Categories
Techno Bob

Bruising the Apple

Despite my glowing (fawning?) posts on all things Apple, Mock sees fit to diss the iPod. He raises some valid points, worth checking out. Here’s my response to him.

In defense of the ipod

Just read your savaging of the ipod.

http://www2.mocktech.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=13

Overall, I see your point. But I still have to point out the advantages to it. At least for some users. Mainly: I’m not as focused on “on the go” music as I am portable music. I like the idea of having my CD collection available in the office, in my car and anywhere else that I can plug in. My 40 gig ipod does just that, plus it serves as a secondary backup for my Apple computer. 256 mb isn’t what I’m chasing here. I want multiple CDs available. I played my ipod all day at the office today on battery power, which impressed me. And I intend to get a power adapter so I’m not limited by battery life.

I am worried about the reports that the battery craps out after 18 months. But it’s not the first time a product has shipped with flaws. I’m on my third Tivo. First one had a bad modem, which I had to replace. Then I bought a series II. The hard drive died on it so I had to have it replaced. But I love the technology so much I’m willing to take that risk. Being an early adopter can be painful sometimes …

As for the Mac vs. PC debate. I realize it’s akin to a religious war. But I started on Mac, shifted to PC for about 8 years and have just gone back to Mac, at least at home. It has flaws, but it’s so much easier to use and so much more fun than the Dell that I’m dumping that I suspect I’ll be bi-technical from here. I need the PC for work, etc. But when I’m looking to have fun, I’ll be using my Mac.

Categories
Assorted Bob

Dolphins evolve opposable thumbs

Joannie spotted this piece in the Onion, one of my favorite online sites. Jonathan Swift would be proud of these guys. Still some of the best humor/satire on the Internet. I don’t know how they keep it up. The theme of this particular story is particularly appropriate here on opposable-thumbs.com. Maybe we can get a dolphin as a guest blogger …

“HONOLULU

Categories
Media Bob

For sale …

I have several items that I’m trying to get rid of. This also is giving me an eye-opening look at online classifieds. I’m putting online/print ads in the local paper, the Thrifty Nickel and Yahoo! just to see what the differences are. So far, all I can say is that Yahoo! totally gets it. They make placing an ad online a simple and painless experience. The real test will be to see if their ads bring results …

Here are the items I’m selling:

A saltwater aquarium (You have to enter my phone number 865-691-7731 to see the ad, which is a print ad keyed to my phone number.)

A desk

A wireless base station

A printer

No sense linking to the desk or printer ads since the local paper got the numbers wrong. We’ll have to see if the Thrifty Nickel does better, but that ad doesn’t publish until Wednesday.

So Yahoo! was the only one that could get my ad up and running on New Years Eve without any delays. It’s also telling me how many people have viewed the ad …