Ed Bilodeau

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This weblog had moved: http://www.coolweblog.com/bilodeau/

# Notice (Oct 19/05): So ends my stay here on Blogger. This morning Google implemented an anti-spam 'feature' that forces me to answer a challenge phrase when I want to post to my own blog. No notice of the change, nothing. Worse is that it doesn't even work! I type the phrase, submit, "An error occured", post deleted. Damn you, Google. Chances are I will revive my blog somewhere else, sometime soon. I'll post the new coordinates here as soon as they become available. (BTW, I'm unable to post anything to my RSS stream, so I'd appreciate it if readers could spread the word and ask people to take a look at this notice)

Update (Oct 19/05, ~noon): After a frustrating few hours (and not just trying out alternatives to Blogger), I've decided that this is a good time to take a break from all this. A day? A week? Who knows. But I need to step away from it before I pass a heavy magnet over the whole mess.

Update 2: According to this post, the reason I'm seeing the CAPTCHA (challenge phrase) is that Blogger has classified my blog as spam. Thanks. User for five years and now I'm spam. I searched the Blogger site, but there is no mention of how to get the spam flag turned off. There is also no way of contacting anyone at Blogger. Wow. Spam they say I am, so spam I must be. Maybe it is time to take a break.

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

iPod Nano update : Apple admits to iPod Nano faults, citing a bad batch where a high-rate of screen cracking has been discovered. However, according to a company spokesperson, "'the iPod Nano is made from the same high quality polycarbonate plastic as the very popular fourth generation iPod." In otherwords, having the thing really scrated up after owning it a few hours is normal and to be expected.

I know of at least one person who thinks the people complaining over the scratched Nanos are a bunch of weenie winers (I'm paraphrasing), and I guess he's right.

The problem is that the Nano looks like you could carry it everywhere, and people expect to be able to do so. Jobs carries his in his pocket (if the stained-glass imagery is to be taken as fact, and not just the artist's interpretation of reality); I want to carry it in my pocket, too!

People expect it to get scuffed up, but maybe not the same day they forked out a few hundred bucks for it.

The iPod Nano is not just an MP3 player, it is a symbol, a phylactery, a reminder of their belief and their committment, a connection to someting larger then themselves. And there is it, in the palm of their hand, once coveted, and now soon, too soon, scratched and maimed, imperfect. NO! The rapture of the purchase is still fresh in their minds, the possession still not taken for granted. Too soon! TOO SOON!

But the iPod Nano requires special care. Shelter it, protect it. It is small and powerful, but vulnerable, so vulnerable. You who have taken not heeded this warning have seen what unthinking action brings. The folly!

(The other day on the train ride home I saw a guy booting up his titantium Powerbook. He opened it and, before he began to type, removed the protective fabric that he had placed between the keyboard and the screen. This he folded in four and placed carefully in the Powerbook's carry case.)