I’m a fan of Wired, sifting through the slick ads for the sometimes good writing… and I lifted the Wired. Tired. Expired. theme for a recent presentation.

But however “cool” a magazine may pass itself off for, underneath it is a business and there are bean counters and bottom liners working to milk my money. I loathe the “urgent” reminders that start 5 months before my subscription expired and I deliberately ignore them until a month before. What do I get out of giving interest free loans (okay, I provide this service to the US Government).

But this latest “personalized” note from “Jeffrey Stone, Office of the Publisher” makes me wonder if they are working under the P.T. Barnum School of Business:

I was happily iPodding my bicycle route home when my Shuffle went south, blinking amber lights. The battery drained, cutting the Clash off in mid song. Wow, after getting used to the audio track while biking, the lack of it was, well deafening.

It turns out when I plugged it into my iBook at night, I was not getting any battery recharge since the computer went to sleep. I think that one did not make it into the user manual. So when I am seeking technical answers, do I reach for customer support, a “FAQ“, and official help file, or even a “Knowledgebase“? Do I rush out and buy a fancy charger?

No way José.