Month: September 2004

In a thread titled OOo conversion to XHTML for CMS import, we learn a few things, like OpenOffice.org documents (ending with .sxw) are zipped, and you can upzip them and there’s XML and images in them thar files!

More importantly, we learn that people are finding ways to get documents parsed and into other systems. I mean, we did this in the past, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people say that they need some sort of “Microsoft Word to CMS conversion/importer” and then there’s much hand-wringing and thought and discussion.

I often forget about OpenOffice.org because to me, office documents just aren’t as exciting as other things, but I’m glad there are people working on it, and who knows, someday I might find office documents totally fascinating!

I installed X-Lite last week, though I’ve still yet to really give it a good whirl, other than simple testing…

I also (finally) got Skype working. I say finally because it seems the version I first tried to install was buggy, and forced me to try all sorts of firewall/port forwarding voodoo that was not needed. I just needed to download a newer version. Still, I’ve not actually used Skype yet to talk to anyone…

As far as VoIP, I’m still not too educated on the whole thing. SIP seems to be a standard of some sort, and X-Lite uses that, but people seem to love Skype which is some sort of proprietary thing that “just works” and works well…

Anyway, if you use either of these and want to test, or try talking to me, let me know.

My amusing sidenote to this is, I remember testing something like this out around 1995 or so, with the guy from Michigan whose name I cannot remember. He was on a university connection, and I was on dialup at 14.4. It sort of worked even!

I know the term “iPod Platform” has been tossed about, and in the tossing Dave says:

And when Adam Curry calls the iPod a platform, he’s overlooking one important thing that users and developers like to see in a platform: choice of vendor. It’s laughable to think that iTunes will ever work with another vendor’s hardware, it’s not very likely to happen, in our lifetimes, even if we live to a ripe old age. I literally did laugh when I considered the idea. That’s not the way Apple works.

Here is a list of iTunes 4 for Mac OS X Compatible Players. I bought a Rio 500 last year, and based the choice on the price (cheap!) and the fact that it worked with iTunes. Dave might be paranoid about Apple being a closed platform, and he’s got much experience with that. So we keep looking… Now, here’s where things get sticky and tricky. There is a page titled MP3 player compatibility with iTunes for Windows which says:

iTunes for Windows can transfer a variety of audio and music files to iPod, including MP3 and AAC encoded files. Other MP3 players do not work with iTunes for Windows.

So I wonder, are those players listed on the Mac OS X Compatible Players page mostly legacy things, either deals that existed before the iPod took off, or what? I mean, the list is not long, and there’s only a few companies represented on it. I know I get just a little nervous at each iTunes release that my Rio 500 will no longer be supported.

Of course the Apple-fan can explain this as such: Apple wants you to buy an iPod, and a Mac, but if you won’t buy a Mac, at least buy an iPod, and we’ll give you the nice iPod software called iTunes, and it’ll work with the iPod, and a few other devices, if you have a Mac, but not if you have a Windows PC. Or something like that… Just buy an iPod… and a Mac.

But why doesn’t Apple support more players? If they feel they’ve got the best player on the market (and the much of the market seems to think so) why not open things up more? Sadly, I fear that Microsoft could actually create something that does support a zillion players, sure it would be clunkly, and probably suck, but people could toss out the old “Microsoft WinTunes supports 200 different players, and iTunes supports just a few…” arguments… which I tend to not like…

Oh, one other thing, as long as we’re on the platform. I’ve heard a few people talk about getting other players into the whole auto-download-and-store-on-device thing, where you could just connect your player and have it sync up, or be ready to go when you disconnect it from it’s dock/charger each day. The iPod and iTunes makes it all simple, and fast, that’s the plus there. For other players, if they can accept files dropped on them (as I think some of the USB devices do) you’re set, just have the files saved/copied to the device. For things like the Rio, it’s still manual. I connect it, and then using iTunes delete the old stuff, copy over the new stuff, and then disconnect it. Oh, I also have to make sure I have charged batteries, as I’ve read that if it dies during a transfer, it can hose up the firmware a bit or something…

In conclusion, the iPod is a very nice device, though Apple can be a bit too closed, but that’s how they’ve always made great things, right? As always, we’d be more than happy to review the iPod and write more about it, as soon as we get one…

I’ve tried to get an iPod, but lacking the needed funds and the needed friends, so far have all but failed… Sure I’ve also entered sweepstakes and drawings, but so far nothing…

Russ is a Kerry supporter, and Keith is a Bush supporter. Me? Well, I’d like to think I could get away with not voting for the rich white guy, but since that probably isn’t much of an option, I’d be willing to, um, support a candidate based on who can deliver to me a working iPod.

Now, this is not selling my vote, because that would be wrong, and probably illegal. All I’m saying is that I’d be greatly influenced to vote for whoever you suggest if that suggestion appeared on a note attched to an iPod that showed up at my front door.

I mean, I’d like to be involved in this whole iPod platform thing (see notes on renko) but without an iPod, it can be a bit difficult.

(Failing this scheme I’ll continue to search out innovative ways of acquiring an iPod…)