Hey, I know how important bragging rights are. I've sunk several thousand dollars into restoring a 1973 Volkswagen Super Beetle. There's nothing like a slow, loud, underpowered, kind-of-gay rolling coffin that you built yourself!
I support hobby computing. But I don't fool myself into thinking that what works for us nerds will work for the majority of the population. Most people are better off having Microsoft make their decisions for them. Hell, my PC runs windows...because in the time it would have taken me to get Linux running on it, I could have sanded down two quater panels and replaced a seat.
Oh sure. Like all the high paid engineers at Intel and Microsoft are going to tell their bosses, "No let's not reinvent the wheel, people on the internet have already got a solution." They're going to discount it as much as possible...and their bosses will agree. The whole crux of the Microsoft fight against Linux and Open Source is that it invalidates one of the essential marketing idioms the software giant relies on: that market share alone is enough reason to trust the expertise of a software company.
Besides, if they went with an Open Firmware solution, ANYBODY could write one. Which means vendors would go with the cheapest solution. Which, if Phoenix Bios is any indication, would be complete crap.
Me, I'm all for an alternative...especially one that will tie in to the OS and allow for quicker boots, integration WITH the OS for boot management, allow for runtime management of boot devices (to power your sound card on and off without rebooting for when Midi "hangs," etc)...so long as they keep out the DRM and the rest of the crap.
Yes, but the fact is that people feel far more satisfied giving you things you don't explicitly ask for. So the shitty gifts you sometimes receive are worth more to the giver than if they just perused your wishlist.
My wife's biggest Christmas regret was the year she bought me a flash card reader. At the time they were $70 and she also bought a 3 year protection plan. Six months later, not only were flash readers in the $20 range but the one she'd gotten wasn't supported by my new mac. So I had to buy a new one. Value of gift utterly CRUSHED by next Christmas.
Solution? Buy yourself the shit you want. Ask you friends and relatives for things you grudgingly buy but would rather not have to...being very vague about it. All my best clothes are from Christmases where I didn't ask for anything.
And sometimes you'll get surprised. My wife hates when I play games on the computer, HATES it...and for Christmas, I get KotOR. Woo Woo!
I used to work for a state university computer center. We often got rid of a number of still useful, but aging machines, all at the same time (when we got money for new machines and had no room for the old ones).
We wanted to give them to local elementary schools. But in order to do that, we needed permission from the state bureau...which took forever, took a ton of money, and was basically a major hassle..
So here's what we did: we befriended the guy in charge of the security camera on the loading dock. We brought him subs and beers. Then, when it was time to toss out computers, he would flick the monitor to a different relay for 20 minutes, and we would move everything out.
Yeah. We stole it. And donated it to a "foundation," who removed serial numbers and gave the machines to the school.
Apparently, the director of the computer center liked our plan...he stopped scheduling pickups for throwaways. Just put them on the loading dock, and let them disappear.
Well, yeah, guy. If you spend a lot of money on college, and don't bust your ass, don't do your best and settle for the first thing that comes to you, yes, you are an idiot. It's not some "wage slave" conspiracy. Slavery is born out of deceit, coercion and greed, not ennui.
I knew I was lazy, so I went to a cheap school. My loans'll be paid off by the time I go to grad school.
When I was in Maine, I bought a black LL Bean bag which was a combination shoulder bag and backpack. The backpack straps pull out of a secret hidey hole on the back, and can be clipped on and off for air travel. It has two nice power supply sized pockets on the sides, two more higher up for PDAs and cellys, a thick padded section for lappys with a pocket for magazines and a second pocket big enough for my sketchbook. On the front is a pocket for discs, a padded PDA pounch, and room for keys and such. The whole thing is padded again with 1/4 inch of foam and then the outside is rubber and cordura nylon. The clasps are really awesome, some kind of pincher thing in a dull steel. It has proven indestructable, waterproof, and comfortable even with 40 pounds of gear. I even used it as an overnight bag on a trip to a casino. Price tag: $65.
