-OGG, no FLAC -Firmware Updates (not as often as we'd like) -Optional Remote with its own display -Line/Mic IN (Analog & Digital) -FM Tuner -Semi-Decent Interface -DB Sorting - No On-The-Fly playlist - No Gapless Playback - USB 2.0 - Easily mounts as a external HD - 16hr battery (supposedly)
I'm laughing because my description could just as well describe a nice dinner.
Regardless, audio engineers will know exactly what I'm talking about. I've yet to meet a audio pro who talks in pure technical terms. Instead we lean towards words that describe a "feeling" or paint a picture.
I'll translate my terms. I'm sure you can find all those tech specs at the iRiver site.
"tight, crips and full-bodied" The high frequencies have good detail without harshness. The mid and low range are clear and transparent.
level is clean and hot The output level can achieve high volumes without distorting.
The 20GB player. Here is super-quick review from a professional audio engineer (me).
Pros: - The output sound is tight, crisp and full-bodied. The level is clean and hot, just the way I like it. - Plug-N-Play. No drivers, no nothing. Plug the USB cable and it shows up as a HD. Organize files however you like. By ID or standard directory structure. - The remote has its own tiny LCD dispay. Very cool. - USB 2.0 file transfer if very fast. I did 12GB while I ate a bowl of cereal. - Transfer & store any type of file - Its supports more codecs than I'll ever use. - OGG support. No DRM - Digital In and Out! - Analog In and Out! - Records to WAV and MP3 - FM Radio! - Internal Microphone - External Mic jack (mic included) - Firmware upgradable - Quiet and fast - Its packaged with a real leather case and all the cables and adapters you'll ever need.
Cons: - The GUI could use some work - The Joystick can be a pain - Navigation can be rough - Issues with Recording time limitations
Its looks like the software faults can and will be upgraded through the firmware.
Overall a great little package. Its not as slick as the iPod. But for less than the 20GB iPod I get a ton of more features.
"... but environmentalism is a religion". Thats the latest right-wing talking point.
nobody appreciates a clean environment more than i do "I'm not racist, I have black friends!". These right-wing "conversationist" types are the same people who think clear-cutting old growth forests is the same thing as saving it. Its the same type of people who release big game animals in a fenced-in area, let kooks slaughter them for a fee and call it "hunting".
I'm sure you visit these sites daily, but here they are anyway. These loons should suit you fine:
I've been waiting for a long time to sing the praises of MechAssault on Xbox Live. MA is a great fucking game! But it's much more than that. MA on Live will go down in history as a innovator.
The game play mechanics of MA could'nt be easier. The controls were simple and the rules were obvious: Blow up your enemy mech before they blew you up. But the game play was DEEP! It took me months before I could compete with the top players, even longer before I started winning games in my Timberwolf.
It was only during these late-night matches that I realized that we MechAssault players were part of something new.
Here we were, me in Los Angeles, some other guy in Chicago, some dudes from Brooklyn and Miami, maybe even a Brit or two, all of us relazing on our sofa, our feet on the table, a big fat TV in front of us, our home stereo connected playing and talking with and against each other. It was just too much fun. There was nothing like and we all knew it. We are all on the vanguard of console gaming and loving every second of it.
The fact is that Xbox live is the greatest innovation to gaming in a long time. 1 sign-in, 1 online name, friends list, voice-chat, online rankings and tournaments and cheap too!
Soon after, we were treated to more firsts. New mechs, new maps, new game-types were added to our game as if by magic.
I've retired my Timberwolf for now. I'm off playing Links2004 & Crimson Skies (another great game) against new and old friends across the globe.
Playing off-line is now unthinkable to me. How boring. Thats the impact of Xbox Live and MechAssault.
BTW. MA is now $20. Another $5 for new content is nothing.
And if you've never had the pleasure of blowing up a Ragnarok and its neighboring skyscraper in River City with your twin Gauss rifles, I highly reccomend it. Its too much fun.
Here are some great Penny Arcade strips on MechAssault.
