« Google Clout | Main | Innovative 3-Year-Old At Work »

February 4, 2004

Today's Random Thoughts

I'm thinking of writing an entry that describes how and why I use Ogg Vorbis for capturing and compressing my music. There might not be much of a point to it, but it'll probably interest me if read, say, 10 years from now.

The second battery sent to me by Crayton Electronics for my Ipaq is not charging, just like the first one. Since I had no problems with my Ipaq before the original battery (apparently) died, I can only assume the two batteries I got from them don't work as advertised. I'm going to give up on this and buy a new PDA some time in the future when/if it makes sense. And I'm going to make sure it's got a modular, easily-removable battery. The second (and last) Crayton battery is going in the mail soon - I hope their return process isn't a hassle. It wasn't too bad to get the first battery replaced, but it cost me about $4.50 in shipping.

Speaking of devices with internal rechargeable batteries, I received a Gameboy Advance SP as part of a training promotion a few weeks ago. It'll be a few years before I pass it down to my son, so in the meantime I bought myself a game for it. I got Golden Sun: The Lost Age since I like RPGs, and it's fun. There's enough puzzles in it to keep me interested without frustrating me too much. ;) The size of the GBA and the fact that I can save my game on the fly make it easy to pick up and play occasionally. I'm not a console gamer, and barely make enough time to play the games I have for the PC. But the GBA is convenient and fun.

Looks like I may be heading to Don's to check out the new house and take in the April 3rd Dream Theater show in NYC. That will be a cool show. No other acts on the bill would make it the longest DT show I'll have seen. And it's always neat to see how they'll treat their new material, and what they break out of the archives. Thanks for the invite, Don.

Ross is hosting the latest boxing match between Mark Pilgrim and Dave Winer over Atom vs. RSS. Since I'm not trying to make money off either format I guess I'm more agnostic about this than most. But taking an RSS/Atom Feed Validator and implementing it as an RSS Validator without removing the Atom support (but saying valid Atom is valid RSS) is questionable. I like the fact that Ross has set up his own instance of the Validator on Localfeeds. At the very least, he can integrate it more fully with the process of walking someone who wants to get on Localfeeds' radar through the required steps. And it'll cut down on FeedValidator.org's bandwidth costs.

Posted by Alex Harden on February 4, 2004 4:28 PM |

Comments

I for one am looking forward to a writeup on streaming. That is something I have wanted to do for a long time but I just want it to be as easy as possible. I have so much stuff I currently work on that I just have not made time to sit and read how to do particular streaming. Ages ago, I had a Shoutcast stream working. But I converted the machine to something else and I have not wanted to work on getting a stream up. I have actually thought of using one of the many mp3 to swf tools that allow you to stream. But deep down I want to do the more techy stuff. :)

I like RPG's, I have not been able to find one to keep my interest for quite some time. That sounds like a nice alternative having one for the Gameboy. Have fun at the Dream Theater show! Should be a blast!

I too read the Ross posts about Atom vs RSS. I gave the Localfeeds validators a try today. Just like feedvalidator.org's. I think it is great that Ross has one local to his feed service.

Posted by: Scotbuff | February 4, 2004 5:54 PM

Yeah, even before your comment I thought I should cover more aspects of my musical enjoyment than just Vorbis. I'll cover my methods of ripping, encoding, streaming, and an overview of my hardware, including my Minidisc stuff and my instruments and related gear. What the heck!

Thanks for the good wishes for the DT show... I received the OK from my m... I mean wife. Road trippin' and show goin' that weekend!

Posted by: aharden | February 4, 2004 6:41 PM

I just got a Battery from Crayton for my Vaio, its obviously faulty, but they are telling me a lot of rubbish about needing to reset my Laptop....

Posted by: Jon | February 11, 2004 1:59 AM

Good news on this front on my end - they emailed me last night after receiving my second iPaq battery back and my note saying I wanted a refund. They asked for my credit card info since they didn't keep it for more than 30 days. I will post again if I'm not credited for the full amount ($39.99).

I've seen a pretty even amount of positive and negative reviews about Crayton. It's probably hard to please customers when you're selling third-party batteries that you didn't manufacture. One thing I didn't note before is that the iPaq battery pictured on the link I put in the original entry is the Compaq OEM one, not the Zukz one they sold me. That is deceptive and I told them so.

Posted by: aharden | February 11, 2004 8:19 AM

I bought a Zukz iPaq battery for my iPaq, installed it with the tool, using crayton electronics online instructions and my iPaq is working better than new. It now goes for days without a recharge. Thanks for the link gang.

Rob

Posted by: Rob Smith | March 31, 2004 10:54 PM

I bought a ipaq and a ipod battery from Crayton Electronics, they both last longer than the originals. They should, they are rated higher. The instructions where easy for both.

Posted by: Paul Grosso | April 1, 2004 4:54 AM

I'm glad to hear someone had luck with the Zukz batteries. I've given up on my iPAQ.

Posted by: aharden | April 1, 2004 8:54 AM

Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)