Portable MP3 Players, which is the best?
I blame Amira and her 5 song rotation for this. =P It made me realize that our hard drives are full, our old CD players are worn out and I would like something to listen to with headphones away from my computer.
For now I'm getting an el cheapo CD Player (bit of a belated b-day gift) that will also play MP3s, but when I can afford it I'd like to get something spiffier and less bulky. So I've been Googling the web looking at MP3 players, even though I'm broke. I do hope to have a new job soon and hey, I've always been one to count my chickens before they hatch, it makes me feel positive. I like to think ahead when I shop, but oh wow there are an absurd amount of very different options for MP3 players.
So which is the best? Your opinions are welcome here, because there's nothing like community brainstorming on these kind of things. I haven't had much luck finding a good up-to-date MP3 player review site, plus it'd be nice to hear some experiences from anyone that already owns one.
Initially, something like the iPod sounds good. Large storage would ease up my PC's hard drive. Two major drawbacks to the iPod tho:
- The iPod doesn't play MP3s?!? I don't get what's up with that, but converting my existing MP3s into AAC or MPEG-2 would be really inconvenient.
- The accounts of short battery spans scare me. Sounds like they used a NiMH battery when they should have gone with Li-ion. Aside from not wanting to ever pay $99 for a replacement battery, even the iPod's normal battery usage is less than what I'd want.
Do all of the large capacity players suffer from poor battery usage? I noticed that iRiver's iHP-120 uses a Lithium Polymer battery and supposedly has a lengthier playback time. It supports OGG as well as MP3, which is a huge plus to me, because about 1/8th of my music collection is in OGG.
Ooooh some of the iRiver models can do realtime MP3 recording from any audio source, including support for auto-ripping CDs directly to the player. That's a sweet feature. Still, the hard drive units make me nervous, aside from battery usage, what if you drop one?
Okay, next thought: I think I'd do just as well getting a smaller flash-memory MP3 player and just alleviate my PC's dwindling free drive space with um, a bigger hard drive (shocking concept!).
I've seen really cheap players at local shops here in Richmond.. around the $100 price range can get me a 128 meg (or maybe even 256 meg) player.. but the question is, which ones suck and which ones don't?
In that category, there's the Creative Nomad MuVo that's ultra tiny.. It's a lot like those little USB pen drives, but with MP3 playing too. I had an early Nomad and was pretty dissatisfied with the lack of features and awkward controls, have they improved?
Going back to iRiver, some of their flash-memory players have similar features to their hard-drive counterparts. The iFP-500 looks like it will kick ass with the direct-recording and recharging the Li-ion battery via USB. So far, that unit looks to be my choice, especially if they add OGG support. I don't even know when it'll hit store shelves or how much it will cost, but that's probably good because I still need to get that job first.
Note: Here's a weird sidepoint that I just feel like ranting about. Why is it that so many of the players have form factors that make them look like cigarette boxes and lighters? Ugh, it's a bad image in my head, I know that everytime I've seen someone pull an iPod out of a shirt pocket I've had that initial blech thinking of smoking. Odd eh?
CSS in the house.
I just stumbled upon this whilst searching this morning. This is pretty freaking cool, well it is if you're a web-coding geek like me. Now I knew stuff like this was possible, it's just logical, but it's another thing to see it demonstrated: A nice looking brick house created entirely with CSS.
Look closely. Check the source. There's no image file there, no GIF, no JPEG, no Flash, no SVG, just XHTML & CSS.
Neat trick.
No fine herbs!
Amira and I went to Costco yesterday. We picked up a b-day gift for her after all (I pitched in $10 of the $15 for the Jamie Oliver (Oliver's Twist) DVD).
While we were there, we also saw some goat cheese that did NOT have fine herbs! It was just plain. Oddly enough it cost a buck more than the fine herb version, so the conspiracy to feed us fine herbs continues.
We didn't buy any goat cheese though, aside from being dead broke after the DVD, we already have a supply of fine herbed goat cheese at home.
Amira's b-day
Tomorrow is Amira's birthday. I can't afford to buy her a gift, but I'd just like to say that I appreciate all that she has done for me... and she's done so much.
Hello Kitty reigns supreme!
Donna posted this link to a comic strip in my comments, but I figured it deserved it's own article.
Basically it's me, in a nutshell. It even looks like me.
