Marcoullier.com

I’ll leave for another post my fervent belief that Apple is now first and foremost “The iTunes Company”. I’ll settle for figuring out how to suck the pod- and videocast teat from several sources in my life.

I have an iPod that I sync to my Macbook. The Macbook is only on when I’m using it. I also have a Mac Mini in the loving room and AppleTVs in the bedroom and home theater. I want to download a podcast once and play it on any of the five devices. This doesn’t seem even remotely possible. What am I missing?

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So I almost got arrested picking Jud up from the airport today. It seems that unless someone is in the act of getting in or out of your car, you are forbidden to stop in the arrival zone. I pulled over and started to text Jud to find out which of the six United exits he was at. An SFPD officer raced over and we had the following conversation:

Officer: Please move your car, sir.

Me: I just need to text my friend and tell him I’m here.

Officer: Move your car now, sir. Call him from the cell phone waiting lot. (NOTE: The lot is apparently 2.5 miles away)

Me: He’s right inside. I just need to let him know I’m here.

Officer: Move your car now or I’ll give you a ticket.

Me (officially losing my cool): That’s pathetic. You know what? Give me the ticket.

Officer: Move your car or I’ll have it towed.

Me (moving to idiot territory): Fine, tow me.

Officer: MOVE!

So I text Jud while driving around the loop, only to learn he’s going to be a few minutes longer (so this is partially his fault ). The next time around, this same officer is writing a ticket for someone who is literally loading their car. I’ve moved beyond idiot territory and into parts unknown. I stop and roll down my window:

Me: Are you really giving someone a ticket for loading their car in the Loading Zone?

Officer: If you don’t move your car now, I’ll have you arrested.

So yeah, I was a horse’s ass, but I’m just amazed at this latest security clusterfuck. We’re now supposed to drive six minutes away from the airport in order to tell the person we’re picking up that we are (well… were) outside and waiting. I sure feel safer.

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Dammit! I somehow broke access to my permalinks a few days ago when I changed to a more verbose naming structure. Apparently I had to muck about with my .htaccess file. Yeah, that’s intuitive. I’m starting to think Bijan has it right.

Anyway, the permalinks are working once again. Surf with impunity.

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I recently learned that an acquaintance was the victim of a Gmail phishing scam, leading to the deletion of her account and four years of mail. I lost all my 2006 MyBlogLog and Minerva mail, and understand this sense of loss at a visceral level.

Not long after, I read a moving blog post from someone who had their massive Flickr presence deleted under similar circumstances.

Dave Winer has questioned “who will maintain my online presence after I die?” It seems even worse to have to live through it yourself.

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The promise of Dopplr.com is fantastic – effortlessly share your travel schedule with others in order to serendipitously connect with them in person. Unfortunately, the current experience blows. Someone has to search the site for me in order to see my schedule (i.e. the Facebook model).

I would happily promote my Dopplr schedule on my various online profiles (this blog, LinkedIn and Facebook), but there does not seem to be a mechanism for doing so.

As a result, Dopplr seems more like a data harvesting tool than a way for me to inform people of my future whereabouts.

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Pottery Barn sells mass-produced MDF furniture at craftsman prices. As a lazy yuppie bastard, I shop there.

Last year I bought a charging station, which broke during installation. I finally called customer service; they promptly sent a replacement and asked me to send the old one back in the new unit’s packaging.

The replacement just broke and I never returned the original. Called customer service:

• They’ve scheduled UPS to pick up the first broken unit tomorrow.
• They’re sending another replacement.
• Upon arrival, they’ll schedule a UPS pickup for the second broken unit.
• I’ll keep buying Pottery Barn.

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Given Dave Winer’s well-documented experiences with Apple repair, you’d think I’d get the picture. Instead, I dropped another $1,400 on a Mac Mini, wireless mouse & keyboard and a second Airport Extreme.

Whatever you do, DO NOT throw away the Airport Extreme install disk.

I am currently unable to connect my new Mini to any network drives because Apple doesn’t let you download the Airport Disk Utility from the web site, and I mistakenly threw away the CD. Good lord, Apple, join the 20th Century and let your customers download utilities from your web site.

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