- It was supposed to be on my precious Apple:( - I don't get what the big deal is:( - The levels suck:( - Bungie sold out:( - It's made by M$ so it must suck, right?:( - Could you image how cool it would have been if they released it as originally intended:(
BOO-HOO !!!
Meanwhile (in the real world)...Halo continues to remain the best console FPS to date. It's a truly awsome & artistic game. The graphics, sound, music, story, gameplay, multiplayer all excel. Its main fault? Some repetitive levels near the end of the game.
And Halo2? Check out the preview videos. Imagine it on Xbox Live. It's gonna be great.
Microsoft Game Studios is aquiring quite the reputation.
I know you really want to believe what your saying. I wish it were true also. But the sad secret truth of vinyl releases is that they are pressed from digital masters. So you can be sure that any vinyl release came from a digital source. Its very rare these days for a major vinyl release to be completly anaglog from start to finish.
Its very rare for a vinyl pressing to follow this old-school signal train:
A lot of rock band still want to track 2" analog but its gonna get digitized at some point. No question.
If you know of otherwise, I'd love to know what releases were completly analog from start to vinyl finish.
Also, "lossless" isnt the best word to use for vinyl. Use "analog". There is no such thing as a lossless recording medium. Lossless is subjective word. Vinyl a limited dynamic range when compared to digital. Much more limited. So in that respect, you "lose" much more information. But vinyls can capture more "information" in its working dynamic range. Thats why its good for rock n' roll - all those harmonic distortions in the guitars are perfect for analog. You'd need a realy good setup to hear it though.
The best way to hear music is fresh off the 24" track 2" deck in the recording studio during mixdown. Everything else is inferior.
I normally don't engange in long threads at Slashdot but some do provide for a good learning experience (for both parties) an so I'll engage.
Could you please explain to Slashdot readers why on Earth would someone even want to reinstall each of them at least 10 times in a random order all together. For the life of me, I can't figure our what circumstance would warrant such drastic, extreme and unusual measures.
There has'nt even been 10 version number changes in any major league software I've used and I've been in this business for nearly 10 years.
Once things work I tend to leave it alone & Windows obliges my wishes by remaining rock solid.
In fact, if anyone were to reinstall each of them at least 10 times in a random order all together I would ban them from any projects I'm involved in with no delay.
Your post is informative and I'm sure Slashdot readers appreciate that.
I'd like to go over one glaring point that casts doubt on the rest of your post:
If either Office or Photoshop or Visual Studio or MS SQL Server is the only one which is installed - than chances of crashing are bellow the average. Two different applications and it's a big chance that we've got a problem.
This is nonsense.
Here are the applications I've used daily and simultaneously since I installed Windows2000 nearly four years ago and now use on XP Pro:
- Apache/PHP Server - Photoshop - Illustrator - Dreamweaver - VisualStudio.NET - Word/Excel - Crimson Text Editor - Kazaa - WinAMP - RealPlayer - Internet Explorer - Mozilla/Firebird
I'ts perfectly possible that on any given work day I have all these application up and running along with a host of other services in the background. All this with ZERO crashes and smooth & fast operation. I doubt I'm the exception to the rule.
Also, I've been using Windows Update since Win2000 was released with zero problems.
Since I can do it, why can't you? It's obvious to me that the OS is up to task.
That this meme still persists on Slashdot is amazing. I thought this is where technically advanced people converge.
I used Win2000 daily since the day it was released up until I bought my XP pro notebook last month. The OS crashed maybe 3 times during the three years.
I'm now using XP nearly 10 hours a day for the last three months. It has yet to crash on me.
I use concurrently: Apache, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Office, Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Outlook, various text editors, Kazaa & WinAmp.
If your stating WindowsXP or 2000 is crash prone, than I have to believe that:
a) You dont what your talking about and your just parroting a old meme. b) You tinker with the OS beyond your capabilities and destablize it yourself.
There is always this same post whenever Xbox is brought it up.
