# My personal reading device has betrayed me! Resist, my cool oblong friend! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 9, 2012, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-personal-reading-device-has-betrayed-me-resist-my-cool-oblong-friend/615255 "2012-03-09T12:44:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-personal-reading-device-has-betrayed-me-resist-my-cool-oblong-friend/615255/1 "2012-03-09T12:44:18Z")
Can’t remember the policy on naming brand names of things, so I’ll just say that I have a personal reading device made by a major bookseller, the name of which device rhymes with “bindle.” (Or, for those of you who weren’t adults in the 80’s, err … “swindle?” That’s all I got.) It is also my mp3 player at the moment. Recently it has been skipping a lot, getting worse and worse. This is jarring, and it really, really bugs me. Okay, so I removed the songs and put in fresh copies. Didn’t help. So I removed a lot of deadweight and the songs again; then defragged and optimized the device. Didn’t help. So then I ran scandisk on it with both options. (repairing bad sectors etc.) Didn’t help. Did every other thing within my geekly powers. Didn’t help. Then I found out that I had recently bought a book on this device and had not noticed that the balance on the prepaid credit card I use for such things had gotten a little lower than I thought. Meaning that I owed them money. I took care of it today, and guess what? My music doesn’t skip anymore. I have to admire their creativity — but also, that kind of sucks! ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-personal-reading-device-has-betrayed-me-resist-my-cool-oblong-friend/615255/2 "2012-03-09T12:59:30Z")
I’m thinking this is another instance of correlation not equaling causation. I can’t imagine how a file already downloaded on to your device would be impacted by the payment of a past due bill. Also, there’ve been scores and scores of threads here on the Kindle, so yes, it’s okay to mention and discuss specific brands by name. ---
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-personal-reading-device-has-betrayed-me-resist-my-cool-oblong-friend/615255/3 "2012-03-09T13:19:46Z")
Well, I would agree with you under other circumstances. But I didn’t mention a few things: (largely because I got acrylic nails for the 1st time in my life to celebrate my birthday last week, and I got 'em too long. It is _ **impossible** _ to hunt and peck with groovy red vampire nails. So I gotta use a pencil, dammit! Takes forever.) Right around the time I noticed the skipping, my kindle suddenly started doing that annoying thing where it shifts your view 90 degrees if you list to portside ever so slightly. But wait! I had fixed that setting, courtesy of some friendly Dopers who told me how. It was set. And I am very careful about randomly pressing buttons when holding the kindle. Later that day, I went to turn on the wireless connection to do something, I forget what, and the menu item said, “Turn wireless OFF.” Oh, no no no. I never, ever leave the wireless on. I am really obsessive about that. It drains the battery. It’s a simple thing to turn on a wireless connection remotely. And then run a code that disrupts my listening pleasure. If not, then it’s a devilishly weird coincidence.:dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-personal-reading-device-has-betrayed-me-resist-my-cool-oblong-friend/615255/4 "2012-03-09T16:00:39Z")
> [@brujaja](#): > > Can’t remember the policy on naming brand names of things, so I’ll just say that I have a personal reading device made by a major bookseller, the name of which device rhymes with “bindle.” (Or, for those of you who weren’t adults in the 80’s, err … “swindle?” That’s all I got.) brindle, dwindle, spindle. Like Bart Simpson, I have a rhyming dictionary!🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-personal-reading-device-has-betrayed-me-resist-my-cool-oblong-friend/615255/5 "2012-03-09T16:01:57Z")
> [@brujaja](#): > > Can’t remember the policy on naming brand names of things We name things all the time here. If we couldn’t, about 80 percent of the questions couldn’t be asked or answered.