You’ve probably heard this before, but I now know it from first hand experience: iPods are designed to last no longer than 2 years.

My $350 30Gb iPod Photo was 1 month out of its 1 year warranty when it displayed the infamous ‘sad face of death’. After waiting in line to see my friendly neighborhood Apple ‘Genius’, the guy put the iPod up to his ear and pronounced the hard drive dead. He then told me that the iPod cannot be fixed for less than the price to replace it.

When I expressed dismay, he told me that the hard drive does not last as long if you ‘use it a lot’. He also told me that I could trade in the dead iPod for ‘10% off my next iPod’ – yeah that’s a great deal – at this rate I’ll be paying around $290 a year to use an iPod.

I would be interested to hear in the comments what’s the longest anyone has had an iPod working?

I’ve also added an excerpt from a great NY Times article on this subject below: Continue reading →

Adicolor – “adidas creates a film series celebrating color, customization and personal expression. The seven directors are Roman Coppola & Andy Bruntel, Neill Blomkamp, PSYOP, TRONIC, Saiman Chow, Charlie White, and HAPPY.”

If these are ads then sign me up for more! Includes this disturbing clip by Charlie White

This artwork is so stupid it’s genius! [via…] Other stupid art: David Shrigley‘s photo of a swan.

You would need to knock holes in your cubicle walls to fit this monstrosity. I mean seriously, how many pixels do you need?

Not to be outdone, my work mate pointed me to this ridiculous monitor. Those desktop icons must be about 6 inches across.

This is a very powerful optical illusion. The squares marked A and B are the same shade of gray.

Don’t believe it? Check the image in Photoshop, or click for proof and an explanation, as well as more illusions by Edward H. Adelson.