- 2004.04.29
Back in the old days, kids used to bring an Apple (the fruit) to
leave on the teacher's desk to curry favor.
These days, it's a winning Pepsi bottle cap for a free iTune.
I've had at least five winning caps dropped on my desk by students
who drink Pepsi but don't use iTunes. (At least they didn't go to waste
like 95 million other bottle caps.) I suspect some of them think it's
silly to pay for online music and are merely humoring me, but it's a
nice gesture nonetheless.
So what did I buy?
Let's see... I got two tunes from the soundtrack to "O Brother Where
Art Thou?" the Coen brothers masterpiece starring George Clooney. (My
wife says: "Whaddaya know, Clooney can actually act like someone else
besides Doug 'Neck Twist' Ross!")
In addition, I picked up "Where My Heart Will Take Me," the Star
Trek Enterprise theme song. (I am a Total Geek, I admit it. Let's move
on.)
Two caps left. Oh, the humanity!
It's kind of weird living in the future.
I remember being amazed at being able to push pixels around the
screen. Now I'm buying electronically encoded music that is stored on a
hard drive. Wow. Someday I'll be able to tell my grandkids about way
back when the only thing you could buy online with no material goods
changing hands were music files and pictures.
Here's a quote for you to share with others:
Apple's iTunes - Nicer than a Piece of Fruit
Now if I could only get someone to leave a 20" Cinema Display on my
desk...
is a longtime Mac user. He was using digital sensors on Apple II computers in the 1980's and has networked computers in his classroom since before the internet existed. In 2006 he was selected at the California Computer Using Educator's teacher of the year. His students have used NASA space probes and regularly participate in piloting new materials for NASA. He is the author of two books and numerous articles and scientific papers. He currently teaches astronomy and physics in California, where he lives with his twin sons, Jony and Ben.< And there's still a Mac G3 in his classroom which finds occasional use.
