New strip. I'm sure the nice people at Friendster thought they were being helpful with their little birthday reminder cupcakes on the home page, but after discussing the issue with a number of people I think it's fair to say that any convenience is heavily outweighed by the shame of constantly being confronted with the birthdays of people you don't keep in touch with as much as you should. This is particularly true for Friendster whores like me who have 100+ friends in their lists, and are constantly lusting for more. There are good ways to lust after your friends and bad ways, but mostly bad ways.
So, to all my Friendster friends whose birthdays have gone by unnoticed by me, I apologize. I also apologize for not being more creative with the Photoshoppery in my comic strip-based apology. And Jason and Chang, if you'd like to sue me for infringing your right of publicity, let me know and I'll send you my address.
Happy Birthday, everybody.
P.S. I've been agonizing over this decision for weeks now, so I present it to you, my loyal fans. The question is this: Should I buy an iPod?
That depends.
What do you want an iPod for? How much music do you own, and how much more music are you looking to download/buy? Why are you drawn to an iPod instead of another brand (which might give you more for your money)? Did that "We won't replace your battery" issue ever get resolved in a good way? How flighty are your tastes (that is, would you actually load different songs onto the mp3 player all the time, or would a CD-RW and a $40 disc-based player suit your needs just fine)?
Yes.
You know you want to.
It is still the best designed player with the best UI out there.
Hmm. Yes, you *could* get an alternate brand of mp3 player or burn CDs (C-whats?) for your antique CD Walkman. You could also content yourself with being the lamest dork who ever walked the earth. What a dumb question. There are no other brands. If you even have to think about it, just buy a 99 cent FM radio and spray paint it white and draw a click wheel on it because that will be cooler than whatever you would have chosen.
iPods make you cool. Any other music player will just make you lame. That's pretty much where we stand.
Or you could get a PSP. Those play music! And movies too! Then you can be cool, and a moron.
Proud owner of a Creative Zen 2. Subsequent models are even cooler and offer more for less than the iPod.
If you want function, there are brands/models other than iPod which will give you more for your money. If you ever want to back up the files on your mp3 player, or are worried about being able to reconstruct your music library on your PC from files on your mp3 player, keep in mind that Apple does not support and has never announced the intention to support moving files from the iPod to anywhere else (including your PC/iMac/iBook/Powerbook).
If you want a pair of cheap white headphones so that you can look like everyone else on MUNI/BART, you can pay a premium for the iPod or just buy some cheap white third party headphones.
I don't dislike Apple. I just think that people deserve more for their money than the iPod offers.
NO!!! Do not buy an Ipod. I have a love hate relationship that is like 99% hate. Wait a little bit til Sony turns around and starts making good ones with long ass battery life. It might take ten years but it's worth the wait damn it.
no.
you can get a better product for the same cost since you won't have to pay for the biggest ad campaign I've ever seen and for the name brand markup
Don't buy an Archos Gmini 220.
"keep in mind that Apple does not support and has never announced the intention to support moving files from the iPod to anywhere else (including your PC/iMac/iBook/Powerbook)."
Which doesn't stop there from being half a dozen convienent ways to do this using a variety of free 3d party apps.
My genral rule for electonics is to follow the hackers, becuase they'll likely make a surogate for whatever the device doesn't do. By my trackign, the alpha geeks still like the iPods but also lean towards the more open (cheaper, bulkier) iRiver.
They recently bought out every billboard in Powell St. BART again. Gene's got a good point about funding the ad campaign.
MUNI advertisements, at least ones at the Church Street station, have developed strongly negative connotations for me. If there's a billboard for it on MUNI, the chances are I wasn't interested anyway, but the multiple ads will guarantee whatever is for sale. "Manhunt" the male model search, "Miss Congeniality 2", online syphillis testing, "Be Cool", that movie where the Rock carries a big 2x4 - they all lose whatever luster they previously had, once I begin to associate them with waiting, crowds, and going to work.
Also, it's hard to respect John Travolta as a super-cool gangster when someone has given him a Sharpie beard. Vandalism: hilarious in sixth grade, still hilarious now.
Good point Andrew!
I would just like to ad there is a reason (besides hype and marketing) that the iPod is so successful.
I picked up a Creative Zen Xtra (later version of Danny's player) and have been pretty happy with it. You can't beat 40GB for $225, and being able to replace the battery without sending it back to the factory is always a plus. It's a little bulky to carry in one's pocket all the time, so I normally keep it in a pocket of my bag. If you want something pocket-sized, I'd recommend going with one of the many Mini-clones (provided you don't care about hard drive size).
*OR*, for both large-ish drive and small size there's the Archos GminiXS200 (different from Gene's hated 220), which intrigued me greatly when I was shopping for a player. It's about the same length/width as an iPod Mini, but slightly fatter and with 20GB. With no extra software, it acts like an external harddrive for whatever computer you plug it in to. Unfortunately, I've heard that the user interface is pretty rocky and the battery is only factory-serviceable (like the iPods).
If you say "Zen Xtra" as one word, it sounds like the name of a prescription drug. Ask your doctor if Zenextra is right for you!
i dun like you, u pretentious moron. Why shud we care if u want to buy an ipod? pathethic man. YOU decide. you? a lawyer? pfttt.. u cnt even decide.
i dont like u that was soo fucked up what u did to reeses picture ur a dumb fuck she is VERY attractive ASS
if you really have your heart set on an ipod then go ahead. me personally i have a zen and i think its a little better than an i pod because if you drop it by accident it wont break. it takes quite a bit to kill those things, but i had an i pod and like the second time i dropped it it died. but ive had my zen for two years now and ive dropped it many times and hasnt failed me yet.(im a little clumsy if you havent noticed.)i would deff. go with a zen, theres a wider variety and i find them more reliable. many of my friends have zens and they also like them better than i pods. they costs about the same as an ipod usually maybe a little less sometimes and they hold more songs. just check out the website www.creative. com