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40GB RCA Lyra: Apple Fans Needn't Fret
PaulEshoreLives writes "The Globe and Mail isn't taking too kindly to RCA's Lyra 40GB iPod 'competitor.' Amongst its gripes are a crazy-slow FFW. How slow? Like 6 minutes to get to the end of a 60 minute file. Gotta wonder how these things get missed at the beta stage."
What's a FFW ?
And have these 6 minutes something to do with the 17-minute file copying troll ?
Trolling using another account since 2005.
Will it make your iPod quit working? Or make you love your iPod less?
Why are there only 19 people folding@home for slashdot?
.. are conducive to rapid-scan indexing of frames.
..
Sure, on an uncompressed mpeg4, you can just fseek() where you need to go and pick right up, but some codecs (not gonna mention names) are designed with limitations that make faster-than-1x speed indexes exceedingly difficult for simple lower-power processors
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Might sell my iPod for one of these. Infact, I might start using Windows as well..
"Sweet llamas of the Bahamas !"
Why does every new hard disk mp3 player have to be labeled an iPod competitor? Some of these devices aren't even close to the iPod.
I am submitting an article on the Archos Gmini 400. This has gone too far. 'oooh the ipod can view photos!' jesus christ.
I have a Lie-ra too. The 128MB version. It claims to play MP3s but you must convert them to MPY format using a MusicMatch plugin!! (BTW: it plays WMA files too but without a conversion to MPY )
I wonder if this Lyra play MP3s or MPYs?
Obama's legacy: (N)othing (S)ecure (A)nywhere and (T)error (S)imulation (A)dministration
"Just another case of a geek trying to imitate the popular people and failing miserably."
I'll check out the market in a year or two when my iPod is getting old and clunky and I feel like getting a new gadget. Until then, I'm not really thinking about mp3 players honestly...
In the software development world that would be the alpha stage. I can just see it now.
Engineer to Management.
We are trying to work on the fast forward function and we would like to do that before shipping.
Management to Engineer.
We must ship by this date, we don't care if the software is done correctly or not, just get us revenue.
Engineer to Management.
Ok, me must remove the FFW button from the machine.
Management.
No, leave it we have a great idea.
Management to end user and press.
"This is a new feature of the ffw button, we think that it should be a super slow function, for those times when you just have a little too much time on your hands."
Happens all the time
That every portable hard disk based music player is inferior to an iPod until we hear otherwise? We get the message.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Dear sir,
Your views intrigue me and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
So the forward-scan button gives you a 10x speed ffw. And? Why is this bad?
But then, I'm not getting my head round having single mp3 files that are 60 minutes long either, so that might explain it. I mean, there's Eno's Neroli, but I can't think of any others off the top of my head.
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
Most cassette players and VCRs can go from start to end of a tape in about 1-2 minutes. That's sad.
It always strikes me as strange why a company would believe that simply jumping on the MP3 Player bandwagon, and not actually producing a superior product to the iPod, would yield better sales results than the iPod. Absolute insanity.
IGB: More fun than eating oatmeal!
Going through a 60 minute file in 6 minutes is still a fast forward. Fast is just a very ambibious term.
I don't think that every slashdot topic with the words "iPod" in it deserve to be on the front page.
I also wouldn't call every single device that plays MP3s an iPod competitor. The next thing you know you'll be throwing up newsposts about IBM laptops not having a scroll wheel.
Gotta wonder how these things get missed at the beta stage."
PHB: Beta stage? What beta stage?
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
I have a few that are MUCH longer then an hour..
And are not split up by chapter... so its one huge file..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Apple Fans Needn't Fret
What is that saying about a group of people, that a competitor's product to Apple might cause you to "fret"? I guess its implying that Apple users don't like competition? But beyond that, why should competition cause anyone outside of Apple cause any stress for anyone that doesn't make a living selling Apple realted products? Its just wierd thats all. I understand that we can all get caught up in fandom every now and then, but geez louise give it a break.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
Gee, you'd think someone with views as meticulously thought out as yours would realize that the Globe & Mail is a Toronto paper. Perhaps you have a similar screed about consumenadians, eh?
I believe "apple fans" have a reason to fear iRiver and the Nomad Zen more then this.
since IMNSHO both of these give you far better bang for your buck, not to mention the iRiver has more features.
Just my two cents really.
Perhaps you have a similar screed about consumenadians, eh?
That's a type of soup, right?
Does the Lyra support the seek to xx:xx time function ?
Otherwise high speed ffw is not a very frequently used function... in winamp eg. i would directly click at the approx position from where i would like the play to continue instead of ffwding.
but as someone has already posted it depends on the codec also.
vik
[all generalizations are untrue except this one]
I really wonder sometimes why people make statements like this. I just got my free ipod from the freeipods.com deal and I love it. I am not fearfull of some other mp3 player any more that I am fearfull of of tin foil hats.
In that case: have a look at the Rio Karma. 1. It's cheaper 2. It plays Ogg 3. It has a better screen resolution 4. It has cross platform support (a java client that uses an ethernet connection to download/upload music from/to it)
"I Just Want You To Hurt Like I Do" - Randy Newman
Sounds like a big minus for fans of Spock's Beard, Yes, Klaus Schultze, Brian Eno... and the many other artists who have escaped the bounds of single-digit minute compositions.
If I could have mass storage on my PocketPC it would be the best music player out there... because it uses a Windows CE port of WinAmp (still beta unfortunately)... what could be easier to use? For now, I have to settle with a 1GB SD card, but that's not bad... and I can play games or read while I listen.
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
They had a Beta stage?
Linux fans don't want any competition for Linux. They want everybody to use Linux, and tries to make all their friends use Linux. :-)
Believe me, I do
... with a CD or even a vinyl LP you can skip to wherever you want in seconds or less. This player is supposed to be the next generation of music machines and yet it appears to be a lot more awkward to use in some ways than the technology its supposed to supercede! For me thats hardly a selling point.
