David's World

June 21, 2005

PowerBook wars: little sister with a broken face

When a new little sister is born, there may be hard feelings in the family. That was the case with Madonna, who got jealous the other day, jealous over Lucy. As you can imagine, Lucy is the new baby, and Madonna the older sister.

Madonna and Lucy are Laptops.

One morning, I brought Lucy and Madonna to the office, and that was a mistake. After Lucy claimed her new spot on my desk, I took Madonna out of my laptop case. I admit it was a disgrace: I had Madonna wrapped up in an ugly LIDL plastic bag, and she was about to be sold on ebay. If computers had feelings, she must have felt like a cat on the way to the vet's. Madonna is still a beauty, no doubt, but I have no use for her, and her little sister is even more beautiful, sexier, faster, brighter.

Madonna's revenge was bitter. All of a sudden, she jumped out of the plastic bag and prepared to deald a violent blow to Lucy, who was innocently sitting on my desk with the lid closed. Madonna took aim, positioned herself in a destructive angle and used gravity over a few centimeters to pick up speed.

Powerbooks are sturdy. "Come on, Madonna", I thought to myself, when I heard the bang and realized split-seconds later what happened. The damage was greater than I expected. In no uncertain terms, Madonna made known that the new little sister was not welcome. Little sister has a a broken face now.

No damage on the outside, but a huge crack all across the display.

Why, oh why? A fraction of a second of unattentiveness, and the private little war of two Appple laptops costs me what the repair service quotes as 700 pound sterling, or well over US-$1000.

Now, I'm moving windows around the cracks on the screen. Madonna remains locked up in a drawer.

Ouch. That's got to really hurt.