Earth Notes: On Website Technicals (2022-04)

The first of (I hope many) interesting images for EOU from JA / Fighting Pride!

A replacement MacBook Air was meant to be arriving for me today or tomorrow. The one I am currently using (MacBookAir6,2, Dual-Core Intel Core i7, 1.7 GHz) has already been repaired more than once (battery and keyboard replacements), is short of storage, is not getting major OS updates, the new battery is apparently getting flaky, and the external backup disk stopped working in one of the USB ports. I have had it many years, and it is approximately 2013 vintage.

However, an email that arrived this morning informed me, without giving reasons, that delivery would be put back at least 4 or 5 weeks. I understand that some combination of wars, and pandemic shutdowns in China, rattle supply chains, but someone must have known for at least a couple of days that no machine was ready to dispatch, even by air, on time. Apple customer support was nice about it on the phone, and has said sorry with a small goodwill gesture.

Bizarrely also, earlier, I received a text message from Apple that my small sub-order had arrived via Royal Mail exactly two weeks ago. This is true, but not very helpful!

Running HFS fsck on my 2TB external Time Machine backup spinning-rust disc for my MacBook Air takes days. In this case fsck was needed because I accidentally unplugged it without proper shutdown during a backup's "cleanup" phase. (MacOS does not tell you anything except that the disc is not ready for Time Machine to use; it appears that the disc is simply dead.)

I have just bought a new 4TB external spinning-rust drive for backup for under £80 including VAT and delivery.