Actually I'm not THAT annoying about it, I just might smirk to myself and quietly go ha ha, I had one before you did, nah nah na nah na! But really I think deep down it is just a love for finding something, treasuring it, keeping true to it and not throwing it away even though newer, shinier, thinner, models become available. Also probably why I like vintage or secondhand clothes. And why someday I WILL drive a restored '70s era Trans Am a la the one in Son In Law, or maybe a vintage VW bus?
Point in case: We bought one of the original iPods. The first generation 10 GB scroll wheel kind. You know, the ones that are just a tad bigger in dimension than a deck of cards, and weigh like 1 lb? Once more people started getting them, like around the 3rd or 4th generation with the teeny Nanos and Shuffles, I lovingly referred to ours as "the brick." Actually it only weighs 6.5 oz.We bought it in 2002 (for like $500, oh those spendy dual-income days), and it worked like a champ for about 5 years; though during that time, the most use it got was when we'd fill it up with songs and use it with a FM transmitter attachment for road-trip music. Then in grad school I started using it almost daily, primarily as an external hard drive; carrying it with me to the computer lab during my gig as a TA, transferring big fat megabytes of presentations and student work files, etc.
Shortly into the Fall 2007 semester it stopped wanting to mount to any computer. It would still play music, but there wasn't any way to put anything new on it and I was sad sad sad. Until I found myipodbroke.com. I debated if it was worth repairing it or getting a new one. At that time the estimated repair costs were still lower than the price of a comparable newer iPod, so I sent it off to Peder for repairs. He was able to fix the damaged FireWire port and said that he was surprised the battery was still in pretty good condition. The picture to the left is me on the day I got it back, all happy it was working again.
That repair job bought good ole "ippy" another 3 years of life, and in this past year he and I were able to enjoy his semi-retirement together in the way he was first intended. Out of school, and not needing an external hard drive as much, I was able to load him up with tunes again. He helped me zone out while the kids were being wild and crazy. Sure, in order to keep him on my body I always had to wear something with deep pockets (which I usually do anyway), but he was still more portable than say, an 80s Walkman.
But his battery wasn't lasting near as long, and then finally earlier this week I got the dreaded "sad iPod" icon when I tried booting him up. I was hopeful after doing some DIY diagnostics from Peder's site, because I was able to get it to mount in "disk mode" to my laptop. Was even able to do a software update on it, but when I tried booting it up again it would alternate between the sad iPod and the " ! folder " one. Randomly it will seem to boot all the way to the shuffle songs step, playing about one song before it freezes up. I suppose I could send it off to Peder again, but I think I may just let poor ippy rest in peace. Thanks for the good tunes buddy! You were, and always will be, an original. But now you are a 6.5oz paperweight... :(
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