Khurt,

I think your comments on Island in the Net are a bit harsh. I don't like to be called an idiot and it surprises me coming from educated man. There are so many other negative things you could say about me.
Maybe this is simply one of your 'inchoate thoughts'.

Still, it has had a positive effect. My Mother Jones article was buried on the back pages (p 76) of the March April issue of the magazine. Since they didn't give me much of a contributor's note, I was worried that my opportunity to alert people to the massive e-waste now being created by Apple's iPod was bound to end in futility. So thank you Khurt, for alerting many more readers to my article which is available online here

http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2007/03/iwaste.html

My main objection to your rant is that you took a comment about AAC out of context. So I'm happy to refer your readers to the whole article (above)...

--What I was trying to indicate was that in addition to their policy of 'value engineering' --something I know you will understand, since you are an electrical engineer in the pay of a large corporation-- Apple adds a clever dimension of marketing strategies that begin with the battery being sealed inside the device, failing after 13 months, frequent and sexy model changes, and a proprietary music system that guarantees the quality of iTunes music over mp3 downloads...

All this marketing manipulation encourages ferociously loyal Apple customers (like yourself...owner of a MacBook) to stay with the product and to trade up regularly.

WELL OKAY, but then everyone should be aware that the iPod is a DISPOSABLE device DESPITE the rather high unit cost of the upper end models.

this disposability and the force-fed model of consumption it promotes is something quite new for Apple; they have changed and not for the better. The world should know they are primarily interested in sales now and not in changing people's heads in revolutionary ways with IT...That has become secondary. Apple Computers is now Apple Inc. Luke Skywalker has become Darth Vader and we're all a little poorer for it.

My major beef with Apple is that because they make disposable electronics in such global volumes they produce an overwhelming amount of toxic electronic waste which, due to its miniaturization and Apple's backwards (compared to Dell and HP) recycling program, are all to easy to toss into a green garbage bag in the landfill. Water leeches through the landfill, becomes contaminated and then leaks out to contaminate the groundwater around it. In Silicon Valley, as you know, they had to pump all the water out of the ground because it was contaminated and then replace it will clean, fresh water. Can we do that for the entire continent? I don't think so and I'm not the only person who feels this way. (Interested readers can google 'green my apple')...I hope you don't think we're all idiots.

So, wishing you a very Happy (although somewhat curt) Earth Day.

Giles Slade
--author: Made To Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America, (Harvard University Press, 2006)
--member: PEN USA

PS I'll be writing about the iPhone on or about May 9th on Huffingtonpost.com in a piece called 'Hold the iPhone'. Anyone wishing to express themselves to me directly can reach me at
gilesslade@hotmail.com. (If I get too many replies, I may not be able to get back to you all).