Technography

Today's story begins early on a Monday morning. This particular Monday morning, I decided that I would forgo my usual routine of sitting on the bus listening to music on my ipod while reading either a book or a magazine. This day I brought along my portable DVD player so I could watch a movie while commuting to and from work. This seemed like a good idea until I actually got on the bus, whipped out my DVD player, tried to plug in the battery pack, and it was at this point that I realized that my battery pack was still plugged into the wall at home. Brilliant move on my part. Today there would be no movie.

No matter, I thought, I still had my ipod with me. I didn't have a book or magazine, but at least I could still listen to some music. Wrong again. Today was also the day that I found out that the button I had clicked on in itunes labeled 'manually manage music' had, in fact, deleted all music off my ipod. In a truly heroic move on my part, I was able to suppress the urge to shout profanities, fly into a Hulk-like rage, or generally act in a childish manner. It was at this point that I really felt like a grumpy old man who can't figure out the new fangled devices. Kind of like a nursing home resident trying to program a VCR. Fortunately, all was not lost, as my trusty ipod still contained a couple podcasts, but nearly a full day later, I am still heaping curses on Apple and swearing out a vendetta on Steve Jobs and Steve Wosniak.

What this all brings me to is yet another anti-Apple tirade. Why do they have to take good products and make me not want to use them because of their cumbersome, crappy ass, proprietary bull $h!+, in this case, itunes. I absolutely hate it. Why can't I just drag and drop files onto my ipod like I have no doubt I could with any other mp3 player on the market? Why am I forced to use the bloated, slow, unintuitive itunes? How has Apple managed to maintain their nearly 3% marketshare in the PC world with such irritating products? Yes I realize that the last statement is almost completely unrelated, but my blinding hatred of Apple knows no logic.

I presume that Apple is completely in the pocket of the RIAA, and that's why I am forced to use itunes, so I can't throw songs on my ipod from my computer in my bedroom, plug it into my computer in my living room and throw some more songs on it, plug it into my computer at work and throw some more songs on it, plug it into a friends computer, or even Devon's computer and throw some more songs on it, etc...... But, to be honest, I haven't tried accessing my ipod through Windows media player. MS may yet come through and save the day. We'll see, but I'm not holding out much hope. So, I will end this rant by saying, if you buy Apple products, the terrorists win.