Now for the bad news: I got it at the Bean outlet, and have never seen one since either in a store or online. But if you can find it...SNATCH IT UP! It is the best bag ever, and it will pain me when I have to part with it (the 12" iBook i want won't fit snugly enough).
They did make the right decision. Their decision was to make an enclosed machine that couldn't get muddled by sweat, couldn't shatter if dropped, a machine that had no moving parts and no weak points. They did a good job. We bought the thing BECAUSE it was an all-enclosed device.
Batteries on cameras are easy to replace because they don't last long. Believe me, if they could make a digital camera battery that could last for 8 hours, somebody would make an all-enclosed unit (probably Canon).
Now some people are upset that they can't get inside easily? Kind of a dumb argument, if you asked me. Besides, it is relatively simple to open an iPod case: squeeze the sides gently until they start to separate, then slip a credit card in gently.
Mine (gen 3 30 gb) USED to do what your describing, occasionally, if I was running on the road with the 'pod in my hand. It never did it on trails or on a cushioned indoor track. The last update (2.1) fixed the problem. Something to think about.
And it is certainly not too heavy to run with. My friend's wife (who is around 115 lbs) runs with his, but wouldn't do so until he bought her an iSkin. The iSkin, besides protecting the shell from impact, is silicon and really sticky...when you hold it, you can't imagine EVER dropping it. With the newest revision (which has more rear surface area than the old one) I can put the iPod on my dashboard and take corners without it slipping. And before I got the iSkin, I used to use a forearm strap which was really cool...didn't get in my way at all and never skipped.
Legitimate charge? Maybe not. But this way, Apple doesn't have to waste its time and money defending itself against the RIAA, whose members are also their business partners in the ITMS venture. It doesn't hurt its users, since we have other options.
So while it is a bit of an inconvenience that I can't drag playlists from my iPod to my hard drive before I burn them (somethimes I use a 3rd party program with more features than ITunes, such as precise waveform editing), it isn't impossible, or enough of an inconvenience to necesitate my buying another player. I'm content...the "Industry" is content...and Apple's lawyers can sleep soundly. Best possible combo, no?
The cheapest consumer price for the battery in the new iPod is $45. For a Lithium Ion battery, $45 is not bad. And no NiMH battery in that form factor would last as long, by HALF!
Meaning that Apple is charging folks $54 to open their iPods, replace the battery, and send them back. I think we can all agree that $54 is not a bad labor rate for any electronics repair...my stereo guy charges $75!
And that's not all. Because Apple wants as fast a turnaround as possible, they're sending refurb units out for battery repairs. Meaning for your $99, you're actually getting a newly certified unit. Note that their cost for OTHER repairs is about $150...meaning that you can save $51 off the cost of repairs by saying your battery is bad;).
The Ipod hard disc has lasted quite well for my running. I've pulled at least 200 miles with it since May. I got freezes at one point but the last update cleared them up.
The hard drive in there spins real slow (spindle speed being the major component of shock damage) and it only spins when it's seeking for music. Start a playlist and it'll load 32 meg of your list into memory IMMEDIATELY...and only spin up to add more, which it can usually do in under 10 seconds. This equates to 20-30 seconds of hard disk spin during a 45 minute run.
Combine that with the one year warranty and an iSkin (with which I've dropped mine a number of times onto concrete from 4 feet, no problems) and you've got the best solution joggers ever had.
That's odd, I don't know shit about file systems on my Mac, since the one that came with it is so good. So, I said "*A* mac FS"...meaning "some unknown filesystem that macintosh computers support..."
I wouldn't worry. Think Secret has been wrong so often, a rumour from them actually makes it LESS likely that something is true.
Seriously, Slashdot, why are you still posting rumours from the people who cried "G5s in the new Powerbooks," "New PDAs from Apple," and other insane, no-chance-is-it-true rumors? Their "reliable sources" aren't.
