My music collection is larger than 8GB + some cards. Not everybody wants to put 60GB of music + video on a player, but I don't see lots of alternatives that fit the bill.
The integration between iTunes and iPod is great. I can make & play playlists on my computer, listen at work, and plug the iPod into the car stereo and listen on the road. I'm sure somebody else offers that, but I just don't see that many MP3 players that hold 120GB of music + video for $250. Apple got my money for a reason. I'd love an alternative to iTunes (Picasa kicks iPhoto's ass), but so far everything I've seen sucks (including Media Monkey). Apple understands UI like nobody else. I'm not a fanboy - this is being typed on a $400 Compaq laptop running XP.
Spend your money how you like (and a $60 8GB MP3 player is a great deal), but don't think iPods will disappear any time soon.
The decision to lock out the traction control toggle also seems a bit bizarre. I don't know of anybody (teenagers or adults) who have ever actually turned it off.
You've never tried to do a burnout? If you haven't, you need to.
Trust me, traction control gets turned off on occasion.
However, perhaps if the cost of a "CD" online dropped by 50%, sales would increase by more than 100% - and they'd make more money. The industry has charged too much for their product (according to many consumers) for decades.
The number of $17 CDs I bought was very, very limited; they were simply charging too much for me to buy them often. I would have purchased far more CDs if the price was lower. I also felt cheated by the companies who were selling CDs for more than tapes because they were "new" technology - 15 years or more after they hit the market. The industry chose to overcharge for a product, simply because they could get away with it, and in many peoples' eyes, they are greedy bastards who can't go out of business fast enough.
People have long memories when it comes to being treated poorly by industry. Remember Real Player? I keep hearing that the new product is really good, but most people only remember how shitty they were for years and still refuse to use the software. Since the music industry is an oligopoly (dominated by a few players who, in effect, act as one entity) we had no option but to overpay, or "steal" friends' music. Now we're finally getting a little bit of competition, thanks to Internet distribution, and people haven't let go of the memory of the music industry being "evil".
In reality, people are pissed at the music industry. Until the industry changes its behavior towards the people who keep it alive, you'll hear the same arguments.
Are you thinking of catalytic converts? Mufflers generally are not made from things other than stainless steel, steel and aluminum. CCs, on the other hand, have expensive internals.
Well, you aren't trying the right stuff. There are many wonderful places to get cheese that have nothing in common with Kraft singles "American Cheese". Just as much of the beer in the US is crap aimed at the masses, so is much of the cheese.
Also, just like our craft breweries that make some of the best beer in the world, our craft creameries make some of the best cheese in the world.
Popularity does not equal quality - just look at the top 10 musical hits of the week.
Is it because they are too small to bite us back? Free to have their own thoughts and culture, different from ours?
It's easy to pick on your little brother, more difficult to do the same on a real bully.
Maybe that's why we like to kid the French, while the Chinese scare us...
I pick on them because when I traveled in Europe they were dicks. I spent 9 months going all around Europe, being the best visitor I could be. I traveled through GB, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Italy, East Germany and France. In all those places, except France, I was treated well, with a few exceptions. In France, I was treated rudely and poorly, with a few exceptions.
I treated the French, and everybody else, with respect. The French were rude enough to not return my respect.
Not because of their politics, but because of how I was treated, I say the French can kiss my ass. I mock them regularly.
And the air in L.A. is so much better than it was in the 70's.
Sure it's bad now, but you have no idea of how much better it is. Pollution controls are a pain in the ass, but they seemed to have done a nice job in L.A.
You know what I want to see? An amendment that states that every time someone sponsors or votes for a law that is found to be unconstitutional, they get fined their entire yearly salary, and are barred from ever holding the position of lawmaker.
I'm tired of politicians creating sham laws without any repercussion. Since they can't get voted out (judging by the amount of time that some people are in office), they need to be tossed out. Agreed. One of the many bad parts of this steaming pile, is that Oregon is broke. Timber funds are way down, and every county is struggling.
So we're going to take money that should be going to schools, roads, removing meth cooks, etc and blowing it on crap like this.
It's not about saving us from ourselves. Its specifically about saving a couple of hundred other people (mainly in flying metal cylinders) from idiots who think doing this is clever. Remember, your right to flail your arms around like a madman end where my face begins.
It's against the law to point a laser into a pilots eyes/window of a plane. What they are doing is against the law already. How is adding another law going to change anything?
At this point, we're keeping it private (to a small group). As soon as we're done with testing, designing and have the first few built, we'll tell the world all about it.
