I should point out that they pretty much dumped Nvidia after this fiasco. What's left to protect?

2007 Macbook Pro, identification string "MacBookPro3,1". Four logic board replacements, one borderline.

When I was in college I worked two summers and sold my old Macbook to pay for this beast; I also bought AppleCare. It was an expensive laptop, but it performed admirably; it was basically top of the line in its time. Then things in Half-Life 2 started turning purple randomly. It didn't take much longer until trying to play Team Fortress caused BSoDs once the GPU had a chance to heat up. Then it got worse - I could boot up, but the screen was dead. They ordered me a new logic board, and the champ was back in business. Fast forward about three months, and the game I was playing had random horizontal lines on the screen. New logic board, no problem. Actually, there was a problem - the first replacement didn't finish booting once before the GPU failed; this one could at this point give me a text terminal, but any graphics were right out. Fortunately, the shop was booting it up on their bench to demonstrate their repair, so they had a new board overnighted in the next ten minutes, and the next afternoon I had another new board.

The next time it gave out - three months and a week, like clockwork, I escalated my tech support call. I got a department Apple will deny existing, called something to the effect of "Customer Solutions". These exist above first-line tech support (who are fairly knowledgeable and very useful), and above the engineers that they turn to when first-line efforts fail. They offered me a new laptop, with "like for like" - nothing worse than my old machine, except I lost the ExpressCard|34 slot on the 2009 model they gave me; while I'd like a USB 3.0 port, I must admit the ExpressCard slot mostly held an SD card adapter.

After that, I tried to get them to take the aftermarket hard drive out of my defective machine and put it in the new unit. They wanted to charge me $150 for the privilege of doing the deed without voiding my warranty at the local Apple store, and (remember: college!) I didn't have the money. I was about to leave with a broken computer in the hopes that I could work something out with phone support, but as I was packing my computer to go, the third-line person escalated my case. Again. I gave them the name of the store manager, and they hung up. She disappeared a few moments later after taking a call on her two-way radio. Ten minutes later, she came back looking rather startlingly meek - having started this day long escapade being painfully stubborn about this "nominal" charge that was nothing of the sort in my collegiate financial condition. She also had a laptop box in her hand, and told me she would have my hard drive in my hands more or less "immediately".

My takeaways?
Apple corporate was willing to grab the manager of their flagship store (at the time) by the (metaphorical) balls, shake briefly, and tell her to sit down and shut up or else.
Apple corporate was willing to face this problem head-on, and stands behind their products.
Apple has some bad apples at the local level (and it came out that this apple store was known as the least friendly in town, when I spoke to an Apple employee).
The unibody Macbook Pro is a downright pleasure to work on, once you get past the Loctite Blue.
The 2007 Macbook Pro used Kapton "space tape" to keep some internal parts in place.
AppleCare is worth its weight in gold.
The 2009 model really should be considered to have a user serviceable battery, as it's an easier swap than the hard drive; I just think they didn't want people trying to change their batteries on an airplane, or something similarly stupid.
Carrying around an unprotected MBP battery now is something similarly stupid, as they're almost as fragile as bare cells.
While talking to the Apple rep who specced out my replacement system, it came out that only 15% of users used the ExpressCard slot, and around 90% of them used it for a memory card reader, but I still want USB 3.0 now.
Unlike other laptops, the unibody Macbook Pro has easily cleaned fans.

MTBE moved faster through groundwater than gasoline, and was detective long before it reached toxic levels.

Now as I understand it, leaks are harder to detect at the tap, and toxic levels can be reached without any obvious taste being imparted. Detecting leaks is now solely the purview of those who would have to pay to replace their underground tanks, or municipal water treatment facilities.

It can actually be argued that they outlawed a reporter chemical, not a poison.

Japan, VCRs, 80s(?). However, as I understand it, they didn't have to jack up the prices, as economies of scale had just pushed their costs through the floor.

I know - isn't it great?

That practice of subsidized exports is called "dumping" and tends to continue only until domestic production in the importing area ends, and then the price is jacked up to make up for the losses.

Basically, we're trying to win in the long term at the expense of the short term, instead of the opposite.

Daniel Hood's Fanuilh series - Fanuilh, Wizard's Heir, and Beggar's Banquet are also available as an omnibus called A Familiar Dragon and are quite satisfying - if you like mysteries, these are a compelling twist on the genre. If you like fantasy, well... you'll like fantasy and mysteries when you finish this series.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Hood#Fanuilh_series

I recommend an obscure genre author named named Thorarinn Gunnarsson; his Make Way for Dragons! (Yes, the bang is part of the title) is a particularly brilliant work, blending high fantasy with slice-of-life drama and mixing it all together with some marvelous jokes. Later works in the series are a bit more high fantasy, but as they all include a character or two from Earth, they were really more like the first wave of urban fantasy. His characterization is excellent, and when he wants, he can set quite the scene - a lot of authors are capable of only one of the two. It's a slow starter, but the pace builds consistently and evenly to a satisfying climax; having read this book years before How to Train Your Dragon came out, the climactic battle in that one had me immediately flashing back to this book. (I suspect someone on the production team may have read this book, and found inspiration, but I can't say for certain.)

You also find out later in the series what happens when you give a distressingly bright mechanical engineer access to copious magical power and training. ;-)


Another particularly intriguing fantasy novel is The Dark Lord of Derkholm and its sequel, Year of the Gryphon. The two narratives are separated by years, and while I could follow the plot when I read them out of order, the characters are much more compelling if you read them as they were meant. Once again, brilliant characterization and solid world building.

I'm not trying to excuse his behavior, just felt it was necessary to point out his relevant failings.

Growing old is chronological, but Edward clearly did not grow up.