iPod Shuffle lights-of-death: An explanation?

Recently my precious iPod shuffle was afflicted with “lights of death,” a fatal condition wherein any presses of the controls only yield alternating blinks of the amber and green feedback lights on the front. The unit won’t play, nor be mounted by the computer or recognized by iTunes or the iPod software, so it cannot be reset. Apple was kind enough to replace it under warranty, without much fuss. It’s fairly common (witnessed by the lack of fuss by Apple support). There is no official explanation of why.

Anyhoo, I puzzled over this for some time. I use my shuffle very little. It was working fine on a recent vacation. I laid it aside for a few weeks on my dresser. When I picked it up again, all I got was lights of death.

Here’s my theory.

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Cut to the chase with a grain of salt and some horse sense. That is what this blog is about: pithy observations on current culture. A dash of politics, maybe some geek perspectives, but always boiled down to the essence without the pontification, obfuscation and bloated prose prevalent in our internet world today.

Ironically, if I blather on much longer, I will violate my charter before I begin.

So I’ll shut up now.