Mr. Hatch Goes To DFW

In usual fashion I have my eyes closed for this once in a lifetime photo opportunity. The timig was great, my first upgrade to first class this year (I'm almost Silver Medallion again) and I'm sitting next to Orrin Hatch. I'm sure that after this Delt won't feel the need to upgrade me again for while figuring this was good enough to last me for a while.

-D

Top Ten Signs The Guy In The Cubicle Next To You Is Michael Jackson

Top Ten Signs The Guy In The Cubicle Next To You Is Michael Jackson

10. Fax machine always clogged with subpoenas
9. There's a llama tethered to the water cooler
8. Only cubicle that has a ferris wheel
7. Carpet is covered with sequins and monkey hair
6. Asks if office has a third option besides "Men's Room" and "Ladies' Room"
5. Borrows your Wite-Out to touch up his face
4. Recycling bin is filled with surgical masks
3. They canceled "Bring Your Child to Work Day"
2. He answers his phone with a high-pitched "hee hee"
1. Everyone around the office is asking who the new white chick is

(from: http://www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/top_ten/archive/ls_topten_archive2006/ls_topten_archive_20060118.shtml)

Howard Stern

I listened to Howard Stern once, by accident, when I was on Long Island for business.  This article though lifted my spirits a little today.  

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/9181584/howards_end?rnd=1138837169298&has-player=true&version=6.0.12.1212

Plastic Or Poultry?

I saw this in my hotel while in Miami Beach, FL this past week. It looked too big to be a turkey (and who leaves those lying around in a hotel hallway?) but the shape and color were too similar.

SanDisk Sansa m200 Series MP3 Player Playlist Creation

I tried to figure out, over the weekend, how to set up playlists on my SanDisk Sansa m250 (and I would assume that this would work on other m200 series (m240, m230, m260) players as well). I have an iPod and a Pocket PC, both of which sync playlists to the player bringing the songs and the playlists to the player. Apparently only the songs from playlists come over to the m250. I asked their tech support email about this and this was the response I received. I wanted to post this in hopes that others buying this player, searching for this answer can find it on Google or A9. (2006.01.29: I just reformatted this post so that it is easier to read.)

Please forgive the formatting if the response but this is how I received it and I don’t have the time right now to make it nicer.

Your Question/Problem:

How do I create a playlist on my Sansa m250? I read the FAQ that indicates that Windows Media Player playlists are not transferred to the device but how do I do that?

SanDisk Response: (01/16/2006 05:27)

Thank you for contacting SanDisk Technical Support.

The Sansa m200 series supports favorites and can be configured with customized playlists.

Concerning Favorites: they can be created on the mp3 player itself. Set the player in Advanced mode (menu>settings>Advanced to ON). Once a song is playing, if you press and hold the center select button, it will say, 'Add to favorites' and have a check and a X. Select the check (default) and press the center button again. To remove it from the list, press and hold again; it will ask if you want to delete; again, select the check. This will remove it from the list only; however, the file physically remains on the mp3 player. To clear the entire list, go to menu>settings>playback>clear favorites.

Note: Each time the mp3 player is attached to the computer, even if nothing is added or removed, the favorites list is erased.

Concerning Playlists:

Playlists stay on the device even if connected to a computer or if the device content is changed.

The Sansa m200 series has 2 different USB modes:

--MTP (Media Transfer Protocol), a protocol released my Microsoft to support DRM (Digital Rights Managment), used for subscription Music services.

--MSC (Mass Storage Class), when using as a regular removable drive.

To switch modes, from your player. go to Menu > settings > USB >

The two options are MSC and AUTO DETECT (MTP)

You can create playlists on your player through Rhapsody, Napster, Yahoo, MusicMatch, Jukebox and Windows Media Player 10 if you set the player to MTP mode.

If you are using Rhapsody,

--Save a playlist (under the play tab in the mixer, select save).

--Take the playlist and drag it to the sansa player in the top left hand corner on the interface where the device shows.

--Do not drag it to the transfer tab in the mixer as this will transfer the files only and not the playlist itself.

If you are using Napster,

--Create or Save a playlist (bottom right of napster interface).

--Under 'My Playlists' on the left of the Napster interface, right click the desired playlist. Select the 'transfer playlist to portable device.'

If you are using Yahoo,

--Follow the procedures in Yahoo to create a list and transfer it to device.

If you are using MusicMatch,

--Create a playlist either by dragging files to the playlist manager or by right clicking the file in your library. Select send to>portable device.

--Open the playlist manager (view>playlist manager).

--Right click the playlist and select send to >portable device.

If you are using Windows Media Player 10,

--Create a playlist by right clicking a song in the libary, add to>additional playlists>new or by saving a now playing list.

--Select the Sync tab and click 'Sync settings.'

--Place a check next to the playlists they want to transfer to device.

--The Windows Media Player should then sync those lists once you hit 'OK.'

Playlists can also be added in M3U format when the player is in MSC mode. This not officially supported. The following is a suggested workaround:

--Make sure the player is in the MSC mode

--Create/save an M3U playlist file from any application (winamp, windows media player, etc.).

