An Apple a day

I received a new iPod for my birthday. What a great product! I'm hooked on it. The benefits of ownership of this Apple product are legion. For one thing, I save money on lunch. I have quit going out so much, and instead will stay at work and eat in the breakroom. Before, I couldn't stand to eat in the breakroom. That meant I had to spend an hour listening to the same bunch of dysfunctional, disengaged morons that I was already spending eight hours a day working around. But now, with iPod, I can sit there and drown them out, and they all sit around looking at the iPod and thinking about how cool I am.

But that's not what I came to talk about. Last week, Steve Jobs had a big product announcement. He said that Apple was dropping the price of the new iPhone by $200. The masses erupted in feverish enthusiasm and love for Mr. Jobs. However, the people who had already purchased an iPhone were steamed. Their question was why couldn't the price have been dropped initially? Why did they have to pay a premium for bing a first adopter? So Apple, ever the image-conscious company, came up with a plan to appease that demographic. They announced that there will be a $100 credit to the Apple store for all users of the iPhone who had previously purchased one. Further, they would refund $200 to anyone who had purchased an iPhone in the last 14 days.

At the same big product announcement above, Mr. Jobs also unveiled the new line of iPods. The iPod touch screen is now available, essentially the iPhone without the Phone. It's off the chart on cool factor. They also announced some changes to the iPod product line. The Nano now has a video screen (which is great if you can watch a movie on a matchbook). The Shuffle gets a new set of colors.

The iPod classic, as it is now known, will now be available with either an 80GB hard drive or a 160GB hard drive. The 80GB model sells for $249, and the 160GB model sells for $349. Now, when my wife went shopping for my iPod, the available models were the 30GB and the 80GB. The prices were $249 for the 30GB, and $399 for the 80GB. I have the 30GB, because she decided not to spend the extra money for the bigger model.

However, had she waited, or had my birthday been about three weeks later, my wife would have been able to purchase the 80GB model for the exact same amount of money that she spent for the one with the smaller hard drive.

Does this situation sound familiar to you? To me, this sounds exactly like a situation that Apple, ever the image-conscious company, would have a plan designed to appease this demographic.

So, I composed an email to Apple, stating what I have listed above. I set about trying to find what avenue to sent it through, by going to apple.com. Way down in the corner of the site, you'll find the contact us link. You will find a page that will tell you how to find an Apple store, or support for your product, or how to give feedback on the site or on the products, but you will not find a link to customer service. NONE. There is no link to simply state your opinions and concerns to Apple. My guess is that Apple thinks that you, the customer, are going to feel so I cool with their products that even if you have a concern, it'll be washed away in good feelings for such cool products.

Well, not me, bucko. I ain't taking this. I printed my email, and mailed it. Their is a corporate phone number listed on the site, and I'm calling it later today. If I don't at least get a response soon, there's always the media, and worse, the Internet. I don't expect Apple to give me an 80GB iPod. I would like for them to include me in the we're-sorry-here-go-shopping program.

I'll keep you posted. If you see me out, be sure to ask me how it's going, but be aware that you'll have to wave your hand in front of my face first to get my attention.

So it goes.

Another boring day here, and another day spent tweaking Vista. It's all I've done since Monday, except for a few hours at work yesterday. I spent some time with the dog, too, which makes me great in her eyes. That and Schmacko's, and she's set.

Did you hear about the guy here in Georgia who got ran over by his own steamroller? Yeah, yeah, I know it sounds like a setup, but it's for real. The guy got off it to check something, and left it running, and it ran over him. There was a guy working nearby who saw it, and they said he was beyond distraught. I can imagine so. So I told this to someone last night, and then said, "I bet his wife was crushed." I really didn't

mean it the way it came out. But even if she wasn't, he was. Oh, God, please forgive me.

