Am I too old fashioned?

[Otto]

@Little Wing

I don’t “get” the iPod/MP3 craze either. I just can’t get my head around someone needing to have all that music at their fingertips all the time. I understand in principle but it just doesn’t sink into my old head. It’s like this: I have tons of CDs. If I want to listen to one, I pop it in the computer or in my audio system. If I’m in my car, I have the radio and gasp a cassette player (hey, the car’s 15 years old but it still runs and actually looks nice!). And for all the hoopla about them, I sure don’t see tons of people walking around with earphones in, dancing around with their iPod. If someone can explain the appeal (seriously), I’d appreciate it.

As has been noted by others, much of what people listen to isn’t music. I download and listen to old time radio shows, podcasts associated with TV shows I like, audio books, public domain movies and serials (I don’t mind watching them on the iPod-sized screen), newscasts and bunches of other stuff. I stumbled across a National Geographic video podcast a while ago and have been loving the three- to five-minute clips of elephant seals wrestling and Mexican witch doctors and stuff. And I like having my music at my fingertips because I never know when I might be in the mood to listen to some obscure thing from my collection that I’m not necessarily going to have in my car. Many’s the time I’ve dug into my iPod files because I’ve been in need of listening to a specific song that I couldn’t have listened to otherwise because I would have had no access either to the CD or to a CD player.

What I don’t get are people who insist on having every whiz-bang feature on a cell phone. I had a cell phone for a while a couple years ago, not because I had any need for it but because I thought it would be neat to have a cell phone. I used it for pretty much nothing and finally just stopped buying minutes for it. The one time I really needed it for an urgent situation it didn’t work because I was “roaming” or some shit and had not punched in some code or other so it would work outside my calling area. About 90% of what I see/hear people using cell phones for strikes me as absolute bollocks.

[Little_Wing]

Thanks to all of you who answered my question about the appeal of MP3 players. I was quite surprised at the response (and appreciative that it was noticed, considering my massive post count ). I don’t see myself ever getting one but I certainly have a better understanding of the whole craze and didn’t realize it goes way beyond just music.

I had my “am I old fashioned?” moment a few weeks ago when my DSL went out and I had to text a message from my cellphone to an online friend. I’ve never sent a text message before. Took me forever to figure it out but when I finally did, I still refused to abbreviate any of my words or resort to text-speak out of sheer stubbornness. I’m just glad no one was around to see my ineptitude.

[eleanorigby]

Sharing torrents? What is that–someone please teach this ignorant slut, thanks. I also don’t know what twittering is (I thought it was what birds did or the animals in Bambi). I swear I tried to go onto Second Life, just to see it, and was told by my computer I did not have access or capability or some such.
I’m 45. I have an iPod nano to which I downloaded (correct term?) some John Lennon, some Dixie Chicks and I’ve forgotten what else because I never use it, my teens abscombed with the ear buds long ago, (those things do not last for beans) and I’m not sure if the thing needs batteries, or needs to be recharged (no clue how to recharge it), and as said, I can’t listen to it anyway, with no ear buds.

I do use the internet and take online classes. I have created the most rudimentary of webpages (of which I am ridiculously proud–but happy to rest on my laurels and not learn more). This one cool effect I did on my first webpage was a complete fluke–I have no idea how I did it, but I kept it and take “credit” for it… True confession time: I still cannot figure out how to do a quote inside a quote here like so many can.

I have a cell phone. It’s too small (it’s one of those clamshell phones), I don’t like the buttons. I can’t figure it out (most of it–I can take pics–no way to put them anywhere BUT the phone. I asked at RadioShak and was told that “they don’t make those kinds of cables anymore” when I asked the guy where I could get a cable to take pics off my phone and put them onto my computer. I think he was full of it, but who knows? He’s the 20 something tech guy, not me).

Our TV is old, old, old. You cannot read the scores of any games or any font less than billboard size. It’s getting harder and harder to read the menus on the DVDs we watch. The color is a bit wonky. We are not into TV, so other things take priority.

