...as long as they use Firefox and Thunderbird. My mom used to get crap all over her PC. Finally I installed FF and TB and made them the defaults for everything. She hasn't had a single problem since. Norton and Windows update themselves.
She doesn't have to learn Linux, no one has to spend $$$ on a Mac, and she can still watch those stupid WMV video clips her friends send her links to.
Chances are your parents already have a Windows PC, just keep it and install the right free apps and you'll be all set.
They need to move to a color LCD version... I already pay a lot for an iPod why not trick it out?
Because it's totally unnecessarily. A color screen is useful only for graphics, and the iPod doesn't need that. Visualizations aren't necessary because you use the thing while walking so you're not looking at it, and they just waste CPU cycles (i.e., battery life). You could have pictures, but what good is it on such a little screen? The iPod is a music player. It's a bit different than with cell phones because of the lack of communication functionality.
A better use for the money would be wifi (for bluetooth-like syncing, not for uploading songs), longer battery life, and more durable parts (it's durable now, but it couldn't hurt to stiffen up some parts).
Besides, if I want my iPod to look prettier, I'd want it in the design of the case, not on the screen.
My coffee is weak even by American standards. One little scoop (an ounce?) per 4 cups. It's just barely translucent, a very dark brown. I don't see why people like their coffee as strong as they sell it in restaurants in the US, you have to put in six times the sweetener/creamer than I do just to barely taste it.
That's why I got a pair of Sony MDREX71SL in-ear headphones. The pliable rubber outside of the phone conforms to the shape of my ear, effectively blocking out voices, car noise, etc. I can hear the subtleties of the music and keep it at a much lower volume.
There's a big difference between "it doesn't suit my needs" and not being able to see a case being made for the Mini's size and price point.
I understand that, I just can't think of why you would want a 4GB player. And I, too, am eagerly awaiting a 30-40GB iPod the size of the mini. Going from my original Nomad Jukebox to the iPod was like going from CRT to LCD, but now that I've gotten over the size difference I would like to shave off even more if possible.
I agree, Windows is very keyboard friendly. Not just the shortcuts, but navigating around with tab and spacebar. You can work your way through just about everything using those two keys. Tab moves the cursor focus (shift-tab goes backwards) and the spacebar 'clicks' on the current selection. Also all dialogs have a darkened button that will be clicked when you hit enter, and using shift or control with the arrow keys for selecting groups of files or text works in just about every application.
Not enough for my whole collection, which is why I went with a regular (30GB) iPod and am not personally interested in owning a Mini. The whole reason I got into MP3 players was to eliminate not having the song I want to listen to when I'm away from home.
I could see you make a case for a small (512MB-1GB) player, but the 'medium-sized' Mini doesn't make much sense to me. Either you want a tiny, light player to use for a couple hours while jogging or you want a jukebox, but I don't see why people would want something in the middle unless they just really want an iPod but couldn't justify paying for 30GB that they wouldn't ever use.
Re:Slashdotters==Curmudgeons?
on
iPod Mini Sells Out
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· Score: 3, Insightful
That is what surprises me most when I see completely wrong posts moderated up to +5.... when all the moderators are fooled all the time it makes me worry about humanity:)
I think moderators are persuaded by previous moderations. When you see a post and you're not quite sure if it's a good one or not, but someone else has already modded it up, then you start to think that it is good and you're probably just missing something, so you mod it up as well.
Yeah, what I said in the first post was a typo. That extra "a" got in there somehow.
And I agree with the randomizing, I was just going to suggest that myself. Five rounds of ten states each, one week between rounds, and "shifting" the states through the rounds each election period would be ideal. Or maybe a tournament-style election, where all states vote at once and the top three or so candidates enter a new election, and the winner of that is the nominee. That gives a chance for the people who voted for less popular candidates to reassess the situation. However, I don't know how capable the states are of holding multiple elections (in terms of logistics and cost), plus people might not think the first election matters and just skip it. There is already a problem with not enough people voting in the primaries.
Maybe I misunderstand, but you appear to be saying that we should just accept the system the way it is and not try to change it.
No, I said that we should accept human nature the way it is. Human nature being, in this case, being swayed by popular decision.
The point of the general election (in November) is to serve the public, but the primaries are for the parties. Yes, they do serve the people in a way because we can choose who runs for that party, but really what we're doing is letting the party know which candidate of theirs that we support. The public can still vote for anyone they want, including independents, in the general election.
In addition to the points you mentioned, the party's ultimate goal of having a well-supported candidate run for office is something to think about. Suppose everyone voted at the same time and it turned out that Kerry got 21%, Dean got 20%, Clark got 20%, Edwards got 20%, and the rest was split over the other candidates. The party would have to choose Kerry because he got the most votes, but 79% of registered democratic voters didn't pick him. When November rolls around, that 79% could be split between "okay, sure, if he's the dem I'll vote for him" and "I wanted Dean, but since he's not running I'll either not vote or vote non-democrat."
By spreading out the voting, the party can build momentum behind one candidate and have a better shot against the other party's candidate. Yes, people are influenced by how other people voted. It's not a good, but that's how it is. Remember how in elementary school the only way the teacher could get an accurate vote was if everyone put their heads down during the process? People are swayed by popular decision.
According to this AP article personal content is very low. It talks mostly about blogs, but I think there is some correlation between that and this story.
You don't have the option of looking at the screen that way. I haven't used my iPod remote at all (and no, the Nomad didn't have one). The headphone cord is already long enough, plus sometimes I jump to a different album or playlist, and you can't really do that with a remote.