According to the article (sorry):
The 154 gram unit comes in at 8.5-by-13.8-by-7.2 centimetres and 2.5cm thick
Should we fret about the 4th dimension instead?
it plays every format you can throw at it, including
That's the design "feature" if the ipod which really is a flaw. Yes the interface is great, so is the integration with itunes, but it's dependancy on only 1 format is not.
Introducing Microsoft Vacuum 1.0 The first Microsoft product that doesn't suck.
In other news, the phrase "ipod killer" has been replaced with a new foriegn phrase on slashdot: "ipod competitor."
Typical .. you think just because there is 'merican' in there that I'm only talking about Americans?
No. There are consumericans here in Germany too. That this particularly nefarious social disease started in America, with its 'our cars are bigger than your car' doctrine, is immaterial to the actual meaning of the word.
Funny, though, that you would think that Consumericanism is only an American disease, given that countries predilection for exporting such things...
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
It seems the Rio Karma hasn't had a feature bump since it's introduction last year. Sure, it's pricing is on par with the 20 GB iPod (and the Karma comes with a dock, featuring an ethernet port, not to mention native support for Ogg Vorbis and FLAC), but I think Rio can do even better. =)
What the fuck... you put most of a country's name in a word like that and then get vaginal when someone thinks you're talking about that country?
There's nothing about it or your comment that indicated it was meant to be a generic term encompassing people all over the world.
So take your sneer and cram it sideways.
When I saw the headline, I figured this was going to be an article about how more MP3 players were going to start offering support for Mac computers.
For people who own only Macs, the iPod is pretty much the only choice for MP3 players, apart from MP3-playable CD players. Are any of Apple's competitors going to offer support for OS X?
Apparently Canadians feel that they can be called "Americans" because they live in North America.
That's funny, because the last time I called a Canadian an "American" he launched into a 20-minute rant about how Americans are a bunch of fast-food-eating, SUV-driving, Republican-electing morons that are ruining the world.
What's with the vintage case design? Looks like my AIWA walkman knock-off from 1988. Bleah.
"mask its innate desire for fascism?"
Huh? Where does that come from? From what theory is that derived?
slashdot has been bought out by doubleclick.
welcome to www.slashad.org
I for one welcome our new..... so on and so forth
If you are keeping a 60min file to go over on 6 mins... and kill your battery doing so.. over and over. Wouldn't you better.. skip it? If you don't want to hear it... delete it!
Besides, how long does it take to your walk-man FFW a 30min cassette?
I thing the fact that you are not able to hear MP3s is more important.
It's the Lyra RD2840. It's got it's faults but overall it's a great player for what I need it to do. Initially, it had lots of problems. You couldn't resume a track from where you left off if you turned the unit off and back on, the track would start over. If you had both mp3s and wma files on it, there was static when it switched between the 2 formats. Shuffle was buggy, etc... these were all fixed in a recent firmware upgrade though. FFW is slow on mine, but not as slow as the review says it is on the new model. Playback isn't gapless, but it's "pretty close." Battery life so far seems to be about 10 hours continuous play, 7-8 if I shuffle around, so that's not bad. It comes with an AC adapter, cigarette lighter adapter, carrying case, and the headphones are better than the typical stock headphones. The downside: For some reason, the line-out is a 1/16" jack instead of the usual 1/8" headphone sized. An adapter is included though. Also, it requires a 5.5v AC adapter, which I have had trouble locating online... so if you lose your adapter I'm not sure what you'd do. Occasionally, if you shuffle around to songs that aren't in order, the song will start about 1/2-1 second into the track. The one feature that sold me, over everything else, is that it's one of the few players that doens't require any special software. It's recognized as a standard external USB drive, you just copy files over to it like you would any normal drive (so you can also use it to store other files besides music). There IS a Windows system tray application that you use to "profile" the device, which scans all the id3 tags so that you can browse your songs by artist/genre/album/etc. But you don't need to use it, because the player has a profiling feature built in! It's just a little slower than using the windows app. In other words, this player is PERFECT for linux users. And, they're cheap. I got mine refurbished on ebay for only $160. At that price, for a 40 gig player that includes all the accessories and requires no software and runs effortlessly under Linux I don't mind the few faults it has!
1.) it's ugly
2.) no integration with iTMS
3.) too big to fit comfortably in a pocket
4.) doesn't play AAC
-mkb
It's not surprising that it's crap: we've known for decades that RCA stood for Remarkably Crappy Apparatus.
See what I've been reading.
Initially, it had lots of problems. You couldn't resume a track from where you left off if you turned the unit off and back on, the track would start over. If you had both mp3s and wma files on it, there was static when it switched between the 2 formats. Shuffle was buggy, etc... these were all fixed in a recent firmware upgrade though. FFW is slow on mine, but not as slow as the review says it is on the new model. Playback isn't gapless, but it's "pretty close." Battery life so far seems to be about 10 hours continuous play, 7-8 if I shuffle around, so that's not bad. It comes with an AC adapter, cigarette lighter adapter, carrying case, and the headphones are better than the typical stock headphones.
The downside: For some reason, the line-out is a 1/16" jack instead of the usual 1/8" headphone sized. An adapter is included though. Also, it requires a 5.5v AC adapter, which I have had trouble locating online... so if you lose your adapter I'm not sure what you'd do. Occasionally, if you shuffle around to songs that aren't in order, the song will start about 1/2-1 second into the track.
The one feature that sold me, over everything else, is that it's one of the few players that doens't require any special software. It's recognized as a standard external USB drive, you just copy files over to it like you would any normal drive (so you can also use it to store other files besides music). There IS a Windows system tray application that you use to "profile" the device, which scans all the id3 tags so that you can browse your songs by artist/genre/album/etc. But you don't need to use it, because the player has a profiling feature built in! It's just a little slower than using the windows app.
In other words, this player is PERFECT for linux users.
