Before I am going to spill the bad beans, some positive vibes. I am going to a nice festival in August here in the Netherlands. I can finally see some musicians I have been dying to see live for a long time. One of them being the inspiring ‘math metal’ band Tool, but others like Trentemoller and Ojos de Brujo are some performances I really look forward to. Lowlands, as it’s called, is a very laid-back festival with an excellent atmosphere. I can recommend it to anyone who wants to enjoy Dutch people at their best.

In the mean time, I’ve had some big ‘fun’ with Praetorian. Upon discovering the HIG guide that no interface element should use over 75% black, I am in a dilemma. I like the current GUI but obviously does not adhere to the standards – while I like it and it’s discerning, it could definately hinder it’s long-term potential and become too ‘gimmicky’. I could, without really taking it’s flair and charm away, bring it to the 75% black standard. I think, looking forward, that this will probably make the beta date slip. There have been some rather insane keychain issues with the last builds that have almost made me throw the Macbook Pro out of the window.

Now, for the bad apples.

I lost a ton of work because the Macbook Pro’s battery I am using for almost ten months decided to go die on me spontaneously. It’s a painful moment. My first iPod’s battery died. My first Macbook Pro’s battery got hot to the point of melting the trackpad, bending the case, and generally screwing up the whole thing. I turned it in and it got shipped to Cupertino overnight. Nice going, Apple. After three months of bargaining (I -really- wasn’t waiting for some Customer Relations jerk that wanted to give me one from the same serial number range when there were faster and Rev. D machines in stores for less money) I got a new Macbook Pro. Now, yeah, it died on me. Again. Not to mention my girlfriend’s Macbook, which also had a battery that ‘just died’. Perhaps that should be the new Apple slogan. “It just dies”.

“Whoa, what’s up with the Apple hating?”, I hear you scream. I don’t. I love the platform, I adore the developers of the software. I don’t like Apple for putting out stuff before it’s really finished and it breaking on, well, a lot of people. Stop calling it ‘Pro’ if I can’t build on it. I lost a lot of work (slash time, slash money) on these hardware defects. Last time, I lost my work station for months.

Now, I hope I can get this thing fixed. I will have to get a battery soon, in the next few days, but after a few weeks, when I got my term finished, I will turn in my Macbook Pro for having paint coming off, a defective superdrive and some other minor issues. I hope that my saga ends after that, although with my luck, I doubt it…