I like the little Apple iBook I bought in 2002 (just before Anthony was born), but the iBooks have a design flaw that causes a wire leading to the screen's backlight to become frayed and fail. It manifests itself with a “flaky” backlight that flickers when the screen angle is adjusted, getting worse and over the course of days or weeks until the screen just won't come on anymore.

It's a common problem.

My iBook had this problem while it was still under the extended warranty I'd bought, and was fixed, but then started acting up again a few months ago. I was busy working on a project (that I finished today -- more about that later) so I didn't want to deal with it, so I literally left the iBook on my desk and never closed the lid or even adjusted the screen. I used it every day, but as if it were a desktop computer, not a laptop.

Needing a working laptop for my trip to The States (we're leaving in a week; my brother Alan is getting married on the 14th), I decided to bite the bullet and get a new system. I hope Apple's learned how to make a hinge properly, because I bought a new MacBook (one of the new Macs with an Intel processor; I can even run Windows on it, but, well, that'd be like covering a slice of tasty pie with poop, so I won't be doing that.)

I got the “13.3" white 2.0GHz 80 gig-drive” version with no extra memory, and bought two gigabytes of memory from Other World Computing (which arrived from America in an amazing three days). I would have liked the black version, but that color choice costs $150 more, so I opted for the standard white.

I copied my home directory over from the iBook yesterday, and then for the first time in months, actually shut the iBook cover. Talk about good timing ... that was it for the iBook! The backlight doesn't come on anymore. (I'm sure I'll get it fixed once I get back from America. UPDATE: I eventually fixed it myself)

Any must-have recommendations for MacBook software?