OT: Musical Devices

"Phil, Squid-in-Training" <[email hidden]> wrote in
message news:J_3Ve.13407$Cc5.2724@lakeread06...

Quoted message said:

Ride-A-Lot said:

So I wanted to get something for all the lonely road rides I do (not
trails). I have a 60GB iPod, but it's too big and clunky for riding.
I picked up an iPod Nano today. Does anyone else think this is the
coolest, "how'd they do that" technology out there?

What bugs me is they can make something so small that plays 1000
songs, yet can't make am affordable car that gets 1000 miles to the
gallon.

We can definitely make affordable cars that gets >100mpg... that's no
problem. The problem is getting American culture to embrace it. Go to
Europe sometime... Italy specifically.

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

I try and boycot using my car as much as possible. i try and ride when
weather permits, i am looking at selling the car and getting a 50cc scooter,
the ultimate in petrol misers..

So I wanted to get something for all the lonely road rides I do (not
trails). I have a 60GB iPod, but it's too big and clunky for riding. I
picked up an iPod Nano today. Does anyone else think this is the
coolest, "how'd they do that" technology out there?

What bugs me is they can make something so small that plays 1000 songs,
yet can't make am affordable car that gets 1000 miles to the gallon.

Anyway, it's a cool toy!

--
o-o-o-o Ride-A-Lot o-o-o-o
www.schnauzers.ws

A Pod Dog for your road dog.

Ride-A-Lot said:

So I wanted to get something for all the lonely road rides I do (not
trails). I have a 60GB iPod, but it's too big and clunky for riding.
I picked up an iPod Nano today. Does anyone else think this is the
coolest, "how'd they do that" technology out there?

What bugs me is they can make something so small that plays 1000
songs, yet can't make am affordable car that gets 1000 miles to the
gallon.

We can definitely make affordable cars that gets >100mpg... that's no
problem. The problem is getting American culture to embrace it. Go to
Europe sometime... Italy specifically.

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

Ride-A-Lot said:

So I wanted to get something for all the lonely road rides I do (not
trails). I have a 60GB iPod, but it's too big and clunky for riding. I
picked up an iPod Nano today. Does anyone else think this is the
coolest, "how'd they do that" technology out there?

I wouldn't ride on the road with one (unless it was a car-free fireroad),
but yeah that is a very cool player. Higher-density flash memory really
opened the door for a much smaller 4GB player.

--
-BB-
To e-mail me, unmunge my address

BB said:

Ride-A-Lot said:

So I wanted to get something for all the lonely road rides I do (not
trails). I have a 60GB iPod, but it's too big and clunky for riding. I
picked up an iPod Nano today. Does anyone else think this is the
coolest, "how'd they do that" technology out there?

I wouldn't ride on the road with one (unless it was a car-free fireroad),
but yeah that is a very cool player. Higher-density flash memory really
opened the door for a much smaller 4GB player.

I ride the same 25 mile section every week day. It has a pretty wide
bike lane. Id feel safe for 90% of the ride and the other 10% I'll just
pop the ear buds out.

--
o-o-o-o Ride-A-Lot o-o-o-o
www.schnauzers.ws

Still-baffled @ why you need 4GB? The smaller SANdisks and other
memory cards with built-in usb flash connectors are more usefull and
more portable. I like the SANdisk because it has its own screen/file
navigation plus FM radio, but it requires a usb CABLE. Some of them
have a standard usb connector ON THEM like a memory stick, but are also
MP3/wmv players. The 1GB ones are only like 100 bucks and 1 gb is way
more music than you can listen to in a day. Put your MP3s on your
100GB hard drive you already have in your pc and xfer the hours of
listening you want, plus it will carry pc files i.e. word/excell
documents, video files etc, which is awesome if you're going to school.

But yeah, other than shying away from any APPLE [censored], I do think these
things are the coolest things since sliced bread. Those and P2P file
sharing. I used to dump 50-100 bucks a month on used cds @ the record
store, but now I can't even remember the last CD I actually BOUGHT.
And now with these flash players, the player doesn't have to be as big
as a cd to go with you to play the tunes. You may also look into the
noise cancelling headphones they WORK! They are awesomely better than
standard headphones. . . .

If you have an apple fixation, the ipod shuffle would probably be
better suited to OT use than the nano.

The thing that gets MY goat is: How come when i was a freshman in
highschool I bought a laptop pc for 1400 bucks, Pentium one, 133MHz.
16MB ram. I thought it was awesome. Now it's not worth 10 dollars.
last year I bought a p4 3.2GHz Hyperthreading, 512MB of 533Mhz ram for
350 on ebay. Now how can the technology get THAT much better AND that
much CHEAPER, yet a '69 corvette with a 427 sold off the showroom floor
in '69 for 3500, now you can't get a vette for less than 50,000. Same
thing is true for trucks etc. Why such a difference between the two
products? One gets way better and way cheaper, the other gets a little
better, yet costs WAY more. Something tells me it has more to do with
LABOR UNIONS or the lack thereof rather than anything else.

x1134x said:

Still-baffled @ why you need 4GB?