Well, the iPod shows up as removable storage. It is either a mac FS or FAT32. And you can dump files into it using third party programs, such as EphPod and PodWerks.
What you're asking for is already done.
What ISN'T done, is the ability to manage files by directory: to drag and drop them using your os and "just have it work." This isn't done for several reasons, not the least of which is indexing. Maintaining an index of the ID3 data inside an MP3 file is as important as its name...because it is this metadata that allows you to search by genre, artist, 'star' rating, etc. If you just dragged and dropped the files, you'd either have to a) build this index on disconnect, which could lead to LOTS of trouble, not to mention a lengthy startup time or b) build this index when the files are copied, which means having to attach data to the driver, and gets you no closed to cross platform compatibility than having a uniform application.
Another reason is to assuade fears that Apple was making a file swapping tool. Apple's software is one way only...copy to the ipod or delete it. You can't copy from it. Therefore, Apple can't be sued for abetting piracy...since all the pirates have to use third party tools, of which there are several good ones for Windows, Linux and OSX.
All told, the iPod is the best cross platform solution around. Apple just doesn't make a Linux version of its software...and there are TONS of compatible options for Linux users. They've already made your dream come true. And they've just answered essential questions you didn't even think to pose in the process.
Quality Time means "time spent with someone while not ignoring them or enforcing your will upon them." At least, that's what it means to me.
There is after all a big difference between an hour playing hoops with a kid or reading a book he likes, and dragging him to stores or museums he couldn't care less about.
that serve no other purpose than to revv folks up for war.
Au contraire. Their books serve no other purpose than to make these guys money. With Limbaugh going deaf and currently in rehab, there are plenty of wandering dittoheads looking to move on to a new selfish asshole pundit known for direspecting the opposition and lying outright when it serves the purpose. Coulter and O'Reilly really want that position. And oh, have they got the formula down pat.
Of course, the liberal pundits aren't helping by being silly, smug babies who are often afraid to publically attack their victims, or draw them into debate. I mean, I appreciate Franken's book on a factual level, but I can't have a book on my shelf next to Plato and Cicero called "Lies and the Lying Liars who tell them."
Actually, I know a lot of parents who devoted an entire year to reading books 4 and 5 to their kids. At five pages a night, you can finish it in 120 days. At ten pages a night, you can finish it in 60 days.
In either respect, by the time you're done you've not only satisfied your youngster's Potterlust, but you've also got some very fun quality time under your belt. Always a plus.
In his defence, while Stephen King has written some AMAZING stories, they are by no means high literature. The sentance structure and plot pacing are a uniform and uninteresting as a third grade primer. Of course, nobody said you needed to write yourself into a corner to produce an exciting book...some of King's work, such as "The Eyes of the Dragon" and "The Stand," are quite elegant in their simplicity. The Stand in particular stands out as one of the few books in excess of 600 pages that you can easily read on an evening, never have to look up a word, and still not be insulted by.
You've got to love that!
I feel the same about Chuck Palaniuk. Great storyteller and somebody who really has his finger up the ass of the angry anti-consumer culture american youth. But god, his writing is the worst! He can't even stay in TENSE, for christ's sake. If he were one of my students (I teach written discourse, essay writing and personal narratives), I'd fail him...and send him down the hall to the Masters in Creative Literature class, where he'd blow their tiny minds.
I am (fairly obviously) comparing BATTERY LIFE on an ipod (which also has 1000s of parts) with FUEL ECONOMY on a car. I'd have to say these were very analogous concepts, being rates of energy use. In fact, you could very well state the economy of a car in hours between fill-ups, as you can a battery in hours per charge. Shoe life can be expressed in days before replacement...in fact, it is.
Different stresses is exactly the point of my post. Different types of use present different stresses on the iPod which, while no difficult to understand, may not be immediately apparent...and thus, can result in unexpected battery life reduction. It is more likely that a person is engaging in an unusally stressful type of use than the battery is crap, and in the latter eventuality Apple will replace the battery free of charge.
