the gnome has spoken

It seems my Mac has died. Or so the gnome says. We had a long discussion about the Mac, about what the problems (yes, plural) are, and about what can be done. Long story short: a combination of dust, age, and Mac-inherent design flaws conspired to kill my computer; at least two major problems arose at the same time. There's also the fact that this is an American Mac, so parts would need to be ordered from China. At one point I asked about taking my Mac to an actual Mac service center in Daegu, and the gnome told me that that route would be more expensive than sticking with him (not that I expected him to say any different). "If I were to make all the needed repairs," he said, "the least this would cost you would be W300,000." Worse than I'd imagined. What matters to me right now, more than the computer itself, is the data that's on it. So I asked the gnome about salvaging the data. He said it might be possible, but it would take some time.

And that's where we stand: the computer's going to be in the shop for a while longer, and I won't hear from the gnome until he can ascertain whether data recovery is even possible. If it is, it's going to cost me W40,000, he says; I imagine this has more to do with labor than with parts: burning my data onto CDs really shouldn't be that big of an issue. In the meantime, I'm now relying fully on my thin little laptop: I'll attach it to the hard line at my studio; I'll use wi-fi when I tote the laptop to campus; at home, I'll turn the laptop into its own wi-fi hotspot.

I guess we're going to find out just how tough the MacBook Air is.


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