Stuck in my Head
It’s disgusting how much I’ve been listening to this Gaga song.
Archive for Music
Soft Modded DS and the Cowon O2
I’ve told you how I felt about the standard music players and their restrictions. So, let me tell you about what got me on this train of thinking. It was my modded Nintendo DS.
The modded DS works using a homemade operating system (OS). The Nintendo DS starts up like it normally would. Then you go into the OS like you would start a game. It utilizes a soft mod, so there is no hacking of the DS involved. You cant break the Nintendo DS. It boots and now you can run the DS like a media center. The two key features are playing backed-up games and the media player. With the media player, you can read e-books, view pictures, and listen to music.
Watch this video for a visual walkthrough.
When I didn’t have my PC, I was using the music player quite a lot. It utilizes the DS speakers like a boom box. When playing music, it will go into standby mode, so that it will use less battery. Pretty slick. I’ll use it in the mornings when I stretch or to listen to my Korean lessons out loud. I use the e-reader for game faqs. I’ll load text files onto the DS and revert to them when I get stuck in a video game. Therefore, if I’m on the train and I get stuck in a game, I can find the answer right away.
But, here’s the icing on the cake. Adding music, games, pictures, and text files to the storage is simple. The memory storage is a microSD card. I bought a 4GB card for cheap. Slide the microSD into the provided USB adapter, and it will function like any thumbdrive.
The thumbdrive will work with any computer, and everything is drag and drop. Simply copy your music from a PC to the memory and whooop there it is. There is no iTunes or Zune software necessary. I know where I store the music on my computer. I don’t need iTunes to build a library for me.There are no restrictions to music files it will play. (Well there are a few, but they’re moot). If you want to copy your music and files to another computer, once again, just drag and drop them off. Simple.
Why can’t my iPod or the iPod Touch work like this? (Well, I know why, but nevertheless…) I dont want to install iTunes or any chunky software. I want it to play any music or video format, so that I dont have to re-encode anything. Any PMP, should be this easy and I think there is: the Cowon O2.
I’ve read a couple reviews, and the Cowon O2 appears to have everything I would want. It will play a plethora of audio and video codecs. It has a big touch screen, built in speakers, upgradeable storage, and drag and drop file transferring. How cool is that? When my iPod nano dies as my primary mp3 player, I know what I’m stepping up to.
I’m Done with iPods.
The conventional Portable Media Player (PMP) sucks. Yes, I’m looking at you, iPod and Zune. It takes some left-wing thinking, but I feel it is the right one.
Story time.
I’m using a laptop, which the previous English teachers at my school have used. Upon receival, I began sifting through the files. What I first learned is that one of the teachers had been a Zune user. I looked through the music folder and was bewildered to find over 20 Gigs of music! Wow.
The teacher was an older man, so he had a lot of, what I would call classic or old bands. Some of it was good; Some of it was not. However, when I tried to play the music… It wouldn’t play. WTF. It wasn’t playing in VLC player, which is a swiss army knife of music players. What gives?
It turns out that this teacher was on the straight and narrow path. The majority of his collection was ALL legally purchased music from the Zune store. Now, there is no shame in that. It’s an honorable route. But, it’s not my route. Living in Korea away from your comfort music can be rough. Some of these older bands would be hard to find on any pirate websites. So, purchasing these albums would be the ideal choice.
However, these files are laced with DRM. Efff that, I say. This is why I couldn’t play the music with VLC player. The DRM wouldn’t allow me. “OK”, I thought, I’ll open the Zune software and listen to his music collection. Nope! I can’t do that either. To listen to the music, you have to log in with your Zune password. “Gaaahhh, foiled again!”
There were 20 Gigs of music here and none of it was playable.
… I know, right? In the end, there was nothing I could do.
/Uninstall Zune software. Goodbye. /Select all music folders and delete. Goodbye music. You are of no use to me. What a shame.