So if there's a battery problem, if somebody messed up, Apple will fix it. I'm over it. Let's hope the grandparent poster realizes that quite a bit of his $300-$500 went into the warranty safety net...and he should make use of it.
Maybe next time you should try reading a post before rebutting it. That's normally how discourse works.
Actually, shipping is a furthur $6. They are open about this on the support website.
But you are correct. $50 is not bad for an hour of time from a knowledgable American electronics repairman. $100 is therefore about right. I wish it were less, too. I wish everything were less. I don't think the fact that stuff isn't free is evidence of a conspiracy...more like evidence of, you know, capitalism...
It's the fact that the ipod isn't the size of a damn tricorder. Listen. Maybe YOU don't need a handheld device for your music, but I do. Before the iPod, I had three other machines to do everything I do with digital music (a tiny little solid state machine for the gym, an mp3 cd player for the car, and a hard drive for transporting between work and back). There are, to my knowledge, no other hard drive based music players using 1.8" hard drives...they all use giant, powerhungry 2.5" models like a laptop. Therefore, there are no other models that are truly handheld, no other models with are really pocket sized.
A girl at work has an archos. It's pretty cool, but she can't go running with it. It's too big to fit confortably in her hand...and she's 5'11!
No, the iPod is not THAT much smaller. But it is still the only machine that is small enough in size and big enough in disk space to be really useful. That is why people are willing to spend more...and why they have to spend more, a 1.8" HD is nearly twice the price wholesale as a 2.5" model...
This is because you were a nerd. No matter what close you wore, you weren't getting laid. But that oscilloscope could make you rich some day...and then the pussy comes ROLLING in.
Slashdot Mirror
Hey, I know how important bragging rights are. I've sunk several thousand dollars into restoring a 1973 Volkswagen Super Beetle. There's nothing like a slow, loud, underpowered, kind-of-gay rolling coffin that you built yourself!
I support hobby computing. But I don't fool myself into thinking that what works for us nerds will work for the majority of the population. Most people are better off having Microsoft make their decisions for them. Hell, my PC runs windows...because in the time it would have taken me to get Linux running on it, I could have sanded down two quater panels and replaced a seat.
Oh sure. Like all the high paid engineers at Intel and Microsoft are going to tell their bosses, "No let's not reinvent the wheel, people on the internet have already got a solution." They're going to discount it as much as possible...and their bosses will agree. The whole crux of the Microsoft fight against Linux and Open Source is that it invalidates one of the essential marketing idioms the software giant relies on: that market share alone is enough reason to trust the expertise of a software company.
Besides, if they went with an Open Firmware solution, ANYBODY could write one. Which means vendors would go with the cheapest solution. Which, if Phoenix Bios is any indication, would be complete crap.
Me, I'm all for an alternative...especially one that will tie in to the OS and allow for quicker boots, integration WITH the OS for boot management, allow for runtime management of boot devices (to power your sound card on and off without rebooting for when Midi "hangs," etc)...so long as they keep out the DRM and the rest of the crap.
Yes, but the fact is that people feel far more satisfied giving you things you don't explicitly ask for. So the shitty gifts you sometimes receive are worth more to the giver than if they just perused your wishlist.
My wife's biggest Christmas regret was the year she bought me a flash card reader. At the time they were $70 and she also bought a 3 year protection plan. Six months later, not only were flash readers in the $20 range but the one she'd gotten wasn't supported by my new mac. So I had to buy a new one. Value of gift utterly CRUSHED by next Christmas.
Solution? Buy yourself the shit you want. Ask you friends and relatives for things you grudgingly buy but would rather not have to...being very vague about it. All my best clothes are from Christmases where I didn't ask for anything.
And sometimes you'll get surprised. My wife hates when I play games on the computer, HATES it...and for Christmas, I get KotOR. Woo Woo!