The goal is to have a bunch of them running at Burning Man in August, and so far we're on schedule. If they can survive q0 days at the burn, they'll work just fine.
Of course people will have a problem with that! This is slashdot, where any green technology that has more than a 12 month payback is immediately shot down as stupid, wasteful, more destructive to the environment, and only installed to one up the neighbors.
I've been here a long time, but I still forgot that. I'm somewhat surprised by the negative comments.
I am involved with a group of people building windmills. It has nothing to do with buying things. It has nothing to do with keeping up with the neighbors. None of us drive Priuses (most of think they are a scam unless you live in a super-densely populated place).
We're buying used motors on eBay. Some of us are making our own blades from fiberglass (and some are buying them).
We have created an open source hardware project that makes power. It'll cost me $300 - $400 to make something I think is cool, will pay for itself over time, help reduce my footprint on the planet in an almost measurable way and let me do something creative.
Yes, and HR departments are notoriously bad about spotty about enforcing policy. In my contract, it explicitly states that I can't drink while at work, nor come to work under the influence of alcohol (with a separate policy for drugs). However, the person who I handed my signed contract to is also the person who pours me champagne or hands me a beer when we hit a milestone at work.
I agree with much of what the parent is saying. I'd like to add "changing the gas mixture on your car's carburetor" to the list.
Although cars have now switched to fuel injection, there are millions of people in this country who still drive older, carburated cars. There are still motorcycles, chain saws, lawn mowers, generators, and many, many other engine powered tools what have carburetors.
Sure, the average guy won't be able to make changes to the air/fuel mix in his injected car, but the average guy didn't have the skills to adjust the carb anyway. It's always been a job for competent mechanics (whether they were professional, or just a guy in his driveway).
You have me confused with another poster. You said: There was no way I could get water as hot as their coffee.
then you said
I am suggesting at the time, it was their goal to serve the coffee as close to boiling as possible then put directly in their styrofoam.
No, you said "There was no way I could get water as hot as their coffee." 1. There is no way McDs could make or serve coffee significantly hotter than boiling water. 2. Any moron can boil water. 3. You said "There was no way I could get water as hot as their coffee." 4. ????
The second quote you attributed to me was made by somebody else.
The parent was quoted as saying two hours. I call BS.
Well, I don't know about '2 hours', but this coffee was bought at the DRIVE THRU. As in, you buy it on the way to work. So, it would sit in a cupholder until you got to work. (Yes, some people drink it while driving, but that is unsafe and not to be encouraged.)
So, there is a reasonable expectation that there will be a delay between the customer getting the coffe and drinkign the coffee.
Just as there is a reasonable expectation that the consumer will drink the coffee while seated in the restaurant, thus not having the "drive to work" delay. I call BS again.
I'll bet you can only use Microsoft Light Bulbs and Microsoft Lamps because the bulb screws, light sockets, and wall plugs are all nonstandard and proprietary.
Fair point, but I do think you're underestimating how much 'consumable' music is out there. I also think you're overlooking the idea that you can get a lot more audio time than video time during an average day, at least for those of us working in an office environment. But I think if this discussion were to taken much further it'd involve generalizing about people's tastes, and that could turn into a cyclic debate.
Ohh look, an intelligent reply.:)
I agree on how much consumable music there is. That isn't how I listen to, or buy music, so that part of the argument doesn't do much for me. Your point about audio time vs video time is extremely valid. That's why I watch a video once (rental) and listen to music over and over (so I buy it). I own a few videos, and they tend to be classics that are difficult to find as rentals, or things I'd be interested in watching more than a few times.
Subscription music has gotten a bad rep on Slashdot, but mainly for academic reasons. Not a lot of people that are poo-pooing it have actually tried it. It has been rationalized away to the point of nobody wanting to explore it. And, to be honest, I understand this. Monthly fees are not something to be taken lightly.
Exactly. And I tend to buy music I like (not the top 10 that I'll be tired of in a month), so an "investment" in a CD makes sense. To me.
- Depending on your service, you're not necessarily tethered to your PC. A year or so ago I bought a 4-gig Sansa player for ~$120. (I imagine by now you can get 8 giggers or possibly even more for the same price.) Whatever songs you want from their collection can be downloaded to it. Once a month you have to sync it up to referesh it. I think you can even set it up to download songs you might like. That's not to everybody's liking, but you strike me as somebody that might find that interesting, especially during the drive to work or something.
That's one of the few things I miss from not listening to the radio - music recommendations. I try and get recommendations from friends, and we pass around the digital equivalent to mix tapes, but I still don't get exposed to a lot of new music. That's probably the reason for me to try a subscription.
