Ancestors

Written by Daphne Preston-Kendal on 2025-01-20 at 09:24

Did not manage to get the code generator running before sending laptop to repair. I guess I get more hammock time to think about how to do it (even though I’m pretty sure I’ve had enough of that for this already)

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Written by Daphne Preston-Kendal on 2025-01-20 at 10:27

Now off to talk to the ‘geniuses’ and hope they’re competent enough to understand the term ‘kernel panic’ and honest enough not to lie that they’ve never seen this problem with this model before

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Written by Daphne Preston-Kendal on 2025-01-20 at 10:30

I don’t know when the real decline at the ‘genius bar’ started but it seems emblematic of the Tim Cook era. A finance guy comes in to run the company, and the quality of front-line technical support goes from ‘world-class, real expertise and tactful communication’ to ‘call centre workers who happen to talk to customers in person instead of on the phone’

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Written by Daphne Preston-Kendal on 2025-01-20 at 11:24

The ‘genius’ who is writing this toot got the time of her appointment wrong by one hour. (Probably I mentally noted it as 11:45 because that’s the time my calendar showed when I was in the UK on GMT; it’s actually 12:45.) Sitting in a café, tried to be productive, gave up, now bored

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Written by Daphne Preston-Kendal on 2025-01-20 at 12:03

The Apple guy tried to tell me it must be one of my apps running on Intel (I checked Activity Monitor, there are none I run habitually any more), then they’d have to re-install the OS and that was all they can do. It was a huge effort to get him to agree to note down any information from the kernel panic report: he insisted that was for Apple OS engineers only, and wouldn’t be any use to anyone else.

Fortunately, the actual repair team is still reasonably competent, by most accounts

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Written by Daphne Preston-Kendal on 2025-01-20 at 12:07

And of course, they’re not allowed to even write down the words ‘kernel panic’, so this is described in the repair order as an ‘unexpected shutdown’ (which could be anything); fortunately he did take a screenshot of the report in the end and attach it to the protocol

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Written by Daphne Preston-Kendal on 2025-01-20 at 12:17

Lord almighty I’m still mad. If an application running in user space can cause a kernel panic, that is not a bug in the application! It’s a bug in the kernel! And yet he tried to tell me I’d need to check with whoever made my apps and get the latest versions.

An entire technical support staff whose only specialization is regurgitating the most patronizing Mac OS dialog boxes. (‘[App] is broken and will damage your computer’, except a real person was trying to tell me it.)

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Written by Daphne Preston-Kendal on 2025-01-20 at 12:36

This is my problem: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255660962

Everyone knows this is a problem except ‘geniuses’.

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Written by Daphne Preston-Kendal on 2025-01-20 at 12:39

The problem here goes to at least two levels beyond Apple not acknowledging the problem publically:

1. Once upon a time, Apple’s front-line support staff were at least competent enough with computers so as not to make such an absurd diagnosis as my guy did today; they no longer are

2. They should then at least be trained on known issues, even if not public: upon seeing symptoms like mine, the technician should immediately recognize the issue and be able to double-check the diagnosis right away

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Written by Daphne Preston-Kendal on 2025-01-20 at 12:42

But I wonder how far the whisper network goes. I’ve been assuming (hoping!) that the people who actually do the repair behind the scenes are competent enough to recognize the issue and know how to fix it. But are they? And if so, how do they know: are they properly trained, or do they also rely on hearsay from one another? How far does the information blackout go? Does anyone in Cupertino with decision-making power know about this problem at all, or has the info not even made it up that far?

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Written by Daphne Preston-Kendal on 2025-01-22 at 15:55

Well, the laptop is now on its way back to me. No indication on the website of what actual repair was done. They’d better not just have reinstalled Mac OS again

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Written by Daphne Preston-Kendal on 2025-01-23 at 13:32

Stayed home today to be able to sign for the delivery. No ring at the doorbell all day.

Text message: ‘Wir haben heute versucht, Ihre DHL Express Sendung […] zuzustellen, aber Sie waren nicht zu Hause.’

🤬

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Written by Daphne Preston-Kendal on 2025-01-23 at 14:42

Fucksake. They literally just reinstalled the OS – wiping my entire hard drive in the process, of course – and did nothing else.

Also of course, the new OS they installed is Sequoia, which I had been deliberately holding off on upgrading to.

And no, the sleepy wake kernel panic problem is not fixed!! 🤬🤬🤬

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Written by Daphne Preston-Kendal on 2025-01-23 at 14:50

Immediately going back to the Apple Store to complain (before they can possibly claim that this is because of some app or something I’ve installed. Fortunately I now also know that I can reproduce the issue on one of the MBAs they have on display!)

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Written by Daphne Preston-Kendal on 2025-01-23 at 16:30

Well, they confirmed that my laptop went to Czechia and back in order to have the operating system wiped and ‘upgraded’. Could have done that myself.

They have now ordered a new logic board to swap in, but I get to keep the laptop while I’m waiting for the part to arrive.

So now I get to restore my backup over the internet. That’ll be fun, especially considering how difficult Apple has made backup restores using anything other than Time Machine recently

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Toot

Written by Daphne Preston-Kendal on 2025-01-23 at 16:34

Going to be really wishing Vodafone would upgrade our internet to 1 Gbps cable soon

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Descendants