I saw a computer catch on fire for the first time in my life last Thursday. Well, not literally catch on fire, but there was a lot of smoke and that was scary, so it may as well have been on fire. I was typing an email on my Macbook Pro when all of a sudden, I hear this loud "pop" come from under the keyboard and the computer shuts completely off. As soon as it turned off, smoke started pouring out of the air vent right underneath the screen. Again, there were no flames, but a computer that produces smoke is what I call "bad." Trying to think quickly, I pulled out the battery and unplugged the power and let the laptop sit for a few minutes. After the smoke went away, I attempted to turn it back on. I got the familiar Apple chime and could hear the hard drive spinning but the screen was black. I messed around with it and figured out that the backlight or the power inverter for the backlight must have exploded because I could still connect an external monitor to the laptop and get video out.

Much to my chagrin, I wound up taking it to the Apple store on the Plaza on Saturday. I guess they changed their pricing for parts because it's only going to cost me $310 (plus tax) for them to fix *whatever* is wrong with the computer. That basically means that if the logic board is fried, it won't cost me $Texas to have it fixed. I think this is a little weird because AppleCare for a Macbook Pro is $350... meaning that if nothing else goes wrong with my computer in the next 7 months, I will have saved a small amount of cash. Unfortunately, I will be without my primary machine for 7-10 days, so I guess that's the bad news.

I have been studying off and on for the CompTIA Network+ exam for 2 years and I just never got around to actually taking the test. I decided about a month ago that I would try to get my MCSA since the CCNA route clearly wasn't working for me. Microsoft allows the A+ and Network+ certifications to count as elective credits towards the MCSA, so since I already had the A+ cert, it kind of made sense to go ahead and sit the Network+ exam since it is much easier than taking another Microsoft test. I studied semi-diligently for a couple of weeks, got a great price on a test voucher, and took the test yesterday. I passed with a 750/900 (passing is 554), which is a good score considering I didn't study for that long. I'm honestly kind of disappointed with how easy the test was... I was relieved to have passed my other certification tests; I just looked up and asked myself "what's next" after finishing this one.

Perhaps it's because I was so frustrated with VUE because they have horrible customer service. I was actually supposed to take the test on August 8, but the exam proctor at the test site accidentally gave my test to the wrong person. She told me this when I got there and said that usually VUE lets her start the test over. Well, they didn't and they said I couldn't take the test that day and that I would have to call them on Monday to get everything straightened out. Per their instructions, I called on Monday and was told that I'd get a call from a manager on Tuesday. I called on Tuesday afternoon (after not hearing from anyone) and was told I would get a call on Wednesday. I called on Wednesday (after not hearing from anyone) and was told I would get a call on Thursday or Friday. I called on Friday (after not hearing from anyone... again) and the representative decided that I had been run around enough and rescheduled my test. Talk about a crappy way to run things.

Having gone through all of that, I killed the test but didn't feel great about it. I spent some time last night thinking about what certification I wanted to get next and I decided to finish out the MCSA since that was the whole reason for taking the Network+ exam. I'm really tired of Microsoft tests and the last one (70-291) is some of the driest material out there, but it will be worth it to finish it so I can move on to other stuff. After the MCSA is complete, I think I'll start studying for the Security+ to see if I like computer security concepts as a future path for my career.