"Bungie was for Mac!:( Boo Hoo Hoo, Halo was for us Macs only:( Boo Hoo Hoo, poor me, Evil Microsoft Boo Boo HOO"
Microsoft gave Bungie the time and resources to make the best console FPS ever. A truly awsome and artistic game. And Halo2 will be even better (Did ya see the preview movie? Holy Shit!)
I have a idea. Want to play Halo? Do you want to play Halo2 Online? Go buy an Xbox and play it. They don't care if you own a Mac or not.
Slashdot Mirror
I've been saving this just for you and your ilk:
Penny Arcade - M$
Check it out, you'll like it.
I love the way these myths propagate themselves on Slashdot. I bet its worthy of good sociology study.
mostly because once you are done playing HALO, whats next?!
MechAssault
Crimson Skies
Links 2004
Knights of the Old Republic
Halo 2 !!!
(for starters).
This guy is citing NewsMax, of all places, as a news source.
Should I laugh or cry?
I can't believe you said such a thing.
Don't let the true face of the right-wing surprise you too much.
Take a look over at Lucianne.com, cited by Fox News as a reliable "news" source.
iRiver iHP-120 has most of what you want.
-OGG, no FLAC
-Firmware Updates (not as often as we'd like)
-Optional Remote with its own display
-Line/Mic IN (Analog & Digital)
-FM Tuner
-Semi-Decent Interface
-DB Sorting
- No On-The-Fly playlist
- No Gapless Playback
- USB 2.0
- Easily mounts as a external HD
- 16hr battery (supposedly)
I'm laughing because my description could just as well describe a nice dinner.
Regardless, audio engineers will know exactly what I'm talking about. I've yet to meet a audio pro who talks in pure technical terms. Instead we lean towards words that describe a "feeling" or paint a picture.
I'll translate my terms. I'm sure you can find all those tech specs at the iRiver site.
"tight, crips and full-bodied"
The high frequencies have good detail without harshness. The mid and low range are clear and transparent.
level is clean and hot
The output level can achieve high volumes without distorting.
The 20GB player. Here is super-quick review from a professional audio engineer (me).
Pros:
- The output sound is tight, crisp and full-bodied. The level is clean and hot, just the way I like it.
- Plug-N-Play. No drivers, no nothing. Plug the USB cable and it shows up as a HD. Organize files however you like. By ID or standard directory structure.
- The remote has its own tiny LCD dispay. Very cool.
- USB 2.0 file transfer if very fast. I did 12GB while I ate a bowl of cereal.
- Transfer & store any type of file
- Its supports more codecs than I'll ever use.
- OGG support. No DRM
- Digital In and Out!
- Analog In and Out!
- Records to WAV and MP3
- FM Radio!
- Internal Microphone
- External Mic jack (mic included)
- Firmware upgradable
- Quiet and fast
- Its packaged with a real leather case and all the cables and adapters you'll ever need.
Cons:
- The GUI could use some work
- The Joystick can be a pain
- Navigation can be rough
- Issues with Recording time limitations
Its looks like the software faults can and will be upgraded through the firmware.
Overall a great little package. Its not as slick as the iPod. But for less than the 20GB iPod I get a ton of more features.
We have a choice. A big flying rock does not.
"... but environmentalism is a religion".
Thats the latest right-wing talking point.
nobody appreciates a clean environment more than i do
"I'm not racist, I have black friends!". These right-wing "conversationist" types are the same people who think clear-cutting old growth forests is the same thing as saving it. Its the same type of people who release big game animals in a fenced-in area, let kooks slaughter them for a fee and call it "hunting".
I'm sure you visit these sites daily, but here they are anyway. These loons should suit you fine:
Lucianne.com
News Max
WorldNet Daily
Is this Windows stability "meme" still around?
Really, Windows2000 & XP are rock-solid.
I'm speaking as a professional developer here. Not some half-assed hacker.
I bought Windows 2000 the day it was released. It crashed maybe 5 times in nearly 4 years of heavy usage.
My notebook with WindowsXP pro has yet to crash.
It's Microsoft's rule set for generating the slides that's at fault, not the means of communication itself.
