failing like never before

When people ask me why I won't buy a Mac, I generally give three reasons:

• Too expensive -I know a lot of people will argue that the 13.3 inch Macbooks actually have a list price that is similar to a Windows Laptop, but they forget that Macbooks are never available in the bargain bin on Black Friday
• Right click - although I have gotten a little more used to the way Mac's double click, I still don't like it that much.
• Delete key - this is decidedly annoying, and I just don't like having to press Function+Backspace when I want to delete.

Mind you, this is just me and I won't try to push these ideas on other people, some people don't mind throwing down a few hundred extra dollars, or losing the delete key (which most people never use). But lately, I have discovered one very good reason to buy a Mac.

The day before Thanksgiving, I tripped over the power cord to my HP dv2910us. Thankfully, the laptop was wedged between piles of junk and it didn't fall off the table, but the plug was bent out of shape and the little plastic insulation on the plug's tip cracked off. Since I needed a working laptop for school, I couldn't afford to order a new power cord from ebay and wait a week for it to arrive, so instead of paying ten dollars, my dad paid fifty dollars for a new cord and brick. I know its crazy, but it had to be done. Once I had the new cord, I figured the matter was resolved and that everything was going to be hunky-dory.

Just last week,  two months after I tripped over my power cable, I woke up, plugged my laptop in, and turned it on, just like most any morning. It immediately started making a funny, high-pitched buzzing, so I switched it off. It didn't take me long to notice that the power connection port was sparking, so like any sane man would do, I unplugged the power. If you look at the poorly-taken picture to the left, you can just barely notice that the white plastic ring surrounding the port is melted on the left-hand side. As far as I can guess, my tripping over the cord probably damaged the connection port just slightly, and two months of plugging and unplugging the power cable was enough to aggravate the port's damaged condition to the point that it started shorting.