Myspace Rant

I don't think myspace is a fad necessarily - but I think people need to take a serious look at how readable their profiles are.

I'm not on myspace. Will I ever be? I don't know - I just don't see what the big deal is. It seems like it is all about getting as many "friends" as possible and throwing as much crap on your profile page as possible. If I wanted to list out all of my interests, throw a song in the background, list my top 8 "friends" i've linked to, and allow people to put whatever comments they wanted to on my profile for me and others to read, I'd join myspace. Like I said, I just don't get it.

Back to my biggest issue- the design element. When I first made a couple of webpages back in the mid to late 90s - I'll admit they were hard to read and lacked design. Here is an example that is apparently still up on AOL (ha!). And to think, that was the REDESIGN to make it look cleaner and better. I'll fully admit it is bad.

It is very important when making a webpage to make the text readable - so, I don't know - people can read it. People are new to design tend to put more stuff on the page and care less about how usable it is.

Here's my brother's myspace profile. Jason - is that a Nelly Furtato video on your blog? :)
Anyway - I'm going to give him an A on myspace for keeping the text readable. Black background with white text. An easy ready.

Here's my sister's myspace profile. B for design because of the background image. Still kind of hard to read the text.

But here's my point - these are my examples of good myspace profiles. Many are even harder to read.

And honestly, I don't want to open up a webpage and hear the same song everytime I go to it.

Someone give me a convincing argument to start a myspace profile. I'm not saying I've got the best looking blog out there, but I just don't want to put that much crap on one page.

Karma

Last night Wendy and I were driving to go grab some dinner and movie and I pulled over for the first time in North Carolina. Just for the record, I have expired plates in Illinois that I'm taking care of next week.

I apparently was doing 64 in a 50 work zone - although it is the road right by my house and I guarantee there was no one working - it wasn't like I was endangering anyone.

For the first time in my life I was pulled over and got a warning. Every other time I've been penalized within the maximum sentence of the law. I am still amazed.

Looks like Karma finally caught up with me - in a good way.

Expensive IPod Speakers

Expensive IPod Speaker Docks

I was out at Linens and Things yesterday picking up my $14 toaster oven (since I am a deal hunter – I’m not that domestic), I noticed for the 100th time another place selling ipod speakers that most ipods can plug into for upwards of $100. For instance. I really feel that’s highway robbery. So in the spirit of doing it yourself and Make Magazine, here’s my guide to making your own ipod speaker setup. I made mine from existing parts I had, but you can expect to spend no more than $30 with a small subwoofer.


First, you need to start with an ipod.



















Now I recommend the 60GB Ipod Video in Black, but any model will work with this setup, even the Nano. I’ll even go so far as saying this will even support whatever apple puts out next. In fact, this is so universal it will work with non apple mp3 players as well. Take that apple.

Next go out and find a set of computer speakers.

I went with an old set from most likely the late 90s. You can tell from all the marks on it that these are definitely not brand new. Keep in mind mp3s were not as popular then, and even though it doesn’t say specifically it is compatible with the ipod, trust me – it still is. Those crazy people at Altec Lansing must have been really thinking ahead when they designed these to work with a product that didn’t even exist yet! :P







Once you have a set of general computer speakers - take a look at the connectors on it. You should have two connectors that are going to be used at this point in time.

First of all the power connector. (You power connector might look slightly different than mine)



You may have seen this power connector on many of your household electronic items.














And the audio connector. Also referred to as a mini stereo plug.






You me be surprised to find that this looks a heck of lot like the headphone connector you use to plug into your ipod already. Hmmmmm.












First, plug the speakers into a wall electrical outlet. If it doesn't fit the plug might be polarized - and you should just turn it around and try again. Don't be a Hero! If you can't figure this part out get some assistance.













Then plug the audio connector from your speakers into the ipod. You should feel it snap easily into place.



















Here's a closeup of the audio connector properly installed.














And Voila. You've successfully created your own home speaker system for your ipod or other audio player.




You can trick it out some by adding the kickstand case to have your ipod sit up on it's own. Play some tunes of your own and rock out without paying the big bucks.