Haven't played much with 3.01 yet, but I will make this suggestion: for those seeking a better variant of the 'Ken Burns' effect, I highly suggest taking a look at Photo to Movie. I have been using it for a while to achieve basically the same effect and it works wonderfully...
This whole discussion lends credence to my theory that 90% of the reason we have wars is because we (primarily the males of the species) like making cool stuff to blow things up with.
(I say this not at as any kind criticism, merely an observation, since my reaction to this plane is pretty much "COOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!"...)
You gotta wonder if the first time some guy stabbed a Mastodon with a pointed stick a bunch of other guys like us crowded around him saying "Ohh! Look at the sharpened point! Hey, I bet he could hit something with one of those at twenty, thirty feet!":)
Short summary: problems with the Archos but it was nice, like the NEO but not as a walking-around player (using it in the car), the iPod is simply the best MP3 player yet created, by a long, long way (assuming you have a Mac).
Longer version:
I have used all three, and currently own the NEO Jukebox and an iPod (as primarily a Mac user, obviously, although I use Windows PCs at work, usually). None of them are SDMI-impaired.
Archos:
I bought the Archos (6 gig) originally (this summer), and loved the size and form factor (although it was surprisingly heavy). However, the HD frizzed out several times and finally I had to return it after I got sick of the reformat/reload/repeat cycle. If they've fixed some of those problems it probably would be good (and the recorder seems nice). Support was questionable at best - I eventually got responses, but they couldn't do anything about my messed up drive.
NEO Jukebox:
After that I bought the 20 gig NEO Jukebox, and was generally extremely happy with it. It's a little large (about the size of a portable CD player, although thinner than most), but surprisingly light, and the bells and whistles are nice - it comes with a remote control and a nice interface, and replacing the HD is almost as easy as replacing the batteries on any walkman. I actually use it for work a lot to transfer files via USB, since it mounts very easily as a USB hard drive. It pretty much never skips, and looks cool with a nice blue backlight.
The only problems I had with it have been:
1) Slowwwwww transfer rates via USB (transferring even 5 gigs takes around 4 hours, let alone filling the thing - my ripped CD collection is about 2/3 done and is approaching 15 gigs).
2) Lousy battery life - I usually get 4.5 hours max, which means that if I listen to it on el to my current contract, I run out of power by lunchtime.
3) Pain to transport and recharge. During the summer when I was commuting weekly to Texas for a contract, I had to take the large charger every time, which was annoying. It's heavy and bulky. And on a day-by-day basis, there's just no way.
4) Problems mounting in OS X. This may be better in 10.1.1 - I haven't tried it yet.
Support was middling - no response ever when I emailed them, some moderate responsiveness when I phoned.
iPod:
When I first saw the price tag on the iPod, I thought they were n-v-t-s nuts. Then I actually went in and actually looked at one, and I realized I had to have one, and that I can't believe that it is so damn cheap. Salient points:
1) Firewire. This thing loads fully in about 5 minutes. I just say what I want each morning, take a shower, grab it and go after it syncs up.
2) Size. It is *tiny*. Literally the size of a deck of cards. And light. I throw it in my coat pocket on my way to work and forget it's there.
3) Design. The interface is fantastic - even better than the quite good NEO interface. It looks and feels incredible. I don't know anyone (even Mac haters) who hasn't immediately asked "where can I get one?" about three seconds after holding it in their hands.
4) Portability. If you travel at all, this thing blows away every other MP3 player. It's not even close. You need exactly one small cable to recharge and sync, and the iPod itself is so small that it basically is a non-issue.
5) Battery life. This is a big one - I have used the iPod all day for most of the last couple of weeks, and have never even gotten as low as a half charge. It says 10 hours, but I would guess it's more like 15 at normal use.
I have basically nothing negative to say about the iPod.
Basically my plan is to use an FM transmitter to use the NEO in my car, which should be perfect. I'll load it with my whole CD collection overnight about once a month, and otherwise just leave it there.
I love the Stowaway for it's convenience, but when I'm out and about, I usually don't want more than my phone and my Visor. To that end, I've been using the fitaly on-screen keyboard and I love it. It's designed based on letter frequency, and they've done a remarkably good job) I find that I can type almost as fast on that using my stylus as I can with a regular keyboard (admittedly, I'm not the fastest typist to begin with). They've also got an overlay for the graffiti area which I may have to get.
