Who loves their Mac?

It's confession time. I'm one of those people who is in love with their Mac. That's my computer, not the cheese casserole.


So I've been in a bit of a funk lately, maybe because I'm experiencing those 5 stages of grief about my laptop. You know, the model that Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross described in her book, On Death and Dying. See, I'm beyond the denial, bargaining and anger stages, and have moved on to despair. Acceptance is on the way, I hope.

We (my computer and me) probably have some codependency issues happening, but that's another topic for another day.

After a little research, I found a program called Coconut Battery, that will analyze my machine and tell me some stuff I've wondered - how old is it? How is my battery doing? How does the current battery capacity compare to when it was new?

See, I have no idea how old this lap top is, but it's possible it's about 5 years. I've barely had a relationship with ANYTHING for five years, let alone a laptop. But this particular machine has been the finest one I've owned, and trust me, I've owned a buttload.

Where am I going with this?

Just a few days ago, I noticed a speck on my track pad - you know, the place where your finger steers the cursor around your screen. In the scheme of things, I would rank the track pad as a pretty important component to the machine, although certainly in a pinch, I could plug in a mouse and get by. But I'm yawning. One of the endearing features about the Mac IS the trackpad.

Back to the speck - I noticed it, and as I tried to wipe the speck away, I walked into that first abyss of grief - denial.

I'd worn a hole in my trackpad.


All the lipstick in the world won't make this situation better; the trackpad is on it's last leg. Hence... so is my machine.

I have so many problems with this machine, it's amazing it still even starts up. The hard drive is full. I mean FULL. I can't even put a single photograph or song into it, let alone save a document I'm working on. And worst of all, I recently read that when your hard drive is more than 90% full, the capacity for your machine to run smoothly is severely diminished.

Oh... so that's why it's been acting jiggy lately?

So a little research brought me to a site called coconut-flavor, where you can find Coconut Battery, a freeware program that deals up some fascinating data about your laptop - how your battery is functioning, how many times you've charged the sucker, and how old your machine is - in real years, not dog years, which is how it's behaving.

Not only that, but Chris, the program developer also wrote Coconut Identity card, which will tell you where and when your computer and iPod was built. I know, it's sort of geeky, but I need to know this information. I'm trying to decide if it's "time" has arrived.

Oh the things we learn...

For the record, my machine was built in November, 2003, in Taiwan. The battery function officially sucks, and it's has been charged so many times, it's basically worthless. When I disconnect from a power source and run directly off my battery, I have about 8 minutes of working time. Try watching a DVD on a plane with those numbers; you won't get past the opening credits.

Now if I can only find the number of that Mac Hospice I heard about....