Easily takes the cake as one the most nonsensical posts I've read in Slashdot. The "ruleset" makes you dumb? HUH?
But then I saw your sig and it all made sense.
Crimson Skies is a great game. But the honor for the best "destroy stuff" game must go the great MechAssault.
Watching a chain reaction of exploding Ragnaroks collapse tall builings in River City is a sight to behold.
Doing this from your sofa while playing with and talking to other players from around the country jacks up the "fun factor" off the scale.
Theres nothing that comes even close to Xbox Live. Not even close.
The Friends List alone makes the deal.
I've been waiting for a long time to sing the praises of MechAssault on Xbox Live. MA is a great fucking game! But it's much more than that. MA on Live will go down in history as a innovator.
The game play mechanics of MA could'nt be easier. The controls were simple and the rules were obvious: Blow up your enemy mech before they blew you up. But the game play was DEEP! It took me months before I could compete with the top players, even longer before I started winning games in my Timberwolf.
It was only during these late-night matches that I realized that we MechAssault players were part of something new.
Here we were, me in Los Angeles, some other guy in Chicago, some dudes from Brooklyn and Miami, maybe even a Brit or two, all of us relazing on our sofa, our feet on the table, a big fat TV in front of us, our home stereo connected playing and talking with and against each other. It was just too much fun. There was nothing like and we all knew it. We are all on the vanguard of console gaming and loving every second of it.
The fact is that Xbox live is the greatest innovation to gaming in a long time. 1 sign-in, 1 online name, friends list, voice-chat, online rankings and tournaments and cheap too!
Soon after, we were treated to more firsts. New mechs, new maps, new game-types were added to our game as if by magic.
I've retired my Timberwolf for now. I'm off playing Links2004 & Crimson Skies (another great game) against new and old friends across the globe.
Playing off-line is now unthinkable to me. How boring. Thats the impact of Xbox Live and MechAssault.
BTW. MA is now $20. Another $5 for new content is nothing.
And if you've never had the pleasure of blowing up a Ragnarok and its neighboring skyscraper in River City with your twin Gauss rifles, I highly reccomend it. Its too much fun.
Here are some great Penny Arcade strips on MechAssault.
Discontent
Royaltay
Location, Location, Location
The Real Gabriel
It Really Is Terrible
Here's one for you MS haters:
Also Known As Blackmail
Oh, BTW, MechAssault still has the best looking explosions I've ever seen in a game.
Apple is on probation as far I'm concerned.
Apple software is earning a reputation for releasing code that has the nasty propensity to wipe hard drives clean.
iTunes, USB...there was something else, maybe someone else could help.
"And, of course, Halo and KOTOR are no longer exclusive to the Xbox. So that means the $179 paperweight near your TV is good for what, exactly?"
MechAssault, Links2004, Prince of Persia, Crimson Skies, Halo2, MotoGP, Top Spin..
Halo:
:( :( :( :( :( :(
- It was supposed to be on my precious Apple
- I don't get what the big deal is
- The levels suck
- Bungie sold out
- It's made by M$ so it must suck, right?
- Could you image how cool it would have been if they released it as originally intended
BOO-HOO !!!
Meanwhile (in the real world)...Halo continues to remain the best console FPS to date. It's a truly awsome & artistic game. The graphics, sound, music, story, gameplay, multiplayer all excel. Its main fault? Some repetitive levels near the end of the game.
And Halo2? Check out the preview videos. Imagine it on Xbox Live. It's gonna be great.
Microsoft Game Studios is aquiring quite the reputation.
Your wrong. Very very wrong. Proxinomitron is transparent.
Proxinomitron is one of the coolest chuncks of code I've ever used.
I know you really want to believe what your saying. I wish it were true also. But the sad secret truth of vinyl releases is that they are pressed from digital masters. So you can be sure that any vinyl release came from a digital source. Its very rare these days for a major vinyl release to be completly anaglog from start to finish.
Its very rare for a vinyl pressing to follow this old-school signal train:
Analog 2" 24 trk -> 2" Master -> Vinyl Master -> Vinyl Release
More likely its this:
2" 24 trk (or ProTools) -> DAT Master (or HD) -> Vinyl Master -> Vinyl Release.