My voice, public domain
I needed some sounds for a chat app that I'm working on and typically I'm not happy just snagging material from others, especially considering how difficult it is to determine if sounds are copyrighted works or not (I've always suspected ICQ for crossing that line with their sounds).
So I plugged in my microphone and proceeded to make sounds that made Amira giggle from overhearing. A little quick editing and a bit of echo on one sound and viola... okay, not the world's best, but you might find them amusing.
Since it is so difficult to find reasonably small and/or subtle sounds, I thought I'd be nice and share these. In fact, I think I'll release them to the public domain. Here are the mp3 versions (wav files can be provided upon request):
Enjoy.
Lucky that way?
And *poof* I can't stay depressed. I have my little troubles: I've done my share of crying myself to sleep, more than some but less than others. I've definitely had more than my share of sleepless nights, pulling my hair out and wondering at my sanity (or lack thereof) with extreme sleep deprivation. I've had issues, for certain. I've got memories that I rather wish I didn't have. I've got at least one mental health situation that I may always be stuck with... but I don't think I'm clinically depressed.
Sure, I get my moments, as you can tell from my previous post, but somehow (I have no idea how) just as I think I can't bounce back from feeling low, that's exactly what I do. Okay, I'm not bouncing joyously or whooping it up, but I'm there with my feet on the ground. I'm not dying to end anything, I'm wanting to progress: move on and better myself. It's kind of boggling me why or how, but hey, one step at a time eh?
eRogenous
Had a phone conversation with No Name Yet that went something like this:
Rog: Tell him I said hi.
No Name Yet: The Rog says "hi".
(background voice heard as): Hello to the Rogness.
Rog: I feel so honored.
No Name Yet: No he said "how is the Rogness?".
Rog: The erogenous?
(background voice heard as): The erogenous?
No Name Yet: Hahah, you said the same thing at the same time. No wait, he said "androgenous".
Rog: I'd rather be erogenous.
No Name Yet: That would be a great nick for you!
Rog: erogenous I hope, not androgenous.
No Name Yet: Or maybe just erogeny, but capitalize the R.
Rog: I wish we'd had this conversation when I was looking for a blog name.
Okay, that's not exactly how it went, it was actually more amusing but my memory dissipates quickly.
Getting there, one step at a time
Today I re-opened the Gates Motel.
It's a limited re-opening, just the single Free For All arena, without much in the way of stats. I'm still working on much of the code that encapsulates the statistics and management systems for multiple arenas, but since the Free For All is always excempt from most of that, I figured it wouldn't hurt to open it a bit early.
I tell you, going back and re-roding stuff that you did over 3 years ago is really mind-numbing. I've found it extremely difficult and frustrating to concentrate. Luckily, most of the coding ahead of me now is fresh stuff... except the one biggie, the one that's stumped me since the beginning of Gates Motel: item balancing. Wish me luck on that one, I'm trying yet another new approach to the old problem.
Me too
[[body ills and skills]]
nervous habits?: touching my face.
are you double jointed?: no.
can you roll your tongue?: yes.
can you raise one eyebrow at a time?: yes.
can you blow spit bubbles?: yes.
can you cross your eyes?: yes, but it gives me a headache.
tattoos?: not yet, but I do have a branding.
piercings and where?: not yet.
do you make your bed daily?: rarely, I prefer sleeping in blankets that are just tossed about.
[[clothes]]
which shoe goes on first?: left.
speaking of shoes, have you ever thrown one at anyone?: no, but thanks to jhezika the image is stuck in my head often.
on the average, how much money do you carry in your purse/wallet?: bus fare & misc. change but will carry more if I have it, just to make me feel comfortable. I'm old-school about cash, I don't like to use cards for things, it just doesn't feel tangible to me. My bank card isn't even enabled as a debit-card.
what jewelry do you wear 24/7?: not 24/7. I have a weird comfort zone of I -must- wear watch, rings, etc. when I'm out and when I'm home, it's none.
favorite piece of clothing?: do my hushpuppies count?
[[food]]
do you twirl your spaghetti or cut it?: twirl.
have you ever eaten spam?: yes, but I'll avoid it in the future.
favorite ice cream flavor?: Ben & Jerry's cookie dough.
how many cereals in your cabinet?: 2: oatmeal & Mini-Wheats.
what's your favorite beverage?: glacial water.
what's your favorite restaurant?: Fets.
do you cook?: when I have the ingredients.
