It?s been a while since I last wrote an update about the struggle for a better computer screen. I am happy to report that this posting is being made from my apple laptop with a perfect 17-inch screen. Here?s a summary of what transpired.

Two weeks ago CompUSA called me up and informed me that my laptop had come back in, but had not been fixed by Apple. Upon picking it up I was handed a letter printed on apple letterhead mentioning that one pixel is not considered defective. I found this letter ridiculous for at least two reasons.

1. There were three dead pixels, not one ? This made me feel like the technician at Apple did not care enough to actually look at the problem. If you simply powered on the computer, you would see a single dark pixel in the corner. I suspect that the technician powered on the laptop, saw the single dark pixel had a good laugh at my expense and sent it back to me un-repaired. If you watched the matrix trailer as I had suggested in the repair instructions, you would see the pixel that became painfully obvious as soon as the background was made dark.

2. Even if the bright blue pixel in the middle of the screen was the only dead pixel, I still felt that Apple should feel some obligation to fix it due to its locality. We?re talking about an extremely bright dot placed almost directly in the middle of the screen. I understand that the yield on perfect LCD?s is low, but some leniency in your policy must be made for the location of the bad pixel(s).

Somewhat infuriated, disappointed, and saddened, I started exploring my options. Though I was fighting hard to avoid accepting this screen, I was starting to feel helpless. I considered taking the path of disputing my credit card, among other possibilities when my good buddy MJG decided that he had heard enough of this BS and decided to step in.

MJG is a real no BS type of guy. He is only 24 and is already very successful. A while back he started http://www.numeration.org/ a website that was originally dedicated to teaching people the finer points of network technology with a focus on subnetting. I will be adding a section both to his and my site discussing my travels into the world of cryptography in the near future. He is also the owner of a small web hosting company known as G&L hosting. You can find them at http://www.gl-hosting.com/. They offer extremely affordable web hosting solutions so check them out soon! But I digress.

MJG decided to be a really good friend and help me out. I am unfortunately only learning that sometimes being a jerk on the phone is the only way to get what you want done. Apparently I am still lacking these skills that it seems MJG has long since mastered. After giving him all the information he would need to be me, he called up Apple and commenced the bitching session. After an hour on the phone, and chatting with 3 or 4 different reps, he was able to get them to promise that they would give me a new screen to keep a ?switcher? happy.

The very next day a box arrived at my doorstep via Airbone Express. This impressed me in two ways.

1. They delivered the box via overnight delivery. All transactions that I had with them were paid by Apple and were overnight via Airborne. I was sent the box via overnight, they paid for the return shipping via overnight, and they returned the laptop to me via overnight shipping. This was more along the lines of the type of company I thought Apple was. It was nice to finally feel like they were taking care of things, and doing it the right way: Efficiently and Expediently.

2. The box that they shipped me was very nice and they, in what I am beginning to see as typical Apple fashion, thought of everything. The box was very well designed for transporting laptops and they even included the packaging tape necessary to seal the box back up. I realize that this is a minute detail, but these are the sorts of things that I expected from Apple.

So I shipped the computer off and tracked it on its way. It was received the very next day back in sunny California at 8:30 am. They had inspected it a few hours later, made the repairs and did testing all before 4:00 the day that it was received. When I checked again that night, it stated that it had been shipped. Needless to say I was impressed again. They had turned the laptop over faster than I would have expected, which had me worried that they had just looked at it and sent it back to me. The suspense was enhanced by the fact that I would have to wait as this all occurred on a Friday and Monday was Memorial Day. This meant that I would have to wait till Tuesday to find out what had happened.

Tuesday came, the box arrived, and I anxiously opened the box and powered on the laptop. My heart sunk when I saw what appeared to be a dark pixel near the same location in the corner of the screen where the previous screen had been. Upon looking closer I noticed that it was not a dead pixel, but a tiny piece of dust that was stuck to the screen. I brushed it away and started up a pixel tester program. I was elated to see that not a single pixel was dark or hot. A perfect screen!

So here I sit, typing this on a beautiful, brilliant, perfect screen. I owe it all to you MJG. You?re a real pal. Now if I could only find someone to teach me all of the intricacies of OSX. I feel like a child again trying to relearn how things work in this OS. But that is another story…