Open Mac surgery
by aran
When I started working for ULURU earlier this year, I had never really worked with Apple Macs before. Sure, I’d checked my email on a friend’s IMac, but that was about it. ULURU however, is Mac only, so I was handed a sweet MacBook Pro and a nice Cinema Display “because you need that as a web developer” (I didn’t mention I’ve been programming just fine for years on a 15″ monitor) and was on my way to discover Mac territory. Barely half a year later and my job description has expanded to network administrator / support guy. Most of the people I’m supposed to help have more experience with a Mac than I have 
This morning, things got even more interesting as Mick asked me to replace the top of his MacBook Pro. The left button of his track pad didn’t work anymore, hence its need for replacement. “Can you do it?” - “Sure.” - “Have you done it before?” - “Uhm, I’ve replaced the hard drive of a Toshiba laptop once.” But I knew this was a little different. After unscrewing some 40 screws, I had the thing open and was allowed a peek inside the well engineered innards of these fabled laptops. I had to say, I was well impressed by the way it was designed and engineered. Most of it, anyway…
Aside from 12 screws, the keyboard was fastened to the topcase by four bend-tabs. Why?? The instruction manual even read: “Important: The bend-tabs are delicate. Bend them carefully to avoid damage. Avoid over-bending.” No really? Just what we want: a tiny bit of metal breaking off and going rampant inside a laptop. A bit of a letdown.
But aside from that I had a lot of fun and even got the MacBook working again before lunch. Now I can’t wait for the next hard drive or touch pad to fail. One moment I’m copy editing, the next I’m gimping, PHP scripting or performing open brain surgery on a laptop: it’s the variety that makes me tick