[[grooming]]
how often do you brush your teeth?: once or twice a day, always before I sleep (it's like a neurotic thing) and occasionally at other times.
how often do you shower/bathe?: daily shower, weekly bath.
how long does your shower last?: 15 to 25 minutes.
hair drying method: towel & drip dry.
have you ever colored/highlighted your hair?: yes.
do you paint your nails?: occasionally. I suck at keeping them pristine tho.
[[manners]]
do you swear?: rarely. I never swore before I was 16.
do you ever spit?: rarely. I think it's rude.
[[what's your favorite]]
animal?: cats. I love cats.
food?: chicken.
month?: august, there's something about the trail end of summer.
day?: monday. I know, I'm a freak.
anime/manga?: I don't know, I don't watch much.
shoe brand?: Fluevog, even though I love my hushpuppies.
subject in school?: creative writing.
color?: teal.
sport?: kayaking.
tv show?: Oz.
best looking celebs?: my opinion changes often here, I'm not a big celeb nut, but right now I think Jamie Oliver looks pretty hot, or maybe it's just his cooking?
thing to do in spring?: cycling.
thing to do In the summer?: kayaking.
thing to do In autumn?: swimming, until it gets too cold and then it's time to go inside for hot choco & kink.
thing to do In the winter?: cuddling.
[[in and around]]
the cd player?: at the moment? Massive Attack.
person you talk most on the phone with?: jhezika.
ever taken a cab?: yes.
do you regularly check yourself out in store windows and mirrors?: not in an ego way, more of a nervous anxiety am-I-wearing-this-shirt-inside-out kind of way.
what color is your bedroom?: white, but I wish it was a warmer colour, like an adobe orange.
do you use an alarm clock?: sorta, I hate anything with a snooze button so I set the alarm on my Cassiopeia.
window seat or aisle?: window.
[[la-la land]]
what's your sleeping position?: toss & turn.
even in hot weather do you use a blanket?: yes, it's the comfort of the weight.
do you snore?: when I'm stuffed up, which since I moved to Richmond means all the time.
do you sleepwalk?: unknown, though I probably do since I apparently do give backrubs in my sleep.
do you talk in your sleep?: yes.
do you sleep with a stuffed animals?: no, my cats would push them off the bed.
how about with the light on?: no.
do you fall asleep with the tv or radio on?: no, the chatter would drive me nuts. I hate background talking/droning even when awake. I do occasionally put a CD on with a pair of headphones.
[[which is better]]
coke or pepsi?: coke, though lately it's C-plus. I can't seem to give up pop, I'm addicted to carbonation.
oranges or apples?: apples.
one pillow or two?: I just sleep on one, but I keep a second on the bed because with all the tossing & turning a pillow often ends up on the floor.
deaf or blind?: blind.
pools or hot tubs?: pool, but just for convenience, I'd much rather swim in a chlorine-free stream or lake.
blondes or brunettes?: brunettes, though I get tingly feelings from natural strawberry blondes & redheads.
tall or short?: short.
tv or radio?: neither, I like being in better control of the media I absord.
beach or pool?: beach.
tic-tacs or certs?: tic-tacs.
snooze button or jump out of bed?: jump out of bed.
sunrise or sunset?: sunset.
hamburger or cheeseburger?: cheeseburger, though chili-cheeseburger is even better.
morning or night?: night.
sports or news?: news.
indoors or outdoors?: outdoors.
christmas eve or christmas day?: just make both of them go away please.
cake or ice cream?: both, I'm greedy that way.
spearmint or peppermint?: ew, ew, ew, get that mint stuff away from me.
bath or shower?: bath.
book or movie?: book.
green or red apples?: yellow.
rain or snow?: rain.
nike or adidas?: Addidas. I don't consider myself actively anti-corporate, but Nike = evil.
[[when was the last time you]]
took a shower?: earlier today.
cried?: last night.
talked on the phone?: yesterday.
read a book?: yesterday.
punched someone?: a long time ago.
[[the future]]
where do you see yourself in ten years?: happy, hopefully.
who are you going to be married to?: already have been married, to the lovely Amira. (Not anymore, but wish her all the best)
how many kids?: none, never, getting fixed ASAP.
your profession?: writer & game designer.
future school?: I'd love to go to Emily Carr, but I haven't put as much thought in school as I'd like to.
car of your dreams?: a bicycle.