I have an e-music catalog of 14,000 song titles and growing. I can
easily fill the 4GB drive with riding tunes. Then I can create
different playlists for each day. I wouldn't have to listen to the same
song again for a month.

Quoted message said:

But yeah, other than shying away from any APPLE [censored], I do think these
things are the coolest things since sliced bread. Those and P2P file
sharing. I used to dump 50-100 bucks a month on used cds @ the record
store, but now I can't even remember the last CD I actually BOUGHT.
And now with these flash players, the player doesn't have to be as big
as a cd to go with you to play the tunes. You may also look into the
noise cancelling headphones they WORK! They are awesomely better than
standard headphones. . . .

Did I mention I consult for the RIAA? Just kidding, but you shouldn;t
go around screaming you didn't pay for the music. Musicians work hard
to create that work. I know the record industry gouges and the artists
make nothing from a CD, but without it they couldn't support a tour
(where they make their money). This is why I like iTunes. I can get
the titles I want without having to buy the nine other sucky tunes on
the CD.

I have the second generation Bose NC headset and Seindheiser's folding
NC headset. I think both are equally great, but the seindheiser is much
more portable. On the bike I use the buds, because I need to hear
what's around me.

--
o-o-o-o Ride-A-Lot o-o-o-o
www.schnauzers.ws

Ride-A-Lot said:

So I wanted to get something for all the lonely road rides I do (not
trails). I have a 60GB iPod, but it's too big and clunky for riding. I
picked up an iPod Nano today. Does anyone else think this is the
coolest, "how'd they do that" technology out there?

They do look pretty slick. I find it interesting they used the name Nano
when Creative already has a player called that (with an FM tuner built
in). Seems like lawsuit fodder to me.

I made myself a 80 GB Creative Zen Xtra with an eBay Zen 30 GB that was
not working ($30) and a fresh 80 GB hard drive a coworker gave me
super-cheap. You can't even buy a 80 GB player from Creative or Apple
and I cobbled one together for under $100.

I also made myself a 1 GB flash player using an eBay Creative MuVo^2
shell that had it's 4 GB microdrive removed (when the players were
cheaper than microdrives, people bought the players and removed the
drives which left a lot of driveless cheap player shells available).
Then I just put in a 1 GB Sandisk CF card. That's my "On the go" player
which also doubles as a USB mass storage device. Then I can keep my
whole ~10,200 track library on the XTra for use in the office, car, or
wherever that isn't too rough for a hard drive.

Quoted message said:

What bugs me is they can make something so small that plays 1000 songs,
yet can't make am affordable car that gets 1000 miles to the gallon.

You're joking, right? Those kinds of arguments make anyone familiar with
scientific theory just cringe.
"If they can put a man on the moon, why can't they cure hemorroids?"

Quoted message said:

Anyway, it's a cool toy!

Yep.

Matt

x1134x said:

If you have an apple fixation, the ipod shuffle would probably be
better suited to OT use than the nano.

"OT" means "off topic", i.e. off-topic for this newsgroup.

The shuffle would drive me nuts. We have a little iRiver flash player, and
my wife & I use the screen a fair amount. Its the only way we could
separate out our music.

--
-BB-
To e-mail me, unmunge my address

Quoted message said:

Musicians work hard to create that work.

I would agree with you up to a point, and that point is like 1992.
After that, whether they worked hard or not, all they made was [censored].
Alot of the songs I download are not even available on other media now.

Quoted message said:

I know the record industry gouges and the artists make nothing from a CD

So I'm only ripping off the rich, I feel like robin hood. lol. Also
there is the same arguement about copying software, and the "losses" of
revenue. These are WAY over inflated. Think of the sample platters at
the grocery store. You're NEVER going to actually buy the new special
vienna sausages, but you will eat ONE if its FREE. Yet the store keeps
giving them away, they must sell the sausages somehow. . . the same
could be said for music. The record company didn't LOSE any money when
i downloaded the song, I never downloaded MONEY. And if it wasn't
there on a sample platter for FREE, I WOULD BY NO MEANS BUY the cd, I
would go without. Therefore, they have lost nothing. But if they let
me sample it for free, (download a song) My palate might be inticed
enought to say, PAY TO GO TO THEIR CONCERT, or even break down and buy
the cd to hear more songs by the artist.

Quoted message said:

but without it they couldn't support a tour (where they make their money).

Hmm 30,000 screaming fans, @ 50-100 bucks a pop generates 1.5 to 2
million dollars! I think the concerts are self-sufficient, and do not
need cd sales to support them. If I could go to a concert for 5 bucks
and the cd sales actually DID pay for putting on the show, then I could
see the value in buying the cds.

What I find hilarious is that the last CD I bought, and the only band I
ever buy new cds from is the napster-suing Metallica. I love the band
and MUST own the cds, and associated artwork. Other bands, I just want
the songs.

