WHEN I turned my Mac on this morning a cheerful, smiling face popped up on the screen and, after the usual hemming and hawing of the disc drive, it happily went to work. After being back in the Mac fold for about a month, I'm more at home with this personable little machine than I was when I complained in this space about the pains of getting used to a new computer. Welcome to the Mac ohana
Apparently, someone at Apple read that column. I got a call a few days later from former Apple engineer Byron Han, now a UH grad student in astronomy and Mac consultant. Han wanted to know, could he take a look and try to fix the problems I was having?
It took more than a look. Han spent an afternoon diagnosing the problem, returned with another Apple specialist a few days later to test the newspaper's network and finally took my bruised apple home for the weekend to get the worms out. The patient, now bug-free, has fully recovered.
Having used PCs for the last decade, I've grown used to waiting on hold for the next customer service representative to become available at the other end of an 800-number.
We veterans of the vast, impersonal world of the PC aren't used to this kind of service -- imagine having Mr. Goodwrench call you from the local Chevy dealer to say, ''I heard you were having a little trouble with your new car. Mind if I drop by and take a look?''