Baked Apple

Aaron Steele writes "Okay, I work at an Apple Authorized Retailer and we just had a lady come in to see if we could fix her PowerBook G4. She walks in the store and comes up to me, 'Sir, I've got a baked Apple.' The top of the screen was a little brown and warped. The lady opened up the machine and the screen was all cracked, and there was not a single key left on the keyboard. It turns out she had the machine in the oven for 20 minutes, baking at 400 degrees. No joke. And what's even more amazing. The machine still works. Ethernet, Modem, USB, it all works. Plug in an external monitor and keyboard and it's good as new ... almost." Am I the only one for whom this conjures up images of Shrinky Dinks?

So did you void her warranty ?

[OneInEveryCrowd (62120)]

Just curious !

Re:So did you void her warranty ?

[EggplantMan (549708)]

That depends on how the warranty deals with 'hot' merchandise.

Baked?

[Kiaser Zohsay (20134)]

Methinks the powerbook was not the only thing that was "baked".

baked apples

[Enahs (1606)]

That's the oddest pie recipe I've ever seen.

I'm more amazed....

[Soluxx (545237)]

I'm more amazed that no one asked her why she did it... Do we look down on non-computer people so much that we don't even bother to ask anymore why they do stupid things?

Re:I'm more amazed....

[by Anonymous Coward]

no... I look down on people who do not demonstrate the basic intelligence and reasoning skills necessary to avert this kind of 'disaster'. Everyone makes mistakes, but there are some courses of action that even a 12 year old knows how to avoid.... While part of me would hate to see a user a) deprived of their machine b) soured to a great vendor such as Apple for the rest of his/her life, I really hope that the Apple isn't forced to eat the repair costs for a user's act of gross stupidity.

if anyone knows who to attribute the following quote to, please let me know.

"You can't cure 'stupid'." - anon.

New ad campaign

[KludgeGrrl (630396)]

I'm more amazed that no one asked her why she did it

Clearly this is the start of a new Mac ad campaign. You remember "It takes a licking, and keeps on ticking!"

Soon we will be deluged with pictures of powerbooks that were dropped from great heights, run over by buses...

You get the drift.

Re:I'm more amazed....

[Matey-O (518004)]

I'm more amazed that no one asked her why she did it... Do we look down on non-computer people so much that we don't even bother to ask anymore why they do stupid things?

Yes. (You're new here, aren't you?)

Re:I'm more amazed....

[grub (11606)]

Do we look down on non-computer people so much that we don't even bother to ask anymore why they do stupid things?

Yes. Do you think the submitter's thoughts were:

"Man, this woman is a retard? I better ask her why she did this.."

or was it more along the lines of:

"Bahaha, stupid twat! I can't wait to submit this to slashdot!"

My money is on the latter.

Re:They're just not saying, 'cause...

[ianscot (591483)]

If this was an Apple store, the employee wouldn't be in a position to say anything about the (dorked-out) customer's reasons. Apple has a danged clear set of policies about dealing with customers -- you don't ridicule and you don't bitch. I know a few employees.

So maybe we're not hearing the reasons because this person wants to keep her job.

(I know ten women like this customer, though. Think of how casual she was in saying her little "baked apple" thing. Didn't faze her much. This is a woman with serious money and no sense. She miplaces four cell phones a year, at least.)

Re:They're just not saying, 'cause...

[Black Copter Control (464012)]

If this was an Apple store, the employee wouldn't be in a position to say anything about the (dorked-out) customer's reasons.

My reading, is that anybody who can walk into a store with an obviously fried (er, baked) $2500 box, and say with a straight face that she's got "a baked apple", has got to have a sense of humor.

I'm betting that she went home, and told her astonished friends.

"I can't believe it. The guy at the store took the computer from me, and didn't even bother to ask how my computer got baked. Talk about brainless drones -- wouldn't

you want to know how that happened?"

COPYING HER DATA FOR HER

[billstewart (78916)]

Sorry to shout, but the tech should have copied her data for her, either to a new machine if she bought one, or at least to a new hard drive, and the article doesn't say he did. It does refer to him having reformatted the drive; I'm assuming that this was after they declared it trashed.