We are down to one VCR-in the basement.
I have a cassette player in my car, as welll as a CD player and radio.

I miss the compass (not a GPS, just a compass) in my old car.

The last video game I played regularly was Burger Time–and I still miss it. I got to page 2 on Yoshi’s story a few years back (the kids cheered me on).

I’m on Facebook (just joined a month ago). I’m here. And that’s it. No palm pilot, no Blackberry–pen and paper don’t need electricity.
I’m going to end up, like Tom Lehrer, but in the Illinois State Home for the Bewildered, aren’t I…

[Otto]

@eleanorigby

Our TV is old, old, old. You cannot read the scores of any games or any font less than billboard size. It’s getting harder and harder to read the menus on the DVDs we watch.

You know, that may not be a function of the TV’s being old. Just saying…

[eleanorigby]

@Otto

You know, that may not be a function of the TV’s being old. Just saying…

Very funny… It really is. I need reading glasses now, but the kids all same it about the TV, and Dave the Dickhead (aka my husband’s BIL) mentioned it when he was convinced to (finally) turn the TV off on Thanksgiving…

[MacTech]

@Gorgon Heap

OK, the laughing was good natured rubbing, yes.

Hostile Dialect, sorry I missed your message, but thanks for the info.

Oh, that? I figured it was a fad.

You’d rather be eating Muppets anyway, right, after all, they are incredibly delicious…

and high fiber to boot

I may not be as Luddite-esque as you, but I feel no compelling need to be on the bleeding edge of technology myself, and that’s me speaking as a tech, my desktop machine (G4 Mirror Door minitower) and laptop (PowerBook G4 1GHz) are hopelessly outdated hardware-wise by todays standards, but they still work and do what I need them to, I don’t upgrade just for the sake of upgrading, when one of them does actually die I’ll bite the bullet and upgrade, but until then, what’s the point…

[GuanoLad]

@eleanorigby

Sharing torrents? What is that

Some would argue it’s technically illegal, simply because the majority of the files shared as torrents are TV shows and DVD rips and similar. But if we pretend that wasn’t so, and people used it for legitimate files, torrents are ways to share large files across the 'net without the need for a central repository. You grab small packets of the file from multiple online sources, which are reassembled at the completion of the download on your own computer.

[devilsknew]

The way I look at Ipods… they are too limiting and impractical… already outdated, and too expensive. I’ve never had one and would never get one. I’d just assume get one of these Personal/Portable CD players to play my MP3’s.
New and Hip isn’t always better or more practical.

[Hello_Again]

@eleanorigby

I’m 45. I have an iPod nano to which I downloaded (correct term?) some John Lennon, some Dixie Chicks and I’ve forgotten what else because I never use it, my teens abscombed with the ear buds long ago, (those things do not last for beans) and I’m not sure if the thing needs batteries, or needs to be recharged (no clue how to recharge it), and as said, I can’t listen to it anyway, with no ear buds. .

You don’t need the apple earbuds. The Nano has a standard “audio out” jack and you can plug just about any pair of headphone, earphones, or other-branded ear buds into it. Look for the JVC “Mashmallow” earabuds, available widely. They have noise-isolation (meaning they block out outside noise) and cost around $20.

The Nano has a white cord which plugs it into a laptop or computer to charge. Tell your kids to show you – if they have their own they know how – it is not at all complicated.

[Hostile_Dialect]

@Little Wing

I had my “am I old fashioned?” moment a few weeks ago when my DSL went out and I had to text a message from my cellphone to an online friend. I’ve never sent a text message before. Took me forever to figure it out but when I finally did, I still refused to abbreviate any of my words or resort to text-speak out of sheer stubbornness. I’m just glad no one was around to see my ineptitude.

FTR, I’m 21 and I refuse to use text-speak as well. Once you get used to the keypad, typing out complete words in T9 is faster than typing out every single letter of some absurd abbreviation convention anyway. Of course, people get 2-3 page (a page is 60 characters) text messages from me sometimes.

