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Recently, I went down this path of wanting to find hard disk mp3 players which would offer a few uses that would not require some dedicated program to install.  Here are a few of the finalists and some disclosures:

1. Iriver H340 – This is the 40g model and its really hard to find.  I happened to find a “used one” on Amazon Marketplace so I snagged it.  I also saw one on Ebay recently here. I have never actually used one of these so I am pretty excited.  I am going to replace the battery and hard disk in it.  If you want a forum site and resource, consider either Rockbox or Mysticriver.  Both other great advice and use.
2. Iaudio X5 – A nice, clean unit with characteristic good looks and easy to use controls.  The sound quality is a cut above.  Support, updates, seeing what the community is doing is at Iaudiophile.  A very nice and popular forum site.  Again, great advice, builds, themes, etc can be found at Rockbox as well.
3. Ipod Video 60/80g and Classic Models – I am not particularly fond of iPods.  Without Rockbox on them, you are stuck using an application which reads and writes to its stupid little database.  That beng said, once you rockbox the thing, it becomes useful and you can simply copy music to any old folder on it you want.  Lets be serious here though… The iPods are not quality; but they are consumerish and available and Apple has cornered the “size in GB” ratio and offers a monster 160gb.  The Touch and iPHone are not even cntenders.  The phone is a wannabe convergence device which does not offer alternatives besides the equally wannabe iTunes interface.  Apple, if you wanna be open as in use why not stop using the stupid database and reliance on hard to decipher codes for use on other OS’es.  Now without the wondrous Rockbox, you have to either use a later version of libgod and gtkpod or other applications.  On the videos, you can remove all that cr-apple stuff and just rockbox it totally.  There are some things you will not be able to do like play DRM files.
4. Creative Zen Vision M -This could be a finalist IF one could simply copy music tracks to its hard drive and not futz with Gnomad2 or other applications to read its obfuscated system.  But I like its quality and it works on Ubuntu and Debian Lenny easy.  I’m also not sure with Gnomad2 how you add tracks or synchronize against an evolving and growing audio collection.  More experimentation is required.

So the facts about the iPod naturally steers me away from anything Apple unfortunately.  They are silos and everyone knows it; but they become the only small footprint media player game in town these days.  Not so much quality but quantity and presence. 

Now I’m all about finding older players, extending their lives, learning about them, etc.  I replaced the battery in my X5 and it was fun to see it boot again albiet a bit scary doing the soldering deed.

Someone told me once that the 50s are the new 30s these days and that 50 somethings (like me) can count on a decade of happiness and joy of life much like a 30 year old.  Bah Humbug.  This surely ain’t so.  Because 50 somethings suddenly inherit all kinds of requirements around health, diet, maintenance, and return visits to doctors, dentists, people that do scans in evil places, and eye doctors.  But, it appears that this report seems to hint that we can count on happier times in our 60s and 70s.  I say “Yeah, right”; but it seems that there are some gems of truth.  Witness this:

What’s their secret to aging happily? Good health and a decent standard of living don’t hurt — but those factors don’t play as big a part as you might think, researchers say. The truth is, people generally get happier as they age, said Laura Carstensen, director of the Stanford Center on Longevity and a professor of psychology at Stanford University.

So, richness and health contribute but may not be the main factors. Instead we all get happier as we get older!  I don’t really know about that.  I don’t think I am unhappier but perhaps what’s really meant is that the condition of happiness changes and what would make a 30 year old happy is not necessarily what makes a 60 year old happy.  Perhaps, just perhaps, the actual definitions of these things subtly change and we mean a different thing at 50 than a 20 year old means.

That would be unique and kind of fit into the ever-changing, evolving, and widening circles that our lives cast as we move through them.  Work at 50 something is very challenging and in fact I can see where I work a number of older workers that contribute, provide, and deliver.  That’s a good thing.  But perhaps its like what my little daughter animal once told me when I asked what she wanted to be when she grew up and she responded with true maturity and wisdom beyond her years:

I wanna be older

For the past 6 weeks, I’ve been dieting.  Here is the scenario.  I’m getting older and started having a few different ailments like really bad lower back aches that seemed resistant to the usual treatments.  Since I am participating in the world’s longest wellcheck, I went to the Doc and the conversation went like this:

Hi Doc.
Well, its Michael Perry back to see me!
Can we talk after you poke and prod?
Why sure, Mike
I’ve been having back aches and ended up taking flexoril which did bad things
Flexoril?
Yeah and it didn’t help my back; but it made me forget other stuff
Yeah Mike, Flexoril has that effect

…

Time goes by and we move on to the thing I want to discuss

Doc, I want to ask some advice.  I think all this is attributable to my rather obese state.
Well, Mike, I let you go a bit; but you need to do something there
What do you think I should do?  Got any ideas?

Whammo… Diet time.  He puts me on a 1200 calorie a day diet along with adipex which is a fancy name for speed  

Let me just say I was reaching true blimpoid state due to my eating and drinking disorder.  My disorder was to try to cram every bit of food and beer into my system at a few settings and then I multiplied it by 7 days in every week.  So, the change?

In the last 6 weeks, I’ve lost about 25 pounds and about 4 to 5 inches around the waist.  Went from a blossoming 46 inch waist to 42.  Blood pressure went down even though I am on blood pressure medication anyways.  I think cholesterol counts also went down but I have not had “labs” done… (yet).  Since I am on the world’s longest wellcheck, that is next.

So, what’s the verdict?  If you want to lose weight and you are weak; a 1200 calorie a day diet is difficult.  You have to have a commitment level.  You will change how you eat entirely.  Food will become not a end but a means.  And you will find out that food is meant to be eaten slowly with care and love.  A meal should take about 20 minutes.  There are also “free foods” you can partake of.  I do that on occasion.  Stuff like peppers, jalapanoes, pickles.  Sometimes a cold beer is there for me; but I don’t slam them down like before.

So, lets get around to the quality question.  How is the quality of life different?  Well, I’ve only lost 25 or so pounds; but I’ve lost inches and bought new dress clothes for work that actually fit.   All my belts suddenly got too big. Energy level is up; but that may be the “phen”.  But the main thing is I feel better and my stomach goes down when it used to go up.  I feel more focused at work each day.

Is it for you?

Its not for you unless you go see a doctor first.  I think you should anyways if you are over about 45 or so but changing the way you eat, exercise, or live may cause other stresses.  Its better to get yourself checked out.  If you are over 50, welcome to the world’s longest wellcheck   I’m on my way to losing 70 pounds and almost half-way there.  Its gonna happen; but now the weight loss is slower and a little more controlled. Honestly at first the weight just flowed off.  It was striking actually.  Things have moderated a bit and I hit little plateaus now and then that I live through.

Stick with it though.  You can do it.  I happened to be reading another person’s weblog and was kinda struck by his desire to change.  I’d say to Jason, you can do it.  Set the goal and make it measurable and achievable.  Now that I’ve seen how this goes, I can see that this approach can apply to other areas in my life.  But the change has to happen at a reasonable pace.  A friend that’s a psychological anthropologist told me once, “don’t try to change everything at once.  You’ll fail and be miserable too”.

I think I know what Jan meant by that.

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