Glenn Derene wrote a rant about the problem with modern technology – it is virtually irreparable when broken. The best Apple can do, apparently, is just send broken iPods back for recycling, so complex are their miniscule innards. Derene writes:

The problem began almost imperceptibly several months ago. I found myself pushing my first generation iPhone’s “home” button two, sometimes three times before the device would respond. Shortly thereafter, the “sleep/wake” button became less responsive as well. As time went on, I was pushing the buttons four or five times before I’d get a response. They didn’t respond to an ordinary push: I’d have to exert multiple foot-pounds of force and hold it to get any sort of reaction from the increasingly fickle iPhone

He took the device to the Apple store and the Genii told him it was out of warranty. He bought a new one and after a bit of soul searching he tore the old one apart to find… lint. He points out that all Jobs had to do was add an O-ring to this thing but noooo. Poor Glenn had to suffer. I had a similar situation with a “wet” iPhone that Apple wouldn’t touch. It’s very frustrating. In the old days, a man would take a wrench to this thing and fix it, damn it.

Interestingly, I actually told Glenn to get a case for his. Some people…