Fillet-of-Soule.com » Gadgets http://www.fillet-of-soule.com Shop talk from Graphic and Web Designer Travis Soule. Sat, 14 Nov 2009 05:53:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 The day I never thought would come… http://www.fillet-of-soule.com/2007/10/the-day-i-never-thought-would-come/ http://www.fillet-of-soule.com/2007/10/the-day-i-never-thought-would-come/#comments Wed, 17 Oct 2007 00:11:57 +0000 Travis http://www.fillet-of-soule.com/blog/?p=74 It might take some digging, but a faithful reader (do I even have any of those?) would know that I don’t like iPods. I’ve written about it before here and I have rambled about how I still like CD’s here.

No, that hasn’t changed. I still hate iPods. The Zune never changed the world and it all came back to the same reason: DRM.

Today I digitally purchased music without DRM. This is the day I never thought would come. Mark it on your calendars.

In case you didn’t know Amazon has been selling MP3’s without any DRM or other wonky “gotcha” schemes. They have a fairly large catalog, but its nowhere near as extensive as iTunes. Who fucking cares about iTunes? The MP3’s are high quality, 256kbps, with album art included. The only snag I had was I tried to download them at work on a computer running OSX 10.3 and the downloader tool only supports 10.4+ so I wound up purchasing tracks one at a time. The beauty? I put them on my new Iriver Clix2, my Mac at work, my HTPC and my laptop. No burning to CD, ripping, copying pasting, syncing or any other horse shit.

I’m actually so blown away that I can’t even believe its legal. I still feel like I’ve stolen something. Try it now. If you don’t, you’re letting yourself and the world down.

This is how it should have been done YEARS AGO. BRAVO Amazon. BRA-VO.

]]> http://www.fillet-of-soule.com/2007/10/the-day-i-never-thought-would-come/feed/ 12 On desk space and gadgets http://www.fillet-of-soule.com/2006/12/on-desk-space-and-gadgets/ http://www.fillet-of-soule.com/2006/12/on-desk-space-and-gadgets/#comments Mon, 11 Dec 2006 04:10:31 +0000 Travis http://www.fillet-of-soule.com/blog/?p=37 I realized I needed more desk space tonight. Matter of fact I think I need just a gigantic O that ninja flip into to do my work. That would be awesome. Maybe thats the next thing I will draw up plans for… My giant O shaped rotating desk. That way I can sit in my Barcalounger and rotate my desk to the appropriate station. Oh my. This could be fun.

Nerd Station

I also uploaded a few other things to Flickr which you can see in the feed on the side.

]]> http://www.fillet-of-soule.com/2006/12/on-desk-space-and-gadgets/feed/ 8 On Tablets and Drawing http://www.fillet-of-soule.com/2006/10/on-tablets-and-drawing/ http://www.fillet-of-soule.com/2006/10/on-tablets-and-drawing/#comments Fri, 06 Oct 2006 04:01:33 +0000 Travis http://www.fillet-of-soule.com/blog/?p=15 Well, since last week I have been off and on using a tablet to get some of my projects done at work. I have taken a liking to it and got one of my own today. Its a Wacom (I dont know if there are other companies that actually make tablets…) and its a wide aspect ratio tablet so it matches up well with my dual monitor setup. After installing the driver and plugging it in, it was pretty much ready to go. You can set up the pen for different applications and adjust the click speed as well as pressure sensitivity and such. I have an Intuos 3 tablet which has buttons and a touch strip on each side that are programmable. The touch strip is hard to see, but its in between the buttons on the side and the writing surface. Its the same length as the buttons. The unit itself is bigger than my keyboard, which is a little intimidating, but its nice to have that much room to move around and draw with. You cannot really tell from the picture, but its almost as wide as my monitor which is a 20″ widescreen LCD. The pen has interchangeable nibs and the unit comes with a mouse (not pictured) that is pretty run of the mill except that it doesnt have a cord or batteries. You can only use it on the tablet surface though. I have put up on Flickr the first drawing that I did with it. A pair of headphones that were sitting on my desk. Its not amazing, but its a start! Check out the picture and linkage after the break. This isn’t studio quality photography here folks so  don’t get your hopes up for great glam shots.

Intuos 3 6x11

You can see the new computer Mecruy on the floor. Headphones link below.

Headphones on Flickr – Photo Sharing

]]> http://www.fillet-of-soule.com/2006/10/on-tablets-and-drawing/feed/ 2 On Sirius Satellite Radio http://www.fillet-of-soule.com/2006/09/on-sirius-satellite-radio/ http://www.fillet-of-soule.com/2006/09/on-sirius-satellite-radio/#comments Wed, 27 Sep 2006 01:01:15 +0000 Travis http://www.fillet-of-soule.com/blog/?p=5 For years I have been hearing hype about satellite radio and its comercial free benefits. Benefits such as; lowered annoyance, stations that never are out of range, and increased quality. As the new owner of a Sirius Satellite Radio Tuner, I am here to address those benefits.

On Lowered Annoyance:
Now, I absolutely hate radio station DJ’s like John Tesh. I don’t want facts about irrelevant things John. Thankfully most of the Sirius stations I have listened too are banter free. And I like it.

On Coast to Coast reception:
This is one thing I havent driven far enough to appreciate yet. And one that you do not really realized until you find yourself many miles from where you started still enjoying the same station.

On Increased Sound Quality:
Now, if anyone has ever listened to streaming audio from the web, thats about the best comparison I can make. I personally try to rip MP3’s of my cd’s at high quality, 192kps or better, which is pretty close to CD quality for a compressed format. Sattellite radio sounds better than a web stream, but worse than a high quality MP3 or CD.

Other things that I have to say about Satellite radio that nobody ever told me and I didn’t see floating around in the public domain:

If you buy a tuner and connect it to your aftermarket CD player, it may or may not show you what you are listening to. Pioneer, Alpine, and Sony are currently the only cd players on the market that will show you that information. And not all of them either. The other makers show you the station names and nothing more. I found this to be kind of a bummer.

If I had to do it again, I would say purchase one of the small removable units. There are many advantages to this. First, it costs money for each tuner you have. So getting a portable unit that you can play in your house makes perfect sense. I would recommend that you try to hook it up directly to your cd player vs. through FM modulation. On the other hand, perhaps the FM transmitter would take away some of the “compressed” sound.

All in all, its been positive, and there are some cool gadgets coming out in the next year that look to be a fun addition to already broad array of satellite radios. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

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