No more Mac.

Mac and I are over. I'm obviously going to keep the things I already have (computer, iPod, iTunes) but I am no longer supporting them. Unless they decide to comply with my requests, which I will make clear in my formal complaint.

My hard drive crashed last week. I originally thought the gray screen problem would be minor, but apparently not. My computer is less than a year and a half old and the warantee only expired in June. I am guessing Mac will tell me I should have gotten Apple Care. Whatever. It's disgraceful that they can sell me a computer that will break in such a short amount of time. Especially after I've already had numerous problems with it. It was sent back to the factory once to have the outer shell replaced and after that it always had a backlight flicker...that was well-documented online...though when I took it to the store (still under warantee at that point) that claimed they had no idea what the problem was or what I was talking about.

Thankfully some of my information was backed up. I would have had almost everything backed up if it hadn't been for the incompatibility problems the MacBook had with my external hard drive at the end of the summer. Yet another negative for Mac: they try to tell you it's so compatible with everything a PC is, but it's not.

Besides the laptop, my iPod is also faulty. The first one I had was replaced by Mac (under warantee) because it stopped functioning correctly. They admitted their mistake but charged me $30 processing to give me a replacement. My new one has a cosmetic/mechanical problem now with the middle button on the click-wheel. It no longer clicks, it still works, though irritatingly and with force. However, the problem turned up right after the warantee was already over. Even though the new iPod was just that...NEW because it was a replacement. And it broke in a matter of months.

I was skeptical of Mac to begin with...after I got one and became a "Mac person" I was still never totally convinced. Macs are hip; they look nice...I guess for some people they even function correctly. However, I cannot accept this. Mac is "una trampa". A trick, my new favorite Spanish word. I'm having to pay amounts of money I cannot afford when I am already overseas watching my bank account deplete. It's been one blow after another over here. I don't even care anymore. Money can always be earned back. In the end, I'm never going to be a bum living in a box on the street, so what's the point of worrying too much. I'm going to be a poor journalist for a long time anyway so I might as well get used to it.

That's it. I'm done thinking about the bi-partisan world of computers. Once I was the ugly conservative PC, then I became a cool liberal Mac. Now I'm a disillusioned Mac who was filled with false promises by Steve Jobs, the ultimate candidate. Where are the third parties?

Hmmm...off to forget my troubles in Madrid this weekend. Non-pissy updates about culture and travels coming soon.