And, they're cheap. I got mine refurbished on ebay for only $160. At that price, for a 40 gig player that includes all the accessories and requires no software and runs effortlessly under Linux I don't mind the few faults it has!
I'm thinking you kinda invalidate any right you may have thought you had to grouse about American "consumer marketplace economics" when you lazily request Hollywood warez sites be e-mailed to you in your perch in Germany.
Maybe we're just supposed to send you warez sites for those great German movies. Yeah, that's it, that's what you meant...
As far as America's "innate desire for fascism" goes, uhhhh, don't you think might be just projecting a teensy bit? Fascism is on the rise, all right. But we Americans are dorky amateurs at it. You guys remain the world-class professionals at it.
In his simplistic worldview, we're all little Hitler clones, running around, fucking each other's wallets and beating brown people.
It's ok, he's just ignorant. We should pity him.
Btw, how the fuck can something be "Overrated" if it hasn't been rated in the first place?
Answer me that, gropeadope.
mask its innate desire for fascism?"
Huh? Where does that come from?
Our puritanical heritige. We were the last country to give up slavery. We committed genocide against the native americans. We have one of the bloodiest histories of labor relations in the western world.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
"Can we stop grousing about this issue now? Please?"
You're so silly.
http://www.acronymfinder.com/af-query.asp?p=dict&S tring=exact&Acronym=FFW
Yeah, spending that much money on an iPod clone only to find it made my fully-figured woman slower would be a pain in the butt... I paid good money for that doll, too.
Uh, what, hello.. there are still some ME and African countries that practice slavery. We certainly don't have the lock on genocide. And our history, while bloody, pales compared to Europe and the Soviet Union.
Why only 19 people Folding at home?
Because the program is apparently buggy and frequently runs away with all my CPU. I HAD to uninstall it to use my machine.
All this coming from the country that voted Hitler into power. I think you guys can keep your mouths shut for a while.
You're like an ex-con who recently found Jesus, now you go around thinking you're better than everyone else.
Well, whereabout is ogg used and evangelized apart from inside /. readership (and not all of them, from the number of iPod users)
Can we get past this?
Ogg is certainly a good format, it just happens to interest very few people.
As open format we have Ogg, but nobody is interested.
As open-standard format we have MP4 (AAC), and that is getting some traction, surely (not ALL AAC are copy protected, you know?)
As closed-standard proprietary format we have WMA, and we know we cannot accept it.
So Ogg could be the winner, but AAC seems second best.
Could have been worse. You know?
=====
I lie all the time, including now
>1) it's ugly
>2) no integration with iTMS
>3) too big to fit comfortably in a pocket
>4) doesn't play AAC
5) no integration with iTunes
6) ?
7) Profits!!!
Who's this "we"? I'm a US citizen, but I committed none of those crimes. I am a peaceful individual, not an aggressor. I will NOT be held responsible for the actions of other individuals, let alone the actions of government.
I am exactly responsible for my own actions. No more, no less. I take offense that you imply that I somehow had something to do with those crimes.
I read that as RC Lycra for some reason (maybe as I grow older I am developing dyslexia)... I can't (won't!) imagine a whole bunch of Apple Fans running around with remote control Lycra pants/etc... in fact, the whole idea of Apple Fans in lycra/spandex is frightening (it is almost Halloween, though...)
"It's tough to be bilingual when you get hit in the head."
The SDMI (http://sdmi.org/) specifies that portable music devices should only be able to fast forward at a certain speed (the reason for this escapes me). My MP3 player before the iPod actually stated this as a feature in the manual!
Rich
What are you talking about?
Apple fans WANT something to fret about because thats what makes thing better. The worst thing that could happen to the industry is for no one to bother challenging Apple.
See what happened when no one challenged Microsoft?
Apple fans WANT some one to beat the pants off Apple, 'cause it means that after Apple has gotten up off the floor and brushed itself off, it is going to come up with something freakin amazing to get back into the game.
Thats what makes healthy competition great.
Why would we Apple fans be upset if someone brought out a really cool portable audio player? Either we like the iPod or not. I know there are platform fanatics that confuse brand and personal identity, but most of us just like our gear for whatever it does. New products just drive prices down and give everyone more choices.
This is my post. There are many others like it. If you don't like what you read here, go try one of the others.
To agree with Relativity, one of those numbers should be in units of time -- i.e. the product lifetime in seconds, if that review is accurate.
We were the last country to give up slavery.
No. Brazil, for example, didn't abolish slavery until 1888 and Brazil had even worse conditions than the US. (And, no, I'm not saying this in anyway lessens how wrong we were to allow slavery exist. I'm just pointing out we weren't the last to do the moral right thing.)
"All the darkness in the world can not quench the light of one small candle."
First, give us non-proprietary batteries. Not only to keep it from becoming a paper weight after a couple years, but also to be able to toss in some other batteries if you forget to recharge it.
Second, give us an easily to use intuitive interface. In other words, TEST IT WITH REAL PEOPLE BEFORE YOU EVEN ATTEMPT TO SELL IT!!!
Third, allow us to sort and organize our music without any proprietary software crap. Simply let me transfer my MP3s by artist/cd name folders. If you want proprietary crap for newbies, let that be an option, not a mandate.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
(obligatory ad-hominem)
You're a dumb ass.
cr
"You know, that White-Picket Fence "keeping up with the Joneses" agitated nervousness that comes as a result of being breast-fed consumerican ethics from the day you were born .."
Nothing of the sort.
The fact is, most other companies have proven that once they get to the point of being in a monopoly state, start building crap and giving the consumer shit they don't need, ignoring all their failings.
Apple, on the other hand, acts as if their market share nor do their users wishes and needs expectations exist. This is actually a good thing under the right influences. If you listened to all the fanboys, you'd have a 120G iPod that could play full motion pictures in Xvid and play Ogg and maybe hook up Mame and a few controllers and heck, we need a projection unit on this and otherwise. I have one of those things from Apple...its called an Powerbook. It doesn't need to fit in my pocket. I want something that makes music and nothing more.