Between Fitaly and the Stowaway, I can avoid Graffiti for all but the briefest of notes. I highly recommend taking a look at it if you don't like Graffiti.
One depressing note on the role-playing game, however: the producers of the game (West End Publishing) have lost the rights to the game, and they are now up in the air. Rumor has it that Lucas doesn't really approve of RPGs and may not give the rights to anyone.
Note that I have no idea of the truth to that rumor, but it would really be too bad. The Star Wars RPG has been pretty much universally acknowledged as one of the best systems ever made, and the universe really lends itself to role-playing. I have a group of friends with whom I have played since college, and we still have folks who fly in occasionally just to play.
It's interesting - one of the problems may be that the RPG was *too* successful. The authors for the books have openly acknowledged that they go to the RPG references for information about the Star Wars universe. The universe has probably grown more from the RPG than just about any other source. It seems like some of Lucas' control issues may play into not wanting the universe to be arbitrarily expanded by other people, as it has been.
In reference to Mr. Katz' column, I agree with a lot of what he says. I've been trying not to get too depressed about the seeming corporate onslaught, and also with some other seeming nastiness coming from the Lucas empire (notably, check out Daily Sci-Fi for the story of what happened when they tried to run a fairly innocuous little ticket giveaway contest). I guess the most depressing thing about this is the harsh reminder that this is only a movie, and that Lucas is still just the head of a corporation. I guess we all wanted to believe it and he were somehow more than that. I keep hoping I'll see some sign of that being the case, but as yet, that hasn't been the case.
On the other hand, the control regarding theaters and such has, I think, been mostly to Lucas' credit, and he has relented when it seemed to be in the fans best interest (i.e., buying advanced tickets). It really does appear that he was trying to make sure that everyone had a good experience seeing the movie, rather than seeing it on what is essentially a big-screen TV with bad sound, as a lot of theaters are. We need to give credit where credit is due there.
To sum up, I'm still very excited about seeing the movie, but a little of the magic has gone out of it for me, which just makes me sad. My only hope is that Lucas will see some of this and take it into consideration for Episode 2. I would certainly love to have him prove us all wrong.
First, sorry about the bad formatting. Must...preview...
Second, to complete sentence: "The irrational hatred of someone just because of their skin color or religion or whatever is just that: irrational."
Third, one point to clarify the above, and something which we all need to remember: the people that I (and many of us) should be defending are the folks out there *now* who are being persecuted and harassed. Nothing justifies what these kids did, no matter how persecuted they felt, and as several people point out, their reasons were obviously far beyond just being teased and being the outsider.
What is happening now, though, is an unjustified backlash based on absolutely absurd assumptions - that anyone who wears black trenchcoats and plays video games is a potential killer - and that needs to stop. Klebold and Harris already did their damage, but the schools that are cracking down on kids for absurd (and Orwellian) reasons are furthering it, and allowing what these two kids did to have far greater reaching effects. I would ask those schools one question: who are they honoring by hurting *more* children in the aftermath? Like aftershocks in an earthquake, this can do far more damage in the long run.
The irony here, is that in many ways, the response to what these kids have done is some sort of distorted mirror image of the actions they themselves performed. These kids were punishing people, in an admittedly very unreasonable way, who did them harm over a long period of time through teasing, exclusion, and possibly worse, simply because they were different. Their response was "punish" since they could not prevent, and those who could would not help. So what is the authority reaction? They suspend kids for wearing trenchcoats. They force kids to go into counseling if they play certain games. Anyone who expresses sympathy with these kids is ridiculed or worse for showing any sign of compassion. And yet these authorities - the parents, schoolteachers, administrators and politicians - have the unmitigated gall to look at this situation and say "How could these kids do this? Where did they learn that the way to respond to a threat was to punish it so severely that it could never again be a threat? What would lead them to assume that just because a certain person looked or acted a certain way, they deserved to be punished? You, you might feel this way because you look different and act differently - you must be punished in case you were to become like them." And thus the cycle continues. Are these people truly that blind? Well, all of you out there who think you should punish your children because they dress differently, or that because they play games or talk about things you don't understand that they need to be controlled and made an example of. To all of you I say this: you need look no further for the reasons behind this than yourselves. You are the cause, you are the reason it happened. And until you own up to that responsibility, until you realize that compassion is *never* unwarranted and should *never* be punished, you are the image that we have seen magnified in this terrible atrocity. And just because you are one of the outsiders, don't think that makes you innocent. How often have you looked at a jock and assumed they were stupid *because* they were a jock? Or a cheerleader? Or *any* of the so-called beautiful people? Intolerance is the name of the game here, folks, and don't forget that we can be just as intolerant as they are, it's just that on average, they tend to call the shots, especially in high school. But prejudice comes in all sizes and shapes, and it grows out of arrogance just as easily as it does from insecurity. Remember that being smarter doesn't make you better, any more than being stronger, healthier, better-looking, or any trait.
