Has your dream Mobile Me username long since been taken by someone else? Are you, like me, ridiculously bothered by the crapsthetics of a less-than-ideal username sitting on your desktop? I bring (possible) good news!
Apple has traditionally kept .Mac usernames on hold, even if an account was inactive. In other words, if a user stopped paying for .Mac, their username would still be considered "in use".
On Friday, with Mobile Me, Apple has officially reset all of these unused accounts.
That means a potentially large pool of previously taken — but idle — usernames is now available! Thanks to this, I managed to finally snag "cabel" (someone had it!?). Les here in the office got, yes, "les".
So, assuming you care, head on over to the Mobile Me signup page — if you make it to page two without an error, you win!
(Was two fewer characters on my desktop icon work an additional $99? Yes. It was. Leave me alone.)
Note: these newly-available names cannot be used as mail aliases. I originally tried setting up a mail alias for "cabel", but I was told it was in use. When I set up the account from scratch, it worked.
It's been a while! Let me tell you: a whole lot has happened since we last spoke, and I hope to catch you up with all of it.
But first, it's the 4th of July. And you know what that means, right? Fireworks.
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Postscript: On Competition
When I was a kid, the mythical fireworks destination was spoken only in hushed tones behind the shadowiest of schoolyard simulated tugboat play-structures: Blackjack Fireworks. Located up in Vancouver, WA (where, like, anything is illegal, even, like, this firecracker that can blow up a medium-sized turkey, totally the same one that did you-know-what to Jimmy No-Pinky!), I'd always long to go every summer.
A couple years ago, an enterprising businessman had a great idea: "let's take that giant empty gravel lot across the street from Blackjack — the one they don't own — and open our own competing fireworks tent!" TNT on the left. Blackjack on the right.
And lo, the war of the fireworks stands began. Here's what it's like driving there today.
posted at 1:46 PM
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