Apple is one of the few companies that once its in a position of power, it isn't trying to shore up the power with artificial bullshit that no one needs for its product class. Instead, they focus on making the shit better. Personally, I don't care for the photo bit of the new iPod...but it was almost the least they could do considering color screens are nearly as cheap as the screens they current use (they'd had to mode to the 2 color screen on the cheaper model it displays Black and Blue as it was what the company that made the old screen moved on to). Its a nifty hack, but I really don't want more than that, even if it had power to do more.
Apple puts out good products. If others put out an inferior product that caught the attention span of the public, we'd all suffer. Its happened in the past. The iPod won't be at its 70% mark forever, and it will eventually happen again. The fact that Apple is at 70% and the next highest is at like 5% even though its selling for half of Apples price and 2x the features (what ever the fuck that means) probably means that its past the point of consumerism -- it means folks are buying it almost solely because they realize its the best of class and its worth just a little more to have.
And just to make certain this doesn't get modded up:
Fuck All Ya'll
I misread the post, I thought the complaints were about the speed of its FFTW, the Fastest Fourier Transform in the West! I thought the author wanted to criticize the quality of its fourier transform functions.
You have recived the benefits and responsibility of those past actions.
Additionally, in a civilization you are responsible for far more than just yourself alone. You gain the benfits of shared resources, pooled security, and improvments that are greater than the sum of its parts.
But I suppose if you had children you would expect them to take care of themselves, more likely, its the responsibility of the lady you knocked up. Same for your elderly relatives. Would you deny that is the minimum of your responsibilities?
Yes.
It's got alot to do with validating a 300+ dollar personal music player to yourself and then seeing something better come out.
If you can't see the value in jet powered ants you should turn in your nerd card. - Dunbal (464142)
You live in a democracy. All people are directly responsible for what their government did, because the government is representing you and your wishes. If the U.S. Government does something you don't like, guess what?
You did it.
Get past the beta stage. Simple it was a purely marketing decision. Either they rushed it to market before they completed a full beta cycle. Or they knew about the bug and figured they'd fix it later. This common in the industry. That's why the 1st I do when I get a product hardware or software I look for an update. Also why I never buy something when it 1st comes out.
IANALBIPOOGL (I am not a Lawyer, but I play one on GrokLaw.)
I agree with you completely, but I sense the trolls will come 'round to feed...
Wow, not all Canadians have the same opinion! Stop the presses!
This got moderated +5 insightful? The hell? Was someone blinded by the low UID and edgy sounding pseudo-postmodern claptrap? The first paragraph/sentence doesn't even end -- it's a goddamned fragment.
The whole comment reads like some frothy liner note from a Rage Against the Machine album. "Consumerican"?! Holy shit.
Glad to see that freshman Social Psychology class is going so well for you...
I can't accept that the children are necessarily guilty of the sins of the parents and must attone for them.
I try to correct wrongs when ever I can, but wrongs commited before I was born I have no control over. Most of those that have commited the crimes are long dead. The slaves are free, the natives are still being given reparations for events that happened over a century ago.
In fact, my own ancestors weren't even in the US during these times.
Did it ever cross your mind that he might be an American who currently is in Germany?
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
First, we do not live in a democracy. It is a democratic republic. If it were a democracy, your statement would be correct. There is a level of responsibility that the electorate has in the actions of the elected, but not to the extent you are suggesting. In a pure democracy, the actions of the government are dependant on the opinions of the people. In a representative democracy, people are elected to represent the people in the decision making process, to make the right choice for the people, not necessarily the popular choice.
This is more than an esoteric distinction, it is a fundamental difference. BTW, this is why character is essential, and not a secondary consideration. We are electing people to stand in for us, to make decisions for us, not just to merely parrot our own opinions. If I'm going to have someone assigned to make all my decisions for me, I want to trust that they have some sort of moral framework on which to base their decisions.
no points today ...
One simple rule for its versus it's
The big revolution from, say, 1973 to 1980 was making computers affordable, an activity which the IBMs of the world had no interest in whatsoever. They saw microprocessors as a direct thread to mainframes and sought use them in limited ways and protect products like the DataMaster from cannibalization by cheap general-purpose PCs. The result was that the personal computer revolution was fueled by technies and hobbyists.
From 1980 to 1990 it was all about making computers usable and seducing ordinary people who had no interest in learning how to program in BASIC or learn a traditional CLI. The result was a revolution in usability. The overall computer usability experience (not just the GUI shell, but quality, installability, and usability of applications, ease of adding peripherals, etc.) probably peaked in the Mac world circa Apple System 7.
Ever since then, it's all been slowly downhill, as user familiarity and "computer literacy" have increased the tolerance of the general public for complexity, crashes, and other things that are now accepted as "what computers are like." Usability has been in a slow but perceptible decline.
You can see it in all sorts of little things. The latest Dell computer we got has six USB ports on the back, two of which are totally unlabelled and four of which are in close proximity to the letters "A," "B," "C," "D" in circles which are spaced closely together and are not aligned with the USB connectors they are probably labelling. There are color-coded, iconically labelled jacks for speakers and headphones, and but no obvious clue as to where mouse and keyboard are supposed to plug in.
Meanwhile, every new gadget I buy has a microprocessor in it... and usability problems. The $10 thermometer I bought in a drugstore has several different measurement modes, all incomprehensible, controlled by two unlabelled buttons and an LCD screen which displays not only the temperature but smiley faces and pictures of a running stick figure while emitting incomprehensible beeps. I can guess that if it tells me my temperature is 98-something degrees it is probably in Fahrenheit mode and if it tells me it's 37-something degrees it is probably in Celsius mode, but I'm darned if I know how to set it, or what it is that I'm doing that causes the mode to change.
My cell phone comes with a 100-page manual but frequently emits strange beeps and displays messages that the manual does not explain. (In this case, the explanation is that the cell phone user interface as experienced by the user is a combination of what the phone itself does and what the specific set of services offered by Verizon does. But the user experience is one of a low-quality UI.
