Yeah, I also learned about that the hard way. I once tripped over the carpet on my way into a room where my tiny Sony laptop was on and waiting for me, and splashed water all over it. I freaked and sent it to Sony repair, and they told me it needed a new motherboard, which would cost $800. The laptop was 3 years old at the time, so I just bought a new one, though I couldn't afford it, and told Sony to send the old one back unrepaired. A week later, I tried to turn it on just to see if I could get it up long enough to get data off my hard drive, and it WORKED! Of course, I don't know how much longer it would have worked before rust from the spill corroded the circuits, but at the time I was a little upset that I had just spent so much on a new one.
Another time I put my cell phone in the washing machine, and again, 3 days later, after a thorough drying-out, it worked, and this time it worked for 2 more years, with the only damage being a slightly sticky #9 key.
Since then, I've read that the key to preserving any possible recovery of a wet laptop is NOT to turn it on until it's completely dried out, and to take out and wipe off any removable parts, including battery, hard drive, memory chips, and keyboard keys, as soon as you can.
And, of course, you shouldn't eat or drink or put glasses or bottles down near a laptop. But
** does happen.
And the reason I didn't suggest going to Apple straight off is exactly what other people said -- the spill will void your warranty, and repair is likely to be as expensive as a new computer.
