multifarious mushrooms

Now that I’m going to the gym, I do get a bit bored on that bike for 20 minutes. So I’ve been thinking about an MP3 Player. Well, oh my god, I just did some research on the internet. I don’t see any use for just music. There is music at the gym. I wanted maybe something that would play podcasts. Well they say MP3s play podcasts except that the very word podcast comes from the Apple Ipod. So do I need an Ipod?

Then looking further and ignoring costs, they now have MP3 players which can store photos, videos, audio and just about anything else you might want. Are MP3 players now competing against mobiles. Why would you need both, especially if you have a G3 mobile.

They are so enticing though, and I haven’t even looked at blackberries yet. Still don’t know how they differ. Is the world going mad?

I think I’ll end up going to my local store and buying an old ipod so I can download podcasts I want to hear.

If I got something that showed me TV as well as everything else and which was a mobile as well, I’d never have to leave my bed. Now I know why kids are getting obese. I thought it was just computer games and those Nintendo things. But no, my son just bought an Xbox something and he is 24.

I feel overwhelmed with choice. Too much choice can be very stressful. I hate this form of capitalism.

Terry Lane ( my guru on cameras and gadgets) has reviewed both SanDisk Sansa View 16 GB Video MP3 Player (Black) and Sony 8GB Digital Music Player - Pink (NWZA728PNK)
Terry Lane, Green Guide, The Age, Thursday, July 3, 2008

These MP3 Players are much more sophisticated than I was contemplating for myself, but if you want more than just music have a look at these links.

Let’s face it. Most of us do not make money on the internet. Maybe a bit of pocket money. So why do we blog and design websites and learn photoshop, paintshop pro, css, java, xhtml? In my case, it’s an intellectual exercise for my retirement years. I love learning about computers and web design. However, I have never done a course in computers or IT. There are big gaps in my knowledge and sometimes you discover a really simple function that everyone else has learned years ago.

Not working in the IT industry has its drawbacks too. You can’t keep up, despite all the reading one might do of the daily papers and the IT blogs around.

Well, I found out about utorrent and bittorrent last month. My son had had bittorrent on my computer for years and I never knew what it was. I’d ask and get a rather vague response. Aren’t they little buggers?

So I had a look. I didn’t want music though. I wanted software. I tried it out I must admit, but the time it took to download was too long and wasted pretty well all of my broadband allocation for the month. I can’t afford unlimited broadband. So much for that idea. Maybe I should go for DSL. One of the results was that I didn’t want to write too many posts here.

Last month too my monitor expired. My so called new computer was now becoming obsolete. I bought a new one and this month my mouse died too. It was impossible to use. So I got another one and at least they don’t cost as much as the monitors do. My digital camera too is completely obsolete. Why did I get the first ones that came out at astronomical prices? Now you can buy mobile phones which have a higher pixel count than the camera I have.

I was needing some ink too for the printer. Guess what? For this printer which had one of the first photo printing capabilities and which cost a lot, the ink is becoming more and more difficult to source.

I feel left behind. I feel obsolete. I feel annoyed. No longer can I afford such things as Ipods, mobiles, Xboxes, laptops. And now I need an ipod. I see them all the time at my local gym, which I joined last month. At least I’m getting a bit fitter while my blogging has suffered.

And you don’t know how to plan for the future either. Especially during this economic depression. I dare not look at my superannuation account. But one can’t plan for the future technologically either. I hear vague mutterings about the desktop computer being a thing of the past. Is everyone designing for mobiles alone and blackberries (or whatever they are)

Perhaps it’s time to go on ebay and sell all my heirlooms so I can get that plasma TV. But even then, my generation doesn’t really have them. I use my mobile as an alarm clock and for emergencies. We really don’t want or need plasma TVs. We will have to go digital TV shortly however. God, I hope the local nursing home has computers. I couldn’t go back to cards and knitting now.

Hopefully, now that my mouse works I’ll have some more tutorials soon. It was impossible to use photoshop with such a dud mouse.

Computers, gadgets, cameras, printers?  How capitalists make millions building in obsolescence.

Drop box is in beta format still and you need to apply to use it.

Here’s what it does.

Super fast
We’re obsessed with performance every step of the way.
Effortless sync
Changes to your files are instantly synced across your computers.
Works like you do
No complicated interface to learn.
It’s seamlessly integrated into your desktop.
Always accessible
All of your stuff is available via the web, so you can get it no matter where you are.
Share the love
Invite friends and family to a shared folder for easy collaboration around files.
Don’t worry about it
Make a mistake?
You can undelete files or restore old versions in a snap.

Look, I don’t know whether I’d join this new one. It is called weblin. Avatars talking to avatars? How virtual do you want to go?
Here is what weblin offers:

Meet your friends and new people on every website!
Weblin makes you and others on the Web visible as small avatars. There are others on the same page you are on right now. Weblin opens a new and exciting world on every web site.
Get to know people with the same interests.
Do you want to enter this world? Get your personal weblin now!

Perhaps those millions on Second Life would like this sort of thing. For me it is a bit of a concern. People can disguise themselves very well with an avatar. Who would we be talking to. We just wouldn’t know.

I’ve just watched a very interesting program on 4 Corners.
It was about sleep deprivation. Many drivers have micro naps apparently without knowing it. The statistics in America show that someone dies in a car accident due to sleep deprivation about once an hour.

The saddest story was about a doctor who had to do 13 days and nights in a row, not all at once, but over that time period. He also suffered epilepsy which he knew to be triggered by lack of sleep. On the 13th day, he said to his wife how tired he was. She said “one day to go” and he went to work. He slept at the hospital after his shift in a place designated for doctors. He had an epileptic fit in his sleep and died.

As the lawyer who acted for his widow said, “If we can’t get it right in hospitals then where can we”.

Quite. My father was, and my cousin and nephew are, all doctors and they have told me of the culture in hospitals while doing one’s internship. You are considered weak if you can’t hack it.

One of my friends is also a sleep disorder psychologist and academic. This is a very important part of our lives. She tells me that daylight and exercise are essential for good sleep and this program vindicated that saying that a glance at blue sky is twice as good as looking at green grass for a proper sleeping regime.

In my final months of teaching, I was staying up until at least 1am because I was so interested in computers. I would drag myself to work, barely awake, in the mornings.

Now that I’m retired and my son has left home, I don’t have a particular reason to get up early. I always hated getting up in the cold especially. So it gets to be that after a while I am sleeping during the day and awake at night, but that’s not good either even though I’m getting sleep. Our biorhythms are effected by doing that. I change it usually by staying awake for as long as I can and gradually fixing my hours and back it goes again. But staying awake by just 24 hours effects our concentration as much as .08 of drinking does.

Well, I must try to do it this time. For over a week now I have been awake before noon, very early at first and now later. I must do it because I’m always tired. I always feel jet lagged. I feel my concentration is practically nil….

Off to bed soon.