I’m sad to have to say that, a couple of months ago, I upended a Venti flat white from Starbucks on the dining room table and the lid popped off. The drink immediately surrounded an inundated my Macbook Pro.
I’m grateful that Erin was very equanimical about it, possibly because I was distraught. Suffice it to say, that turned out to be one expensive cup of coffee, but I need a computer in order to do my work. And as Apple’s warranty doesn’t cover acts of Starbucks, I had to shell out for a new one.
Still, looking on the bright side, I’ve been using Macintosh laptops for over ten years, and this is the first death due to coffee spill. If I can keep to a once-every-ten-years average, that’s not a bad record. I’ve also taken steps to ensure my computer is protected.
But it also meant that my previous etched lid was no more. As I consider that a security measure (after having two laptops stolen from my rental car in Chicago back in 2009), and I wanted it to look good, I set about making a new design.
It’s getting a little harder to do “tech tattoos” these days. The companies that did them before have passed on, and the templates they offer are out of date. However, I did find a local place called Waterloo Engraving. These guys walked me through the formats they wanted, and I played around with Adobe Illustrator to create a design that was cleaner and neater for the laser to apply. This is the result, applied for less than $40.
I’m quite pleased! And if any of you need anything engraved, I heartily recommend these folks.