Thank goodness there is at least one arena in which the market is apparently still rewarding usable design.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Isn't that how Bin Laden thinks? His objective is to punish US citizens for the actions of their government.
I say bullshit. The ruler and the subject cannot, by any stretch of logic, become one and the same. You cannot, at the same time, (1) posess the "right" to initiate force as a means to an end, and (2) NOT posess the "right" to initiate force as a means to an end. (Posession of the unique "right" to initiate force is the only absolute way to define government.)
Did it ever cross your mind that he might be an American who currently is in Germany?
Sure it did. And I figured he'd tell me so if he wanted to keep the conversation going.
Who are you, his mother?
I'm sorry. I had a turd in my pocket.
Our puritanical heritige.
It's the same well from which we draw our religious tolerance. I'll take it.
We were the last country to give up slavery.
Wrong.
We committed genocide against the native americans.
We fought against many Native American nations, aided and abetted by many other Native American nations, some of whom "we" betrayed, some of whom betrayed "us." If you think of the hundreds of tribes that populated the N.A. continent before white settlers came as some kind of happy hippie commune of mystic warrior-poets bound together in love and mutual respect, you've been too-long Disney-fied.
We have one of the bloodiest histories of labor relations in the western world.
Compared to the UK? Italy? Australia? Please.
Hey, you missed one: America has the lowest per capita of weepy, self-flagellating, achiever-despising socialists in the world as well! Oh, how will we ever survive?!?!
Prove it.
You gain the benfits of shared resources, pooled security, and improvments that are greater than the sum of its parts.
Sounds like the socialist's laundry list. Force me to accept your "benefits" now, so you can blame me later on for your acts of agression.
I suppose if you had children you would expect them to take care of themselves
What exactly does this have to do with my refusing to take responsibility for the actions of government? You seem to be confusing voluntary support with forced participation in socialism. Then again, isn't that what socialism is all about? Blurring the line between voluntary association and force?
I'm thinking you kinda invalidate any right you may have thought you had to grouse about American "consumer marketplace economics" when you lazily request Hollywood warez sites be e-mailed to you in your perch in Germany.
yeah, coz you know, all my points of view, over all time, are supposed to 'make sense' to each other. uh huh.
thanks for pointing out my hypocricy though, thats a sure-fire defeat for the argument that america is a consumerist-whore society that is eating the earth.
As far as America's "innate desire for fascism" goes, uhhhh, don't you think might be just projecting a teensy bit? Fascism is on the rise, all right. But we Americans are dorky amateurs at it.
No, Americans are seasoned pro's at the spread of fascism, I'm afraid. Not only that, but your economy (war machine) is dependent on the continuation of this condition. Americans are nothing without War.
You guys remain the world-class professionals at it.
-1 point for assuming that I'm German. Nice!
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
pwned!!!
I stand corrected.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Canadian (n): An American in all but name, who is proud that s/he doesn't have the name.
(Yes, I'm Canadian.)
I will NOT be held responsible for the actions of other individuals, let alone the actions of government.
... but there are people out there in the world right now, many thousands upon thousands of them in fact, whose lives (and limbs) have been changed, irrevocably, for that fact.
*sigh* and heres' the problem. You *SHOULD* take responsibility for the actions of your government, IT IS YOUR GOVERNMENT.
That you are piously inclined to not see that in fact, you Dont Have The Right to not take responsiblity for the actions of your government, should show you how much of a mess you are in.
It is because Americans refuse to take responsibility for the actions of their government, that you don't see the results of those actions reported on your beloved television 'free media'...
You (you know, 'the public') don't want to see the results of the wanton application of America War Machine over the last 50 years, you only want to benefit from the economic rewards presented to you by it
I take offense that you imply that I somehow had something to do with those crimes.
The fact is, American Citizen #93208239, you had everything to do with those crimes. And I am not surprised that you take offense; you (and your country) always do.
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
The number one MP3 player happens to use proprietary batteries, therefore validating the concept that proprietary batteries aren't bad. People DO buy them iPods after all. That and the batteries are servicable and replaceable!
The iPod already has one of the most intuitive and time tested interfaces.
And the iPod uses a proprietary software interface to sort and upload music. That has NOT stopped it's adoption, so again this shows that users don't care. At least, not enough users care. You may, but not the rest of the world who buys iPods.
It's very unfortunate for you.
GPL Deconstructed
Go with the iriver. :)
Functionally, I don't see much of a difference between the two. I was able to pick up a 120 for about $200 on ebay, and given that it plays ogg, it was a no brainer for me, as that's what much of my music is ripped in. Paying list for each, though, I'm not sure there's much distinguishing them except for the file formats each supports and the wheel thingy.
Well, i just looked closer at the ipod. It has contact lists and appointment reminders. If you use those, that might sway the decision. I preferred the built-in microphone in the iriver, as I've been able to record some meetings without having to use an external microphone. Ipod also has a sleep timer to fall asleep to music without using all the battery - I think my iriver has something like that, but I'm not sure (not on hand to check).
Good luck - either unit would be nice.
creation science book
Who are you, an American?
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
So if I say you're to blame for Hitler and should take responsibility for your crimes, what say you?
So after they chose the iPod and they find the next week that XYZ company produced a better product or an equilvlant product at the same or less cost. Then the consumer feels like they have made a bad decision and have wasted their money.
The great thing about living in a consumer oriented society is that companies will take back ANYTHING in around thirty days. Didn't like the color? Back it goes. Sure there are downsides but the very liberal return policy most stores have is not one of them. Smile at the return counter people and you can return anything. And really, a lot of people do take advanatge of this so I don't see it as much of an issue.
So if a better player really comes along, people need not shed a tear - just return it, or head over to eBay where (for an iPod at least) you'll get almost full price anyway.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Johnson and Woodrow demonstrated in their recent study that so called 'african-american' people belong to a different species. Show, how exactly is slavery wrong, or more wrong than using horses?
