Joped.com

Stephanie introduced me to Pandora Radio on the iPhone.  This application allows you to search for music you like, then recommends music based on your vote of the music.  The voting is a very simple thumbs up or thumbs down.  However, pay attention to the information of why you are being asked to vote on that track.  Remember, its tring to figure out what music is fitting you.

The great thing is this application has a channel model.  It allows you to create multiple channels for whichever mood you are in that day.  This is great because I am into a large range of music.  Everything from The Doors, to Aerosmith, Type O Negative, Robert Miles, Led Zep, Disturbted, Guns N Roses, etc.  For those that don’t know, I absoultly hate country music.  The very thought makes my ears bleed.

Yet, I also suck at categorizing music.  Robert Miles is very sweet coding music, he has pulled me through some complex coding headaches.  The problem comes down to, I have been in a “club” a total of 3 times in my life.  Each time more uncomfortable then the other.  I don’t dance, so I will never attempt to.  Trust me, the world is better off if I don’t.

Pandora allows me to find new music that I like and didn’t know existed.

Its not limited to the iPhone, they also have the same service on their website.  I have not played around to see if there are any “syncing” features.  NetNewsWire has an excellent syncing feature that syncs my RSS feeds on the desktop to my iPhone.  I subscribe to a large number of RSS feeds, some of which are critical for my job.

I can pretty much guarantee I will be using it at work.  My limited music collection is starting to get a bit tired.

I purchased the zboard fang a few days ago for World of Warcraft. The reason I purchased it was simple, there aren’t enough buttons around “WASD”. I was hoping it would improve my game play allowing better access to more spells.

I figured there would be a learning curve to get good with using it since its very difference then a keyboard. I gave my self the weekend to get it down. Now keep in mind, I didn’t spend an hour each day with it. I spent close to 6 hours each day playing.

This device is rather cumbersome to deal with. First off, its very easy to “lose” your place on the device. Some of the buttons are so far away, that it requires you to move your hand completely off the device. That isn’t a big deal since they are things like record video, volume controls, etc. The problem is putting your hand back to where it needs to be without looking. I guess over time you would be able to do it easier, but I am not going to gimp my self for a month learning it.

The next big problem I found is the number keys. They are spaced differently then a keyboard so being used to hitting 2 from the w key will throw you off and you end up hitting 3. If I could have gotten used to the rest of the layout, this might have worked to my advantage. I bumped my entire spell bar over 1 place.

I am going to attempt to use it with Team Fortress 2 when I get back from vacation. I have heard of better success using it for FPS games then MMOs. If worse comes to worse, I am going to use it for X-Plane. I plane to use it for the flight computer, trims, and other less commonly accessed items. (Well, you know what I mean)

All in all, I don’t recommend this device for MMOs. When I get time to try it on an FPS, I will post an update. Until then, save your money.