The Mob Has Spoken, and They Want Their iBooks

From the Richmond Times-Dispatch:

"Mayhem ruled at the Richmond Raceway Complex this morning. Henrico County sold 1,000 used laptop computers for $50 each on a first-come, first-served basis, and demand far exceeded supply. Thousands pushed through the raceway gates, a baby stroller was trampled, and many who managed to buy an Apple iBook had cut in line.

"I want to speak to somebody -- and I should get two iBooks," yelled one woman. "Look at what's left of my child's stroller! People were pushing!"

Crazy, no? For Pete's sake, who was the genius who thought this would be a good idea? Couldn't they have figured out a better way to hand out the practically free iBooks that would cut down on the whole mob scene thing? Here's an idea: next time you want to give away good laptops at bargain basement prices, create a lottery system. Anyone who is interested could submit their names, then someone could either draw names out of a hat or they could laboriously inscribe them onto a whole bunch of ping-pong balls and have some former Price is Right model draw them out of a whirling glass box. That probably would have worked better, I think.

Related: Apple's been in the news lately, mostly for the whole iPod and Microsoft unpleasantness.