Perez-Gilaberte
Who are you, an American?
Ya gotta ask?
Bullshit. That's exactly what government wants you to believe. I will never accept the proposal that the ruler and the subject are one and the same.
Over 10,000 innocent Iraqi civilians are dead because of decisions made by the US federal government. You want to relieve them of that responsibility and put the blame on "the people". That's bullshit. What if, for example, I've voted Libertarian every single election, every single race? (The Libertarian party has very little, if any, influence on the policies of the US governments.) Are you still going to hold on to your ridiculous claims?
RCA announced a new portable 40 GB tape back-up device.
Maybe we're just supposed to send you warez sites for those great German movies. Yeah, that's it, that's what you meant...
Actually there have been some great German movies.
What's the ugliest part of your body? Some say your nose, some say your toes, but I think it's your mind. -Zappa
My god, you have seriously lost the plot.
It is not "The Government", like its some sorta separate corporation that you can just decide not to 'be a consumer of'.
It exists, ONLY ON THE BASIS OF THE RESPONSIBILITY of and for and by its citizens: YOU.
Thus, actions it takes 'in the name of its citizens and for the nation of america', ARE the responsibility OF its citizens. Directly, and as a cause of!
Your disconnect is because you are a victim of a calculated conspiracy to produce 'consumer paeon slaves of a corporate state' who begrudgingly hate its government and bear its sins, in the name of global dominance, yet all the while refusing to take any responsibility, in the meantime.
AMERICAN: You Are Your Government.
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
thanks for pointing out my hypocricy
Happy to help.
though, thats a sure-fire defeat for the argument that america is a consumerist-whore society that is eating the earth.
Dude, that's not an "argument," that's long-winded grafitti. For every mean, nasty American export you decry, whether it is Starbuck's, McDonald's, or those Hollywood movies you obviously crave, there is some cute l'il non-American country importing them for their cute l'il non-American consumer to consume. Change begins at home, son.
As for me, I'll keep buying those Japanese cartoons, British music, German cars, and Italian shoes, without begrudging the people or governments of those fine countries their creative and manufacturing skills.
Hey, I followed that link you provided, and boy, I must say, you really got me beat!! I mean, hey, I just provided a link to a globally-accredited newspaper's story about the growing threat of neo-fascism in Europe. But you, Bunky, you just Owned me! You prop up your argument with a link to a crazed screed by a lunatic jihadist whose parent organization recruits for fundamentalist Islam! Way to win a debate, bro!
There are consumericans here in Germany too.
We generally don't bother with that term for Germans, though. We just call you Huns or Nazis. Go ahead and blame consumerism on America. You'll always have credit for being the first to apply modern industrial technique to mass murder.
You're also pretty much to blame for developing the propaganda techniques being used to such great effect by the modern American equivalent to the Nazis.
Let me tell you, as bad as the stain of Iraq is on America, it's nothing like the stain you guys wear. Your souls are permanently black and you exist as a nation because of the world's mercy and forbearance over a half century ago. If there was justice, the German people would have been scattered and Germany salted.
So take your sprockets german bullshit elsewhere.
Congradulations, you are a model statist. (There's no point in arguing with you any longer, because I see now that you have been fully converted and programmed to believe in the process of democracy.)
Actually there have been some great German movies.
You're absolutely right, and I'm a big fan, particularly of Fritz Lang's work. But it's not like draws upon that vast vault of Great Teutonic Cinema is exactly burning up the P2P nets and torrents world-wide, is it?
Oh, but you see, you don't really take responsibility for your own actions any more than our grandson of the Nazis Torpor does. You live merely under the illusion that you take responsibility. If you took responsibility, you would understand all the ramifications and consequences of your actions, or at least be willing to find out what they were. You'd know that every time you drove your car, you were killing the planet a little, instead of living in your freemarket fantasy. Free Markets don't absolve you of your sins.
If you voted libertarian instead of for Gore, than the weight of 10,000 dead Iraqi civillians is on your shoulders. You've chosen to be as ineffectual as possible, as if this will some how relieve you of your responsibility.
But you live in a house built of bones. That doesn't bother you? It all happened a long time ago, to strangers. Instead of blinding yourself to your own guilt and participation, why not open your eyes?
First of all, I am not German (or European for that matter), so I'm glad you Americans kicked Hitlers ass. Thanks for doing that, mate.
.. the U.S. sure have committed a lot of war crimes by those same standards. For which its people continue to refuse responsibility for, just like happened with those Big Bad Germans (one last ta, America!!) ...
Second of all, were I to be German I would assume that my responsibility is to let the history of my now-democratic country to continue to serve as an example of the Cause of Justice, since Hitlers government no longer exists (thanks again, Americans) and had its crimes exposed in court at Nuremberg (thanks again America), and justice was actually served to all those whose crimes were disclosed by the free world (America, woowoo!), I would say that the issue of responsibility is entirely resolved in the case of the Nazi's. The bad guys went to jail, end of story. (Yup, America again!!)
Those guys ain't in power no' mo', they've been hanged and handled. The Nazi's got their dues.
50 years of continued American war, and countless U.S. War Crimes, however, have not been dealt with. U.S. War Criminals have not. The U.S. continues to aggressively invade, under whatever pretext it chooses, foreign nations, and looses its war machines whenever stock inventory (bomb shelf life) seems to warrant it. Completely ignorant of, nay flaunting, International Law.
But, coming back to Hitler (heh heh..), since the Nazi's were dealt with, justice served under International Law and by International Standards (thanks again America), well
You can compare the U.S. to Hitler, in fact you must if there is to be any value to the lesson at all. For the sake of those who died under his evil grip, those alive today, and those yet to be born!
There's video of U.S. War Crimes! Hitler didn't have video!! (pity)
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
You seem to be confusing voluntary support with forced participation in socialism.
