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Baked Apple
Aaron Steele writes "Okay, I work at an Apple Authorized Retailer and we just had a lady come in to see if we could fix her PowerBook G4. She walks in the store and comes up to me, 'Sir, I've got a baked Apple.' The top of the screen was a little brown and warped. The lady opened up the machine and the screen was all cracked, and there was not a single key left on the keyboard. It turns out she had the machine in the oven for 20 minutes, baking at 400 degrees. No joke. And what's even more amazing. The machine still works. Ethernet, Modem, USB, it all works. Plug in an external monitor and keyboard and it's good as new ... almost." Am I the only one for whom this conjures up images of Shrinky Dinks?
kind of reminds me of this /. story about someone baking a palm. apparently, he was trying to dry off his palm from the rain. kind of amazing what these things can go through, or what people think they can go through...
:)
but in the case of the palm, someone else didn't notice the palm in the oven and baked a pizza over it.
-- Kircle
No big surprise... every one of the PCBs in there has already been fed through an oven once, WHEN IT WAS SOLDERED!!!
So, if it still works, why doesn't the guy call the lady up and tell her. She could buy an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse (that's less than $1000), and still have a computer that works. Instead of wasting the thousands of dollars that she spent on it completely.
no... I look down on people who do not demonstrate the basic intelligence and reasoning skills necessary to avert this kind of 'disaster'. Everyone makes mistakes, but there are some courses of action that even a 12 year old knows how to avoid.... While part of me would hate to see a user a) deprived of their machine b) soured to a great vendor such as Apple for the rest of his/her life, I really hope that the Apple isn't forced to eat the repair costs for a user's act of gross stupidity.
if anyone knows who to attribute the following quote to, please let me know.
"You can't cure 'stupid'." - anon.
From the article:
Before we tossed it in the trash, I decided to try and power it up just for kicks, and it worked! The machine booted just fine! The screen is cracked and broken, but if you plug in an external monitor and keyboard it works like a charm. Ethernet, Modem, USB, Optical Drive, and HD all work just fine. I have already reformatted the HD and installed Mac OS 10.2.
Did no one at the store think to call this lady and tell her? Don't you think she might have wanted her machine back if she knew it still booted? At least so she could get her data off...
On a side note, it's kind of hard to say much to the customer about it at all. Management frowns on pretty much any question you would be inclined to ask them. They like to steer you away from phrases like "Are you on drugs?" "What, are you retarded?" and "What the FUCK is WRONG with you?" So you just sigh, shake your head and fix their machine.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Remember the Space Clam iBook? The corners were double-shod rubber wrapped around the two frontmost corners, which (on this model) were the likeliest impact points in the event of a drop. The newer iBooks have an HD that is encased in a brick of rubber. Aluminum/titanium frames. This is the stuff you want in a laptop.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
With photos? Did they supply photos? Most urban legends don't come with photo evidence.
He's being paid to fix it, not to ask questions.
As long as she's willing to pay money for the job, it's none of his business.
(Sorry about the crappy link, the only other hit google gave me was a tripod site.)
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
He's being paid to fix it, not to ask questions.
Who thinks like that? How can you train your brain not to function? How can you train yourself not to be curious? "Why?" would have been the first thing out of my mouth.As long as she's willing to pay money for the job, it's none of his business.
The preceding comments reflect the author's personal opinion and are public domain, unless explicitly stated otherwise.
This is something that I could see a 3 year old doing. Thinking that he could play a joke the kid will hide the Computer in the over because that is somewhere no one would look for it. Not knowing this the mother is about to cook something and preheats the oven at 400. after 20 minutes she opens the door to see her expensive laptop in the stove with the white apple starting to brown and the keys fizzling. Using potholder she quickly gets the computer out of the oven. This is just a possible story on what possibly could of happend where the lady was of average intelegance. when little kids are involved random things can happen to people that seem compleatly irationail otherwise.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
So maybe we're not hearing the reasons because this person wants to keep her job.
(I know ten women like this customer, though. Think of how casual she was in saying her little "baked apple" thing. Didn't faze her much. This is a woman with serious money and no sense. She miplaces four cell phones a year, at least.)
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
I don't get it. This is a 15", $2,400.00 powerbook, right? And she dumped it, without explanation, at a repair shop, because fixing it would be $1,000.00 for the new screen?
This story has the stink of "bullshit" written all over it, frankly.
Slashdot is jumping the shark. I'm just driving the boat.
It's clear that slashdot readers are not up to date on housekeeping techniques.
It is widely known among those of us who value domestic cleanlieness (not slashdot readers) that a quick way to "clean up" the house when company drops by is to just put stuff in the oven. It's a large empty space that's always available for temporary storage.
Of course, once it's out of sight in the oven, it's forgotten. Do you ever check inside the oven before you turn it on to preheat?
or government...
Maybe she went on holydays (planning not to take her powerbook with her), was concerned that the house might get burgled, and proceeded to hide the valuables: jewelry into the trash, bearer's share certificates among the old newspapers, apple into the oven, ...
Three weeks later, when she came back, she had all forgotten about these hiding places, took the trash out, threw the old papers into the chimney and pre-heated the oven for a pizza...
Say no to software patents.
Apple has a danged clear set of policies about dealing with customers -- you don't ridicule and you don't bitch
So you can't ask a question without ridiculing or bitching?
How about "Can you tell us why it was in the oven?"
I'll bet you dollars to donuts this is how it happened: A lot of people get the bright idea to hide their valuables in the oven. They either forget that they've done this, or forget to inform their housemates that they've done this. Then, somebody gets a hankerin' for a frozen pizza, and preheats the oven....
Nine times out of ten it's an electric razor, but every once in a while... it's a dildo. Of course it's company policy never to imply ownership in the event of a dildo... always use the indefinite article "a dildo," never "your dildo."
I write in my journal
I just think its cool how the thing was baked and it still works. Apple's PCs might be the fastest on the market, but they do a really good job on the casing! :)
Rob
-----
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I would suspect that he was too stunned to think to ask.
Personally, if I was to ask for an explanation for every stupid thing I heard or saw, I would be listening to morons 18 hours a day, for the rest of my life.
Someone (who I'm ashamed to say I'm related to) called me up to tell me about the code red bug... Yes, I still have the recoreded message telling me that there is "some sort of a bug" going from computer to computer, "killing people".
If it wasn't so very real, it might have been funny.
There's no reason with most people. How many people do you know that move their bodies in the direction they want a videogame character to go? How many people think dogs get "worms" from sugar? How many people do you know that have lucky charms (not the cereal)?
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
. . . is nothing compared to the boundlessness of stupidity.
It's only funny until someone gets hurt. Then, it's hilarious.
I have heard other people put stuff in the oven for this reason. Then they turn on the oven.
I saw a baked Compaq Armada like this. But then, it didn't get stolen.
It still worked fine after 10 mins at 180C in a fan-forced oven. If you do this, take off the ON knob.
I'd like to see comparative tests for Intel and AMD baked this way (as opposed to removing the heat sink). Let's see the Intel try and cool off by lowering the clock speed now.