My answer was 14. What do I get?
I used to work for a state university computer center. We often got rid of a number of still useful, but aging machines, all at the same time (when we got money for new machines and had no room for the old ones).
We wanted to give them to local elementary schools. But in order to do that, we needed permission from the state bureau...which took forever, took a ton of money, and was basically a major hassle..
So here's what we did: we befriended the guy in charge of the security camera on the loading dock. We brought him subs and beers. Then, when it was time to toss out computers, he would flick the monitor to a different relay for 20 minutes, and we would move everything out.
Yeah. We stole it. And donated it to a "foundation," who removed serial numbers and gave the machines to the school.
Apparently, the director of the computer center liked our plan...he stopped scheduling pickups for throwaways. Just put them on the loading dock, and let them disappear.
Well, yeah, guy. If you spend a lot of money on college, and don't bust your ass, don't do your best and settle for the first thing that comes to you, yes, you are an idiot. It's not some "wage slave" conspiracy. Slavery is born out of deceit, coercion and greed, not ennui.
I knew I was lazy, so I went to a cheap school. My loans'll be paid off by the time I go to grad school.
When I was in Maine, I bought a black LL Bean bag which was a combination shoulder bag and backpack. The backpack straps pull out of a secret hidey hole on the back, and can be clipped on and off for air travel. It has two nice power supply sized pockets on the sides, two more higher up for PDAs and cellys, a thick padded section for lappys with a pocket for magazines and a second pocket big enough for my sketchbook. On the front is a pocket for discs, a padded PDA pounch, and room for keys and such. The whole thing is padded again with 1/4 inch of foam and then the outside is rubber and cordura nylon. The clasps are really awesome, some kind of pincher thing in a dull steel. It has proven indestructable, waterproof, and comfortable even with 40 pounds of gear. I even used it as an overnight bag on a trip to a casino. Price tag: $65.
Now for the bad news: I got it at the Bean outlet, and have never seen one since either in a store or online. But if you can find it...SNATCH IT UP! It is the best bag ever, and it will pain me when I have to part with it (the 12" iBook i want won't fit snugly enough).
They did make the right decision. Their decision was to make an enclosed machine that couldn't get muddled by sweat, couldn't shatter if dropped, a machine that had no moving parts and no weak points. They did a good job. We bought the thing BECAUSE it was an all-enclosed device.
Batteries on cameras are easy to replace because they don't last long. Believe me, if they could make a digital camera battery that could last for 8 hours, somebody would make an all-enclosed unit (probably Canon).
Now some people are upset that they can't get inside easily? Kind of a dumb argument, if you asked me. Besides, it is relatively simple to open an iPod case: squeeze the sides gently until they start to separate, then slip a credit card in gently.
Misinformed people are never stupid. Just lazy!
Which iPod do you have, Gen 1 or 2, or Gen 3?
Mine (gen 3 30 gb) USED to do what your describing, occasionally, if I was running on the road with the 'pod in my hand. It never did it on trails or on a cushioned indoor track. The last update (2.1) fixed the problem. Something to think about.
And it is certainly not too heavy to run with. My friend's wife (who is around 115 lbs) runs with his, but wouldn't do so until he bought her an iSkin. The iSkin, besides protecting the shell from impact, is silicon and really sticky...when you hold it, you can't imagine EVER dropping it. With the newest revision (which has more rear surface area than the old one) I can put the iPod on my dashboard and take corners without it slipping. And before I got the iSkin, I used to use a forearm strap which was really cool...didn't get in my way at all and never skipped.
Legitimate charge? Maybe not. But this way, Apple doesn't have to waste its time and money defending itself against the RIAA, whose members are also their business partners in the ITMS venture. It doesn't hurt its users, since we have other options.
