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Mmmmm….. 40 Gig iPod. Finally, a devince I could fit ALL of my MP3s on.

So tempted … Must. Reist. Urge. To buy. 3rd iPod.

Those who read this site (or just those who dig through my archives) will know I’ve been trying to get a cell phone for about a year now.

I hardly ever need to talk on a phone, so I’ve been trying to find a phone that will let me do data. I think I would certainly use data if I had it - particularly if I could synch it with my PowerBook through Bluetooth and have a modem with me at any time. The thing is, all of those cutting edge phones get panned by critics. The sidekick, the Sony Erricson T68i, or P800 all looked promising but I could never bring myself to take the plunge.

So here I sit, the gadget freak to end all gadget freaks, and I don’t have a cell phone.

I was in Best Buy tonight, and I noticed the Virgin Mobile Prepaid Phones. They’re aimed at kids with a bunch of extra crap I’d never use. The rate plan seems to make a lot of sense for somebody like me who doesn’t expect to use many voice minutes though. You only need to spend $20 every 3 months (or just under $7/month). That $20 will get you 80+ minutes of talk time. (or about 26 minutes a month). Of course, you can purchase as many minutes as you need. It’s basically $.25/minute. $20 every 3 months is just the minimum required spend. And, there’s no contract. You can walk away whenever you want.

All in all, that seems like a solid plan for somebody like me. I think I may have to pick one up tomorrow. I would have gotten one tonight, but I wanted to see what people had to say about the phones. Basically, it looks good. Stay away from the super model as the screen seems to crap out after about 6 months. The other two models get good reviews (on Amazon anyway. There aren’t enough to be sure, but the price and commitment is so low, there’s virtually no real risk/barrier).

All that time trying to go up-market. I should have been looking down at the bottom of the barrel.

Sometimes I look at an Xtreme sport and I wonder why (I’m old like that). Other-times, I look at an Xtreme sport and I wonder how. Kite Surfing is definitely a major freaking HOW?!

I’m not even sure if the linked video is real. I just don’t see how it could be.

Last week I finally gave in to my inner urge and purchased one of those fancy new DVD/CD burners/margarita makers/pinatas. This thing does it all. Very cool. Soon I’ll be backing up all kinds of data and doing whatever cool stuff can be done with optical media.

Or at least THAT was the plan. I got it today after much waiting and much wanting. Well, I go to install it, and I come to find out that whoever installed the current CD drive in my Mac G4 Tower has designed that thing to be one part rubics cube, one part hellraiser puzzle box, and they sealed the whole thing up with a touch of elfin magic that even the most discerning eye simply cannot penetrate. I took out the only visible screws. I took off that tinny sheet metal type stuff that comes installed with all drives and that must do something other than simply waiting there to get bent or cut me despite my most careful of explorations and proddings.

That thing is still in there as solid as the day is long. I think I may need to remove the power supply and maybe take the entire computer apart to get into those cramped little crevices.

I don’t expect that everything in my computer is going to be easy to get to and remove/replace, but seriously, it’s like they deliberately design these things to mess with me. It’s too late to wrestle with it tonight. I’ll have to wait until I have time and daylight to get back in there and see what’s what.

In the mean time, what am I supposed to do with all this margarita mix?

Update: Whoa - that was a lot easier than it appeared. You just need to know where th elves hid the magic button. I’m burning a CD as I type. Sweet!

I thought that in the P800, I may have finally found the device that would get me past my luddite like aversion to all things cellular. I still don’t have a cell phone of any type. Looks like I may need to wait a bit longer. I’m sure that one day I’ll eventually find that very special phone that meets my needs (really, I just want to be able to surf the net at any time from any place very cheaply and maybe be able to make or receive calls twice a year). At this rate I’m thinking that day may be June 22, 2145 AD.

…You make my Bowflex too damn hard to use.

I got a Bowflex about 8 months ago. I used it for a few months, then promptly through my back out (the fault of my massage chair, not the Bowflex (I think)).

I started using it again in December. It works. I’ve seen some changes. I’ve added five or ten pounds of muscle, and I’ve lost some fat as well. Here’s the thing that’s super frustrating though. I find it difficult to get consistent (or progressive) resistance out of the thing. The rods seem to me to be very sensitive to ambient temperature. The warmer the room gets, the less resistance each rod seems to provide. Tuesday, I was benching 270*, and it was too easy. Today, I was benching 260*, and I damn near popped an aneurism. That makes it very, very difficult to push yourself to keep doing more and more — particularly when you’re in a plateau which after 2 1/2 months I seem to be in.

Flexing the rods seems to put energy into them too, so that as the workout progresses, the resistance goes down as well. That’s actually kind of nice since as the workout goes on, my muscles are fatiguing as well. Still…

And, don’t let them tell you that you can’t injure yourself with this machine. Today, one of the handles slipped out of my hand and shot back and whacked me a good one in the crook of my arm. It totally left a mark. Plus, even in the normal use of the machine, my arms are in the way of the cables (or the cables are in the way of my arms), so that I have a persistent bruise from where it keeps digging into me each workout. I guess it hurts to be beautiful. Some of the exercises feel pretty awkward too — even if I back down to a negligible weight, and I’m never sure if I’m using proper form with them.

So, in short, it works, but the eletist snobs posters over in misc.fitness.weights are probably right. You might be better off getting a nice set of dumbbells and a bench and maybe a cage (assuming you have room - which I didn’t).

*No, I don’t believe for a second that I can do 3 sets of 10 at 250 much less 260 or 270. I just use those numbers Bowflex puts on their rods as an arbitrary, meaningless measure of resistance relative to itself (which as I say above isn’t really true either).

Hmmm… Not sure yet, but the Sony Ericsson P800 may finally be the cell phone I’ve been looking for: 1, 2. Now, what’s the data plan going to cost?

SlashDot is running a story claiming that DVDs degrade over time. I’m not sure how accurate the information is, but one person is suggesting that they have an expected life of 5 to 10 years. I always assumed that I’d eventually get sick of storing and grabbing discs whenever I needed to watch a movie. Now, I’m thinking I should move my plans ahead a little and figure out some way to build a decent home media server.

I currently have 177 DVDs. Figure room for growth, and that means I probably need about 2 terabytes of storage.

I also need something with low power consumption/noise. A capture card would be nice - particularly something with hi-def just in case. Digital out for full 5.1 sound. I’ll probably want to use it to play MP3s as well. Of all the MP3 jukeboxes I’ve tried so far, I really do prefer iTunes. That means Mac would be better, but not entirely required. I will need some way to strip out all of that DRM (Disabling and Restricting Mechanisms) crap that the studios want to throw on the discs. I’d like a slim profile, and a solid remote control.

Anybody have any suggestions?

How do you take something as potentially cool as a personal hovercraft and make it seem so unbelievably lame? Quality Web Design my friends, quality web design. Check out the movies though. I’d get tired of it after about 7 minutes, but those would be some seriously fun 7 minutes.

More than half of the people in the US currently have a cell phone (cite). Now here’s what I want to know — How the hell did they all decide which one to get?

Is there anybody out there who has a recommendation for somebody who will use practically no talk time, but may use a fair amount of data services, particularly WAP? more…
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