@eleanorigby

I’m 45. I have an iPod nano to which I downloaded (correct term?)

Everybody says “downloaded”, which is correct if you think of yourself as taking the files from your computer with your iPod; but “uploaded” also works, since you’re sending files to it from your computer. I prefer “uploaded”, myself, but I’m in the minority.

@eleanorigby

I can’t listen to it anyway, with no ear buds.

You can’t get another pair of headphones?

[Hostile_Dialect]

@devilsknew

I’d just assume

Just as soon!

I’m sorry, I don’t mean to dog you about this, but this is one that drives me up the wall. “I’d just as soon get a CD player” means that you’d buy a CD player just as soon as you would buy something else, even though other people would buy the second thing first, because you prefer the CD player. “Just assume” doesn’t make any sense in this context. I’m not snarking you here–I understand why it sounds that way to you and why that’s what comes out when you type. But it’s like nails on a chalkboard to me.

[eleanorigby]

Thanks, GuanoLad and Hostile D, but I’m more intrigued by the Radio Shack guy–aren’t there cables out there that allow you to take the stuff from your cell phone and get it onto your computer? There has to be, but Cool Dude Guy said no…
I had forgotten about that white thingy that came with the Nano. And I do have a very geeky set of headphones that I bought for my online class because university tech support told me to and then I found out that my speakers in my MacBook work just fine, thank you very much. So now I have stupid headphones I don’t need, either. They are much bigger than the Nano.

Thing is, I don’t want the upkeep of the darned thing. It sounds crazy, but I don’t want to feed it new music and erase stuff and manage it all. In my day, you either listened to what you liked or you didn’t. Or you had the radio that either played what you liked or didn’t*. Now it’s like clothes: you have to pick what you like, put it together with other stuff you like, rearrange it when you get tired of it, change it, erase it, put is on “Random” or “Surprise Me” or whatever–it sounds exhausting. I don’t really want to listen to Lennon at present–and if I did, I have the CDs. I don’t want to be my own DJ. I don’t want to seek out, find and download new music all the time…<disintegrates into whining, puling wreck of human>

*not saying it was better. In many ways it sucked. But the choices were easier to make.

[interface2x]

@devilsknew

The way I look at Ipods… they are too limiting and impractical… already outdated, and too expensive.

I’ll give you “too expensive”, but how are they too limiting and impractical? I can use mine to store all of my music, some movies, some TV shows, news broadcasts, radio shows, audio books, a library of personal pictures and still use the leftover space as a USB storage device and all the while it can still fit in my pocket. I suppose it’s limited in that it can’t, say, cook dinner for me. But for what it is, it’s a surprisingly versatile device. Do I NEED all this stuff? Not really. But it’s nice to have and I use it literally every day.

And if they are outdated, what has taken their place? I’m not being snarky, I’m actually curious.

[hawksgirl]

You don’t have to keep updating it you know. I’ve had the same songs on mine for about a year until I got a new CD I wanted to add. It doesn’t have to be work if you already know what you like.

[Hostile_Dialect]

@eleanorigby

aren’t there cables out there that allow you to take the stuff from your cell phone and get it onto your computer?

I wouldn’t know; my phone doesn’t have a camera. (I’m not big on feature-laden cellphones, myself.) But if you have Internet access on your phone, you should be able to email yourself the pics. Otherwise, if your computer is Bluetooth-compatible, you can probably use that, since AIUI most phones made since about 2002 have Bluetooth.

@eleanorigby

Now it’s like clothes: you have to pick what you like, put it together with other stuff you like, rearrange it when you get tired of it, change it, erase it, put is on “Random” or “Surprise Me” or whatever–it sounds exhausting.

It’s not exhausting for me. When I feel like I’m going to want to listen to a particular album, I delete whatever I listen to the least from my MP3 player and then move the album over from my computer. I usually don’t “manage” too much, except for deleting an album and replacing it with another one every couple of days, or deleting a couple of songs I don’t listen to so I can fit the new album on if it’s a little bigger. It’s only even that much work because my MP3 player has a really small amount of storage.

