I hate friggin' Technology
Wednesday, December 27th, 2006 - 4:24pm
So I get up this morning and grab my gawdaful Creative Zen Mp3/Video player intending to sync up some music I received for Christmas. Windows tells me that there's a upgrade for the Media Player so I say "what the heck" and download.
Long story short , the new version of WMP refuses to recognize my MP3 player, which is a 1st generation media player completely lacking in support and firmware upgrades.
So, damn, I guess I'll try to hook up to my laptop and grab my files over the wi-fi, then synch up with the Zen via the laptop. Unfortunately, the power chord for my laptop has been twitchy the last couple of months and now it snaps completely off at the back of the laptop. I don't have any working batteries for this ancient monolith of a computer, so it's pretty much dead.
Well, Hell, I guess I'll grab my wife's laptop cause I really want to listen to my new tunes, and it's the season of forgiveness so I'll just ride it out.
But now my MP3 player refuses to boot up at all. Black screen. Dead.
So, the score is:
Demonic technology gremlins = 2
Me = 0
Man that really is horrible luck. I used to have a Creative Zen Jukebox something or other, it was the 40 Gig model. I just found it to be so clunky to deal with to be honest. I ended up really hating it. I was able to offload it and get an iPod, which was really the best thing that could have ever happened. I had refused to get an iPod because of the fact, that everyone had one. What I ended up finding though, is that the iPod was just a much better music experience. I know that doesn't really help your situation, but maybe this will give you a chance to upgrade to a better mp3 experience.
Demonic technology gremlins are tough to beat.
Ulairi wrote:
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*Goes back to messing with his old Archos 20GB with a set of screwdrivers and pair of needlenose pliers*
(Why must one device need so many screwdrivers?)
I got books for Christmas. Shakespeare pwns j00.
Elysium: The democratization of the web ... has installed an illusion of a digital first amendment that protects speech no matter how poorly spelled or stupid.
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elementsofmeaning.blogspot.com
Yeh, technology pisses me off at least one good time each year. I have an iPod, while it's a great design, I do have some design peeves....For example:
1. Why do you need for it to be plugged into iTunes to DELETE a song from your iPod? When I come across a song I'm tired of, I want to remove it then, while it's in front of me....Not have to make a mental note to delete it later.
2. Since iTunes has a 'Recently Added' selection, why doesn't the iPod?...so you can shuffle the most recently added songs.
While the iPod is not perfect (What piece of technology is?), I find it far more user friendly then Creative's user experience.
Hell, Creative knows that they can't compete, that's why their only move was to try and patent the iPod's menuing system and then try and sue Apple.
Ulairi wrote:
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Now Rocky, you know that's standard practice in tech these days. No need to pick on Creative.
I imagine a text adventure for being a tech company looks like this:
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
> Create IP
You create some IP and the world looks bright. You begin lighting cigars with the stock options you haven't already backdated. You are promptly sued out of existence by an IP grue.
Thank you for playing.
Elysium: The democratization of the web ... has installed an illusion of a digital first amendment that protects speech no matter how poorly spelled or stupid.
XBL: E Munnie
elementsofmeaning.blogspot.com
Yeah, I wouldn't mind a new player, but my music is a mix of mp3 and wma's and I don't want to go through a bunch of conversion hassles with an ipod. I'll pop over to the technology forum and see if there's any active mp3 player threads.
I mostly just wish there was a player that acted like a hard drive (drag and drop) and let you organize music by folders rather than by the music tags.
Archos' players did this.
Elysium: The democratization of the web ... has installed an illusion of a digital first amendment that protects speech no matter how poorly spelled or stupid.
XBL: E Munnie
elementsofmeaning.blogspot.com
I am sticking with iTunes 6 because the upgrade to version 7 makes my son's iPod unrecognizable to the system.
Xbox Live tag Gorilla800lbs
I'm pretty sure the Sandisk Sansa players do this.
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Beer For Ben
I bought the very first hard drive based MP3 player, the Creative Nomad. What a piece of sh*t. I remember filling it up with 300 songs, then wanting to play one at the bottom of the alphabet, Shout at the Devil or something. The Nomad only had up and down buttons, so I literally had to press the button hundreds of times to get to the song. A few years later I got an iPod (before I worked for Apple) and it was like the clouds parted in the heavens. The sound quality wasn't as good but I could actually use the thing, and I did, a lot. I thought "Why was I putting up with that BS before?"