As an aside on this. The racism side of this is a different issue, and is something we cannot and should not excuse for any reason. The irrational hatred of someone just because of their skin color or religion or whatever is Having grown up in Littleton and knowing how ethnically homogenous it is, it is very unlikely that is anything other than cultural conditioning. My first question there is: how did their parents teach them to deal with other ethnic groups? In my experience that sort of thing almost has to come from a parental viewpoint. I could be wrong, and I don't want to blame the parents unnecessarily, but the racism has to come from somewhere, and in Littleton, there are simply too few non-white (and particularly too few African Americans) to form any sort of viewpoint at all.
I enjoyed Futurama thoroughly, and I think it has a lot of potential to be a great show. Simpsons is unfortunately getting a bit long in the tooth and this season has not been particularly good, IMHO. I hope that Groening is able to revive the level of humor that the Simpsons used to have with this show - and the art is definitely significantly more polished.
My one beef would be that I was sad to see this take the time slot of 'That 70s Show'. I realize that it'll be back over the summer, but I hope that they give it a good time slot and keep it around - I thought it was a pretty funny show with some brilliant moments. And I'm not saying this just because the redhead was awfully darn cute.
Anyway, good reviews guys. (You know, I just realized I'll probably never see this response because my comment threshold is too high. Oh well...)
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I think I would have to go with 'fupe', only because then we can all point out that someone posted a 'swell fupe'.
...Uh...hello? Is this mike on?
Hah hah! Heh...
Haven't played much with 3.01 yet, but I will make this suggestion: for those seeking a better variant of the 'Ken Burns' effect, I highly suggest taking a look at Photo to Movie. I have been using it for a while to achieve basically the same effect and it works wonderfully...
This whole discussion lends credence to my theory that 90% of the reason we have wars is because we (primarily the males of the species) like making cool stuff to blow things up with.
:)
(I say this not at as any kind criticism, merely an observation, since my reaction to this plane is pretty much "COOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!"...)
You gotta wonder if the first time some guy stabbed a Mastodon with a pointed stick a bunch of other guys like us crowded around him saying "Ohh! Look at the sharpened point! Hey, I bet he could hit something with one of those at twenty, thirty feet!"
Short summary: problems with the Archos but it was nice, like the NEO but not as a walking-around player (using it in the car), the iPod is simply the best MP3 player yet created, by a long, long way (assuming you have a Mac).
Longer version:
I have used all three, and currently own the NEO Jukebox and an iPod (as primarily a Mac user, obviously, although I use Windows PCs at work, usually). None of them are SDMI-impaired.
Archos:
I bought the Archos (6 gig) originally (this summer), and loved the size and form factor (although it was surprisingly heavy). However, the HD frizzed out several times and finally I had to return it after I got sick of the reformat/reload/repeat cycle. If they've fixed some of those problems it probably would be good (and the recorder seems nice). Support was questionable at best - I eventually got responses, but they couldn't do anything about my messed up drive.
NEO Jukebox:
After that I bought the 20 gig NEO Jukebox, and was generally extremely happy with it. It's a little large (about the size of a portable CD player, although thinner than most), but surprisingly light, and the bells and whistles are nice - it comes with a remote control and a nice interface, and replacing the HD is almost as easy as replacing the batteries on any walkman. I actually use it for work a lot to transfer files via USB, since it mounts very easily as a USB hard drive. It pretty much never skips, and looks cool with a nice blue backlight.
