Got all ready for an enjoyable evening of WoW with Shelley, Jenn, and Kenny only to find my iMac died sometime last night or today. It just would not start. No apparent reason why not -- just... nothing.

Using Apple's ever-so-thoughtfully provided on-line troubleshooting guide (WHICH SHOULD NOT BE NEEDED FOR A MACHINE ONLY SIX WEEKS OLD!!!), it turns out, apparently, that the problem is a defective "mid-plane assembly" unit.

Say what?

"The Mid-plane assembly includes the main logic board, the G5 processor, modem card, fans, input/output ports, AirPort antenna, built-in Bluetooth module and antenna (if the computer has Bluetooth capability)."

The good news, if it can be called that, is that I can (and did) order a replacement on-line and the iMac does not have to go down to the mall for shipping out and back. They charge me only $1 for shipping, but if I don't send back the defective part they charge my credit card some $1300 for the thing.

I don't yet know how long it will take for this part to arrive. In the meantime I have spent the last two hours re-installing WoW on my Windows box in hopes that we can still salvage some of the evening on-line, and that the machine can handle the game well enough to be enjoyable until the assembly arrives.

It pisses me off when a new machine has such a blatant problem. If I had not already ordered the iMac for my new work desk I might very well have gone back to a Windows system because of this.

Why can't we have machines and operating systems that work well enough to trust from day to day to be the way they were the day before?