Recently, my iPod has started flaking out on me. I can no longer connect to it via Firewire (although weirdly, it does charge when connected), and it is also losing charge rapidly.

Strangely, the USB connection does work - suggesting that there’s something more subtle going on that a broken connector port (although of course it might just be partially broken).

Anyway, these things happen, and I’ve had it for 2 years so I wasn’t overly distraught. It’s out of warranty, but Apple have a servicing service, so I thought I’d give that a go.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that they were proposing to charge me nearly £170 to service a two year old 2nd generation iPod. I can get a new one for that!

I realise that they don’t want to hurt their sales of new kit, but there is such a thing as supporting and rewarding your loyal customers!

My response…!

Talking to Kevin Marks about the Open Rights Group, I realised that one of the things that concerns me is that they might be too focussed on the media.

One of the stated objectives is to connect journalists with experts and activists, which is all well and good. I want people to understand our technical and philosophical objections to certain ideas.

However, I think that ORG should also see a key part of their role as explaining the legal technicalities and the implications of things like EU directives and proposed legislation to concerned technical people like me.

I also think that there is a danger of the people running the group coming across as a small clique, very much wrapped up in their own agenda, rehearsing the same arguments to other members of the inner circle - in effect preaching to the converted.

There are a lot of intelligent, educated people out in the real world who agree with their aims instinctively, without necessarily having a deep understanding of all the issues. We (placing myself immodestly in that category for a moment) need help with this stuff - we need someone to be our agent, sifting and selecting the important news for us - just as much as we need someone explaining it to the media.

From Ars:

Any scientist hoping that the Dover verdict would keep the teaching of evolution out of controversy and courts for a little while has got to be disappointed with recent developments.

Grant pointed this out to me…

Some nutters have removed the fans from their computer and filled it with oil to keep it cool.

Bonkers.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you had a pair of headphones that knew if they were being worn, and paused your music when you took them off?