I like my iPod's interface, as well as iTunes. I'd hate to give that up, but it'll die some day.
- You can listen to Rhapsody from any internet connected Windows PC. (Mac support may be available, but I don't know first hand.) You can install the Rhapsody client or you can use Internet Explorer to reach it. The Rhapsody installer will reserve a gig of space for caching, and that's it. It downloads music sort of like how YouTube downloads videos. It drops the data into a bucket and pulls it out as needed, fills up the cache, clears it for older stuff, etc. I'm mentioning this for two reasons: 1.) Rhapsody is NOT active streaming. This is often preferred by internet saavy people. Seeking is no problem. 2.) You don't need lots of space. I'll talk about this more in a later point, but one of the things that drove me towards Rhapsody was a lost hard drive that had lots of MP3s on it. I personally use Rhapsody on my home machine, my work machine, and on my laptop. Once in a while I use a different workstation and I can just fire it up via IE. I don't have to 'sync' any files across these machines. Install, log-in, and go. I'm mentioning this to you because you've got a collection of a thousand CDs, right? I'd say a good 90 - 95% of those CDs is available on Rhapsody. If it's a hassle for you to maintain an MP3 collection that you want to listen to at work, you'd buy yourself some convenience here. (The dead hard drive caused me to look at Rhapsody, this particular perk caused me to keep it.)
My current solution is a 4 gig iPod. I use smart playlists to fill it with a combination of my highest rated songs, anything imported into iTunes less than a month ago, and random songs with low play numbers. About half my job is at a desk, and half is on my feet, so
Slashdot Mirror
She's pregnant, so you might get your wish.
http://www.tvshark.com/read/?art=arc3174
My music collection is larger than 8GB + some cards. Not everybody wants to put 60GB of music + video on a player, but I don't see lots of alternatives that fit the bill.
The integration between iTunes and iPod is great. I can make & play playlists on my computer, listen at work, and plug the iPod into the car stereo and listen on the road. I'm sure somebody else offers that, but I just don't see that many MP3 players that hold 120GB of music + video for $250. Apple got my money for a reason. I'd love an alternative to iTunes (Picasa kicks iPhoto's ass), but so far everything I've seen sucks (including Media Monkey). Apple understands UI like nobody else. I'm not a fanboy - this is being typed on a $400 Compaq laptop running XP.
Spend your money how you like (and a $60 8GB MP3 player is a great deal), but don't think iPods will disappear any time soon.
The decision to lock out the traction control toggle also seems a bit bizarre. I don't know of anybody (teenagers or adults) who have ever actually turned it off.
You've never tried to do a burnout? If you haven't, you need to.
Trust me, traction control gets turned off on occasion.
All of what you say is true.
However, perhaps if the cost of a "CD" online dropped by 50%, sales would increase by more than 100% - and they'd make more money. The industry has charged too much for their product (according to many consumers) for decades.
The number of $17 CDs I bought was very, very limited; they were simply charging too much for me to buy them often. I would have purchased far more CDs if the price was lower. I also felt cheated by the companies who were selling CDs for more than tapes because they were "new" technology - 15 years or more after they hit the market. The industry chose to overcharge for a product, simply because they could get away with it, and in many peoples' eyes, they are greedy bastards who can't go out of business fast enough.
People have long memories when it comes to being treated poorly by industry. Remember Real Player? I keep hearing that the new product is really good, but most people only remember how shitty they were for years and still refuse to use the software. Since the music industry is an oligopoly (dominated by a few players who, in effect, act as one entity) we had no option but to overpay, or "steal" friends' music. Now we're finally getting a little bit of competition, thanks to Internet distribution, and people haven't let go of the memory of the music industry being "evil".
In reality, people are pissed at the music industry. Until the industry changes its behavior towards the people who keep it alive, you'll hear the same arguments.
Headers are often ceramic, although I don't know how much that's actually worth.
Ceramic coating is an option for high performance headers, but as far as I know there's no actual ceramic headers.
Are you thinking of catalytic converts? Mufflers generally are not made from things other than stainless steel, steel and aluminum. CCs, on the other hand, have expensive internals.
Well, you aren't trying the right stuff. There are many wonderful places to get cheese that have nothing in common with Kraft singles "American Cheese". Just as much of the beer in the US is crap aimed at the masses, so is much of the cheese.
Also, just like our craft breweries that make some of the best beer in the world, our craft creameries make some of the best cheese in the world.
Popularity does not equal quality - just look at the top 10 musical hits of the week.