As far as not asking her _why_ she did it, I'm not surprised he was polite. There are things people do that are dumb that deserve comment, especially if it looks like an educational issue to keep them from doing it again, like not understanding what "are you sure you want to reformat the hard disk now?" means... But things like putting a computer in the oven are so excessively over-the-top bone-headed dumb that it's not something you do from lack of education (or at least, it's a problem that provides its own education and you don't need to add to it.) So you raise your eyebrows and say "okay..." and try not to laugh, and if she wants to explain, she will, and if she doesn't want to explain, well, that's her business.

Re:I'm more amazed....

[dev_sda (533180)]

Who thinks like that? How can you train your brain not to function? How can you train yourself not to be curious? you've obviously not had the pleasure of working in retail.

Karma whoring

[MagerValp (246718)]

The correct url is: http://homepage.mac.com/aaronsteele/PhotoAlbum6.ht ml [mac.com].

500 degrees and 40 min

[stonebeat.org (562495)]

500 degrees and 40 min is needed to void the warranty. or 5 min Microwave open. However in Microwave you dont get the crispy crust....

Warning Sticker

[nlinecomputers (602059)]

Caution Hard Disk may be hot. Open files carefully!
Best when used before experation date.
Open laptop to allow for venting.

Baked Hard Drives

[Marco_polo (160898)]

In the old days, when an MFF hard drive would 'gunk' up, we would put it in the oven to free it up, then try to back up as much data as we could before it re-gunked.

almost as weird as the Compaq 5166's. If they blue screened, you drop them from 6 inches onto a flat surface. Viola! working computer.

Freezing works too

[Drunken_Jackass (325938)]

I saved an old Netware drive that wouldn't initialize by popping it into a freezer bag, and then the freezer for ~10 minutes. Bring it out, let it warm slowly to room temp, and then install.

Spun right up and stayed active long enough to do what i had to.

Neat trick.

Re:Baked Hard Drives

[sayerofno (606255)]

When I was doing desktop support we had three standard ways to try to free up a dead hard drive:

1) Hair dryer (oven would work but we didn't have one available). Apply heat for a few minutes to see if it gets the lubricant on the disk spindle warmed up enough to let the disk spin.

2) Freezer (we had one of these). Freeze the drive for 20 minutes or so.

3) The "three finger drop". Hold the drive three finger widths over the table top and drop it.

If the drive was otherwise dead, it didn't hurt it any more to abuse it this way. The goal was to get the drive to spin up once - and get all of the data off of it.

Geez

[by Anonymous Coward]

Is there even a SHRED of objectivity here????

If this had been a Dell or Compaq, you'd all be laughing at how stupid Windows users were. Instead, you marvel at how the computer still works (strictly because it's an Apple, I'm sure).

Re:Geez

[jordan_a (139457)]

Well calling the user stupid would be just stating the obvious wouldn't it?

Tell you what, go put a Dell or Compaq into the oven for 20 min at 400 degrees and we'll all marvel at your stupidity too.

Re:Geez

[gorilla (36491)]

Can't we do both?

How on earth?

[A Swing Dancing Dork (324614)]

Was this woman real old? Did she put it in with cookies, or brownies? What was in those brownies? And do you think she has anymore?

Baked a SUN server once

[Mothra the III (631161)]

Evidently if you don't make sure the little switch is in the right position in the back and plug it into high voltage, the things tend to be a little tempermental. Loud pop, a little smoke and no more SUN.

Theory-

[Omkar (618823)]

Joke - She mistook the shiny laptop for a baking pan. And removed the stains with peroxide.

Serious-Her young kids/any young kids in the house put it in the oven and she turned it on for something else.

What this reminds me of...

[sqlrob (173498)]

Is those old Apple ][ advertisements, where one was toasted in a house fire, keyboard melted and it still worked after a transplant.

Maybe she had just switched from an x86 laptop...

[alispguru (72689)]

... and thought it wasn't getting hot enough when it ran.

Reflow

[seanadams.com (463190)]

No big surprise... every one of the PCBs in there has already been fed through an oven once, WHEN IT WAS SOLDERED!!!