--Find file through My Computer, right click the playlist and Open With >Choose Program >Notepad.

--The first line of the file should be #EXTM3U. After that, you will see 2 lines of text for each song in the playlist. Leave the first line alone for each song.

--For the second line, you need to delete everything except for the filename (which is everything before and including the last).

--Repeat that step for every song listed. After that, save the file by going to >File >Save.

--Copy-and-paste the m3u file to the Removable Disk.

--Copy all the songs to the Removable Disk by making a folder on the Removable Disk called 'Music' and copy songs into there.

Regardless of method, the playlist will now show on the mp3 player under >menu >play music >playlist.

If you wish to delete created playlists,

If the playlist was added via the M3U method, deletion can be achieved by deleting the M3U file while connected to the computer in MSC mode.

For any playlist transfer via any MTP mode, you can either delete the playlist folder under Media folder on the Sansa M series on the PC (this will delete all MTP based playlists. They are not selectable, and on the PC, the folder will show as empty even when the playlists are present.)

You can view and delete the individual playlists transferred via MTP in MusicMatch regardless of which MTP method was used to create and transfer the list. Bring up the portable device manager (>view>portable device manager), right click the playlist to delete, and select 'Remove.'

Regardless of the method used, only the playlist itself will be removed. Any music referenced will remain on the mp3 player and can be manually deleted.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to reply to this e-mail or contact our technical support department at one of the numbers below.

Have a Great Day and thank you for choosing SanDisk!

Sincerely,

Bello

Sandisk Technical support

DoomRPG Info

I found this here: http://deepster.bigcitybaby.com/blog/archives/2005/10/doom_rpg_cheats.html
It is very useful and repeated here to hopefully make the information easier to find.  
Doom RPG cheats
All of the following has been discovered by me, and a lot of free time:

Bonus area – after section 7 when the 2nd attack from Hell starts. Inside the room is an Apollyon, Baron and Revenant. It's stock full of ammo, bezerker orbs and soul orbs. This room also has cheaper stat upgrades than in the Junction.

The room is on the opposite end of Dr. Janson when part of the facility collapses. Instead of taking the fork of the room to the right to go to Dr.Jenson, continue on the left and head upwards to find the bonus room.

Code to the bonus area – 0,1,1,2,3,5,8
Super Secret Door – located in section 6
Code to the door – 2279
This room also has cheaper stat upgrades than in the Junction.

Win screens :
http://doomrpg.com/win/hound.html
http://doomrpg.com/win/spire.html
http://doomrpg.com/win/blues.html
http://doomrpg.com/win/sarge.html
This is the highest rating you can attain in DoomRPG. No, I didn't earn it yet but as you can see...it wasn't too hard to figure out the site's name.

Enemy weapon weaknesses :
Zombie class – axe
Hellhound class – shotgun
Commando class – chaingun/plasma gun
Imp class – shotgun/super shotgun
Lost Soul class – fire extinguisher/plasma gun
Pinky class – shotgun/super shotgun, resistant towards axe
Cacodemon class – plasma gun, malwrath weak towards axe
Pain elemental class – plasma gun
Revenant class – rockets/plasma gun, resistant to shotgun
Mancubus class – rockets
Archvile class – fire extinguisher/plasma gun
Baron class – shotgun/super shotgun/rockets
Kronos – BFG
Cyberdemon – BFG

Tips that make the game easier :
Use the appropriate weapon against an enemy
Use rockets/super shotgun with berserker mode to kill Kronos easily
Use rockets w/ beserker mode against the two power couplings in the final battle. Ignore all other enemies.
Use BFG w/ beserker mode against the Cyberdemon. 2–3 shots should kill him.

Fun in the bounce Haus

 

The Kids...

 

My Daughter...

 

Finally...

Now that I have an iPod I can understand the craze; but I still can’t understand the price.  Apple is a publicly traded corporation so they owe it to their shareholders to charge what the market will bear but still from my perspective the price is quite steep.  I think it would be worth the price if the battery was changeable (I understand that when you send your iPod in to Apple for replacement they just send you a refurb) or something like that to extend the life I might agree more with the price.  

I’m amazed that no one else has come up with a decent user interface (I’m referring to the ease of use and to the nice clean look).  

The other big stumbling block for other MP3 players is the file format.  I’ll ignore Sony here since their software is so dense and difficult to use.  I’ll also ignore Real Player since they have very few players that will play music purchased from their store.  Files in the Apple format (which is essentially the same as Real Player’s except at lower quality) will play on any authorized machine, the same file.  Microsoft’s file format is locked to a specific PC.  When you want to play your track on another PC you have to download the file all over again.  Also, if you have to reinstall Windows you have to download your tracks all over again.  I could go on here but this is very inconvenient.  

Apple is a juggernaut here because while everyone else is trying to come up with a player to rival theirs they are already moving onto content to keep people buying (in addition to improving their players).  Napster and others are making a good try with their subscription models but I don’t see how renting is as compelling as owning.  Maybe this is another bit I’d understand if I tried it but I don’t see this happening anytime soon either.