Archive for October, 2005

Over three months ago, I purchased a Creative Zen Micro MP3 player. And at the time, I commented on my initial impressions, all of which were favorable. Now that I have had sufficient time to play with it, I’d like to post a follow-up to that earlier article, expanding upon those initial impressions.

On the whole, I still adore this little device. I use it nearly every day at work and I have taken it on a trip or two. Because the Micro is indeed rather tiny, it makes the perfect traveling companion (no more CD wallet and bulky CD player). And with 5 GB of storage, I can take most of my music with me wherever I go. My Zen Micro currently holds 61 albums (851 tracks) and there is nearly 2 GB of available space left!

The battery life is quite good; I can listen to music at work for two days before I need to charge it. However, I am rather conservative on battery usage, so your mileage may vary (I only ever let it get down to one bar left on the battery indicator). One of these days, I should let it run all the way down to see how far I can go.

I mentioned in my earlier report that the Zen’s ear buds were a little too large for my ears. I have since obtained a pair of Sony buds which hang over your ears. They sound great (although the bass is weaker than the Creative buds) and they don’t fall out so easily.

Creative has certainly done a great job with the Zen Micro. Although I haven’t tried all of its features yet (I still need to give the AM/FM radio a go), it has served me quite well. If you are in the market for an MP3 player, I highly recommend this one from Creative. You won’t be disappointed.

It has recently occurred to me that my primary website, Born Geek, is lacking in several web accessible areas (Year of the Code Monkey is not without its share of similar problems). Because I still develop the Born Geek website by hand (old school!), it lacks the most common feature available in automated web-generation systems: site search functionality. The only way users can currently search Born Geek is to perform a site search at Google. How tragic! I am currently looking at two Perl-based site search scripts, and I hope to implement one of them in the very near future.

One other area that needs some updating is the site contact form. I am currently not making use of the <label> tag, which would greatly improve the accessibility of the form. Not only would screen-readers be a little happier, but users could click a control’s associated label to set the keyboard focus (instead of having to actually click inside of the control).

Are there any other blatant mistakes I’m making as far as accessibility goes? If so, let me know about it!

Many months ago, I picked up the collector’s edition DVD of Once Upon a Time in the West at Target (I got it on the cheap - only $7). But I only now have gotten around to watching it.

I’m a fan of classic Western films, and I’m particularly fond of Sergio Leone’s work (I own all of the “Man With No Name” movies starring Clint Eastwood). So this particular movie was a real treat. It has all the classic Sergio Leone moments: tight close-up shots, brutal violence, and a mysterious hero. Charles Bronson and Henry Fonda played superbly in the film, and the score is nearly as good as that of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. I heartily recommend this movie if you haven’t seen it. Take note that it’s fairly long (2 hours and 45 minutes), but it won’t disappoint.

After weeks of development, 3.0 is finally ready. Come and get it.

I have recently been looking at refurbished monitors from Azatek, in an effort to replace my 22″ NEC monitor which got screwed up during my recent move. They have a nice (albeit limited) selection of Grade-A 21-24″ monitors. I’m currently looking at the NEC FE2111SB 22″ model, which they list in Not Exactly New condition. What that means remains to be seen, but at only $289, it doesn’t look like a bad deal at all. I hope to order the monitor today: with any luck, I’ll have it up and running by this time next week.

It’s a shame that CRT monitors are going the way of the dinosaur. I’m surprised that no company has stepped up to fill the niche market of those who prefer the older CRT technology. You would think that there is a fair amount of money to be made by selling to enthusiasts, but apparently that’s not the case.

Update: I’ve ordered the monitor, at a final price of $337.80 ($289 + $48.80 in shipping costs). Not bad for a 22″ CRT!

I have just released my second Firefox extension, CoLT. This tiny (2.5 KB) extension adds a “Copy Link Text” menu item to the browser context menu (it’s only visible when you right-click a link). It makes selecting a link’s associated text much easier than the normal click-and-drag routine - something I have always had some trouble with (for whatever reason). Hopefully, this will be of some use to someone.

I frequently get lost in Wikipedia. Not because the site is difficult to navigate, but rather because the stuff I learn there is so interesting. I routinely find myself clicking from one article to another. This is without a doubt the second best (?) time waster ever invented (the Internet in general being #1). Must … stop … surfing …

• I still have no connection to the internet at home (although our network has been set up). Running a cable up to my room looks like it will be too difficult, so I’m researching some wireless solutions. I hope to be up and running tonight (tomorrow night at the latest).
• Googlebar Lite development has been very slow recently. Once I get back online, I hope to make some progress on this front: version 3.0 is long overdue. Firefox 1.5 Beta 2 and Beta 1 support will finally be available in 3.0, so that should please a number of people.
• My 22″ monitor got hosed during the move. I’ve gone back to my 19″ (which can only do 1280×1024), and I’m looking for a replacement (I’ve got to have 1600×1200). Dare I go to the dark side and buy an LCD?
• I turned 25 yesterday.