The only problems I had with it have been:
1) Slowwwwww transfer rates via USB (transferring even 5 gigs takes around 4 hours, let alone filling the thing - my ripped CD collection is about 2/3 done and is approaching 15 gigs).
2) Lousy battery life - I usually get 4.5 hours max, which means that if I listen to it on el to my current contract, I run out of power by lunchtime.
3) Pain to transport and recharge. During the summer when I was commuting weekly to Texas for a contract, I had to take the large charger every time, which was annoying. It's heavy and bulky. And on a day-by-day basis, there's just no way.
4) Problems mounting in OS X. This may be better in 10.1.1 - I haven't tried it yet.
Support was middling - no response ever when I emailed them, some moderate responsiveness when I phoned.
iPod:
When I first saw the price tag on the iPod, I thought they were n-v-t-s nuts. Then I actually went in and actually looked at one, and I realized I had to have one, and that I can't believe that it is so damn cheap. Salient points:
1) Firewire. This thing loads fully in about 5 minutes. I just say what I want each morning, take a shower, grab it and go after it syncs up.
2) Size. It is *tiny*. Literally the size of a deck of cards. And light. I throw it in my coat pocket on my way to work and forget it's there.
3) Design. The interface is fantastic - even better than the quite good NEO interface. It looks and feels incredible. I don't know anyone (even Mac haters) who hasn't immediately asked "where can I get one?" about three seconds after holding it in their hands.
4) Portability. If you travel at all, this thing blows away every other MP3 player. It's not even close. You need exactly one small cable to recharge and sync, and the iPod itself is so small that it basically is a non-issue.
5) Battery life. This is a big one - I have used the iPod all day for most of the last couple of weeks, and have never even gotten as low as a half charge. It says 10 hours, but I would guess it's more like 15 at normal use.
I have basically nothing negative to say about the iPod.
Basically my plan is to use an FM transmitter to use the NEO in my car, which should be perfect. I'll load it with my whole CD collection overnight about once a month, and otherwise just leave it there.
So there it is. Hope that's of use to someone.
I love the Stowaway for it's convenience, but when I'm out and about, I usually don't want more than my phone and my Visor. To that end, I've been using the fitaly on-screen keyboard and I love it. It's designed based on letter frequency, and they've done a remarkably good job) I find that I can type almost as fast on that using my stylus as I can with a regular keyboard (admittedly, I'm not the fastest typist to begin with). They've also got an overlay for the graffiti area which I may have to get. Between Fitaly and the Stowaway, I can avoid Graffiti for all but the briefest of notes. I highly recommend taking a look at it if you don't like Graffiti.
Note that I have no idea of the truth to that rumor, but it would really be too bad. The Star Wars RPG has been pretty much universally acknowledged as one of the best systems ever made, and the universe really lends itself to role-playing. I have a group of friends with whom I have played since college, and we still have folks who fly in occasionally just to play.
It's interesting - one of the problems may be that the RPG was *too* successful. The authors for the books have openly acknowledged that they go to the RPG references for information about the Star Wars universe. The universe has probably grown more from the RPG than just about any other source. It seems like some of Lucas' control issues may play into not wanting the universe to be arbitrarily expanded by other people, as it has been.
In reference to Mr. Katz' column, I agree with a lot of what he says. I've been trying not to get too depressed about the seeming corporate onslaught, and also with some other seeming nastiness coming from the Lucas empire (notably, check out Daily Sci-Fi for the story of what happened when they tried to run a fairly innocuous little ticket giveaway contest). I guess the most depressing thing about this is the harsh reminder that this is only a movie, and that Lucas is still just the head of a corporation. I guess we all wanted to believe it and he were somehow more than that. I keep hoping I'll see some sign of that being the case, but as yet, that hasn't been the case.
On the other hand, the control regarding theaters and such has, I think, been mostly to Lucas' credit, and he has relented when it seemed to be in the fans best interest (i.e., buying advanced tickets). It really does appear that he was trying to make sure that everyone had a good experience seeing the movie, rather than seeing it on what is essentially a big-screen TV with bad sound, as a lot of theaters are. We need to give credit where credit is due there.
To sum up, I'm still very excited about seeing the movie, but a little of the magic has gone out of it for me, which just makes me sad. My only hope is that Lucas will see some of this and take it into consideration for Episode 2. I would certainly love to have him prove us all wrong.
