1/04/2007

The Money Pit

What is the definition of a 'money-pit'?

In my view, its basically something that you purchase and for some godforsaken reason keep throwing cash at to improve or upgrade it.

Clear?

Well, I have one. It's called an iPod...





While it does work by itself, only needing a basic PC (read: P4/AthlonXP/512mbram/80gbHDD) with USB to utilize it's functions, only an idiot would think that buying an iPod is the end of it... And contrary to popular belief, I'm not an idiot... At least I don't think so...

But that's just me...

So far, I've gotten two different cases, new cables, new earphones (I've hated the iPod earphones since the Shuffle 1G), carabiners, polishing solutions, buffing pads and a chamois. Patti has four cases, earphones, a dock, a remote control, a usb charger, speakers, cleaners, cleaning cloths, MP3s from pay-sites, and some other stuff that's not standard fare...




With all these, I'm still planning on buying a speaker-dock, new earphones, a spare cable, a usb charger, a pc-dock, an iTrip, a car dock and whatever else I find 'useful' in the next few months.

I buy less stuff for my camera and my car put together! When will it all end?!?

Probably when and if I get a Zune... where it'll start all over again.

Or a PSP. Or a Wii. Or a PS3. Or a DS-Lite. Or the 100gb iPod.




Damn.

1/02/2007

The Interweb... or something...

A new poll by Zogby International and 463 other Communications groups examined how people view the internet as it is today. While we may think that the internet is indispensible we can probably do without it.

For a short time at least...

I for one am 'jacked' into the net almost every hour of every day. At home I play an MMORPG that uses the net to communicate to servers and other players all over the country. This goes on for about 2 to 6 hours per day, depending on my mood or the in-game events at the time. On my other PC, I download bittorrent files of anime, movies, music and etc.

These are 'trials' mind you. If I like it, I'll go out and buy the DVD/CD...

In Quiapo... Heh...

I also have my iPaq with WiFi so I can surf from any point in my house using a wireless router. My iPod also downloads podcasts from sources like Jalopnik, WRC and etc.

And this is just when I'm awake...

When I'm asleep I leave my RPG character online so he can get points for the race quests (RFO CP if you're familiar with it), sell stuff, or increase his skills. Torrents are set to max priority since I'm not doing anything else on the pc anyway. Windows is probably updating itself and the anti-virus is doing the same. My podcasts are downloading and music titles are updating info from the album sources on the net.

The report also states that people predict that before 2010 there won't be any place on earth that cannot access the internet. It's a bold prediction. Probably from people who've been in net-stable areas for the past few years. Here in Manila, it's quite an 'iffy' situation when it comes to net connectivity.

They've obviously never been to Pasig... I have serious doubts if I can access the 'net' once I get home. Internet perfection? Hardly likely now, let alone in 3 more short years.

Some people believe that it is a more significant invention than the printing press. I suppose Gutenberg and his bible will be thrilled...

We were recently given a hard look at what the internet means for us. Late last Dec 26th, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck the two main cables that handled most of the internet traffic in the region. the main quake was located somewhere between Taiwan, North Korea and Singapore but the effect was felt all throughout South-East Asia.

Internet services ground to a halt in several countries that didn't have a direct line to the US. Most web applications like YM, MSN, Google, Meebo and even Amazon were almost unreachable since all traffic from affected regions were squeezing through a much smaller pipe than usual. Google, which is normally one of the fastest sites on the net, was limited to pure html mode in order to cope with the lag caused by the interruption.

While international services were rendered immobile, local internet traffic was not affected as much. Attendance in RFOnline, a Level-up-games MMORPG, was more or less normal and it was less laggy to boot, possibly due to less people on the 'net due to the incessant issues brought by the quake. Local websites were less affected as well. Locally hosted forums of different communities were flooded by inquiries on why the net was so bad and people generally connected to each other again, virtually.

On a more cheerful note, Happy New Year! Welcome to 2007! My last year on the calendar, the year that Transformers finally releases on cinemas, when I can maybe finally get a new job, where my RF Character will hit Lvl 60, when I can shed a few pounds and when I can finally buy a new car... The start of the new year should be full of hope so I hope that all this happens....

Don't wait up for it though...