Black or White?

So, the issue of birthday present arises. Should Plotnik get a black ipod or a white ipod? 60g or 30g? Camera attachment? Power adapter?

That's 30 or 60g, as in gigabyte. A gigabyte is a million megabytes. How many gigamegablastos does anybody really need?

And why does he want an ipod anyway?

How much music does he ever really listen to? How many photos does he really need to store on a trip? What's the purpose of having another piece of electronic miscellanea?

The world is wiring itself into itself, if you ask The Great Plotnik. Do we really need to listen to our own music as we walk down the street? What about the other music out there that we're missing? The cabbies beeping, the people laughing, the thugwagon bass, the treble of police sirens? Does all music have to be OUR music?

And yet, The Great Plotnik never leaves the house anymore without his tiny digital camera. He likes it. He likes trying to record the moments that come and go at the drop of a dime, and if you don't snap the shutter immediately they may as well never have happened. You've already forgotten you took the picture. Only the memory stick recalls.

So, what's wrong with one more machine to break down photos and songs into 1s and 0s and bits and bytes and reassemble them when you want to hear them or look at them or even look at the photo bits while listening to the music bits?

Therefore, the question still is: Black or white? 30g or 60g?