Quoted message said:

"OT" means "off topic", i.e. off-topic for this newsgroup.

thought it meant "ON TRAIL" my mistake

how do you play songs in your car via USB? do you have a BMW or
something?

"x1134x" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

The thing that gets MY goat is: How come when i was a freshman in
highschool I bought a laptop pc for 1400 bucks, Pentium one, 133MHz.
16MB ram. I thought it was awesome. Now it's not worth 10 dollars.
last year I bought a p4 3.2GHz Hyperthreading, 512MB of 533Mhz ram for
350 on ebay. Now how can the technology get THAT much better AND that
much CHEAPER, yet a '69 corvette with a 427 sold off the showroom floor
in '69 for 3500, now you can't get a vette for less than 50,000. Same
thing is true for trucks etc. Why such a difference between the two
products? One gets way better and way cheaper, the other gets a little
better, yet costs WAY more. Something tells me it has more to do with
LABOR UNIONS or the lack thereof rather than anything else.

Not at all. It's the raw cost of materials and scale of economy. We do a
lot more computers now than we did back then, and cars are made up of a lot
of [censored] (3000 lbs), whereas computers have 5-7 pounds of actual material.
You're also comparing about 10 years versus 40 years... factor in lots and
lots and lots of inflation. And don't worry about your labor union
conspiracy theory....

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

Ride-A-Lot said:

Did I mention I consult for the RIAA? Just kidding, but you shouldn;t
go around screaming you didn't pay for the music. Musicians work hard
to create that work.

Yeah, and besides, all that rationalization of "why I do it" is just
getting old. We know that why they do it is usually because they just
don't want to pay for it. There will be some who download just to "see if
they like it" then buy the music, but that's a minority.

Quoted message said:

I know the record industry gouges and the artists
make nothing from a CD, but without it they couldn't support a tour
(where they make their money).

There are a lot of independent labels that don't gouge their artists. And
some of the music these artists are producing is great! You can often buy
direct from the label or the artist, and eliminate the retail middleman
altogether (not that Wal-Mart would ever carry any music that wasn't
pushed by the RIAA anyway). Concerts and CDs are typically about $10. You
even get thank-you e-mails from the band sometimes. 🙂 Free MP3 samples
are usually available online.

Quoted message said:

This is why I like iTunes. I can get
the titles I want without having to buy the nine other sucky tunes on
the CD.

Well, you'd better hope you never want anything besides an iPod...ever.
That's all that music will work with. I refuse to buy music that is
crippled with DRM.

--
-BB-
To e-mail me, unmunge my address

x1134x said:

Quoted message said:

Musicians work hard to create that work.

I would agree with you up to a point, and that point is like 1992.
After that, whether they worked hard or not, all they made was [censored].

You really need to take a look at the world outside of Wal-Mart.

--
-BB-
To e-mail me, unmunge my address

"Ride-A-Lot" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

x1134x said:

Still-baffled @ why you need 4GB?

I have an e-music catalog of 14,000 song titles and growing. I can easily
fill the 4GB drive with riding tunes. Then I can create different
playlists for each day. I wouldn't have to listen to the same song again
for a month.

Quoted message said:

But yeah, other than shying away from any APPLE [censored], I do think these
things are the coolest things since sliced bread. Those and P2P file
sharing. I used to dump 50-100 bucks a month on used cds @ the record
store, but now I can't even remember the last CD I actually BOUGHT.
And now with these flash players, the player doesn't have to be as big
as a cd to go with you to play the tunes. You may also look into the
noise cancelling headphones they WORK! They are awesomely better than
standard headphones. . . .

Did I mention I consult for the RIAA? Just kidding, but you shouldn;t go
around screaming you didn't pay for the music. Musicians work hard to
create that work. I know the record industry gouges and the artists make
nothing from a CD, but without it they couldn't support a tour (where they
make their money). This is why I like iTunes. I can get the titles I
want without having to buy the nine other sucky tunes on the CD.

I have the second generation Bose NC headset and Seindheiser's folding NC
headset. I think both are equally great, but the seindheiser is much more
portable. On the bike I use the buds, because I need to hear what's
around me.

--
o-o-o-o Ride-A-Lot o-o-o-o
www.schnauzers.ws

My choice would be the Sony HD5 MP3 player. You get a choice of 20 or 30Gb
models (go for 30Gb - good value for money!), capacity for up to 13.000
songs using Sony's Atrac+ compression (20Gb version), it's truly compact,
beats all the competition hands down for battery life with 40 hours, and it
has a disc protection system whereby if you drop it the hard disc shuts off
before it hits the floor!

If you do go for it do some web research on the headphones though because
the stock ones are not great, there are a few forums where recommendations
have been made. Also, here in Europe the bureaucrats have forced Sony to put
a volume limiter on the machine. I'm not sure whether that applies to models
sold in the US. But there is an easy fix for it that you do using the
service menus in the machine. Good deals come up on eBay fairly regularly.

--
Ian