Monthly Archive for July, 2005

David’s iPod - Guilt Free Insanity

Published
by
Mr. Emily
on July 29th 2005
in Journal
. 1 Comment

David says: hey I have an unrelated question:

David says: do you think my amp takes up a lot of power if I just have it on at low volume and playing my ipod through it?

David says: I’ve been using it as a stereo, but wondering if I’m just sapping a bunch of energy by doing that.

mat says: how so? what are you worried about? a high electricity bill?

David says: yeah.

mat says: hehe.

David says: Just wonder if it uses more energy than a normal stereo.

mat says: using a hair dryer for 10 seonds uses more power than your amp for 2 hours (not precisely, but you get the idea)

David says: ahh.

mat says: it might use a bit of energy more than your normal stereo but it depends on your stereo

David says: yeah.

mat says: also can depend on how loud it is and for how long

David says: you think volume is a factor then?

mat says: i could do the math to compare your amp to your stereo if you want

David says: he he.

David says: no that’s okay.

David says: So I shouldn’t feel guilty, anyway, for using it in my bedroom as a stereo?

mat says: not at all

mat says: your are so funny

mat says: you really need to get out!

David says: LOL

David says: I know. See the things that cloud my mind!!!!

mat says: that’s so awesome!!!!!!!!!!

David says: It’s a wonder I get anything done.

mat says: i love it

David says: now I’ve got my iPod playing again. Guilt free!

I’s From These Here Parts

Published
by
Mr. Emily
on July 29th 2005
in Journal
. 4 Comments

Your Linguistic Profile:
55% General American English
40% Yankee
5% Dixie
0% Midwestern
0% Upper Midwestern

What actually is Dixie? Hmmm. Yankee I get, but Dixie? Is that like Honky Tonk? I always thought I spoke English and Honky Tonk. But then again, Honky Tonk is more a way of life.

My First iPod. My Music In Color.

Published
by
Mr. Emily
on July 28th 2005
in Journal
. 2 Comments

Well I did it. I said I never would do it. I never wanted to. It was against a lot of the ideals and morals I held dearly to myself concerning the quality of audio and music politics. But for convenience and cost factor, I gave in. Not to mention there are many new audio formats out there that beat MP3s out of the water!

I purchased an iPod. The primary reason was for the wedding. I’ll be compiling my music library for the next few weeks and will start building play-lists for our 4 day wedding coming up in October.

The secondary reason was for travel. We typically travel by car domestically. And bringing a shoe-box worth of CDs is a hassle. Especially when camping and space is of the essence. Oh yeah, and we’ll be traveling in Europe and Africa for 4 weeks for our honeymoon. Music will come in handy during that time.

Obviously this is in no way a replacement. It’s clearly a convenience for the time being.

So the large dilemma was what to encode in. I originally thought Apple Lossless. Of course. But read more about AAC. I liked it. I started everything at AAC 256kbs. After listening and hearing little to no artifacts, I sampled down to 192kbs. It appeared to be the same and I settled there. There is a slight tinge of weakness/thin in the upper high end of the frequency spectrum. It’s not bad and it’s not nearly as bad as a similarly encoded MP3. That is a format I simply can not get behind.

So the only problem thus far has been my iSight doesn’t appear to play nice with the iPod. It’s a recognized problem and there appears to be a workaround. Worst case scenario I’ll just unplug the iSight every time I plug in my iPod.

Oh and our computer only has a 30gig hard-drive, but I have the 60gig iPod and I think your iPod has to mirror your library on the hard-drive. So I am confused as to what happens when I run out of space on my computer. Apple can’t be that dumb. But I did learn that iSync will sync my Address Book and Calendar items from my Palm. That’s just crazy! Crazy, I tell you.

PS. Emily - I changed the name of the iPod to: matemilyPod!