Now, let’s look at you iPod. I’ve been using you for the last 2 years and you are not without fault either. I’ve never bought music from the iTunes store. So, I wont comment on that. I still buy most of my CDs. However, all iTunes songs, also, come laced with DRM. Can I use iTunes songs with a Zune? No. Can I use iTunes songs with a Creative Zen? No. I have to use and iPod. Where’s the freedom in that?
And, dont even get me started on the quality of the song downloads. An mp3 is not a lossless file.
Secondly, I have to use that gorram program iTunes. I hate it. All I want to do is transfer MY music from MY computer to MY iPod. But, the software is so bloated. It does all of this shit that I dont want it to. I dont want you to download new updates. I dont want you to try and sync with the internet or take me to the iTunes store.
I dont even have iTunes installed on this laptop. I dont want to install it. Therefore, I can’t add new music to my iPod if I wanted to. I cant take music off either. If you go into the iPod filesystem, all the songs are garbles and unreadable if you try to take them off the iPod.
Before I came to Korea I thought about buying a new Nano. I thought about buying an iPod Touch, too, for the video capabilities. I’m glad I didn’t. There are restrictions and limitations of the video you can put on it. I dont want to spend hours converting video to the appropriate format of Apple’s choice.
The current standard is too restrictive and limited. I dont like it. There has to be a better PMP out there. And I think there is. When my nano dies, I wont go back for another one. I dont care about the ‘cool’ or ‘wow’ factor. I’m going to blast it up a notch.
Let’s Try This Again
I was visiting one of my fav jazz artist’s websites: Sara Gazarek. I remembered that she was working on a new CD, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that it had already come out. Her website features some song samples from the new album and you can find many of her videos on youtube. This new album features the same great song styles with some added instruments.
Even though I’m in Korea, I went ahead and bought the CD. One of my lucky readers will be receiving this CD soon. The CD is really for me, but the person may listen to it if they wish. Just hold on to it for me. (I already pulled the album off the web to listen to.)
I’m also going to encourage Mom to see one of her concerts when she rolls into STL. Hopefully, she’ll go.
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The Waiting Game
I’ve been sitting on my duff, these past few days. It really isn’t that different from any other weekend. This is how they usually go. However, I’m waiting for some individual to email me. (More on this later…maybe.)
In the mean time, I’ve been playing Zelda: the Minish Cap all day. It’s got that retro RPG gameplay that I love. It’s basically Zelda: A Link to the Past, but with a new story and a few new twists. It’s simple and fun.
The new Nine Inch Nails album comes out this week. I’ve been listening to it since it was first made available streaming on the NIN website. I probably like the progressive marketing that has been surrounding it’s release more than the album. First, a viral marketing team created a few websites to reinforce the underlying theme of the album, and they leaked a few songs. The album includes an ANTI-RIAA anti-piracy warning. The CD, also, supposedly has a heat sensitive face, which changes color when hot and cold. While I was following all this hype about Year Zero, it got me thinking about another concept album and band.
A concept album is one which is unified by a central theme. Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon is probably one of the most notable concept albums. It explores the nature of the human experience with themes such as birth, time, greed, conflict, travel, mental illness, and death. But, the group I’m thinking of is The Mars Volta.
In 2003, The Mars Volta released their first album De-Loused in the Comatorium. The album is an hour-long tale of Cerpin Taxt, a man who tries to kill himself by overdosing on morphine. The attempt lands him in a week-long coma during which he experiences visions of humanity and his own psyche. Upon waking, he is dissatisfied with the real world and jumps to his death. The story of Cerpin Taxt is based on the death of one of the musicians’ friends.
Back in the day, I had this album and only listened to Televators (This is the song in which Cerpin Taxt commits suicide. Listen Here.) But now, I really have to hear the album from beginning to end. It’s perfect for the commute to and from work. If you’re a lyrics person, this band really isn’t for you. They make little sense and are difficult to decipher. Albeit, the music is monumental. The Mars Volta have two follow-up albums, which are equally great but not as epic as De-Loused in the Comatorium. Give it a listen, if you can.
Now, please excuse me while I check my email.