What's all that obsession with the French?
Is it because they are too small to bite us back?
Free to have their own thoughts and culture, different from ours?
It's easy to pick on your little brother, more difficult to do the same on a real bully.
Maybe that's why we like to kid the French, while the Chinese scare us...
I pick on them because when I traveled in Europe they were dicks. I spent 9 months going all around Europe, being the best visitor I could be. I traveled through GB, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Italy, East Germany and France. In all those places, except France, I was treated well, with a few exceptions. In France, I was treated rudely and poorly, with a few exceptions.
I treated the French, and everybody else, with respect. The French were rude enough to not return my respect.
Not because of their politics, but because of how I was treated, I say the French can kiss my ass. I mock them regularly.
If fetuses could carry guns, there would be no need to outlaw abortions.
Best thing I've read all day, and I have no mod points...
And the air in L.A. is so much better than it was in the 70's.
Sure it's bad now, but you have no idea of how much better it is. Pollution controls are a pain in the ass, but they seemed to have done a nice job in L.A.
I've had MRIs - diving during one would be very distracting.
I think they botched the survey.
You know what I want to see? An amendment that states that every time someone sponsors or votes for a law that is found to be unconstitutional, they get fined their entire yearly salary, and are barred from ever holding the position of lawmaker.
I'm tired of politicians creating sham laws without any repercussion. Since they can't get voted out (judging by the amount of time that some people are in office), they need to be tossed out. Agreed.
One of the many bad parts of this steaming pile, is that Oregon is broke. Timber funds are way down, and every county is struggling.
So we're going to take money that should be going to schools, roads, removing meth cooks, etc and blowing it on crap like this.
It's not about saving us from ourselves. Its specifically about saving a couple of hundred other people (mainly in flying metal cylinders) from idiots who think doing this is clever. Remember, your right to flail your arms around like a madman end where my face begins.
It's against the law to point a laser into a pilots eyes/window of a plane. What they are doing is against the law already. How is adding another law going to change anything?
At this point, we're keeping it private (to a small group). As soon as we're done with testing, designing and have the first few built, we'll tell the world all about it.
The goal is to have a bunch of them running at Burning Man in August, and so far we're on schedule. If they can survive q0 days at the burn, they'll work just fine.
Of course people will have a problem with that! This is slashdot, where any green technology that has more than a 12 month payback is immediately shot down as stupid, wasteful, more destructive to the environment, and only installed to one up the neighbors.
I've been here a long time, but I still forgot that. I'm somewhat surprised by the negative comments.
I am involved with a group of people building windmills. It has nothing to do with buying things. It has nothing to do with keeping up with the neighbors. None of us drive Priuses (most of think they are a scam unless you live in a super-densely populated place).
We're buying used motors on eBay. Some of us are making our own blades from fiberglass (and some are buying them).
We have created an open source hardware project that makes power. It'll cost me $300 - $400 to make something I think is cool, will pay for itself over time, help reduce my footprint on the planet in an almost measurable way and let me do something creative.
You got a problem with that?
"Policies" are not laws.
Yes, and HR departments are notoriously bad about spotty about enforcing policy. In my contract, it explicitly states that I can't drink while at work, nor come to work under the influence of alcohol (with a separate policy for drugs). However, the person who I handed my signed contract to is also the person who pours me champagne or hands me a beer when we hit a milestone at work.
I agree with much of what the parent is saying. I'd like to add "changing the gas mixture on your car's carburetor" to the list.
Although cars have now switched to fuel injection, there are millions of people in this country who still drive older, carburated cars. There are still motorcycles, chain saws, lawn mowers, generators, and many, many other engine powered tools what have carburetors.
Sure, the average guy won't be able to make changes to the air/fuel mix in his injected car, but the average guy didn't have the skills to adjust the carb anyway. It's always been a job for competent mechanics (whether they were professional, or just a guy in his driveway).
You have me confused with another poster.
You said:
There was no way I could get water as hot as their coffee.
then you said
I am suggesting at the time, it was their goal to serve the coffee as close to boiling as possible then put directly in their styrofoam.
No, you said "There was no way I could get water as hot as their coffee."
1. There is no way McDs could make or serve coffee significantly hotter than boiling water.
2. Any moron can boil water.
3. You said "There was no way I could get water as hot as their coffee."
4. ????
The second quote you attributed to me was made by somebody else.
You're confused. Nobody's listening.
The parent was quoted as saying two hours. I call BS.
