What All Good Things Come To

My iPod is no more!

There I was, cruising up Point Pleasant Pike in my Jeep, and suddenly, Silence. The screen was frozen. I did a hard reset (or whatever it is), and this time, there was a terrifying image I didn't think I'd ever see again: a Sad Mac. (Only it was a Sad iPod.)

I don't know if Sad Macs still exist since the advent of OS X. Back in the day, when your Mac SE went on the fritz, you knew it was really bad when an image of your Mac with a frowny face in the screen showed up. That meant a trip to Tek Serve, the Old Reliable Macintosh Shop on 23rd Street where they would break your heart. (Thank the Lord and Steve Jobs, I'm not speaking from experience, I only heard the scary stories once sitting around a camp fire out in the wilderness.)

But I've got a Sad iPod.

Which is understandable. My iPod is one of the originals, among the very first sold. The wheel thingy on the front of mine actually turns.

Now, all is not lost. I can send it away to Apple and the fine folks there will make it all better. But there will be a charge for that. Plus shipping. And I'm just wondering how that cost would compare to buying myself a brand spanking new iPod. After all, I bought my Shuffle for $69, so I'm betting the price of iPods has come down quite a bit in the seven intervening years.

Right now, of course, that's all academic. But if I find out tomorrow that I have a job...