I've been using iTunes for years — originally because (in 2001) the other MacOS X mp3 players sucked, but now that I'm on my third iPod (first, second) I'm more or less locked in.

Most of my iPod listening is in the car, or on airplanes. I also take it with me on walks, and recently got a cassette adapter for the built-in stereo in my kitchen. Over time, my general iTunes/iPod setup has gotten increasingly complicated — with a big leap this morning. In this article I'll attempt to document what I've done, and why, both for your amusement and so I can recreate it in the event of a catastrophic data loss.

(Written for MAAWG, but it applies to many efforts. It should be noted that this is not anybody's official statement; it's just me blathering.)

"Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency." -- Daniel Hudson Burnham

There are many different ways to develop a plan. Some -- including what we're attempting here -- involve defining the problem we're trying to solve, before we try to solve it. Crazy, I know, yet it tends to be fairly effective not only for the kinds of issues we're dealing with in MAAWG, but also for the kinds of minds common to this industry.

For this technique to succeed, we also need to understand some of the possible results of our effort.

Today's blog post at Return Path needs to be tacked to the front doors of every sender on the planet. It should be shouted from the rooftops in Florida and New York. I'd like to see it in the toilet stalls at CES, instead of porn. This will be the equivalent of the first book of Genesis in the new bible for senders trying to get on the good side of ISPs.

Seriously, read it. And if you're in the e-mail industry, go to MAAWG -- that's where the real work is being done these days.


(These opinions are, as always, entirely my own. Though this is obviously related to my current career, it does not necessarily reflect any position, stated or otherwise, which may be proffered by my employer.)