This is something I can’t quite figure out… Why in the hell don’t we have any bluetooth-enabled mp3 players out? I mean, I’ve seen a few that are flash-based and 512MB at the largest, but I’m not even sure they’re available in the US. Frankly, I think it’d be a great idea to have a hard drive based mp3 player that also had bluetooth. You can buy bluetooth headphones now, so you’d be able to listen to your music without having to worry about wires getting caught on stuff. You could also easily sync your files from your PC to your mp3 player without having to hook it up to your PC everytime. It wouldn’t really be practical to transfer 5GB of data over a bluetooth connection but being able to dump a few mp3’s over to your player without having to fool with the cables would be a nice touch. Hell, we’re adding bluetooth to most of our other devices so why not our mp3 players as well? I mean, if a 6-10 GB hard drive based mp3 player with a color screen and bluetooth came out, I’d sell my iriver in a heartbeat and buy it provided that it also supported Janus (thus allowing me to transfer subscription music from Yahoo to it). I wonder what the reason is that we’ve never seen one. Perhaps a lack of demand for it?
Archive for September, 2005
Driver of dump truck checks fuel level with a LIGHTER!
Ok, what the FUCK was this dipshit thinking? Seriously… He has a dumptruck with a faulty fuel gauge and decides to check his fuel level in the tank… that’s all fine and dandy, but do it with a goddamn flashlight. Who in their right mind would stick a lighter near a tank of fuel (gasoline or diesel, doesn’t matter). Did he not stop to think that maybe there would be FUMES? If fumes get near a flame, what do they do? They IGNITE! Amazing concept, eh? Too bad fucklick didn’t die. We sure as hell don’t need him in the gene pool. Maybe we’ll at least be fortunate enough to keep him from reproducing. Darwinism at its best, baby.
Short post today, but I found this to be worthy of posting. I was basically bored browsing through digg and found this really nice site with tons of awesome wallpapers in sizes ranging from 800×600 all the way up to 1600×1200 (for you lucky bastards with badass monitors). They’re free, too… no registration necessary or anything. From what I gather, it somewhat of a community where digital artists submit their work. Needless to say, theyhave a collection of some of the nicest wallpapers I’ve seen around. Every bit as good as some of the stuff you’ll see on Digital Blasphemy but FREE! Anyway, here’s the link. I have a feeling it’s going to be slow for a bit since it’s been listed on digg and so it’s going to get a shitload more traffic than usual. So if it’s kinda slow, don’t be shocked. It’s a bit slow as it is for me and I’m at work on a dual T1 (not as fast as my home connection amusingly).
Comcast keeps doing speed upgrades despite the fact that they’re not entirely necessary. As of right now, we’re paying $52.95 for 768kbps upstream and 8000kbps (8Mbps) downstream. We started out with 256kbps/1.5mbps, then 256/3.0, then 384/4.0, then 768/6.0, and finally 768/8.0. All in all not much to complain about. I just ran a speed test on speakeasy.net and came up with the following:
Download Speed: 8035 kbps (1004.4 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 635 kbps (79.4 KB/sec transfer rate)
Not too shabby, eh? Hopefully Comcast will find it in their hearts to upgrade us to 1mbps upstream. THAT would seriously make me a happy man. In comparison, Bellsouth only offers up to 384/3.0 as their highest package ($42.95) and 256/1.5 as their “default” package ($32.95). Technically speaking, Bellsouth is cheaper since they offer the 256/1.5 package, but that’s basically 1/4 the speed of Comcast’s default package (384/6.0) for only $10 less. Comparing apples to apples, Bellsouth’s $42.95 package is half of the download speed of Comcast’s package but offers the same upload. Also take into account that you must subscribe to local phone service through Bellsouth as well, thus adding to the total cost. Too bad we don’t have Verizon for our local carrier. They offer FIOS in some areas. $40 a month gets you 2mbps upstream and 5mbps downstream. $50 gets you 2mbps upstream and 15Mbps downstream. For those of you with a REAL need for speed, they offer an insane 30Mbps downstream and 5mbps upstream for $200/mo. I’m not sure I’d pay that much but jesus christ that’s some mad speed. Too bad most websites would never be able to allow you to download at such insane speeds. I’d be happy with the $50 package, though. Perhaps we’ll see some speeds like that out of Comcast within the next year or so.
