Jason's Log

Hey, I’m looking around for some nicer headphones. I have the default earbuds that come with my iPhone 3GS which are “ok” for working out, and I have a $40 Sony noise-canceling phones open ear headphones that annoy my ears after an hour or so of listening. I really like the closed/over ear headphones that sound good and are still fairly light. I have a cheap pair that are a bit heavy/bulky and make my ears sweat after a short while.

I like the sound of the Bose headphones at Sam’s Club (just under $140), but I’ve been looking at some Audio-Technica ones too on Amazon for around the same price (maybe a little cheaper).

My entire library is ripped to “itunes plus” format (AAC-LC M4A at 256 kbps VBR). I listen to everything from hip-hop/ska to classical, audiobooks, and podcasts.

Thanks for the suggestions in advance.

Posted via email from awesomejt’s posterous

“Hey, just downloaded about 20 free Christmas tunes form Amazon’s MP3 Download store. These are high quality (256Kbps) files from some well known artists.

The store is located under Digital Downloads > MP3 Downloads

You do have to look a few places for them:
1. 25 Days of Free — Amazon’s daily free Christmas song (an Ad-like image on the right side of the main page)
2. Look at the Best Sellers: MP3 Downloads: MP3 Songs (lower right side box on main page)
3. When you click on a free song, scroll to the bottom of the page to see “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought” — many of the songs listed here are also free.

You can click on each song to bring up a page for the song, “play” icon will allow you to preview each song before you “purchase” it. Although there are a few duds (not worth downloading), the majority I have found so far are great songs, particularly for the price.

Just thought I would share.

Posted via email from awesomejt’s posterous

I have to pay my rent this month and my complex (Polo Village Apartments in Columbia, SC) now requires me to allow direct electronic access to my checking account in order to automatically recover the rent and fees if my check isn’t honored.

On the online payment site (third party) reads the following notice:

When you pay by check, you expressly authorize this merchant, if your check is dishonored or returned for any reason, to electronically debit your account for the amount of the check plus a $25 NSF fee and any other recovery fees allowed by the State of Your checking account and any applicable sales tax. The use of a check for payment and agreement to these terms is agreed to herein by pressing the I Agree / Send Payment by Check bar to complete your payment process. Your acknowledgment and acceptance of this policy and its terms are herby legally binding when processed.

They also sent a notice (affixed to my door) with a form for me to sign, giving them this access or they would not accept any checks from me in the future. I have never bounced a check with them and I would understand if I had done so in the past. They aren’t singling me out, they are asking this of all their residents. I am rather annoyed that I am being assumed as a criminal when I haven’t done anything wrong. Polo Village should not rent to people they don’t trust — they already do a background and credit check (or at least I was charged for it).

Currently my other methods of payment will required some degree of expense on my part — cashier’s check or multiple money orders – since they don’t take plastic or cash. Since this is a new policy, I may investigate this as a breach of contract.

Posted via email from awesomejt’s posterous

Perhaps I’m alone, but between Jessica (5 years) and Rachel (2 years), our DVDs don’t last very long. This is very true for the kiddie movies the girls are constantly handling. What I need is a good backup solution for DVD movies. It would be great copy the original kiddie DVD to a backup disc and allow the girls to use the backup until it becomes unreadable in our DVD players. Provided I keep the image of the DVD on my computer, I could just burn another copy to replace the abused backup copy accordingly. It is a bit of work, but considering these discs cost $10-$20 each it might be worth it. With today’s prices on blank media, additional backup copies would cost about $0.25 each and about 5 minutes to burn the disc.

There is one major problem with this plan. It is copy protection. The MPAA and other bonehead groups are so concerned about piracy that they assume all their customers are criminals and thus have copy protection on most DVDs (even kiddie flicks). In addition, they make it illegal to circumvent the copy protection (CSS/Macrovision) with laws such as the DMCA — although this violates access for fair use. The purpose I have would fall into fair use, at least in my opinion. I have no problem with doing.

Since DMCA is a US law — companies from outside the United States do not necessarily abide by these strict laws. So, it is possible to download software to bypass the copy protection from sources outside the USA. Of course, this was rather silly because the majority of actual piracy came from places like Russia, China, and other places outside the US anyway — DMCA did not change that at all. The crazy stuff the MPAA and other goobers are up to are a different rant.

Since I really doubt the MPAA will give me free DVD replacements as my girls scratch them up, I’m evaluating my options for a backup process. At least until the girls are old enough to take better care of the discs. So far, I’m really liking AnyDVD at the moment, but would like to check out the other options too. Comments on this process are welcome.

Posted via email from awesomejt’s posterous

I found out about Posterous (www.posterous.com) from Leo Laporte (www.techguylabs.com) and will be giving this a try. Considering the blog, Facebook, Twitter, and other accounts — it would be nice to have a single place to publish and distribute my posts.

Posted via email from awesomejt’s posterous