Llais Ifanc Reloaded

Sunday, July 10, 2005

London

I don't think this needs much of an introduction.

The recent terrorist bombings in London are a very sad event that shakes all people to the core. In any political system, violence has no place in advancing what ideas and goals we have. I wish my sympathies to the families as they go through this awful, sad, and wretched time. I hope this event causes us to stop and think about ourselves and why we differ. I also wish and pray that we will catch the nutjobs who committed this terrible act.

We have a long way to go.

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

In the Club!

I am in the iPod club!

Last Saturday I finally upgraded my MP3 player. For almost eight years, I used the Creative Nomad II. It contained support for MP3 files, voice recording, and FM radio. For most of the time, I was happy. However it started to appear that the Nomad II was beginning to show it's age. Last Christmas, I wanted to get a 128 MB SmartMedia card. No one had them or they were hard to find. The next sign I needed to upgrade the MP3 player was upgrading the firmware. It seemed old in many ways. The memory capacity of the SmartMedia cards I was using was upgraded to 128 MB and support was added for Microsoft's WMA format. These were all the signs I needed. The search was on for a new player.

I had considered Creative's MuVo line. These players are MP3/WMA players and pendrive in one. But I had read about how easy the players are to corrupt and the cheapness of the players themselves. I also looked at the Zen line of players such as the Zen Touch. I felt they were like the MuVo in quality. I also looked at their Zen line, but found them to flimsy. I then thought about the Rio Chiba (flash memory) or the Rio Carbon (hard drive). I was concerned about the quality of the device. I have read complaints about the joystick breaking off. Not so good.

I first saw the iPod (then the 2G in late 2002-2003. I thought they were nice and cute, but felt they wouldn't last. They would come and go like other MP3 players had. I also didn't like the fact that there were iPods that weren't smaller than 15 GB. This ended in January 2004 when Apple introduced the iPod mini. At the time it was $250 (USD). As you can guess, I was very disappointed. In the time between then and the time I got the iPod mini, I was scouting out Rio's and Creative's offerings. I also thought I could keep the Nomad II alive by upgrading the firmware (they did some good) and buying a 128 MB SmartMedia card. This was not as easy as the firmware upgrade. The places I found that had the card were also pretty pricey. I realized this was the end.

The weekend before I decided on the iPod mini, I looked at what Creative, Rio, iRiver, and Dell were up to. I found the iRiver H10 players to be pretty good. I was also impressed by the Creative Zen Micro. Better than the MuVo line. The worst player out of the bunch was the Dell Pocket DJ. It looked boring the design stunk big time. My mind was made up.

In my first 96 hours or so, I have found my transition to the iPod mini from the Creative Nomad to be pretty painless. There was no learning curve with the mini compared with the Nomad II. Since getting the device, I have managed to transfer most of my stuff over. I have the sound quality to be very good. So far, I have had no real problems. As I go forward with the mini, I am very confident this time will be nothing but the best.

For photos of the iPod mini, go the the SillyDog701 Message Centre.

Monday, July 04, 2005

Goodbye Sandra

Last week Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor decided to retire from the Court.When she was appointed, the group think was she would be a conservative. Over the last 20 years, she has not been - to a point. I admire her for being an independent thinker on the court instead of a robot. For this, she will be missed.

What happens next?

The President will appoint someone. From what I read, the President will appoint someone made in his own image. In doing this appointment, I hope G.W. picks someone who is willing to work with the liberals, conservatives and moderates on the Court. If the President doesn't do this and instead appoints a hard-right wing jurist, the confirmation process will be difficult.

No matter what happens, we are in for a long haul for the next few months.