Today I spent some time at the local Apple store in an attempt to get a new power brick for Thor, my trusty Rev. A PowerBook G4. I succeeded because we could prove that I bought a new power brick back in December 2002 even though I didn’t retain the receipt—or, if I did, it wasn’t handy. Luckily, a brand new $80 power brick has a one-year warranty. The new bricks now feature a three-pronged plug so that Thor is finally grounded (though not for being a bad boy).
This power brick will be treated with the utmost temerity. The first one that broke—the one that arced—was of the flying saucer variety and I used to unroll it like a yo-yo, which was a lot of fun but hard on the connectors. The second one I treated very kindly but wrapped the cord around its holder too tightly, eventually pulling the cord out of the main assembly. Oops. This last one I treated very kindly and wrapped it extra loosely so that it wouldn’t separate. Unfortunately, that didn’t help so I am now going to forego wrapping it at all since I can’t afford to spend another $80 on a power brick. Well, I could afford it but I’ve got better ways to spend my money. If it breaks again, which seems inevitable after try #4, then I’m definitely going to look at third-party power supply vendors since Apple’s bricks are crap.
While there, I lusted over the new 1.8 GHz G5 even though anything less than a Dual 2 is simply unacceptable. ;-) I also investigated a Sony camcorder that was discounted to $499 from $1,199 but it didn’t stack up very well to my current odds-on favorite, the Canon Optura 20. It will be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine.