Ordinary Superhero

Around Christmas time I get heartily sick of the cheesy christmas songs that are around, and the carols are usually done really badly, so it was with trepidation I followed Boing Boing’s link to Tijuana Christmas MP3s from hell. However they’re not half bad (although amazingly chhesy, in a good way) and put me in mind of another set of Christmas carols I found the other day. I was listening to the Christmas classics channel on Moontaxi, when I heard one of the tracks from Oy to the World These are mostly christmas carols, arranged in “klezmer” style (which I’d never heard of, but instantly recognised.) I’m certainly going to be gettina copy of this! There are some beautiful arrangements among the ones obviously meant more for fun.

I can feel it already – as soon as I saw a link to this this afternoon, I knew the obsession was only beginning. I really want a Transgear DVX-500E – WiFi ready DivX Player. I have loads of videos which I’d love to be able to watch on my TV, and this kind of thing would be ideal for me. I have my wireless connection and my DVD player is getting a bit crotchety in its old age (it’s nearly 5 years old – a Sony which was sold with a multi-region chip in it – how long is it since you’ve had to chip a DVD player to get multiregion??). Plus I might have to get some external storage to store all the videos I have. one step at a time.

Some things I remember learning, some I don’t. I vividly remember being taught how to spread bread on butter. I remember being told what was the proper amount of toilet paper to use (two sheets, one folded over the other) but not by whom. I remember the pride I felt in being able to tie my own shoelaces, no matter that it took me so long to learn (longer than tying a tie, I think). I remember being told that men tore their bread rolls open, rather than cutting them with a knife (thanks Mum)

Which File Extension are You?

Well, I actually don’t own an Ipod, but I keep reading about people who have trouble transferring things between their Ipods and their macs/PCs, or who have battery problems or other issues.
A few months ago, I bought an Iriver H-140. It’s like an Ipod, only better. It’s cheaper, it has a built-in FM Radio, it acts just like a hard drive when plugged into my PC, it uses USB (I don’t have to buy a firewire card) and it will also record!! How good does it get??
The only dark cloud on the horizon was the startup time. When full of all my stuff (40GB) it took a good minute or two between powering on and being ready to play. I put up with this though, since it was so cool in other ways. So the other day I did two things – I deleted a whole lot of audio books (which were composed of lots of smaller files) and updated the firmware. Now, with the new firmware and 10 GB free it starts up within about 10 seconds – perfect!! I get loads of battery life and it’s made things so much easier. After buying my flat I had a whole load of decorating to do, and not having to stop every half-hour to change a CD or tape was tremendous!
I’m a thoroughly happy customer!

Update!
Okay, having now had my hands on an Ipod, I can say that they really do suck! A friend got one for his wife, but had no USB 2, so I had to do the honours. I confess I thought that Ipods couldn’t do USB, so I was wrong on that, but otherwise it was a real pain. With my Iriver, I plugged it in, opened the file expolorer to copy over some songs and I was done. With the Ipod I had to install special software, put in the serial number of the device, and then work out how to copy over music. I copied music over using the windows explorer and nothing happened. I tried using itunes, but the process was so opaque I got nowhere. I tried using Windows media player and got no further. I finally had to reset the ipod, and start again with itunes which, this time, decided to play ball.
I also don’t like the ipod interface. I discovered last year, when I bought an All for one 6 Kameleon that nothing beats physical feedback in a user interface. I prefer having an interface where I can use the item without looking at it, and both devices – the ipod and the kameleon – fail on this count. Also, I know I m ust be really stupid, but I didn’t find the ipod interface intuitive at all. Took ages to work out how to change the volume! I love the feedback I get from the miniature joystick on the Iriver – much more intuitive and easier to use without thought . I would also imagine it’s less prone to mistaken inputs.