The art of failure
11:00 am, September 12th, 2008, Giles Turnbull
One common problem I’ve noticed is that recent switchers from Windows to OS X don’t expect to encounter problems. At all. In many cases, they’ve heard so much good stuff about OS X that they expect it to be good stuff all the way through.
I make a point, these days, of saying to potential switchers: “Macs can break, you know. They do break. They can drive you crazy.” And the potential switchers look at me like I’m mad and say: “So why switch then?” And I reply: “Because it will happen far less frequently than it does with Windows, and most of the time recovery will be quicker and easier.” Note that: most of the time.
Anyway, Asraf Sani has a disappointed tone in his voice when he writes about the artistically interesting graphics failure that hit his iMac running Leopard last Friday. The colourful light show made it unusable, but at least the screenshot controls were still working, enabling Asraf to grab a few snaps for his Flickr stream.
Should we celebrate graphic failures on our Macs? I think we should. Every cloud, silver lining, all that.
Picture used with Asraf’s permission
Posted by Giles Turnbull in Desktop Pictures | Comment on this article
all real issues aside. i kinda liked the way it looked. i put it as my desktop….
peruchito, on September 12th, 2008 at 11:26 am
At least for the average consumer I think what you say holds true. My brother got his first mac a year ago, the first white ibook, and after a month he was a convert, no more viruses, no more random slowdown, he still gets some issues, but they are far in between.
macabron, on September 12th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
I had that problem too… I was running a DVI to HDMI adapter to my TV. I took that plug out, rebooted and plugged it back in. Hasn’t come back since.
Gorgeous error though. If it hadn’t kept happening while I was using the screen for something else, I would have kept it.
piker62, on September 12th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
Hawt. I had a bunch of photos on a hard disk that got corrupted. Those are equally interesting.
Dean Putney, on September 12th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
[...] reference to The art of failure by Giles Turnbull, my average-consumer thought would be ‘Yes, it’s a glitch, an issue [...]
Asraf Sani Photoblog » Mac OS X Graphics Glitch, on September 15th, 2008 at 5:06 am
[...] Esta curiosa imagen que ven arriba, apareció de repente mientras trabajaba en mi iMac 20″, que empezó a mostrar diferentes colores en la pantalla sin motivo alguno. Al principio creàque se trataba de algún problema relacionado con la Actualización 10.5.5 de Leopard, que por alguna razón provocaba ese particular error que obligaba a reiniciar el sistema, sin embargo, en Cult of Mac leàun articulo con fecha previa a la actualización en la que exponÃÂan el mismo problema. [...]
Curioso (y colorido) problema en Mac OS X Leopard | Actualidad de Apple en Colombia y Latinoamérica | Applecol, on September 17th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
[...] Sometimes, when Macs die or are horribly injured, their displays turn into beautiful works of electronic art. [...]
Cult of Mac » Blog Archive » You Know When You’ve Been DesktopImpazzito!!, on October 14th, 2008 at 1:22 am
[...] Sometimes, when Macs die or are horribly injured, their displays turn into beautiful works of electronic art. [...]
Mac News Update - MacPro, iMac, iPhone, Macbook, and Macbook Pro News » Blog Archive » Apple switching chip supplier despite faults, on October 14th, 2008 at 2:04 am
[...] post 09.09.08, The art of failure by Giles [...]
Asraf Sani Photoblog » Mac OS X Graphic2 Glitch - again, on October 29th, 2008 at 8:23 am
[...] reference to The art of failure by Giles Turnbull, my average-consumer thoughts would be ‘Yes, it’s a glitch, an issue [...]
asrafsani@leprikon.net » Mac OS X Graphics Glitch, on October 1st, 2009 at 10:45 am