/plant
We shall grapple with the ineffable, and see if we may not eff it after all.
"What misconception traveled down the road and made you want to be here?"
Suggestions:
1. What I do for music I want to remove on the fly: I created a "to be deleted" playlist that includes all music that is "checked" (meaning that it syncs to the ipod) and 1 star. Then, when I run across a song I don't like, I set the rating to 1 star. When I sync my player again, I go to the playlist and uncheck all the 1 star songs, and they are automagically removed from my ipod.
2. Recently added is just a Playlist. If it's not on your ipod, make sure that you have it selected to sync.
Another fun tip:
Since I have a ton of music and listen to most of it, I created an auto playlist called "Fresh" with the conditions:
- Not played in the last month
- Not Podcast
Then I have a "weekly" playlist with the same conditions except it is music not played in the last 7 days."The pen is mightier than the flaming bag of poop" - Bart Simpson
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I've been using the Creative Zen Vision: M for a few months now and I have no problems with it. It sounds great, and the GUI is customizable and intuitive. The bundled media software isn't bad either. I haven't heard of many great things about Creative's "lesser" mp3 players though.
I wanna friend you up!
http://steamcommunity.com/id/bravace
hmm Well I do disagree about that, I think Creative's user experience is just as good as the Ipod, which they are both good in their own seperate ways
Xbox 360 Live Tag: Lothar71 PSN - Lothars
"With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility"
Mex refering to Actresses:
Make no mistake, I'd hit them all so hard that my pelvis would have to be classified as a deadly weapon, I just don't think they're all
IIRC, there are open source OS/firmwares out there that you can use to replace the factory installs on poorly designed interfaces. I used RockBox for a while. That may allow you to scroll over the top of the list back towards the bottom, or at least possibly open up the ability to just hold down the button instead of hitting it over and over.
...Or you could have organized your songs better.
Elysium: The democratization of the web ... has installed an illusion of a digital first amendment that protects speech no matter how poorly spelled or stupid.
XBL: E Munnie
elementsofmeaning.blogspot.com
I have a Creative N200, and very happy with it. It's like an Ipod in quality, but without having to pay extra because there's a friggin' fruit logo imprinted on the back.
Roo: "Just to cheer you up if any of the above made you sad: Boobies."
Koning_Floris, on my online 'skills': "Stinking is a skill too!"
The PSP works like this as well =)
You hook up the usb cable, select USB connection on the PSP and a removable drive pops up in Windows for you to drag and drop to. I just drag entire albums over and then disconnect.
You can select a folder and click Play and it will play through that folder, then every folder following it. It will allow you to shuffle, repeat once, or repeat indefinitely. Though space costs you. I just recently bought a 2 GB stick for $40 and have only used up 400mb or so, and I've also got game demos and a photo album stored on it.
Tobyus
Still searching for the perfect game...
Last edited by Tobyus on Sep 14, 2006 - 02:06 PM; edited 1,000,000 times in total
They do. That's actually why I went with a Sansa over the competitors.
XBLive: Thin J
PSN: Thin_J
I don't imagine master craftsmen leaping away from completed projects and shouting "Done, motherf*ckers! - 1Dgaf
I have no software installed at all for my 8gb zen micro. I just plug the thing in and drag songs into folders. Easy, good interface, and fairly inexpensive.
You can't do this!
Of course I can, I'm Will Wright, bitch! - The Simpsons Game
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And no proprietary battery that burns out after six months and requires $150 of service to fix.
"We're taught from a young age how to dodge rock hard objects moving at incredible rates of speed while simultaneously beating folks half to death with sticks. We do this for fun." -kung fu grip
http://blog.digital-lifeline.ca
I'd like to note that this is another win for the Sansa players as well. A user replaceable and affordable battery.
XBLive: Thin J
PSN: Thin_J
I don't imagine master craftsmen leaping away from completed projects and shouting "Done, motherf*ckers! - 1Dgaf