You seem to be under the impression that you can withdraw your support from your government. Go ahead, try it. Stop paying taxes. Right now. Start today with sales taxes. Refuse to pay them. The fact is that you are NOT a free man, and there are precious few places on this earth, if there are any at all, where you could claim to be free.
Hey, you missed one: America has the lowest per capita of weepy, self-flagellating, achiever-despising socialists in the world as well! Oh, how will we ever survive?!?!
That's a very good question, and the answer is that, unless you've got money and powerful connections, not very well.
Um, no. I agree with that 100%.
People like you are exactly the reason why I claim to be Canadian when I travel outside the country. Not because I'm unpatriotic, but because people like you have made it dangerous to be an American.
Well, y'know, we all serve the dialectic.
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
What are you, the slashdot police?
#1: Low ID's mean nothing, sonny-boy, get that in your thick head.
#2: What do you think the word 'comment' means?
#3: Sig-Psych!!
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
People like you are exactly the reason why I claim to be Canadian when I travel outside the country. Not because I'm unpatriotic, but because people like you have made it dangerous to be an American
Oh, man, you mean you don't like me?
Now I'm going to be sad all day long, you big bully!
.. get vaginal ..
hey, geeze, don't make me look it up in the dictionary for you:
"consumerican" != "american".
there, you happy?
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Gotta love libertarians. In what other religion (except perhaps Scientology) can you dismiss anyone's opinion with such a pseudo-scientific sounding term as "statist"? Brilliant stuff, Ayn Rand was a great comedian.
"Consumerican" isn't even in the fucking dictionary, so what the fuck does this stupid little post of yours have to do with anything?
Answer: it doesn't, and you're just trying to change the subject.
Sorry, no. I voted for the other guy.
I helped campaign for the other guy. I talked to all my friends about voting for the other guy. I contributed to the other guys campaign. There's not a whole lot more I could have done unless I wanted to go to jail.
What the current administration has done does not reflect my beliefs in any way, shape or form, but there is a limit to what any one individual can do in the process. Now, if you want to say collectively, on average, the American people are to blame, you'd have more of an arguement (Though I'll remind you, the other guy got the more votes).
As far as the media goes, it's not mainly a responsibility issue. One of the main reasons we don't see more events from the world in our media has more to do with 5 megacorps owning 95% of the media outlets in the US, and the people who run them know which side their bread is buttered on. The other is the fact that the average American is woefully ignorant in geography and world politics ( Note I said average. Once again you can't say all of us are.), and so programs on those don't necessarily get great ratings. The most any citizen can do is try to make sure the right( well, we are talking politicians... make that 'better') guy gets in office. So no, I did not have 'everything to do with those crimes'. I tried to prevent them. Sorry.
If you are going to lay blame at my feet for what's going on, then the same blame is laid at your feet for being a 'world citizen'. What exactly are you doing to fix the problem?
>(Yes, I'm Canadian.)
My guess is that you are a Canadian who has never lived outside of Canada
You talk a lot about US war crimes, and spray hyperbole around like water, but I don't see much backing-up of the accusations you're making.
See, it's fashionable these days to call Bush Hitler and pretend the US is root of all that ever was evil in the universe, but there's not any substance behind the froth, as it were.
Have fun with your hatred. Watch out for ulcers.
No, the negro is a different sub-species from us.
Negro slaves doing the same tasks as horses is a waste and misuse. Negroes have opposable thumbs, nearly to the degree of Homo sapiens sapiensis, so they are better used in e.g. the manufacturing industry than dragging carriages.
True. Just about everything in the "German" section you can find on torrent sites are German releases of Hollywood movies.
What's the ugliest part of your body? Some say your nose, some say your toes, but I think it's your mind. -Zappa
Democracy? Who said anything about democracy?
I'm talking about resonsibility.. but don't worry, we don't have to keep talking about it. I know you know very little about it, and have little interest. Perhaps there's something good on television?
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
I'm not a libertarian, because I dismiss completely the proposal that the initiation of force (government as we know it) can be moral and just. Even libertarians believe that some initiation of force is necessary to "secure" society. (Even the most limited government must collect its revenue through coercive taxing.)
The belief that it is moral and just for a majority to initiate force as a means to achieve the majority's objectives. I don't believe in that principle.
Perhaps there's something good on television?
I don't watch television.
I looks like some Apple Zelot Moderators got to this one. And Overrated it to oblivian, to help their egos with their product that they bought they decided to Mod the writter down because he doesn't feel that Apples are a good value. Just as the kid when he runs out of good comebacks on why his toys are better will often result in fighting with him or just instults. There will be people who don't care for apple products and people like the parent who have used apple but doesn't consider it a good deal for his use. Apple loyalist are not amune to the phenomenon proven by the action of lowering the parents mod. Because when they feel infearior they will often strick back in other ways to protect their ego.
Yea I am not going anonymous coward on this one and I am a Apple User and I like apple. But his post was valid and worth at least the score of 2 if not a 3 or 4
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I'm not a big fan of Apple's stuff but even to someone like me it's clear that Apple is so far ahead of the rest of the industry on this, I can't even say that it makes sense for Sony or MS or anyone else to even bother. This is a case of innovators vs. corporate money-hounds, and Apple has learned from their past and covered their bases and built up a formidable wall around themselves before bringing the iPod and iTunes store out. Maybe this will be a lesson to the rest of the industry, that there is some wisdom in investing time and money and ideas into products, not just marketing research and half-assed guesses. It sure feels good to watch a company nurture a great idea that everyone else said was certain to fail while would-be competitors throw themselves on their own swords in a rush to get a piece of it all (even if it is Apple.)
There, there. I'm Canadian, and I like you :-)
Not everyone up here is a weepy, self-flagellating, achiever-despising socialist. (thank you for that one, BTW) Just most of us.
Unfortunately.
I bought a 2840 around this time last year, for just over $450 cdn. This at a time when 40gb ipods were > $700 cdn. Hell of a lot of money saved for something that's still smaller than my old Walkman (but my ipod-owning friends insist my player is waaaaay to heavy and large to carry around...). But, same capacity, better features overall, for $250 less? That's a lot of extra ramen in my diet.
