I went to class today and camped out by the door, since I was a way early. I noticed the other guy camping out waiting for the class before ours to get out had an iPod Touch. So I talked him up about it and poked at it, and I decided that it’s a pretty good choice. I’m also less worried that apple will randomly decide to brick my ipod that I am worried that they would randomly brick my phone. Especially since I will no doubt be fucking with it till I get a SSH client working on the thing.

So I ordered it despite the loving words of my fellow FSF hippy friends.

< paulv> you shouldn’t buy a touch.
< weirdo> why not?
< bcs> Defective by Design, bitches!
< xentrac> closed proprietary DRM etc.?
< xentrac> but it’s so pretty
< weirdo> I’m not buying any DRMed music
< paulv> because it’s shit
< paulv> it’s going to break and suck and yu’re going to hate it
< weirdo> paulv: it’s going to be like crystallized sex and I’m going to love it
< paulv> crystallized sex hurts and you know it
< bcs> Yeah, that doesn’t sound fun at all.
< weirdo> prudes
< bcs> In sex some kinds of stiffness are good and other kinds are bad and that’s definitely the bad kind.
< paulv> it’ll be as much fun as being punched in the cock!
< paulv> buy the new Apple iCockPunch, available at your friendly neighborhood BestBuy
< weirdo> I read that as iCookPunch
< xentrac> with an included involuntary ISP signup!
< weirdo> xentrac: yay!

I worked at Joe’s house today, he helped me work through some infinite loops I had lurking in my scheme search function. I still need to figure out a heuristic and some search queue manipulation functions for best-first search and A*-Search. I hope to get it done this weekend, and not have to worry about it on Mon/Tues.

Think I’m gonna watch some office and hit the hay soonish.

So, I had a 1st gen black 4gb iPod Nano.

I got it from my lovely wife Jenn. I upgraded from a 20gb Neuros MP3 player, and while I missed a lot of technical features and geeky niceties (playing oggs, integrated FM transmit, a non-evil company who actually communicated with customers, etc.) it did what I wanted it to do… most of the time.

Until it broke for no reason… and wouldn’t you know, just a couple months into ‘no warranty land’.

One day I noticed my trusty nano was no longer talking to me. At first I played it off, and just let my podcasts cycle (I had some 10 hours of SModCasts on there so it took a while till I got bored), but when I took it to my computer I noticed that all the buttons had decided not to work… kind of. I could press on the wheel and it would turn on, and I could reset it by holding select and up, but every other function was dead. I went to apple for support. Their advice? “LAWL BUY A NEW ONE, UR NOT TRENDY NO MORE.” Hooray! EPIC FAIL! Though to be fair, they did offer to give me a new one for the low-low price of $100. That’s right! You too can get a 2 year old ipod model for over half of what you originally payed! Sweet!

So, I’ve been keeping my eye out for a new PMP, but nothing has been showing up on the radar. I read engagdget and gizmodo everyday, and I see the unending flood of j-random PMPs from random companies. I know out there… somewhere… there has to be a good PMP, but I can’t find one that’s not huge (The Archeos ones are kind of cool) or made by Apple.

Along comes my dream gadget, in theory. An iPod touch. I love wide screen, I love multi touch, I love wifi, I love movies in my pocket, and I love things that just work. Not crazy about the whole starbucks infecting my ipod every time I walk past one (luckily there are only like 3-4 in this town), but that’s easily avoidable.

I’ve been really frugal with my new job, but after getting Jenn her birthday gift (The inscription on the back simply reads: “Kittens give Morbo gas. Love, B”. No, I’m not kidding.) I want a working music player. I’ve been good, and I’m actually spending far less working from home. Sushi isn’t nearly as tempting when I live 20 minutes away.

However, I read reviews and I’m conflicted. I’m ready to drop the green on a 16gb touch, but now apple’s gone and dropped the 8gb iPhone to the same price. Normally this wouldn’t really phase me, however at this time my 2 year old Moto RAZR is looking a little long in the tooth. The battery is shot, and rarely lasts for more than a couple days. The “internet” on it is horrible, and the UI makes me want to stab someone with a -2 rusty spoon of stupid.

So the concept of getting an iPhone is intriguing, but only just. As I think about it, I don’t really use my phone that much at all… I don’t even really like phones. I mostly tolerate having one so that I have long distance, the ability to call ahead for takeout, a central point for Jenn and my family/friends to contact me, and so I can be available if work needs something urgently. For example, my bill last month looks like this:

450 Anytime Mins - Used: 52
5,000 Nights & Weekends Mins - Used: 70
Total: 122 minutes used.

So, to say that I’m not a big phone person would be a bit of an understatement. Moving to an iPhone would also bump my bill up at least $20/m, and lock me into a fresh 2yr contract w/ AT&T. I don’t think that makes sense.

So, I think I’ve talked myself out of it. But does anyone in the audience have an iPhone and think I’m crazy?