Dead Air: Tale of an epic Mac fail

It had to happen eventually. After eight-plus years of problem-free computing on Mac OS X computers, I caught a doozy.

I wrote the first part of this post on a 2010 MacBook Air booted to single-user mode while on a plane heading for Boston. It's the first major failure of one of my primary Mac laptops ever, and it left me stranded for the first time. Well, sorta stranded -- I could still use Unix's vim to write, after all, on my way back to the lab to determine exactly how screwed up this laptop really was.

I caught many odd looks from other passengers; one fellow asked me point blank what application I was running. I suppose people aren't used to seeing a Mac with its pants down. Very few things bother me more than starting from scratch and reconfiguring a primary computer. I've kept the same environment from Mac to Mac for years, as Mac OS X flawlessly migrates all your data, applications, settings, and so on from install to install. This is one of the major benefits of Mac OS X: You don't have to spend hours redownloading and installing applications, looking up license keys, reconfiguring mail clients, and the whole ball of wax that often comes with settling into a Windows computer. I consider that time a waste. My Mac environment fits like my favorite jeans, and I was damned if I was going to break in a new pair.