A lot of rock band still want to track 2" analog but its gonna get digitized at some point. No question.
If you know of otherwise, I'd love to know what releases were completly analog from start to vinyl finish.
Also, "lossless" isnt the best word to use for vinyl. Use "analog". There is no such thing as a lossless recording medium. Lossless is subjective word. Vinyl a limited dynamic range when compared to digital. Much more limited. So in that respect, you "lose" much more information. But vinyls can capture more "information" in its working dynamic range. Thats why its good for rock n' roll - all those harmonic distortions in the guitars are perfect for analog. You'd need a realy good setup to hear it though.
The best way to hear music is fresh off the 24" track 2" deck in the recording studio during mixdown. Everything else is inferior.
Your a amauter hack who only pretends to understand computers...blaming Microsoft and Windows for your own ignorance.
All those apps you mentioned work just fine on 99.9% of all Windows XP machines.
MechAssault with Xbox Live is a great great gaming experience. There's nothing like it anywhere else (on consoles).
Hi Axxackall,
I normally don't engange in long threads at Slashdot but some do provide for a good learning experience (for both parties) an so I'll engage.
Could you please explain to Slashdot readers why on Earth would someone even want to reinstall each of them at least 10 times in a random order all together. For the life of me, I can't figure our what circumstance would warrant such drastic, extreme and unusual measures.
There has'nt even been 10 version number changes in any major league software I've used and I've been in this business for nearly 10 years.
Once things work I tend to leave it alone & Windows obliges my wishes by remaining rock solid.
In fact, if anyone were to reinstall each of them at least 10 times in a random order all together I would ban them from any projects I'm involved in with no delay.
Your post is informative and I'm sure Slashdot readers appreciate that.
I'd like to go over one glaring point that casts doubt on the rest of your post:
If either Office or Photoshop or Visual Studio or MS SQL Server is the only one which is installed - than chances of crashing are bellow the average. Two different applications and it's a big chance that we've got a problem.
This is nonsense.
Here are the applications I've used daily and simultaneously since I installed Windows2000 nearly four years ago and now use on XP Pro:
- Apache/PHP Server
- Photoshop
- Illustrator
- Dreamweaver
- VisualStudio.NET
- Word/Excel
- Crimson Text Editor
- Kazaa
- WinAMP
- RealPlayer
- Internet Explorer
- Mozilla/Firebird
I'ts perfectly possible that on any given work day I have all these application up and running along with a host of other services in the background. All this with ZERO crashes and smooth & fast operation. I doubt I'm the exception to the rule.
Also, I've been using Windows Update since Win2000 was released with zero problems.
Since I can do it, why can't you? It's obvious to me that the OS is up to task.
"Windows is the worst (we all know why)."
No we don't. Why don't you tell us.
That this meme still persists on Slashdot is amazing. I thought this is where technically advanced people converge.
I used Win2000 daily since the day it was released up until I bought my XP pro notebook last month. The OS crashed maybe 3 times during the three years.
I'm now using XP nearly 10 hours a day for the last three months. It has yet to crash on me.
I use concurrently: Apache, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Office, Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Outlook, various text editors, Kazaa & WinAmp.
If your stating WindowsXP or 2000 is crash prone, than I have to believe that:
a) You dont what your talking about and your just parroting a old meme.
b) You tinker with the OS beyond your capabilities and destablize it yourself.
-vividu
There is always this same post whenever Xbox is brought it up.
:( Boo Hoo Hoo, Halo was for us Macs only :( Boo Hoo Hoo, poor me, Evil Microsoft Boo Boo HOO"
"Bungie was for Mac!
Microsoft gave Bungie the time and resources to make the best console FPS ever. A truly awsome and artistic game. And Halo2 will be even better (Did ya see the preview movie? Holy Shit!)
I have a idea. Want to play Halo? Do you want to play Halo2 Online? Go buy an Xbox and play it. They don't care if you own a Mac or not.