I don’t understand the ipod craze, personally. They’re overpriced, for starters. Namely, the ipod nano. Yes, it’s small and “cute” but jesus christ, $200 for 2GB and $250 for 4GB? You’ve gotta be kidding me, right? I picked up an iriver H10 6GB for $167.50 on ebay and they can easily be found for right around $200 online if you don’t buy from Ebay. So let’s see here… for the same price as a 2GB nano, you get 3x the storage and the same color screen. Size-wise it’s slightly larger but that’s pretty negligible.
With the ipod, you’re basically tied to itunes for synching and purchasing music online. Some of the online music stores like Rhapsody and Yahoo Music will allow you to transfer music to the ipod using their software but the ipod itself won’t play music you purchase from their store because it’s in wma format and the ipod doesn’t support wma files. Basically if you want to BUY music you have to pay $0.99 per track via the itunes store. With my iriver H10 I can use any software except itunes to transfer music to my device…. Not only that, I can purchase music from any online music store (except itunes) and even transfer subscription content from Rhapsody to Go, Napster to Go and Yahoo Music Unlimited. Pretty sweet deal, if you ask me. I pay $7/month and have access to over 1 million songs at any given time and can transfer any of them to my mp3 player and listen to them until my heart’s content. Let’s see here… 1000 songs from itunes music store = $1000. 1000 transferred via Yahoo Music = $6.99 per month or $60 for a whole year. Also, if I choose to purchase the music (meaning it won’t expire when I cancel my subscription), it’s only $0.79 per track. Still cheaper than itunes and in better quality, too.
Another nice thing about the iriver? I can replace the battery if it goes dead and refuses to charge. The cost? $39.99 via iriver’s online store. Ipod batteries aren’t user-replaceable. Well, let me re-phrase that. They’re user replaceable but not by your average joe and they’re not MEANT to be replaced by the end user. You’re supposed to ship it off to Apple and have them replace it. Heck, I can carry a spare battery for my iriver H10 and if my battery goes dead and I don’t have the charger with me, I can just swap out batteries for another 7-8 hrs of playback time. $40 for a battery? That’s cheaper than most cellphone batteries!
Features? Well, I don’t see any features the ipod has that the iriver doesn’t. The iriver does photos, text and FM radio along with playing mp3 and wma. Not only that, it has the capability to record fm radio and has a built-in microphone to act as a voice recorder. If you purchase the optional dock ($39.99) you can record via line-in sources as well. The ipod doesn’t do fm radio nor does it record jack shit. It also doesn’t play wma, instead opting for apple’s proprietary formats that just aren’t as common today as wma (despite it being microsoft proprietary). Both include a touch-sensitive interface, though apple’s click wheel is arguably somewhat more intuitive. The iriver can be used as a removable disk drive by plugging it in and powering on while holding the circle key… This makes it show up as a disk drive with a letter in windows explorer. The same can be done for the ipod, though I’m not sure how. I’m sure it’s no more difficult. Both include decent headphones in the box… However, the iriver includes a carrying case with a belt clip in the box. It’s uglier than shit, but it works and saves you from having to buy something right off the bat just so you can carry it around on your hip. The ipod is available in more colors…. uhhh, ok.
Accessories? Well, for the most part, everything that you can get for the ipod you can get for the iriver (or any other alternative player out there). Amusingly, the ipod nano armband is $29 while the iriver one is a whopping $7.99. Both players have an available dock. Surprisingly Apple wins this round as their dock is $10 cheaper ($29.99 vs $39.99 for the iriver). You can buy an inline remote control for the iriver for $25 that allows you to operate the player’s basic features without having to actually have it in your hand. The ipod nano does not offer such an accessory, though the ipod mini and full size ipods do. They are a bit more expensive, though since they’re of the wireless variety and are more meant to control your ipod when it’s stationary and plugged into your stereo, not while you’re out on the go. Replacement USB cables are $5 cheaper for the iriver than for the ipod ($14.99 vs $19.99). Car chargers are about $20 for each. All in all, most accessories are a bit cheaper for the iriver than for the ipod, mostly because the ipod crowd seems to be more fanatical about their devices and doesn’t seem to mind overpaying for things (the device itself included).
All in all, the only reasons I see for buying an ipod over an iriver H10 or even a Creative Zen micro would be a) you have a mac… in which case the ipod is your ONLY choice… or b) you want to be “cool” because “everyone else has one”. My opinion stands that the ipods are basically for either the uneducated consumer who buys things because everyone else has one…. and for mac users since no other player works with the Mac from what I can tell.
