I picked up a new power supply for my powerbook last week, since my older one seemed to be malfunctioning. My first thought was that the outlet was bad, but after testing it on two different outlets, I assumed it had died. So I purchased a replacement, and plugged it in (to the same socket) and it too did not function. I tried another outlet, and both the original and new supplies functioned properly. So I went to back to the apple store and they were happy to provide me with a refund, but i took the proceeds and picked up an iPod Nano. I got a white one… i know people say the black nano is cooler, but i like the classic apple design and color. Besides, the cables and earbuds are color coordinated for the whitepods. The size is one thing, but the bright color display is fantastic. I gave it the acid test yesterday when I went to the gym, and it’s nice that you don’t have to worry about munching a hard drive head while running. My only complaint is that it’s lacking a decent carrying case with a belt clip.

I also picked up an iSight for video conferencing. A few iSight equipped friends have been encouraging me to get one for several months, especially now that i have broadband. So I looked at it and figured, “eh… what the heck” I was thinking about trying to start up some kind of public conferencing of Reason users, and see what kind of resolution you could get, but it’s pretty miserable.

iSight connections are a bit odd, some people on AIM cannot connect to the video, and I had audio problems with the iSight connected to the G5 tower. I moved it to my old panther-powered G4 TiBook, and it worked better with the exception of the echo loop created from the proximity to the speakers. Using earphones fixed this.

It’s been a fun distraction talking to friends and family, but the camera lens is pretty slow and an f2.8 aperture is insufficient in low light situations. My first conference to my cousins was a fun little experiment. The little siblings crowded around the computer as i sent a live bootleg of Harry Potter to their machine. We caught up on the latest family gossip and they even read a bit of a Hardy Boys’ Mystery to me.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.