As for downloading music, well, I’m constantly discovering new music I want to listen to by cruising CS; hearing my friends’ favorite music; going to allmusic and browsing my favorite artists and looking for their influences/the people they influenced, and so on; going to Jamendo and finding cool free music (as in, music that the artists intend to give away on the Internet for free), which downloads much faster anyway; etc. So it’s exciting for me to download more albums, because usually I’ve been reading or hearing about them for a while and I’m champing at the bit to actually hear them! At the moment, I have five albums downloading (the default maximum in uTorrent, which I don’t particularly feel like changing because they’re slow enough as it is) and ten albums in queue. (Well, torrents–some of them have multiple albums in them.) I have to stop myself from adding two to five more on any given day. It’s a letdown when I get the odd album that runs completely counter to my tastes, like that Weather Report album–yecch! I spent days and days reading about how awesome Jaco Pastorius and Wayne Shorter were, and I was all excited about hearing it–if only someone had told me that it’s basically smooth jazz! But anyway, the immensely rewarding feeling of finding an awesome album I hadn’t heard before is well worth it. Bitches Brew, Flood, Kind of Blue, My Favorite Things, Take the A Train, Time Out, Saint Germain des Pres, pang pung, and Monk’s Dream come to mind, and that’s just in the last week or two.

[Hostile_Dialect]

double post.

[devilsknew]

@interface2x

I’ll give you “too expensive”, but how are they too limiting and impractical? I can use mine to store all of my music, some movies, some TV shows, news broadcasts, radio shows, audio books, a library of personal pictures and still use the leftover space as a USB storage device and all the while it can still fit in my pocket. I suppose it’s limited in that it can’t, say, cook dinner for me. But for what it is, it’s a surprisingly versatile device. Do I NEED all this stuff? Not really. But it’s nice to have and I use it literally every day.

And if they are outdated, what has taken their place? I’m not being snarky, I’m actually curious.

Well, if I were to get a digital media storage and playback device, it would’nt be an ipod. I’d get something with a decent screen that is “modular”, unrestricted, and interchangeable… something like a Zen or a Zune, and I’ve even seen some other offbrand versions from Japan and China that are way under a $100 that would suit my needs fine. An Ipod is just for music, for all intensive purposes.

[eleanorigby]

@hawksgirl

You don’t have to keep updating it you know. I’ve had the same songs on mine for about a year until I got a new CD I wanted to add. It doesn’t have to be work if you already know what you like.

well, there would be one of the rubs, ya know? I’m either in the mood for X artist or NOT. There is no middle ground. If I want to listen to Snow Patrol, only Snow Patrol is going to do. Can you tell it’s hard for me to find new music? Time was the radio sort of introduced me to new tunes. (yeah, so I was mostly a Top 40 gal. Sue me-I’m oldish). Now commercial radio is just odd, with too many commercials; I don’t bother with it. So, I don’t know what I want–story of my life!
Hostile Dialect–my eyes glazed over reading your post. I think I’ll stick with CDs and have my kids roll their eyes at me–it’s so much easier. I’m not enough into music to want to master the Nano/iPod. My cellphone isn’t a Blue tooth, and I don’t have internet phone service. People take pics with their phones all the time and post them here. It shall forever remain a mystery.

Which Weather Report album was that? Have you tried any old David Sanborne? He plays (played?) a great sax. I liked him back in college. He was the artist who did the theme song to American Gigolo-a great song.

[Hello_Again]

@devilsknew

for all intensive purposes.

“intents and purposes,” before Hostile Dialect starts frothing about it.

[Hostile_Dialect]

I swear you’re just taunting me at this point

Anyway, I have a SanDisk Sansa and I love it. It doesn’t play movies, but it’s unrestricted, it has a Micro SD slot so it’s as expandable as you please, and it can show the album cover art and any other pictures you upload to it–not to mention that it plays and records FM radio and can record your voice too. Sorry if this is a repeat.