(no subject)

[prog]

I just applied Alton Brown knowledge for the first time evah, making a cup of coffee more or less as prescribed by Good Eats, using a manual-drip coffee maker to produce a pretty good hot cuppa of the nothing-special whole-bean coffee which I have boxes and boxes of (thanks to my parents getting me a "subscription" to it last year).

Now to try it with Diesel Fuel...

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The iPod Shuffle is a brilliant insinuation of eristic philosophy into an aneristic marketplace. That its appearance has confused and even angered so many people, to whom it appears to be utterly unsellable nonsense, is delightful evidence of this. Discuss.

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Hang on, what are you doing drinking coffee so late? Well, I really wanted one. And I was mulling the possibility of pulling an all-nighter in order to better the chances that I'll finish all this work and be able to attend the whole Hunt guilt-free. As luck would have it, I'm getting quite sleepy anyway, and will probably just turn in now that I've reached the "OK, at least it compiles" phase.

Things are looking grim. But, ask me again tomorrow.

Comments

[rserocki.livejournal.com]

My brother Steve does not like the marketing of lack of control as a lifestyle choice.

[dougo.livejournal.com]

I presume you've seen this and this but maybe some of your readers haven't.

[keimel.livejournal.com]

But if you're giving time to the iProduct, you should give time to this too. :)

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

It always tickles me to see friends I don't consider to be Discordians applying Discordian philosophy or theology.

They're certainly selling this with heavy appeal to the eristic virtues, perhaps because it doesn't have too many aneristic ones (other than the price, I suppose). People who have bought into the aneristic trip would certainly be baffled, as there are no "good" points to it. It's perhaps the most unbalanced-toward-the-eristic major product in the electronics industry we've seen yet. If it succeeds, it will be evidence of major eristic inroads into the collective mindscape.

[cnoocy]

Actually, I think iTunes (and the whole MP3 whoozafazzle) have made eristic listening signifcantly more popular than they were, just by making it possible. And Apple has been pushing that with things like the Party Shuffle feature.

But I do think that the Shuffle can be used in a significantly aneristic fashion, by carefully loading and playing in order.

[prog.livejournal.com]

Well, "shuffle" buttons first came about with the first CD players, so it's been an even longer trip than that (though the effect wasn't so much unless you had a 5-disc loader or whatever).

And, can you even use the Shuffle as you suggest? My impression is that you plug it in, and iTunes says "Ah, a Shuffle. ... OK, it's loaded. Enjoy." I'm quite possibly mistaken, but I'm really hoping that's the only way it works.

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

There's a switch on the side with three settings: off, shuffle, don't shuffle.

But really, if you're not going to shuffle, you might as well just buy a damn cassette. (See also: http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2003-05-28&res=l for Penny Arcade's still-fresh critique.)

[mrmorse.livejournal.com]

Jobs explained this in his keynote. It sort of gets explained at http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/shuffle.html

The basic deal is that shuffle has turned out to be much more popular in iTunes and with regular iPods than they expected (apparently most people listen to music that way) so they're pushing that feature really hard.

The way the iPod shuffle works is that you can set up a playlist (or not) and then use the Autofill feature to randomly fill out its memory. You get a set of constraints on the autofill as well. Then, when you listen, you can either play the playlist in order or shuffled.

That way, when you buy a new album you want to listen to, you can add that first and listen to it while still having the option of taking advantage of the whole shuffle feature.

So, not quite as eristic as it first appears, but it's still pretty close.

[mrmorse.livejournal.com]

Also, I am surprised by the amount of anger both the iPod shuffle and the Mac mini have been received with from certain quarters. I can accept not being into Apple. But caring that much makes no sense to me.

[jadelennox]

One major good point, aneristicaly speaking: it's freakin' teeny.

Shuffle angering people

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Mwahahahaha!