caseyphillips.net

I have a confession to make.

I am now one of many of Steve Jobs' whores. No, I haven't bought a Mac (yet).

I am, however, the proud owner of a black 30GB iPod, and I'm loving it. I really never thought I'd buy one. I wanted a good portable music player, but always said I buying an iPod was just paying for the Apple name. I don't know, maybe I was partially right, but this thing is fantastic. It's now what it does, it's how it does it. I played around with a few other portable players, and none of them were this streamlined. It's easy to use, and easy on the eyes. It's not just a fantastic gadget (and I am a gadget head), it's really "pretty" in all its simplicity. I blame my wife for my new iPod obsession since she bought a Nano so she could take to workout, and after playing around with it for a bit, I knew I had to have an iPod. I decided on the regular iPod, but the Nano is a pretty sweet piece of electronics in its own right.

I do however have one complaint: you can scratch this thing with a warm stick of butter. And my having the black version only makes it more evident. This put me on a quest to find a way to protect it. My first course of action was a case, but I really didn't like this. A big part of me wanting an iPod was it's slim design and how the thing looks. A case covers all this up and makes the thing bulky. Eventually I found The Best Skins Ever and promptly ordered a set. These things were exactly what I was looking for. They look like the pda screen protectors, but are much stronger and you apply them like the old school model airplane decals (with water, but just a little) so they're easier to place. Now I can carry my iPod with much less worry about scratches. I still put it in the case from time to time when I want to strap the thing to my hip. Nonetheless, if you plan to get an iPod, get these skins. You'll be glad you did.

The earphones that come with the iPod are of pretty poor quality, so I decided to replace them. I'm a fan of "earbud" type headphones, so I ordred a pair of Shure E2c and, man am I impressed. I've never spent this much on earphones, and didn't even know earbuds came this expensive (not to mention Shure's top-of-the-line model is $500+). I paid a bit less on Amazon than what Shure claims the MSRP is, but it was still more than I've ever paid for earphones, but I figured my iPod deserved it :).

Redemption period? This is for my benefit?

I recently had a problem with one of my domains, and this caused my blog to unavailable for some time. What problem did I have? Well, a combination of not being reminded and my being forgetful resulted in a domain of mine expiring (in January) but the domain did not go offline until March 1. At that point it entered what the registrars call a redemption period. I call it ransom. Unlike normal renewing of domains which costs around $10 a year, renewing a domain that is in redemption costs significantly more, in my case $80. Supposedly this is because it is more work for the registrar when it's in redemption to renew it. I don't work in domain registration, so I can't say whether or not this is true. I have my doubts, but I have no hard evidence.

Also, according to the registrars, this redemption period is actually for my benefit. If a domain expires and enters the redemption period, only I can pay to have it registered while it is in redemption. This is to prevent (according to registrars) somebody else from snatching my domain before I have a chance to renew it. I agree that this is somewhat beneficial, especially to a business. But why the exorbitant price? And why not let me choose whether I want this protection whenever I register the domain?

Anyway, that's why I've been down for a while, and finally got back up, sortof, with a workaround on my other domain. I will not be registering my expired domain with the same registrar and will be going striclty to Godaddy from now on. I recieved no reminder that my domain was expiring and would almost cross my heart, hope to die that I had set up automatic renewal on that domain. But again, beside my vague memory of doing so, I lack any evidence.