Well, I don't know about '2 hours', but this coffee was bought at the DRIVE THRU. As in, you buy it on the way to work. So, it would sit in a cupholder until you got to work. (Yes, some people drink it while driving, but that is unsafe and not to be encouraged.)
So, there is a reasonable expectation that there will be a delay between the customer getting the coffe and drinkign the coffee.
Just as there is a reasonable expectation that the consumer will drink the coffee while seated in the restaurant, thus not having the "drive to work" delay. I call BS again.
I was then told afterwards the coffee was not meant to be drunk in the restaurant but rather after 2 hours after work.
So McDonalds wants me to buy coffee and let it sit for two hours before I drink it? Source please.
when I was a teen with a crappy care I used their coffee to clean my engine. There was no way I could get water as hot as their coffee.
Are you suggesting that McDonalds coffee is served significantly hotter than boiling? Sorry, but nothing in your post holds water.
I'll bet you can only use Microsoft Light Bulbs and Microsoft Lamps because the bulb screws, light sockets, and wall plugs are all nonstandard and proprietary.
I think you misspelled Sony.
Fair point, but I do think you're underestimating how much 'consumable' music is out there. I also think you're overlooking the idea that you can get a lot more audio time than video time during an average day, at least for those of us working in an office environment. But I think if this discussion were to taken much further it'd involve generalizing about people's tastes, and that could turn into a cyclic debate.
:)
Ohh look, an intelligent reply.
I agree on how much consumable music there is. That isn't how I listen to, or buy music, so that part of the argument doesn't do much for me. Your point about audio time vs video time is extremely valid. That's why I watch a video once (rental) and listen to music over and over (so I buy it). I own a few videos, and they tend to be classics that are difficult to find as rentals, or things I'd be interested in watching more than a few times.
Subscription music has gotten a bad rep on Slashdot, but mainly for academic reasons. Not a lot of people that are poo-pooing it have actually tried it. It has been rationalized away to the point of nobody wanting to explore it. And, to be honest, I understand this. Monthly fees are not something to be taken lightly.
Exactly. And I tend to buy music I like (not the top 10 that I'll be tired of in a month), so an "investment" in a CD makes sense. To me.
- Depending on your service, you're not necessarily tethered to your PC. A year or so ago I bought a 4-gig Sansa player for ~$120. (I imagine by now you can get 8 giggers or possibly even more for the same price.) Whatever songs you want from their collection can be downloaded to it. Once a month you have to sync it up to referesh it. I think you can even set it up to download songs you might like. That's not to everybody's liking, but you strike me as somebody that might find that interesting, especially during the drive to work or something.
That's one of the few things I miss from not listening to the radio - music recommendations. I try and get recommendations from friends, and we pass around the digital equivalent to mix tapes, but I still don't get exposed to a lot of new music. That's probably the reason for me to try a subscription.
I like my iPod's interface, as well as iTunes. I'd hate to give that up, but it'll die some day.
- You can listen to Rhapsody from any internet connected Windows PC. (Mac support may be available, but I don't know first hand.) You can install the Rhapsody client or you can use Internet Explorer to reach it. The Rhapsody installer will reserve a gig of space for caching, and that's it. It downloads music sort of like how YouTube downloads videos. It drops the data into a bucket and pulls it out as needed, fills up the cache, clears it for older stuff, etc. I'm mentioning this for two reasons: 1.) Rhapsody is NOT active streaming. This is often preferred by internet saavy people. Seeking is no problem. 2.) You don't need lots of space. I'll talk about this more in a later point, but one of the things that drove me towards Rhapsody was a lost hard drive that had lots of MP3s on it. I personally use Rhapsody on my home machine, my work machine, and on my laptop. Once in a while I use a different workstation and I can just fire it up via IE. I don't have to 'sync' any files across these machines. Install, log-in, and go. I'm mentioning this to you because you've got a collection of a thousand CDs, right? I'd say a good 90 - 95% of those CDs is available on Rhapsody. If it's a hassle for you to maintain an MP3 collection that you want to listen to at work, you'd buy yourself some convenience here. (The dead hard drive caused me to look at Rhapsody, this particular perk caused me to keep it.)
My current solution is a 4 gig iPod. I use smart playlists to fill it with a combination of my highest rated songs, anything imported into iTunes less than a month ago, and random songs with low play numbers. About half my job is at a desk, and half is on my feet, so
Did I miss anything?
Yes.
You seem to be an angry troll.
I pointed out why it didn't work for me... oh fuck it. You seem to be too stupid to bother to reply to.
Sorry I can't post an image, but here's my van. Want some candy?
http://hunch.se/stuff/free_candy.jpg