Any of you fine folks see the movie “Falling Down?”
Michael Douglas’ character gets stuck in traffic and starts to lose his mind. At some point he abandons his car and begins the travel home on foot. Thus setting off a chain of events that ends tragically.
I often feel like Michael Douglas in that film and I sure did today. The chain of events began late last night. I was up late enjoying some music on my iTunes when the program prompted me to download the new iTunes 9.
I downloaded the program and the shit hit the fan with my computer. iTunes 9 corrupted my laptop somehow and now I have no iTunes. I’ve lost all my playlists, have no way to listen to my music and when/if I ever get back on… I’ll need to reload all my music again which takes time. And time, I love time and giving it to Steve Jobs is something I don’t want to do.
Holy moly the aggravation. I shouldn’t let this shit bother me so much, but it makes my heart beat. I’ll need to take my laptop into a computer store to see what is wrong and that will cost me money and time. I feel frustrated because there is nothing I can do about it. I am too far in with Apple now, invested too much much time and money, I MUST try and re install iTunes. What I want to do is send the bill to Apple and add some sort of compensation for my time. I am sure that will go over well at Apple Head office, but I think I might do it anyways. I am racing against the clock too as I need my laptop to be able ot play my music by Saturday when I have a Rebels game.
The worst part, this is not the first time that upgrading my iTunes has wiped my work clean or generally fucked me in some way.
The cult of Apple users tend to blame the victim when the shit storm rains. They say its my fault because I didn’t spend $2,400 on an iMac. To make me feel even worse, people with PCs are saying, “works fine for me!” Why? How? What did I do to my Toshiba? This is an example of the phrase, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” There must be some setting that I have tripped on or some malware/spyware/virus or I dunno, something that is making my computer not want to be friendly with iTunes 9.
If/when I can control my anxiety of losing a ton of my music, I might just wash my hands of iTunes and listen to music some other way… like… I don’t even know another way. I’ll need to google that. Windows Media Player? Is that thing any good? Can I transfer my music over to Windows to play there? Typing blogs in silence really sucks Steve Jobs. Or do I just dive right in and save my pennies and join the cult? If I’m on the inside then my stupid iTunes will stop crashing saving my heart from dangerous palpitations… so owning a Mac could save my life? hmmm, since i put it that way…
I just hope I never run into that Mac TV Commercial nerd. My logical brain knows he’s just an actor… but if I catch him on a “Falling Down” day, we’ll have words.
The Morning After 
My offer still stands. I don’t mind taking a quick look at it before you take it in and pay a stupid amount of money for what could be an easy fix. Just let me know. Also if you are looking for a new media player my suggestions would be either Winamp or Songbird.
I WANT A WOMLETTE!
i feel your pain. that’s sucky town. it’s really clear how much we rely on our computers when it’s taken away from us.
i personally use windows media player and love it. no issues at all with it, and i find it easier to make playlists than i did on itunes.
i would caution against putting more money into apple products. they’re disposable.
they put out their new releases and new products too quickly, the bugs are never worked out properly… always wait until the second or third wave before downloading/buying.
while i love the “look” of apple products…. i am always disappointed with the longevity of them.
Apple products are disposable? Everything’s disposable. I don’t find then any more unreliable than any other brand of electronics that I have owned. I have a Mac desktop that’s been running no problem for six years. My iPod’s been rock solid since purchase. My family has run Mac products for the last twenty years since the Mac Classic. I’m not an Apple fanatic – I’m typing this from a Toshiba laptop – I’m just saying that that’s my experience and the experience of others that I know.
All computers and electronics aren’t designed to last. We live in a disposable culture and companies want to guarantee that they have reliable revenue. That’s done by guaranteeing obsolescence.
That being said, Jer, it sucks ballz that your laptop is crapping out. I hate it when technology gets all prissy and difficult.
i guess it’s all personal experience… every apple product i’ve owned from powerbooks to ipods have all disappointed in longevity. some dying within weeks of purchase.
what annoys me most about apple is their quick releases though.
don’t tell me to buy you brand new awesome product when a month later you’re going to put out a better version of it without all the bugs. it’s so freaking aggravating.
and i know that every electronics company does that to some extent, but apple is the worst offender.
i bet in a month there will be an itunes 9.1 release that won’t crash your system, lol.
Probably!
I think another part is that whenever there’s a new Apple product there’s crazy amounts of hype. When Dell or HP drop a new computer there are some ads on TV but no real buzz, making it seem like they’re not changing up their product lines very often.
Mac’s generally had a four product computer line (home and pro each for desktop and laptop) for many years, so essentially from what I can tell they don’t release a new product, just an upgrade of the last one.
Since 1990 my family has owned ten different Macs. Only two of them died, and those were laptops my sister and I dragged everywhere and used hard, neither of them died until after three years which I consider pretty good lifespan especially for a laptop. All the others were just upgraded because of being outdated after three+ or so years each.
Something to keep in mind Vancity is that’s how software works. Companies release it with complete knowledge that theres a bug they just couldn’t find. Microsoft is actually FAR worse in that regards than Apple.
It’s also just a matter of simple bad luck. I bought my macbook the very same day as my friend and in 3 years I have had to take it in for repairs 4 times, he has had no problems what so ever. I would have been pissed beyond belief but the nice thing about apple is they stand behind their products and I had no problem getting my laptop repaired every time and generally fairly quickly.
Scott James is always raving in my ear about his ZUNE at work. Maybe that software would be better for you. The downside: no online marketplace. Hold on, that might be an upside for you. You are saving to get married after all.
Totally, absolutely fantastic movie!
Life in the ’90s had me down…
Ouchie. That hurts.
Six days without a Morning After post. This is very weird.
Just swinging by in my interweb travels, hope you three are well 🙂
ha! Natalie… just got iTunes 9fired up and here we are on Tuesday and!!!! 9.1 is ready hahaha
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