:) Playlists pretty much cover this for me.
It's a pretty damn nice unit too, as the parent mentioned. Ideal for use under Linux, and as a portable hard drive in general. I have to laugh when I want to borrow a song from a friend with an ipod and he/she tells me "um, you can't find specific FILES, they're just numbers". As I use my mp3 player as backup for my desktop's mp3 files, it's nice to know that I can just copy them back if I lose a hard drive.
One other cool feature is it supports the playlists that Winamp and XMMS use - so it's easy to make custom playlists for the thing. One issue with the built-in profiler that the parent may not be aware of - it can only handle about 1600 files. I imagine it's RAM-limited, so when it builds its tables they can only get so big. But who the heck browses by the old standard of artist/genre anyway?
Having said all that, if RCA is trying to compete dollar for dollar with the ipod, they don't stand a chance. Not enough people care about the USB hard drive factor, sadly (and no, being able to store only non-playable mp3s on an ipod is just not enough).
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
Well, ugly is debatable.
Not everyone wants to use iTunes, so being almost forced to do so with an iPod is a disadvantage as much as the Karma not being integrated is.
And if you're not using iTunes, AAC isn't really a concern.
I don't know about the size.
Be careful. Buyer beware, this product may not be as good as the specs say... if these build quality and durability issues haven't been addressed that these reviews mention.
GPL Deconstructed
The Lyra RD1071 128Meg Flash MP3 player (2003 model?) has a painfully slow FFW (5x) and the FRW doesn't even work unless you get the latest firmware patch (try explaining that to your grandmother who wants to listen to audio books). It has many other design flaws such as not remembering where in the file you were when you last stopped listening, and remembering which file was playing when the batteries fell out. All of this could be fixed in firmware by a single Indian developer working 1 month costing Thompson/RCA a huge $500.
But I have been dealing with Microsoft products for many years now and I expect to see bugs and report them. However, when you call their technical support, you get a neophyte that is only capable of reading the manual back to you. When you ask for the next level of technical support you will hear her say
"We don't have a technical support department, just a customer support", and
"We don't have an engineering department so there's nobody I can submit your feedback to", and
"The Lyra can't play audio books, just music", and
"You have an older model. Perhaps you should buy a newer one".
After writing a few emails and getting past the automated responses, I think I made it to the next level of hell because I got this response:
You may write to Manager, Consumer Relations at Thomson. The mailing address is: Thomson, PO Box 1490, Durant, OK 74702-1490.
Needless to say, Thompson's LYRA products aren't iPod killers, they are Thompson killers. I know Apple tech support isn't all that great either (2 personal experiences), but at least they have a tech support.
In the end, I downloaded a bunch of free software and wrote myself a perl script to convert large MP3 files (such as audiobooks) into 5 minute segments.
--NerdMachine
mp3splt (http://mp3splt.sourceforge.net/) is an awesome tool to split large MP3 files (audiobooks) into smaller ones and even can auto-adjust the break so it's at the nearest silent part. Alone this is a great tool:
.wav files, you need mpg123 and lame and a perl script like the one that follows to pull the whole thing off.
/\\ /g; ;
mp3splt -f -a auto -t 5.0 *.mp3
However, most audiobooks are a little slow, but with soundstretch (http://sky.prohosting.com/oparviai/soundtouch/sou ndstretch.html), you can increase the tempo without changing the pitch. The result is an audio book that you can "read" 50% faster without losing any clairity. Tune to your own tastes.
Since soundstretch only works with
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
# Speedsplit.pl
#
# Use at your own risk.
#
# 1) convert mp3 to PCM (wav)
# 2) speed up PCM file
# 3) convert it to mp3
# 4) split it into 5 minute fragments (at whitespace if possible)
#
use File::Copy;
my ($file, $glob, $path, @command, $tmp, $ext);
foreach $glob (@ARGV)
{
$glob =~ s,\\,/,g;
$glob =~ s/
@glob = glob($glob);
foreach $file (@glob)
{
next unless ($file =~ s/.(wav|mp3)$//i);
$ext = $1;
# print ("SpeedSplit: Splitting \"$file\"\n");
$file =~ s,\\,/,g;
if ($file =~ s,(.*[:/]),,)
{
$path = $1;
$path =~ s,:$,$/,;
}
else
{
$path = "./";
}
$tmp = $file;
mkdir "${path}${tmp}" || die "Cannot make directory ${path}${tmp}";
# mp3 -> wav
if ($ext eq "mp3")
{
@command = ("mpg123","-v","-w","${path}${tmp}/${file}.wav","$ {path}${file}.mp3");
if (system (@command))
{
print STDERR "command failed: ", join(" ",@command),"\n";
next;
}
}
else
{
copy ("${path}${file}.wav","${path}${tmp}/${file}.wav")
}
# wav -> increase tempo
@command = ("soundstretch","${path}${tmp}/${file}.wav","${pat h}${tmp}/${file}_f.wav","-tempo=50");
if (system (@command))
{
print STDERR "command failed: ",join (" ",@command),"\n";
next;
}
unlink "${path}${tmp}/${file}.wav";
# wav -> mp3
@command = ("lame","-mm","-b","64","-q","0","--tt",$file,"--r esample","22.050","${path}${tmp}/${file}_f.wav","$ {path}${file}.mp3");
if (system (@command))
{
print STDERR "command failed: ", join (" ",@command),"\n";
next;
}
unlink "${path}${tmp}/${file}_f.wav";
# mp3 -> split
@command = ("mp3splt","-f","-a","auto","-t","5.0","${path}${f ile}.mp3");
if (system (@command))
{
print STDERR "command failed: ",join (" ",@command),"\n";
next;
}
unlink "${path}${file}.mp3";
rmdir "${path}${tmp}";
}
}
--NerdMachine