Well it was inevitable, I dropped it, yup I dropped my laptop, and I knew it was going to happen. Lets set the scene here. The lecture halls here of the most terribly designed desks in the world. The desk part of the chair swivels up at a 45 degree angle in one smooth movement and rests at the top to form the flat surface of a table. Very clean and smooth from a design stand point. But an absolute atrocity and nightmare from a usability standpoint. Most desks have a two motion, vertical rotation up and a flip of a table to lock it into position or something but these do not.
The slightest pressure forward sends the desk flying back down into its storage position, even too much pressure straight down will result in the same action. So I have made it a habit not to ever put my computer on one of these desks, but for some reason yesterday I did.
In the middle of a quite lecture hall, I let out one of my bellowing sneezes in which my hand barely grazed the edge of the desk catapulting my computer into the air, which landed not on my step but the step below, creating an extremely painful array of sounds, that should never be associated with a computer, followed by a long and loud explicit streaming from my mouth. This whole ordeal being followed by a lecture room full of stares, and a very red face by me. But amazingly enough my computer seems to be in perfect working order, minus the dent left by the initial impact.
So thumbs up to Apple for the Sudden Motion Sensor, and a major thumbs down to the QUT Lecture Hall desks.
Tagged: Apple, apple computer, computer, laptop, sudden motion sensor