My Special Hairy MacBook Pro

I have very seldom written about technology-related subjects, the last remotely tech-colored post was about a view on blogging vs microblogging - though I feel that I should add another perspective or two to that topic - but even that one was strictly Internet oriented. Since I consider myself to be a tech-addicted geek at the core, technology is clearly being underrepresented here with so few words dedicated to it.

That led me to a conclusion that it is about time for me to stop neglecting it, starting by telling a word or two about technology that is dearest and closest to me - I am speaking, of course, of my laptop.

This slick all-silver faithful companion of mine, the very last of its breed, has already endured a number of hardships despite being with me for mere six months, since the end of July.
To get to me in the first place, it had to travel all the way from U.S. west coast, making a pit stop in the UK and has since then spent quite some time abroad in  England and Denmark.
When on the road, it spent most of the time safely tucked inside my Tim Bihn Buzz bag, experiencing a hefty amount of walking, running and jumping around in all sorts of unfavorable weather conditions and surviving even a nasty fall to the ground, all that without a scratch.

The reason for this durability lies somewhere between its Incase neoprene sleeve, the minimalistic waterproof sling bag and Apple's combination of design and material choices. Sure, it grumbles sometimes, and occasionally delves into theatrical waters by feigning death or demands a break from over exhaustion - but that is what all laptops do from time to time.

However, beside being a trustworthy companion, Toppy - as it's called - has some unique features that you won't find in a usual laptop. The most prominent one is a hair about a nail's length that is growing out of the screen with its follow-up being the letter F that looks engraved into it.

That hair is the most curious thing, I've first spotted it one day in Denmark when it suddenly appeared in the middle of the screen when I opened Toppy's lid.
My initial thought was that the screen got cracked and the thought of crack's likely widening each time I walk or run around with Toppy sent shivers down my spine.

However, after a few days of not paying any attention to the issue I suddenly realized that the crack had moved from its initial position. A close inspection revealed that the "crack" not only resembled a hair, it indeed was one.

It made me think how it coild have possibly gotten there: only two persons had Toppy in their lap long enough to leave a hair and one of them is me.
The entry point was most likely the right side of display, with gravity doing all the rest due to shaking in my sling bag.

I googled around to see how common the issue was and it turned out that while still uncommon,  it became evident that I was far from being the only person with a hairy Apple laptop.

The problem seems to lie in Apple's glossy displays and has been around at least since PowerBook times. The glossy panel covering the LCD display is supposed to be sealed - which means that any objects finding their way inside the screen are covered under Apple's warranty policy, granting you a free repair in case a hairy laptop is to much for the user to handle.

I found quite interesting stories about various dust particles and hair appearing under the displays, even live bugs crawling beneath glossy displays.
I also spotted a graphic designer who one day  found his cat's hair inside his MacBook Pro display. What a bad kitty! Pet hair seems to be a regular occurence in these not-so-tightly-sealed glossy displays while encountering human hair is not all that frequent.

Since the time of its first appearance the hair has moved around quite a bit and is now in an almost vertical position... but just how and when it decides to move is still a mystery to me.

This MacBook's second notable feature is its engraved letter F at the very bottom of the screen (below the MS Word sign on the picture). I am clueless as to when exactly it appeared but the bright mark resembles the letter F so closely that I don't have a valid explanation how it got there in the first place - unless you consider supersecret marking by Secret Service to be a valid one.
I do suspect that in this case he real reason might actually be a crack in the display, but once again I remain puzzled: how can a crack suddenly appear in the form of letter F? Unusual indeed.

However, the next issue is of more serious nature for a change. I am fairly certain that Toppy has a bad nVidia GeForce 8600M GT graphic chip, a major industry-wide problem that has also been noted by Apple.
Since the failing GPU affects MacBooks Pro and all other laptops with this particular graphic card (meaning all MBPs up to the autumn 2008 revision), mine is also a very likely victim of this sudden defect.

What raises my suspicion even further are high idle temperatures  (displayed on the picture) that Toppy has - the graphic chip with its 60º C idle temperature is nothing less than alarming.
All that means that I should get it fixed before a spontaneous self-combustion happens - or before my warranty expires (there's three years left to fix that GPU issue). That would mean an unknown amount of days without Toppy, a solution I'm far from willing to accept... but that's another topic.