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The iPod strikes back

A couple of months ago I was struck with iPod lust and decided that I just had to have the new 5G iPod. Yeah, I know that my 4G iPod was less than a year old, but when the lust hits you, you just have to act. I managed to find a fellow resident who was looking for an iPod for the holidays and I made her what I think is a pretty sweet deal. I sold my mint condition 30GB 4G iPod (this thing has never been exposed to "the elements," it's been in a case since it came out of the styrofoam) with Contour Showcase cover, AirPlay FM transmitter, car charger, and extended warranty for $280.

I've finally entered the PDA world

I've wanted one for years, but have never bought one because I was always waiting for "the next big thing."

Thankfully the residency program has provided one for me, and even been kind enough to include software and coupons for purchasing more programs. I've been fiddling around with it for the past month (it's a Zire 72s) and have gotten pretty proficient with the graffiti handwriting. Now it remains to be seen if I'll actually pull this thing out and use it or if it'll just be an electronic pocket weight.

If any of you have palm resources you think I should take a look at, please drop a line in the comments and tell me about them. I know the basics of how to use this thing, but it'll be a little bit before I'm expertly proficient and I've had a harder time than I anticipated finding useful (and preferably free) apps.

Odeo first impressions

After signing up for email notifications way back when, I managed to snag myself an Odeo invite and get a sneak peek at the service while it's in beta. What is Odeo you ask? Well here's a quote from the FAQ:

What does Odeo do?
...Odeo consists of three major parts: A catalog of audio content, of all types, which is constantly being added to. The Odeo Syncr, which let's you download anything in the catalog (and, optionally, put it on your MP3 player). And creation tools, including the Odeo Studio, which let you publish your own audio content, which will then show up in the catalog.

Basically, the site is a content aggregator for podcasts, which are nothing but recordings meant for you to download and listen to. Think of them as portable radio shows or long audioposts that you can listen to at your leisure. Expand the post to read my initial thoughts after doing some digging around and downloading.

Ripping audio tracks from a DVD

I've done the coolest thing this weekend, which has made me even prouder of my music collection. I was watching my Jamie Cullum DVD again and wondering why I couldn't listen to the audio from this disc through my iPod. For some time now I had been meaning to figure out how to rip the audio off of this DVD, and I decided that before I take another long trip I was going to make it happen.

You'd think something like this would be easy to figure out from doing a quick Google search. That was hardly the case. It took me a good bit of time and a lot of trial and error before I finally found a system that worked (and used freeware). I make no claims that this is the only way to do this and I'm sure that I'm probably doing something wrong, but the bottom line is that all of my concert DVD's are now on my iPod. Of course I have to make it clear that you should only do this if you own the DVD's in question and that it should be for your own personal use only. Also, these directions correspond to people using the Mac versions of these programs (though I'm sure the directions would be somewhat similar if you found Windows equivalent programs). Now then, let's get to the directions:

You listen to WHAT?

I'm loving these social-network services that are all the rage these days. First I got into Del.icio.us, then I couldn't stop looking through Flickr albums, and now my new obsession is Audioscrobbler. I had heard people talking about it for some time, but it wasn't until I saw someone's member page that I realized how cool it was. I'm addicted to lists, countdowns, and all other types of collectable statistics/breakdowns. Applying it to my music collection and then comparing that to the listening habits of the rest of the world is blowing my mind. It's also making me more aware of what I listen to and how often...and somewhat self-conscious about my music library. "Mainstream" artists don't play too well in Audioscrobbler world, unless they're the Beatles or U2. Oh well, I have to stand by the music I've loaded into my library. Except for those Kelly Clarkson Enrique Backstreet Boys tracks. I don't know how those got in there. Honest.

Bloglines and my lack of blogging

A couple of weeks ago the RSS reader I was using changed from freeware to shareware, leaving me searching for another solution. In the midst of trying to change my feeds over, however, I managed to hose my OPML file which left me back to the beginning when it came to my news feeds. I had lost around 200 feeds and had no idea how I was going to get some of them back, considering there was no way I could remember the name of each feed I had subscribed myself to (lots of sites were added on a whim when I discovered them following links).