She was probably trying to make this

[kevcol (3467)]

Grandma's Olde Fashioned G4 Pie Recipie

Apple Filling:

1 large tart Apple Powerbook G4
40 grams / 1 1/2 oz of butter
1/2 cup of castor sugar
1 cup of water
1 cinnamon stick or 1/2 a teaspoon of ground cinnamon
4 whole cloves or a pinch of ground cloves
2 large strips of the rind of 1/2 a lemon (zest)
1 teaspoon of cornflour

Peel the Powerbook and cut into quarters. Remove the core and dice each quarter. In a large saucepan melt the butter over a medium low heat, add the diced Powerbook, sugar, water, lemon rind, cinnamon and cloves and combine. Cover and sweat for 5 to 10 minutes, or until the Powerbook is just tender but still retains its shape. Remove from the heat. Discard the lemon rind, cinnamon stick and cloves. Drain most of the excess liquid off and mix in the cornflour. Set aside to cool.

Sweet Shortcrust Pastry
2 cups of flour
A pinch of salt
125 grams / 4 1/2 oz of butter
1/4 cup of castor sugar
1 egg
1 to 2 tablespoons of milk

Preheat the oven to 180C, 350F or gas mark 4. Grease a large deep pie dish or a round springform tin. Shake two cups of flour into the tin to dust the sides. Pour the flour out into a large bowl or food processor and add the sugar. Cut the butter into small cubes and rub into the flour with your hands or process until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the egg and mix or process for another 5 to 10 seconds until the mixture comes together, adding the milk if necessary. Turn out the mixture on a lightly floured bench or board and knead until the mixture forms a smooth ball. Handle as little as possible to prevent the pastry from becoming hard when baked. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
On a lightly floured bench or board roll out two-thirds of the pastry, 5 mm (1/8 inch) thick. Place inside the greased and dusted tin to form the base and sides of the pie. Carefully spoon the cooled Powerbook filling into the pie shell. Roll out the remaining pastry into a circle, 5 mm (1/8 inch) thick and large enough to cover the Powerbook and form the lid of the pie. Wrap the lid over a rolling pin and carefully unroll over the top of the pie. Trim off the excess pastry, seal the edge by crimping the pastry sides using a fork or pinching between your forefinger and thumb. Make small slits or holes in the lid with a small knife for air to escape. With a pastry brush, lightly coat the top with a little extra beaten egg. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until the pastry is golden. Serve hot or cold with ice cream, whipped cream or custard.
To form a lattice top cut 1 cm (½ inch) strips out of the pastry lid. Lay them across the pie, 5 mm (1/4 inch) apart. Fold back every second vertical strip and lay a new horizontal strip across the strips that have not been folded. Lay the folded back strips back down. Then repeat folding back the vertical strips that were not folded in the previous round. Cover the rest of the pie in a similar fashion.

(Serves 6 to 8)

Baked furby

[Merlin42 (148225)]

A similar situation happen to my younger sister. She got a furby for christmas several years ago and had a lot of fun with it until one day it wouldn't shut up while she was trying to do some homework at the kitchen table. So she decided to put it in a dark quiet place ... THE OVEN! That did a wonderful job of quieting it down, so good that she promptly forgot about it. Later that evening my mother preheated the oven for dinner. A few minutes later she smelled burning plastic ... the poor furby had its fur singed, was severly deformed, and never worked again.

And there was much rejoicing

YAY!

Let the Non-Apple Pie Jokes Begin?

[immanis (557955)]

Ok, ok, enough with the Pie jokes. There is plenty of good material here without them:

Are you sure this machine wasn't stolen? From the pictures, it looks kinda hot.

Are you sure she wasn't just trying to burn her first CD?

Insert OB Overclocking Joke Here

"Ma'am, I feally think you are missing the point of FireWire."

lightning

[zogger (617870)]

-some weird story. Glad I got to see the pics with the correct URL. WHY did this lady do this?