I have another minor dilema now. I have this perfectly good HP keyboard hooked up right now. To load Vista, you have to disconnect everything USB, which includes wireless keyboards and mice. So I dragged out this one that came with the new computer. The mouse is no great shakes; it's a rollerball mouse, wired in. The problem is I really, really like typing on this keyboard. The keys just have a better feel to them than my almost-new Logitech Wireless Keyboard, which is shiny and fancy and stuff. So do I use the keyboard that came with the unit, or do I switch back to the one I spent about $50 bucks on not long back? I'd feel awfully guilty if I don't use it, you know. That would be a waste of money. But wouldn't this be a waste, also? And what if it inspires me to use it more? I know I can type faster on it than the other, already. Oh, well, let the keyboard wars begin.

Wheeee! I just installed Vista today. It took Hours. When I got the upgrade package, the instructions said to allow four hours. Bullhoggely. They meant four hours just for the discs to run, not four hours all together. That four hour time solution does not count time spent going to Microsoft for updates, both before and after the install, nor does it count the time spent at HP looking for new drivers and downloads, nor does it count the fact that if you're using Norton Internet Protection you must go there and download the program, since you had to uninstall it before the upgrade, not to mention that you have to run a system scan beforehand. When I said "discs" loading, I got my upgrade through Moduslink. Because Microsoft was late in delivering Vista, there were a lot of computers sold before Christmas without the new OS. To make up for it, Microsoft agreed to the updates, and the manufacturers had to handle the distribution of same. Moduslink was hired by HP to handle their upgrades. What a nightmare. I had to enter a certificate of authenticity number from the unit on the Moduslink site. I lost my connection right in the middle of it, and the COA wouldn't work. I kept getting the message that it was not valid. After a couple of phone calls to both Microsoft and HP, I finally sent an e-mail to customer service at Moduslink, and they got me validated again. I then went back through the order process, which took about eight weeks. I just found out yesterday that I was not the only customer with validation problems. It turns out that a lot of people dealing with Moduslink had the same problem, and a lot of them had problems with delivery. I guess I missed out on that one.

But you know what? This thing's prettty cool so far. I guess the working word at first is "smooth." It seems to be smooth. I haven't gotten into anything like Movie Maker, or even Media Center yet. The Aero graphics are slick. Or smooth. I couldn't wait to learn how to tile the windows. So far, no hardware problems, no compatibility probems with software, although HP pretty much removed all of that with their first upgrade disc. So I'm going to play now.

This is the result of a dog attack. These were taken about 24 hours after the attack. She had to wear the sattelite dish for about three days. She was so sore that she didn't grumble, or even attempt to take it off. Mostly, she slept.
Teeth marks and bruises. She turned deep purple in the next couple of days. It's now two weeks later, and she's still bruised, not to mention white scars all over her belly.












Okay, my Picasa program is acting up, so I'll just post these.

I'm so desperate for something to write about that I have been signing up on sites with forums, like home repairs or something that I know about, so that I can answer questions, using genuine real knowledge. Like, "I need to add a second drain pan to my a/c unit. Where do I mount it?" That kind of stuff. Man, that's desperate, but just maybe it will work, and nudge my brain into motion. Hey, it must be working sort-of, since this is the first time in forever that I've been here. And by the way, the correct answer is as close to the air-handling unit as you can get it, if ductwork isn't in the way.

It's been a really tough week here. Last week, Mabel was attacked by a pit bull. It nearly killed her. There's so much to say about it, about how I feel, how Linda feels, how the dog has healed over the course of a week. I'm going to try to do this one a piece at a time. However, now is not the time to start, since it's almost midnight here, and I have to work tomorrow. I'll post a photo, and we'll try to go from there.

Hey, hey. I'm still here. And I have the pictures to prove it. Well, not really proof of my existence, but proof that I have a camera. I'm working on blogging something, I really am. It's hard anymore. I know I'll work through it, just as soon as I get accustomed to my new boss, get the stress off my head at work, sell my house, sell my mother-in-law's house, buy a new house, turn 49, and get skinny. Oh, yeah, and not die from bad blood-pressure medicine. That's a long story.

Anyway, I wanted to post something, so here's a couple of pictures I took at a recent Braves game. It was a cool game, Saturday before the All-Star break. Smoltz pitched, got a hit and an RBI, and scored a run. The place went wild. Fun, fun game.