why such arguments probably do better in the arena of public discourse. Maybe science's PR could maybe learn something from that.
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I'd say the primary weakness of religion is that whatever is believed in is by definition untangible/undetectable/unprovable/etc, while the primary weakness in science is that you can never know whether your model is right, you can only be so sure.
What you mention is MAYBE a small weakness, but even then the correlation doesn't go that far; see my reply to AC)
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I'd say the primary weakness of religion is that whatever is believed in is by definition untangible/undetectable/unprovable/etc,
I think you've mistaken the point of religion. The belief that it's better to wait to have kinds until after you're married is certainly measurable and testable, as are beliefs like "delaying gratification will get you ahead in the long run" and "it's good to keep a month's supply of necessities hidden away".
Looking to religion for scientific statements is as silly as looking to science for a moral code, and certainly isn't the reason religions persisted for millennia. You have to be a certain kind of nut
Re:A sign of times (Score:4, Insightful)
Looking to religion for scientific statements is as silly as looking to science for a moral code, and certainly isn't the reason religions persisted for millennia.
Yes, this.
Or, as I like to put it... science is trying to answer the questions of "what" and "how", religion is trying to answer the question of "why".
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Plenty of prominent scientists throughout history have made that claim, in fact many even ascribe their insights to divine revelation or inspiration. That didn't stop the Church from doing everything it could to silence them.
I would say that the real conflict is the fact that *organized* religion mostly bases it's power on ignorance - a well-educated flock is far less likely to unquestioningly accept the shepherd's word on anything not directly related to the spiritual realm. Even a solid Bible education
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You don't need to trigger keyboard traces you just need to momentarily *interrupt* a legitimate triggering so that it's recognized as two sequential presses rather than one.
Still seems unlikely to be dust, especially if it's a consistent problem, but a dirty keyboard can show a lot of strange behaviors.
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Those transparent keyboards that were last sold something like 15 years ago?
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