iPod archeaology

Archaeologists often can tell more about an ancient civilization from garbage dumps than they can from the grandest places of worship. Often what was used and discarded on a daily basis is far more telling than what was going on down at the local temple. So how about personal archaeology?

One of my few personal prized possessions is my 1st generation iPod. I have had this thing for almost 6 years(maybe longer). I use it on an almost daily basis. I'm on my second battery and have gone through three headphones and six sets of ear buds. I even made my own accessories(car adapter, battery booster etc.) It relaxes me, puts me to sleep and keeps me amused. It allows me me to be almost completely boredom proof.

Today I was reviewing the contents of my iPod and I was wondering what would a total stranger think about me based solely on the contents of my mp3 player. Most telling is the play list called "purchased". Most of the other space on my player is taken up by podcasts, books on tape and ripped cds that owned B.I. (before iTunes). Now I admit that 5 gigs is not a lot of disk space by today's standards, but last time I checked there was close to 1700 songs on my little old iPod and close to 40 gigs in iTunes on my imac. The purchased play list is made up solely of songs bought on iTunes in the last 5 or so years.

So let's pretend that I am walking down the street with my player clutched in my hot little hand. Suddenly I keel over from a heart attack. The police forensic iPod specialist finds my iPod and has to develop a profile based on my iPod contents. As much as I would like to think of myself as being sophistcated and urbane, I have a feeling that our imaginary expert would come up with an entirely different conclusion based on my stash of 60's surf music and guilty pleasure selections.

Perhaps I should come up with something to erase my hard drive the moment my heart stops?

Emoose out