be the change you want to see in the world

I made a mistake when replacing my battery on my 3G iPod today. I didn’t understand how careful I was supposed to be when opening the case. The ribbon cable that connects your earphone jack to the main board is quite delicate, especially after several years. In fact, it almost looks like it is deliberately under-manufactured, but nobody would do that, would they? The ribbon cable is barely held on to the jack by a tab of plastic that seems to have deteriorated over time. The plastic came right off and with it, some of the ribbon cable. I pressed the plastic back on, to no avail. The end result is no earbud functionality. Silence. A moment of, if you please.

The iPod still works great though, and I use it with the Griffin Roadtrip in the car and my iHome clock radio. And of course, it still makes a great firewire back-up device for my older PowerBook DVI. The battery life is much better now. It had deteriorated to about 30 minutes. Of course, now that I don’tr use it in any scenario where it isn’t connected to power, the battery upgrade is kinda, well, you get it.

Anyway, here’s my tips for battery replacement on 3G iPod: Read more

I suppose it was inevitable, but it seems like a backward step…I thought we wanted Mac OS X on ALL computers, not the other way around.

Apple Introduces Boot Camp

People were doing this on their own, though, so I think it will be best if Apple gets in on the act and does it right. There are situations where you have to run Windows in order to use a specific application (not many, mind you) and having this capability will be a better solution than Virtual PC.

Now, if they can make it switch back and forth like user accounts do now, I’ll be really impressed.

My partners at Catalyst are always cautious about my tendencies to invite participation in the online portion of ad campaigns for customers. You need to make sure your model doesn’t have big hole in it, and they are good at pointing out holes.

I think there is much to be gained by inviting your target audience to do more than stare. Be careful though, because, as this example shows, sometimes things don’t work out as intended. Chevy’s agency decided it would be a good thing to allow website visitors to make commercials for the Tahoe. Activists got wind of it and did their own thing, which entailed making video spots against the SUV format.

Check out some of the results…

Here’s a grainy, loud Treo video of the tail-end of my commute. A couple times a week I’m on the Helijet between Victoria and Vancouver. It is always an entertaining trip. This time the pilot decided to climb to altitude in a hurry, and we were looking down on Victoria Golf course from a loooong ways up within about three minutes. The descent into Vancouver was more gradual, as you can see in this shot. In view are the West End, BC Place, Canada Place, Stanley Park, Lions Gate Bridge, North Shore Mountains, North Vancouver, Second Narrows bridge, the working harbour and more. Turn your volume down…the helijet is loud. And shaky… The next Treo better have image stabilization…

Here’s just one example from a large pool of lost time kraziness brought to you by krazydad.com.

You got a collection of covers of one sort or another? CoverPop them! Here’s one built from 701 Wacky Packages.

Takes me back to my grade five school binder.