Yep.. this weekend was most definitely a great weekend. Despite the fact that I’m broke as fuck because I have to pay rent, I still managed to have a good time. Friday night we went and saw “Transporter 2″ and went to Cotton Eyed Joe’s. The movie was pretty good overall. Go see it for the insane action, not for the plot. The plot is incredibly thin and not even worth talking about. Go see this movie if you want to see shit get blown up, cars driven at insane speeds, people get the shit kicked out of them and various other things of the sort. Some of the action scenes are incredibly far-fetched but they’re still cool to watch. Just leave your brain at home for this movie. I didn’t expect too much and I got what I expected. I’m not sure it was totally worth $8, but I don’t feel horrible having spent the money. After the movie, we went to CEJ and stayed there for just under 2 hrs. It wasn’t really all that busy and neither of us had enough money to get drunk. We ended up spending like $15 or so each since Bacardi-based drinks were $2.50. After Joe’s, we went back to Sam’s and drank some more. Had a few friends over as usual and had a pretty good time. I didn’t get falling-down throwing-up drunk. Just a bit tipsy and felt pretty damned good overall. We drank what are called “Big apple shots” which have Bacardi Big Apple rum and sour apple pucker. They’re pretty damn good, if not a little more tart than I normally like.
Saturday we all got up, Sam had to go to work… then after work his friend Adam (a different Adam than we normally hang out with) came over… we ate Taco Bell, came back and dicked around with Sam’s Yukon that he’s decided he doesn’t want to bother fixing. Adam decides he wants to buy it (buys it Sunday and takes it away, amusingly). Saturday night, Sonya & Natasha came over and hung out with us. Well, they get the idea that they want to drink so we buy the fruitiest liquors known to mankind and make pussy drinks for them. Bacardi Razz rum, Triple Sec and cranberry juice. Apparently those weren’t pussy enough for them because they couldn’t even drink more than one each. Sad sad sad. Sam and I ended up getting pretty knackered and having a damn good time. We sang along to “Queen of my Double Wide Trailer” by Sammy Kershaw, did the Cha Cha Slide in his room and generally just acted goofy, but didn’t get too loud or anything. Natasha spent half the night being harrassed by her idiotic psycho boyfriend (now ex or something). He basically spent half the night accusing her of fucking one of us despite the fact that none of us even came within a mile of laying a hand on her. Apparently she woke up to a few text messages from him calling her a dirty whore and accusing her of fucking around on him when she was “sleeping”. What a fucking douchebag… seriously. Way to show your insecurities, assmaster. If a girl’s going to cheat, she’s going to cheat no matter what. No amount of shit-talking and being posessive and insecure is going to make her any less likely to cheat. If she cheats, she’s a slut, ditch her… end of story. Let her go out and do what she wants and if she really respects you and wants to be with you, she’ll keep her legs closed. If she can’t do that then she obviously doesn’t respect you and she’s a stupid cum guzzling slut so you ditch her. It’s not difficult, people. Jesus! Why can’t guys understand that? Anyway, end of rant.
Sunday was boomsday. Original plans were to meet at Sam’s at 6pm and leave from there, get downtown around 7pm or so and not have to fight traffic as badly. Well, 7:30 and everyone finally shows up and it’s almost 8 by the time we even get rolling. Traffic was a whore and we spent 35 minutes driving around looking for fucking parking. Eventually we find an open garage on UT campus and park at the top to watch the fireworks. 10pm, the fireworks are over so we leave. Garage is 9 levels, we need to make it to level 5. 8 minutes to get from level 9 to level 6. A FUCKING HOUR to get from level 6 to level 5. It was so bad that Sam, Ty and I all got out of the car, walked 3 blocks to a store and got a 12 pack of beer and walked back and met Adam (not the above-mentioned Adam) right before he got to the exit. Really fucking sad if you ask me. Amazingly, I made it to work on time despite my calling and informing my co-workers that I would most likely be late. So yeah… I had a good weekend overall. Sitting in traffic for an hour was gay, but that doesn’t make the weekend on the whole any worse. Granted, the 30 minutes of fireworks were not worth the traffic bullshit we had to deal with. If we go next year, we’re going on bicycles. Plain and simple.
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