So while it is a bit of an inconvenience that I can't drag playlists from my iPod to my hard drive before I burn them (somethimes I use a 3rd party program with more features than ITunes, such as precise waveform editing), it isn't impossible, or enough of an inconvenience to necesitate my buying another player. I'm content...the "Industry" is content...and Apple's lawyers can sleep soundly. Best possible combo, no?
*Sigh* for the last time:
;).
The cheapest consumer price for the battery in the new iPod is $45. For a Lithium Ion battery, $45 is not bad. And no NiMH battery in that form factor would last as long, by HALF!
Meaning that Apple is charging folks $54 to open their iPods, replace the battery, and send them back. I think we can all agree that $54 is not a bad labor rate for any electronics repair...my stereo guy charges $75!
And that's not all. Because Apple wants as fast a turnaround as possible, they're sending refurb units out for battery repairs. Meaning for your $99, you're actually getting a newly certified unit. Note that their cost for OTHER repairs is about $150...meaning that you can save $51 off the cost of repairs by saying your battery is bad
The Ipod hard disc has lasted quite well for my running. I've pulled at least 200 miles with it since May. I got freezes at one point but the last update cleared them up.
The hard drive in there spins real slow (spindle speed being the major component of shock damage) and it only spins when it's seeking for music. Start a playlist and it'll load 32 meg of your list into memory IMMEDIATELY...and only spin up to add more, which it can usually do in under 10 seconds. This equates to 20-30 seconds of hard disk spin during a 45 minute run.
Combine that with the one year warranty and an iSkin (with which I've dropped mine a number of times onto concrete from 4 feet, no problems) and you've got the best solution joggers ever had.
That's odd, I don't know shit about file systems on my Mac, since the one that came with it is so good. So, I said "*A* mac FS"...meaning "some unknown filesystem that macintosh computers support..."
I wouldn't worry. Think Secret has been wrong so often, a rumour from them actually makes it LESS likely that something is true.
Seriously, Slashdot, why are you still posting rumours from the people who cried "G5s in the new Powerbooks," "New PDAs from Apple," and other insane, no-chance-is-it-true rumors? Their "reliable sources" aren't.
Well, the iPod shows up as removable storage. It is either a mac FS or FAT32. And you can dump files into it using third party programs, such as EphPod and PodWerks.
What you're asking for is already done.
What ISN'T done, is the ability to manage files by directory: to drag and drop them using your os and "just have it work." This isn't done for several reasons, not the least of which is indexing. Maintaining an index of the ID3 data inside an MP3 file is as important as its name...because it is this metadata that allows you to search by genre, artist, 'star' rating, etc. If you just dragged and dropped the files, you'd either have to a) build this index on disconnect, which could lead to LOTS of trouble, not to mention a lengthy startup time or b) build this index when the files are copied, which means having to attach data to the driver, and gets you no closed to cross platform compatibility than having a uniform application.
Another reason is to assuade fears that Apple was making a file swapping tool. Apple's software is one way only...copy to the ipod or delete it. You can't copy from it. Therefore, Apple can't be sued for abetting piracy...since all the pirates have to use third party tools, of which there are several good ones for Windows, Linux and OSX.
All told, the iPod is the best cross platform solution around. Apple just doesn't make a Linux version of its software...and there are TONS of compatible options for Linux users. They've already made your dream come true. And they've just answered essential questions you didn't even think to pose in the process.
Quality Time means "time spent with someone while not ignoring them or enforcing your will upon them." At least, that's what it means to me.
There is after all a big difference between an hour playing hoops with a kid or reading a book he likes, and dragging him to stores or museums he couldn't care less about.
that serve no other purpose than to revv folks up for war.
Au contraire. Their books serve no other purpose than to make these guys money. With Limbaugh going deaf and currently in rehab, there are plenty of wandering dittoheads looking to move on to a new selfish asshole pundit known for direspecting the opposition and lying outright when it serves the purpose. Coulter and O'Reilly really want that position. And oh, have they got the formula down pat.
