Dear Apple: Your Services Are No Longer Required
30 years ago I had an Apple (one-button) mouse switch go bad. I was good at electronics and could easily fix in 5 minutes if I could get a switch. (Lived in the boonies.)<p>So I called Apple (this is before 'genius' (hilarious) bars).<p>Me: I want to fix my mouse. Sell me a switch.<p>Apple: We don't sell switches.<p>Me: Why not?<p>Apple: (After pause) It's only an $80 mouse. Not worth it.<p>"Only." That's $135 in today's money. (A better mouse now sells for $7.) I should let Apple charge me $135 to replace a microswitch?<p>You could just watch it going south. It all started when the Mac came out. (The slim II manual had peeks and pokes in it. They actually supported hobbyists and learners.) The Mac dox (think it was 3 huge volumes) had huge lists of names of calls you could make. Just names. Soon the rainbow apple turned to a chrome apple.<p>My next 'Mac' came from Power Computing. Yeah, Apple slipped up and put a gate in the walled garden for a couple years. It worked great for 7 years. At 160MHz.<p>Software got SO much better. So, yeah, I slipped up and got an iMac -- cost me twice what a similar PC would. (But all my music software was for PPC and hardware used serial ports.) That iMac burned me in multiple ways.<p>I thought all that was horrible. Those times were gentle compared to today. RUN AWAY