--here's my tough as nails apple story. We run on solar here. The first year though I didn't have a proper buried power cable, my AC feed from the inverters was literally just an extension cord on top of the ground. Was running a mac 6400 tower at the time, through a surge protector/power strip (no, too dumb to send in warranty card when I got the surge, duh on me). Anywho, one day there's a thunderstorm, being reasonably cautious I unplugged everything. Storm goes away, cool, plug all the stuff back in. About 5 minutes later ZAP! Rogue lightning bolt hits I guess the ground nearby or the cord directly. Pooter goes POP, everything shuts down. I mean it was loud, a very close by hit.

I am steamed, think oh crap no pooter. Reset breaker, hit power button, CHIME, that nice boot up chord! Amazing! thing boots but ran sorta screwy. Just-screwy. surfing was a tad slower, would get occassional screen freezes, etc, but as it was at the time my "best" computer I just kept using it. Next day I open the case, WOW, the mobo is all crispy! I mean fried city, and the thing is still working. Hard to describe except it looked -lightning hit. there's burnt stuff all over. I cleaned it as good as possible and put it back together. Used it for a few more months in crippled mode, then upgraded an old quadra to use instead, then I bought a used pb 1400, then I just parted the 6400 out, kept the drives and those great built in speakers.

tough boxes for sure

so like...

[grub (11606)]

so like I was working on a paper for school and I thought it'd. be.. like.. cool.. to put my PC laptop in... the oven... for like.. 20 minutes and it was like.. bleep bloop bleep and it died. I lost my paper.. it was.. a.. really good paper.

Then I bought a Mac laptop. I was working on another.. like.. paper.. and thought it'd be cool to put.. this Mac.. in the.. like.. oven for 20 minutes. and I did.. and it still booted up..

it was a really good paper.

Apple engineering

[thatguywhoiam (524290)]

Apple has always built really, really tough machines, esp. under the aegis of Jonathan Ives. There are a lot of stories floating around about Apple employees dragging prototypes around the parking lot behind their cars, dropping off rooftops, etc. O'Grady's Powerpage used to have an 'Extreme mac' section with pics of people who had parked on their PowerBooks, shot at them, been soaking in an aquarium for a week, nailed with an Argon laser, etc.

Remember the Space Clam iBook? The corners were double-shod rubber wrapped around the two frontmost corners, which (on this model) were the likeliest impact points in the event of a drop. The newer iBooks have an HD that is encased in a brick of rubber. Aluminum/titanium frames. This is the stuff you want in a laptop.

Old Apple ][ Ads...

[podperson (592944)]

Used to feature an Apple ][ recovered from a fire -- totally melted and still working.

There was also a story about a library in a village in Papua New Guinea that was flooded, and the Macs in the library were filled with mud. They hosed em off, dried them out, and they worked.

Finally there's an old BMUG article about "hanging your disks out to dry" after their shareware library was flooded. They opened the floppy disks, washed the disks gently with detergent, air dried them, and put them back in new cases. Voila they were readable.

I used the same trick on a floppy disk soaked with spilled coffee (far worse than flood water I imagine). No data loss.

Probably little kids that did that.

[jellomizer (103300)]

This is something that I could see a 3 year old doing. Thinking that he could play a joke the kid will hide the Computer in the over because that is somewhere no one would look for it. Not knowing this the mother is about to cook something and preheats the oven at 400. after 20 minutes she opens the door to see her expensive laptop in the stove with the white apple starting to brown and the keys fizzling. Using potholder she quickly gets the computer out of the oven. This is just a possible story on what possibly could of happend where the lady was of average intelegance. when little kids are involved random things can happen to people that seem compleatly irationail otherwise.

Not a big deal

[mj01nir (153067)]

A few months ago, one of my clients suffered a house fire. His Dell notebook suffered similar damage, but booted with an external keyboard and monitor. We were able to transfer the data from it, and stored it on our server until the replacement arrived.

So this is a big deal? Wish I'd know. I could have had a story on Slashdot!

I'm confused.

[bellings (137948)]

I don't get it. This is a 15", $2,400.00 powerbook, right? And she dumped it, without explanation, at a repair shop, because fixing it would be $1,000.00 for the new screen?

This story has the stink of "bullshit" written all over it, frankly.

My worst...