I figured if I was going to start from the ground floor again I wanted a solution that would allow me to check my feeds from multiple computers at any location with internet access. I also wanted this solution to be free. That's where Bloglines stepped in and the love affair began.

Immediately I was able to search through the most popular feeds list and replenish a good number of my reads, which in turn led me back to many of the sites I had stumbled upon during my initial RSS collecting. I still haven't completely duplicated the list I once had, but I'm finding the Bloglines interface to be perfectly conducive to getting my daily internet fix. Feeds can be easily organized into folders, read individually or in a group, and easily added via the use of a convenient bookmarklet or search box.

The downside to my obsession with checking newsfeeds is that every time I get on the internet I just want to read. This is great for my sidebar of del.icio.us links, which I hope some of you are reading or even subscribed to, but bad for UL content. When I initially started this weblog I didn't have any problem dedicating entire posts to links I found rummaging through the web. After being around for a few months, however, I realized that if I was going to get any readers it would have to be with original content because there are lots of people out there churning out links better than I ever could.

This site goes through phases where my sidebar "Reconnaissance" links overflow with content and the main column gets sparse. We're currently in one of those cycles right now, but I think the Bloglines novelty is starting to wear off and the more links I read, the more content eventually comes from ideas stewing in my kettlehead. Bear with me for now, and make sure you're at least noticing the links in the sidebar. The only person I knew for sure that read my links is currently on internet hiatus, so I'm wondering if the links I post are simply for my own posterity. Either way, remember that the links have their own site (linked in the sidebar) and their own RSS feed (also linked in the sidebar).

RSS feeds and advertising

There's an interesting entry over at Kottke dealing with RSS syndication and blocking ads on subscribed feeds. As more people move to RSS readers to gather and digest their news, the advertisers are getting savvy and starting to help content providers pay for bandwidth by putting ads on syndicated articles. All of the ads I've come across have been reasonable in their size and obtrusiveness, so it really hasn't been too much of an issue for me. The great part about this article, however, is the opinions that Jason gets from the developers of some of the most popular RSS newsreaders about advertising and whether or not the ability to block out the ads will become available in subsequent versions of their software. Stay tuned to the comments on this one, there should be some insightful discussion.

Band Site Mistakes

An entry at 43 Folders hits the nail right on the head when it comes to the "five mistakes band and label sites make." Some of my favorite bands have followed down to the letter these horrible mistakes.

I'd like to add on a few peeves of my own to this list:

6. Automatic playing of streaming music

I don't know about you, but when I'm looking for band information I'm inevitably listening to the album of the band I'm looking for info on, or at least some other CD in the same genre. So here I am with my headphones on, browsing and listening to music, when all the sudden another track starts playing over the music I'm already trying to listen to. Thanks a lot guys. Now I have to dig around the page and look for a stop button. Some sites are sadistic enough to not even provide this simple stop button, so I have to either close the page and forget about finding what I was looking for, or stop my own music so I can let this streaming quality music play through. The worst offenders will go so far as to even play a different track for every new page you open on the site. Please spare the annoyance and let the viewer decide whether or not they want to play the streaming tracks.

Frustrated with partial-text RSS feeds?

The other day I was getting flack from someone about not having full-text RSS syndication and it made me wonder ever so briefly if I should just abandon the excerpts and go the whole way. I'd love to be able to give people entire posts through RSS, but I just don't see how I'd keep the blog going if I did that.

Apple Mail how I love thee

Talk about slow on the uptake. I just found out tonight that I can access my AOL email using Apple Mail. You know that this means, right?

It means I can now read all of my email from one app and just be done with it. Perfection. The fact that I'm so excited about this is the final sign that I'm a hopeless geek. I've got all my rules and folders set up...there's a place for everything and everything is in it's place. Life is good.