My first Macbook
Everyone is looking forward to the holidays. with the hope of resting, escaping, seeing new places, leaving for a few days with high expectations and taking advantage of their free time to do the activities postponed until then.
I also take advantage of it to reply to emails, organize work programs and to dedicate myself to writing, especially when it rains in the mountains, since writing for a blog is less demanding than writing a scientific article.
This year, however, my new Macbook, a system I recently switched to after always working with Windows, suddenly decides it doesn’t want to boot up. The password I’ve been using for months is no longer recognized, and I find myself unable to access my computer. Apple support is unable to assist me; my Mac no longer recognizes my ID, as if I no longer exist for it.
In reality, I exist somewhere in its internal memory and that’s how my files, memories and photos exist, but Apple support, however efficient, is unable to help me and the only remedy is to format it, delete everything. This is a problem already encountered, it seems exclusively on MacBook Air 13 models, but the fact of not being the only user “locked out of their computer” is not much help, because this defect in the Apple system effectively cancels all the user’s work that had not been saved in spaces outside their computer.
Technological issues: Edison’s doll
This problem with my Apple made me reflect on technology and the misadventures that happened to buyers of modern technology in the past. Isn’t it true that we have been victims of these misadventures for centuries?
This is a little-known episode concerning Thomas Edison, the American scientist, born in Italy. In 1890, Thomas Edison patented and produced talking dolls containing small phonographs. The phonograph was one of the instruments he had designed and patented a few years earlier and he was looking for a way to be able to use this new technological tool. The dolls were quite expensive, despite this, about five hundred dolls were sold. Unfortunately, the small internal hand-cranked phonograph with the recorded voice malfunctioned, the voice was incomprehensible and the recorder’s ancestor croaked. The girls who had received it as a gift must have been disappointed and perhaps even a little scared. Edison was forced to close the company due to buyers’ protests.
This short article was written very slowly with an old Nokja mobile phone that I have been serving faithfully for many years. Technological objects are a bit like good friends; the old technology is not always surpassed by the new, and the solidity and reliability of the hardware and software deserve to be rewarded.
Quick update: I had to retire my Nokia due to old age and switched to another, but still an Android.
Venice, October 2024
This is the link to the Italian Version
