Punkadyne Labs - Lousy f***ing luck... [entries|archive|friends|userinfo]
punkwalrus

[ website | Punkie's Watery Realm ]
[ userinfo | livejournal userinfo ]
[ archive | journal archive ]

Lousy f***ing luck... [May. 10th, 2008|09:24 am]
Previous Entry Add to Memories Tell a Friend Next Entry
[Tags|, , ]

So, a few days ago, my MP3 player disappears. This is cause for concern because I really need it to stay sane on the Metro. I had it Tuesday, and then I couldn't find it Thursday. I always put it back in my backpack in a special pocket, which is where I last saw it. The headphone wire extension was still there; I have an extension because headphone wires are often too short for my long torso, so unless I want to hold my Walkman/MP3 player with a crooked arm, I need an extension so the player can go in my pocket. But the MP3 player and actual headphones were gone. I know I didn't get it stolen, because I came home with it Tuesday, put it in my backpack, and noticed I still had my camera, which I took out and upgraded the firmware on; it has all these new options which may help it stop being a crappy camera, but that's another post.

I looked everywhere for it. Figured I'd give it a good look over the weekend. Losing my MP3 player is like losing my wallet; I *always* know where it is, so when I *don't* know where it is, that's really abnormal.

So last night, I decide to get ahead on my laundry work. I wash my stack of underwear, socks, and a Katuscon shirt I am wearing for a meeting today. As I start the dryer, I hear thumping. That's odd, I think. Why would socks, underwear, and one polo shirt thump? Sadly, my brain just went, "Well, maybe it's the zipper on the Katsucon staff polo shirt," and immediately forget about it.

No foreshadowing needed here, huh? I imagine you know what comes next. I don't even want to say it.

I have no idea HOW my MP3 player ended up in the dryer. Needless to say, it no longer works. I found the headphones twisted around a sock like vines on a fencepost. The player won't even turn on, and it was probably cooked since it was so hot, it was initially hard to hold in my hand.

It wasn't an iPod. It was a Cowon iAudio U4, a gift from [info]takayla over a year ago and I *loved* that thing, because it could play OGG files, of which I have many. It had an easy-to-understand interface, and I didn't need no F***ing "iTunes" to put music on it; it was just like a hard drive. I hate iTunes. Hate hate hate because not only do they not have a Linux client (yes, I am aware there's a hack; I tried it on my Shuffle), their Windows client is a downright memory hog, a bitch to remove, saves stuff in some proprietary format that is hard to back up, slows down my boot time almost as bad as an AOL client, and generally a bloaty, piss-poor design.

Yes, I could but another one, but you know what? I am not exactly rolling in the dough here. I guess I'll have to find my older one with only stores 256k, or go back to the Shuffle, which I loaned/gave to [info]takayla for the gym, so I don't know if I can get it back without being an ... well, I wish there was a better, non-racist replacement for this word.
linkReply

Comments:
[User Picture]From: [info]dptwisted
2008-05-10 04:45 pm (UTC)

(Link)

You could try Craigslist for the same player. Since it's not bleeding-edge technology, you may be able to get a replacement cheap.
[User Picture]From: [info]manikitty
2008-05-11 11:59 am (UTC)

(Link)

I was about to say the same thing. My dad loved the RIO MP3 players when they came out, and managed to buy several extras for parts and to upgrade the RAM. He even found a hack that let the firmware handle larger (i.e. decent) amounts of memory than it was designed to handle.


Go old school and find a hackable MP3 on CL or eBay. Don't get sucked into iOwnyourPC.
[User Picture]From: [info]stegosaur
2008-05-10 08:14 pm (UTC)

(Link)



These things happen!


Edited at 2008-05-10 08:14 pm (UTC)
[User Picture]From: [info]thomtoffner
2008-05-11 05:43 pm (UTC)

(Link)

I had an iAudio X5 for a while, which was one of the best players I ever owned. Except that the navigation was via joystick that protruded from the player, and thus caught on pockets and had pressure on it in cases and whatnot, and never really worked properly after the first week.

I discovered Rockbox and installed it upon there and loved it even more. But then the port of Rockbox to the iPod Video was released, and I decided to get one of those since Rockbox solved all my anti-iPod issues, and because it didn't have a broken joystick. So Now I've been happily running Rockbox on my iPod Video for a couple years now; it is just a removable drive, no nothing special needed. It plays all my OGG files, as well as every other codec imaginable (save for .wma), it has crazy themes and various other things. Sure, it doesn't sound as good as the iAudio X5 (but nothing I've ever come across has sounded that good), but it's a lot easier to find accessories and whatnot.

In short, iPod + Rockbox = happy fun land. No iTunes, tons more codecs, OPEN SOURCE, etc. (And it even runs Doom. You know, if you're into that sort of thing.) You could probably find a used iPod Video (5g) for fairly reasonable.