You can't control a player that's in your backpack. Besides, I use it at other times, like while I'm at the gym or while I'm walking to work (and don't have a backpack). Then there's shoveling snow or mowing the lawn, riding a bike, etc. I don't carry a bag unless I'm going to class.
As a college student, buying an iPod was a financial strain. I just found it to be overwhelmingly worth the cost since I use it so much (I previously had a big clunky Nomad Jukebox so I knew I would use an MP3 player a lot if only it were small and had good battery life and a faster UI).
Good job spending money on something that can get stolen and leave you out $400
It's kind of hard for something to be stolen when it resides in my front pocket. Unlike a CD/MP3CD player I don't have to hold it in my hand or set it down anywhere.
Oh, and I usually group songs by mood anyways
Hope you had fun shuffling all those files around and reburning CDRs whenever you change your mind. My songs don't really have a location, so I can "move" them to wherever I'd like. And it takes about ten seconds.
That's fantastic. Have fun juggling your "portable" collection of the player and a binder of loose discs. Have fun stopping the music and swapping discs just to hear a new song. Too bad you also can't make mixes when you're not at your PC, and it's nearly impossible to handle a large collection of music when artists' albums are spread out all over and you can't remember which mix it was that you really really liked. Let me know when that 15 cents per hour of mixes starts to add up, or when you're fresh out of CDRs and you really wanted to listen to that new album on the way to work.
So you paid $20, huh? Guess you get what you pay for.
And vmobile has much better phones, no cards necessary to add money, and really good reception wherever I've gone (from Cape Cod & NYC to Iowa). Plus you only have to put down $20 at a time which is manageable for a college student.
Slashdot Mirror
That's why you use headphones.
She doesn't have to learn Linux, no one has to spend $$$ on a Mac, and she can still watch those stupid WMV video clips her friends send her links to.
Chances are your parents already have a Windows PC, just keep it and install the right free apps and you'll be all set.
A better use for the money would be wifi (for bluetooth-like syncing, not for uploading songs), longer battery life, and more durable parts (it's durable now, but it couldn't hurt to stiffen up some parts).
Besides, if I want my iPod to look prettier, I'd want it in the design of the case, not on the screen.
In Mozilla, just hit F7 to toggle carat browsing, where you can move the text cursor anywhere on the page and select text using shift.
My coffee is weak even by American standards. One little scoop (an ounce?) per 4 cups. It's just barely translucent, a very dark brown. I don't see why people like their coffee as strong as they sell it in restaurants in the US, you have to put in six times the sweetener/creamer than I do just to barely taste it.
That's why I got a pair of Sony MDREX71SL in-ear headphones. The pliable rubber outside of the phone conforms to the shape of my ear, effectively blocking out voices, car noise, etc. I can hear the subtleties of the music and keep it at a much lower volume.
I agree, Windows is very keyboard friendly. Not just the shortcuts, but navigating around with tab and spacebar. You can work your way through just about everything using those two keys. Tab moves the cursor focus (shift-tab goes backwards) and the spacebar 'clicks' on the current selection. Also all dialogs have a darkened button that will be clicked when you hit enter, and using shift or control with the arrow keys for selecting groups of files or text works in just about every application.
I could see you make a case for a small (512MB-1GB) player, but the 'medium-sized' Mini doesn't make much sense to me. Either you want a tiny, light player to use for a couple hours while jogging or you want a jukebox, but I don't see why people would want something in the middle unless they just really want an iPod but couldn't justify paying for 30GB that they wouldn't ever use.
And I agree with the randomizing, I was just going to suggest that myself. Five rounds of ten states each, one week between rounds, and "shifting" the states through the rounds each election period would be ideal. Or maybe a tournament-style election, where all states vote at once and the top three or so candidates enter a new election, and the winner of that is the nominee. That gives a chance for the people who voted for less popular candidates to reassess the situation. However, I don't know how capable the states are of holding multiple elections (in terms of logistics and cost), plus people might not think the first election matters and just skip it. There is already a problem with not enough people voting in the primaries.
The point of the general election (in November) is to serve the public, but the primaries are for the parties. Yes, they do serve the people in a way because we can choose who runs for that party, but really what we're doing is letting the party know which candidate of theirs that we support. The public can still vote for anyone they want, including independents, in the general election.
By spreading out the voting, the party can build momentum behind one candidate and have a better shot against the other party's candidate. Yes, people are influenced by how other people voted. It's not a good, but that's how it is. Remember how in elementary school the only way the teacher could get an accurate vote was if everyone put their heads down during the process? People are swayed by popular decision.
According to this AP article personal content is very low. It talks mostly about blogs, but I think there is some correlation between that and this story.
You don't have the option of looking at the screen that way. I haven't used my iPod remote at all (and no, the Nomad didn't have one). The headphone cord is already long enough, plus sometimes I jump to a different album or playlist, and you can't really do that with a remote.
You can't control a player that's in your backpack. Besides, I use it at other times, like while I'm at the gym or while I'm walking to work (and don't have a backpack). Then there's shoveling snow or mowing the lawn, riding a bike, etc. I don't carry a bag unless I'm going to class.
Even after rereading the post it doesn't look like sarcasm was part of the joke. The joke was the "thank you, Captain Obvious" tone.
As a college student, buying an iPod was a financial strain. I just found it to be overwhelmingly worth the cost since I use it so much (I previously had a big clunky Nomad Jukebox so I knew I would use an MP3 player a lot if only it were small and had good battery life and a faster UI).
So you paid $20, huh? Guess you get what you pay for.
Adam West (original Batman) does some excellent narrations.
And vmobile has much better phones, no cards necessary to add money, and really good reception wherever I've gone (from Cape Cod & NYC to Iowa). Plus you only have to put down $20 at a time which is manageable for a college student.