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TuneJuice

Boy let me tell you, that iPod with the Video really sucks up the battery!

Griffin TuneJuice

Last week while sitting in the airport for hours (and hours) I was able to watch many videoblogs and a few of the appendixes of Lord of the Rings (thanks HandBrake!) but it could not have happened without the Griffin TuneJuice.

It takes a single 9 volt battery, but be warned, it chews through them pretty quickly. I used two within the span of a few hours. I was watching video though, I’m sure you’d get better performance froma purely audio experience.

There’s also a product from Belkin called the Battery Pack for iPod w/Dock Connector which is similar but uses AA batteries. If I thought it was something I’d use all the time I would have gotten the Belkin product, which is way more expensive, but I figure I’d make it up in batteries, since I have a bunch of rechargeable AA cells.

I’ve also got a 9 volt adapter for the car, so for long car trips the TuneJuice should work quite well… Nothing keeps the kids quiet like watching The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie.

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It’s a… hard drive?

You know, years ago when the iPod first came out, I though “Damn, a decent MP3 player, that’s also an external hard drive… Nice!”

So I found it slightly amusing when I suggested to someone that they use their iPod as an external hard drive, and they indicated that it hadn’t really occured to them. Hmmm…

So in the spirit of a public service announcement, let me tell you that the iPod works fine as an external hard drive. Back up some files today!

Thank you and good night…

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Snowboard Cross Rules!

I’ve already mentioned that I love watching the Olympics, but the love is fading… I’m starting to miss a few of the NBC shows I actually enjoy. Nevertheless, out of everything I’ve seen so far (and I’ve had the Moxie running overtime) without a doubt, the greatest event has to be snowboard cross.

Man, I love the freakin’ snowboard cross. It’s somewhat similar to a game we used to play with skateboards in the empty parking lot of some closed down store, which involved more than 4 guys, definite contact, and many cuts, scrapes and bruises… Ahhh, good times…

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Paid-for Podcasting

I like Ricky Gervais, I really do… but I won’t be paying for his podcast. See Ricky Gervais takes podcasting paid-for.

I really hope things don’t go this way. I’d prefer to see sponsorships, underwriting, or even flat out advertising (if well done) rather than a straight pay-for scheme.

In the long run this could hurt podcasting, if it’s assumed people will gladly pay $7 per month per podcast. I don’t know how many podcasts you subscribe to, but that could add up quickly. We we started this whole podcasting thing, we made sure it was open, and that anyone can do it. Hopefully the majority of the podcasting world will remain open and free, and hopefully that’s where all of the interesting stuff will happen.

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YouTube, NBC, Copyright, Etc…

Josh Kinberg has a great post about YouTube and how they rode obvious copyright infringement to success. I’m not a fan of YouTube, in my opinion, they’re doing video on the web wrong, wrong, wrong…

My take on this: There is a part of the population that seems to live solely to republish that which they have no right to republish (it’s probably the same folks who steal your bandwidth by displaying images on your server in every forum they sign up for.) These are people who usually don’t think about it, they just figure “if it’s out there, it’s up for grabs.” Maybe they’ve never created something that they felt they had the rights to control. I don’t know…

There is also a part of the population that is creative, and actually makes their own media, using only that which they have the right to use. This is the future of the internet, creation of art and media by the people, not just theft and redistribution of content. Every time I see a videoblog post that uses music that I’m 95% sure the creator did not get the rights to use, I plan on leaving a comment asking about it. I think it’s sad that many in the videoblogging community still do this, and think that it may fall under fair use (when it clearly doesn’t) or brush it off saying they are not making any money from it, or that they are helping promote someone else…

If we are truly going to “be the media” we need to act responsibly in what we do.