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I'm off work this week, so I went ahead and did it.

http://todd.dailey.info/archives/2007/11/19/the-iphone-imei-echo-chamber/

In summary from that link:
- The "imei" field being sent to Apple isn't your actual IMEI in plain text.
- The weather and the stock widget both contain different values for the imei field, so there must be some sort of encoding or salt added to the actual IMEI value for each one.
- At this point there's no empirical data that the imei field data being sent has anything to do with your actual IMEI, but it does appear to be some sort of identifier.
- Also, I tried a reboot and the data in the imei field is persistent, it stays the same after a reboot.

51. Clean your iPod with brasso based on a slashdot comment. Take pics and post about it on your weblog. Get an amazing amount of traffic. Watch the adsense dollars flow in.

I'm not saying I'm retiring soon or anything, but it was surprising to see the checks from google show up. Bonus! :)

Agreed. I said much the same in a followup post. I think Brasso is a great for a 2nd chance with the nano, but not for, say, an 100th chance.

OMFG! Where do I begin?

1. Every iPod I own has gotten scratches.
2. If you don't like scratches, get a case.
3. If you already have scratches, try Brasso or iCleaner. I've tried both and they work well.

Bottom line, scratches are the responsiblity of the owner. GM won't replace your car if YOU scratch it, so why should Apple pay up if your iPod gets scratched. Meaning that if you own an iPod Nano, it's YOUR fault that you have scratches. Please deal with it in a way that does not involve the justice system as it is NOT their problem.

I got a ridiculous amount of hits to my blog posting from a couple of weeks ago where I cleaned the scratches off my nano with Brasso. Actually, I got the idea from the original slashdot thread on the nano scratching issues.

My take: the nano doesn't scratch more than a normal iPod, but it's so small that you're tempted to pocket it, causing more scratches than you would get in the un-pocketable full-size iPods. I see that with the new iPods w/video Apple is now including a *really* basic (fabric?) case. Maybe that was a response to all the talk about the nano. I do think that the nano needs some sort of screen protector or case in order to stay scratch free. I made mine from some old PDA screen protectors.

Use Brasso to take the scratches off... Brasso

Nothing that a $4 can of Brasso wont' fix. :)

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Want a nano? Find 5 other people who want one too, and it yours!

I completely removed all scratches from my black nano using Brasso. (Which I got the idea for from the previous Slashdot thread on this.)

Full story here. Check out the before and after pictures, I was really surprised by the great results.

And yes, my nano is now sitting in a baggie, waiting for my case to arrive. :) I think that's the main issue with the nano, you (mostly) can't get cases right now either through Apple or third-parties. I imagine by the end of the month this won't be the case and this issue will blow over just in time for the Christmas buying season.

OOPS - Link included below:

This guy has a pictoral on how he fixed up his nano screen with Brasso. Pretty amazing stuff, if it's legit.

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Want a nano? Find 5 others that want a nano too, and you're all set.

Slashdot note:

Todd Dailey works at Apple as a pre-sales server and storage technical contact in the sales group...(info from here).

...so it continues to be marketing-speak vs. real-world experience.

I worked as an evangelist for Novell, and, while I think Mr. Plamondon makes some good points, I agree with Micah Alpern that war analogies aren't necessarily the right ones. Also, I would think Mr. Plamondon would be more marketing-savvy than to refer to people that are helping him as "pawns". Chess analogy or not, it's not exactly a postitive signal to be sending out to people doing your work for you. :)

One very good point he makes is the idea of empowering other people to create materials about the technology you are evangelizing. It was amazing to me that I could get a lot of high quality help out of people for just a little public recognition, or some free software, or a nice gadget. People like to feel like they are helping with things that they feel passionately about. Heck, that's one of the reasons why the Linux movement has done so well, since just about anyone can dive in and start contributing in some way.

The problem I always experienced was from internal groups who were afraid of losing control of the corporate image. For example, we talked a lot about providing open forums and community sites for end users and consultants to share their solutions. This ended up being a series of communities we called CoolSolutions. But the actual code and solutions that people wrote went through a gauntlet of legal and marketing people, and it really wasn't an "open" community, it was all carefully screened.

The book "The Cluetrain Manifesto" talks a lot about these issues with large companies afraid to give up control. I think the right thing to do is for companies to loosly try to encourage an "ecosystem" around their technologies that then becomes self supporting. In this sense, they are practicing biomimicry in the form of crop diversity. You could think of internal PR and marketing departments as monocrops that are very susceptible to a single bad link, such as a sucky chief marketing officer. Diversity is good, and a product evangelism is one role that can encourage corporate "crop" diversity.

As an aside, I'm currently looking for a job. So if anyone in management read this and said, "product evangelists? I've gotta get me one of those!", then you can get to my resume here. or e-mail me at twid @ projectjellybean.com. I don't smell, I brush my teeth several times a day, I have no open oozing wounds, and I'm great fun at parties.