Of course, the liberal pundits aren't helping by being silly, smug babies who are often afraid to publically attack their victims, or draw them into debate. I mean, I appreciate Franken's book on a factual level, but I can't have a book on my shelf next to Plato and Cicero called "Lies and the Lying Liars who tell them."
Actually, I know a lot of parents who devoted an entire year to reading books 4 and 5 to their kids. At five pages a night, you can finish it in 120 days. At ten pages a night, you can finish it in 60 days.
In either respect, by the time you're done you've not only satisfied your youngster's Potterlust, but you've also got some very fun quality time under your belt. Always a plus.
Really, "Art of UNIX programming?" From ESR? I haven't seen it yet...is the cover art by Jackson Pollock?
In his defence, while Stephen King has written some AMAZING stories, they are by no means high literature. The sentance structure and plot pacing are a uniform and uninteresting as a third grade primer. Of course, nobody said you needed to write yourself into a corner to produce an exciting book...some of King's work, such as "The Eyes of the Dragon" and "The Stand," are quite elegant in their simplicity. The Stand in particular stands out as one of the few books in excess of 600 pages that you can easily read on an evening, never have to look up a word, and still not be insulted by.
You've got to love that!
I feel the same about Chuck Palaniuk. Great storyteller and somebody who really has his finger up the ass of the angry anti-consumer culture american youth. But god, his writing is the worst! He can't even stay in TENSE, for christ's sake. If he were one of my students (I teach written discourse, essay writing and personal narratives), I'd fail him...and send him down the hall to the Masters in Creative Literature class, where he'd blow their tiny minds.
I am (fairly obviously) comparing BATTERY LIFE on an ipod (which also has 1000s of parts) with FUEL ECONOMY on a car. I'd have to say these were very analogous concepts, being rates of energy use. In fact, you could very well state the economy of a car in hours between fill-ups, as you can a battery in hours per charge. Shoe life can be expressed in days before replacement...in fact, it is.
Different stresses is exactly the point of my post. Different types of use present different stresses on the iPod which, while no difficult to understand, may not be immediately apparent...and thus, can result in unexpected battery life reduction. It is more likely that a person is engaging in an unusally stressful type of use than the battery is crap, and in the latter eventuality Apple will replace the battery free of charge.
So if there's a battery problem, if somebody messed up, Apple will fix it. I'm over it. Let's hope the grandparent poster realizes that quite a bit of his $300-$500 went into the warranty safety net...and he should make use of it.
Maybe next time you should try reading a post before rebutting it. That's normally how discourse works.
Actually, shipping is a furthur $6. They are open about this on the support website.
But you are correct. $50 is not bad for an hour of time from a knowledgable American electronics repairman. $100 is therefore about right. I wish it were less, too. I wish everything were less. I don't think the fact that stuff isn't free is evidence of a conspiracy...more like evidence of, you know, capitalism...
It's the fact that the ipod isn't the size of a damn tricorder. Listen. Maybe YOU don't need a handheld device for your music, but I do. Before the iPod, I had three other machines to do everything I do with digital music (a tiny little solid state machine for the gym, an mp3 cd player for the car, and a hard drive for transporting between work and back). There are, to my knowledge, no other hard drive based music players using 1.8" hard drives...they all use giant, powerhungry 2.5" models like a laptop. Therefore, there are no other models that are truly handheld, no other models with are really pocket sized.
A girl at work has an archos. It's pretty cool, but she can't go running with it. It's too big to fit confortably in her hand...and she's 5'11!
No, the iPod is not THAT much smaller. But it is still the only machine that is small enough in size and big enough in disk space to be really useful. That is why people are willing to spend more...and why they have to spend more, a 1.8" HD is nearly twice the price wholesale as a 2.5" model...
This is because you were a nerd. No matter what close you wore, you weren't getting laid. But that oscilloscope could make you rich some day...and then the pussy comes ROLLING in.
See? Nerds are at heart a pragmatic people.