Hope everyone has a good time at the film...
--Derek
First, sorry about the bad formatting. Must...preview...
Second, to complete sentence: "The irrational hatred of someone just because of their skin color or religion or whatever is just that: irrational."
Third, one point to clarify the above, and something which we all need to remember: the people that I (and many of us) should be defending are the folks out there *now* who are being persecuted and harassed. Nothing justifies what these kids did, no matter how persecuted they felt, and as several people point out, their reasons were obviously far beyond just being teased and being the outsider.
What is happening now, though, is an unjustified backlash based on absolutely absurd assumptions - that anyone who wears black trenchcoats and plays video games is a potential killer - and that needs to stop. Klebold and Harris already did their damage, but the schools that are cracking down on kids for absurd (and Orwellian) reasons are furthering it, and allowing what these two kids did to have far greater reaching effects. I would ask those schools one question: who are they honoring by hurting *more* children in the aftermath? Like aftershocks in an earthquake, this can do far more damage in the long run.
The irony here, is that in many ways, the response to what these kids have done is some sort of distorted mirror image of the actions they themselves performed. These kids were punishing people, in an admittedly very unreasonable way, who did them harm over a long period of time through teasing, exclusion, and possibly worse, simply because they were different. Their response was "punish" since they could not prevent, and those who could would not help.
So what is the authority reaction? They suspend kids for wearing trenchcoats. They force kids to go into counseling if they play certain games. Anyone who expresses sympathy with these kids is ridiculed or worse for showing any sign of compassion.
And yet these authorities - the parents, schoolteachers, administrators and politicians - have the unmitigated gall to look at this situation and say "How could these kids do this? Where did they learn that the way to respond to a threat was to punish it so severely that it could never again be a threat? What would lead them to assume that just because a certain person looked or acted a certain way, they deserved to be punished? You, you might feel this way because you look different and act differently - you must be punished in case you were to become like them." And thus the cycle continues.
Are these people truly that blind? Well, all of you out there who think you should punish your children because they dress differently, or that because they play games or talk about things you don't understand that they need to be controlled and made an example of. To all of you I say this: you need look no further for the reasons behind this than yourselves. You are the cause, you are the reason it happened. And until you own up to that responsibility, until you realize that compassion is *never* unwarranted and should *never* be punished, you are the image that we have seen magnified in this terrible atrocity.
And just because you are one of the outsiders, don't think that makes you innocent. How often have you looked at a jock and assumed they were stupid *because* they were a jock? Or a cheerleader? Or *any* of the so-called beautiful people? Intolerance is the name of the game here, folks, and don't forget that we can be just as intolerant as they are, it's just that on average, they tend to call the shots, especially in high school. But prejudice comes in all sizes and shapes, and it grows out of arrogance just as easily as it does from insecurity. Remember that being smarter doesn't make you better, any more than being stronger, healthier, better-looking, or any trait.
As an aside on this. The racism side of this is a different issue, and is something we cannot and should not excuse for any reason. The irrational hatred of someone just because of their skin color or religion or whatever is Having grown up in Littleton and knowing how ethnically homogenous it is, it is very unlikely that is anything other than cultural conditioning. My first question there is: how did their parents teach them to deal with other ethnic groups? In my experience that sort of thing almost has to come from a parental viewpoint. I could be wrong, and I don't want to blame the parents unnecessarily, but the racism has to come from somewhere, and in Littleton, there are simply too few non-white (and particularly too few African Americans) to form any sort of viewpoint at all.
I enjoyed Futurama thoroughly, and I think it has a lot of potential to be a great show. Simpsons is unfortunately getting a bit long in the tooth and this season has not been particularly good, IMHO. I hope that Groening is able to revive the level of humor that the Simpsons used to have with this show - and the art is definitely significantly more polished.
My one beef would be that I was sad to see this take the time slot of 'That 70s Show'. I realize that it'll be back over the summer, but I hope that they give it a good time slot and keep it around - I thought it was a pretty funny show with some brilliant moments. And I'm not saying this just because the redhead was awfully darn cute.
Anyway, good reviews guys. (You know, I just realized I'll probably never see this response because my comment threshold is too high. Oh well...)