[dallask (320655)]

I worked for Digital Research, we did support for all the DR peripherals, IO cards, mice, sound and video... Lots of jumpers to configure, lots of crap to support...

Well, one day I get a call from this guy, and his mouse wont work,... says that the mouse is jumpy on the screen... "Dirty track ball" I think, so I have him clean that... still jerky,... "Check Settings" I think, settings are fine... so we reinstall the drivers, reconnect the mouse, reboot the system, ... Still jerky!...

So I call over my lv2 tech and his partner, and they go through all the same procedures.... for 45 minutes, were working this guy through navigating in windows with a mouse whose pointer jumps from one side to the other...

The guy is frustrated, pissed at the mouse, pissed at us... and he vents... "I Just don't get this, Why do you sell this mouse if it doesn't work!!! I mean, it's not even designed right, the buttons are hard to click, and the label is upside down..."

My ears peaked, so I took a chance... "Sir," as politely as I could muster, "When you look at the mouse, as your using it... describe what it looks like for me, tell me how your using it."

With a frustrated sigh, he responds, "Well, I hold the mouse, and move the ball with my thumb, and click on the buttons, just like you're supposed to!"

The dumb ass was holding a normal trackball mouse in his hand, upside down, and moving the ball with his thumb. I got him on mute as fast as I could... both me and the other techs, and everyone else who had gathered, burst out in cries of pain and agony.

2 days later, I quit... that was just too much.

Re:Gosh, that was quick

[rco3 (198978)]

Hmmm... no, try this link instead; it may contain more suitable content.

http://homepage.mac.com/aaronsteele/Personal8.ht ml

Burglars do not look in the oven

[adam arndt (570827)]

I have heard other people put stuff in the oven for this reason. Then they turn on the oven.
I saw a baked Compaq Armada like this. But then, it didn't get stolen.
It still worked fine after 10 mins at 180C in a fan-forced oven. If you do this, take off the ON knob.
I'd like to see comparative tests for Intel and AMD baked this way (as opposed to removing the heat sink). Let's see the Intel try and cool off by lowering the clock speed now.

Bad link in article

[nucal (561664)]

Try this one for baked apple [mac.com]

probably cleaning...

[Creepy (93888)]

She was probably cleaning and shoved the powerbook into the oven to wipe a counter or something.

Don't laugh - my wife did this to a tray full of tupperware (so she could clean the sink and counters) and it ruined her oven.

Ok, now laugh :)

Just to finish the job

[chabotc (22496)]

These are all the relevant urls:

Set of pics of the machine [mac.com]

Shows it still boots [mac.com]

Story behind this [mac.com]

More pics showing it works [mac.com]

Ellen Feiss

[InterruptDescriptorT (531083)]

I suspect she was trying to be like Ellen Feiss [ellenfeiss.net] but misinterpreted something.

She was probably trying to get baked and then talk about Apple, but instead baked the Apple.

Simple mistake, really. Anyone could have made it.

Re:Ellen Feiss

[Theaetetus (590071)]

"So, one night, I was baking a pie, and then the oven went like ding,ding,ding, and I was like Omigod!"

-T

Re:Why oh why....

[ENOENT (25325)]

She was hired to babysit for a young couple's infant daughter. They did not know of her three-doobie-a-day habit. When the couple returned home, she told them that everything went OK and that the pie was almost done. Alarmed, the couple ran into the kitchen, opened the oven door, and discovered that THE BABYSITTER HAD BAKED THEIR POWERBOOK!!!!

Damn, I've got to stop reading alt.folklore.urban.

Maybe because she likes to "Think Different"

[fmaxwell (249001)]

So did you think to ask her why she did it?

Another example of a Mac user inspired by the "Think Different" campaign. What other kind of half-baked reason could she have?

Re:Maybe because she likes to "Think Different"

[Leto2 (113578)]

hell, i'll give your advise in your sig a try...

Re:Why?

[gspeare (470147)]

Obviously, she was attempting to ascertain the accuracy of the manufacturer's mathematics libraries, especially as pertains to well-known irrational and transcendental constants, when subjected to thermodynamic stresses.

In other words, she was making Apple Pi.