http://www.brokies.com Interesting Solutions to Everyday Annoyances Brokies RSS Feed Generator http://brokies.com/brokies/63 Video iPod marks new podcast episodes with the blue dot, just like iTunes does. Unlike iTunes, however, there is no way to keep an episode as new once you've listened to it, nor is there a way to mark an episode as played (so that it gets deleted, for example). root@brokies.com Sun, 16 Apr 2006 03:19:45 GMT http://brokies.com/brokies/63 ipod podcasts http://brokies.com/brokies/62 iTunes has this option of deleting podcasts you've listened to ("keep unplayed episodes") - this applies to both audio and video podcasts. However, a "played" podcast in iTunes terminology needs to be listened to the very end - basically played until the iPod itself stops playing it. Since most podcasts have credits (video) / music / clips / etc at the end, the entire episode gets fully played quite rarely. As a result, you have to delete things you've listened to by hand to free up room for upcoming episodes. root@brokies.com Mon, 10 Apr 2006 02:11:39 GMT http://brokies.com/brokies/62 itunes ipod podcasts http://brokies.com/brokies/61 The Scala-500 bluetooth headset is pretty cool, it's got the best wind resistance (actually usable outside), light, small and easy to put on with glasses or not. But it has the LARGEST multi-function button out of all the headsets I've seen, and this button CONSTANTLY gets pressed. I have voice dialing set up, and have now made calls to my friends on a number of occasions live from my pocket. root@brokies.com Wed, 05 Apr 2006 17:41:41 GMT http://brokies.com/brokies/61 bluetooth headset http://brokies.com/brokies/60 iTunes can automatically download podcasts you subscribe to, providing fresh content on a daily basis. That's all nice and cool, but it really wants to keep a copy for itself. Audio is one thing, but video podcasts, especially long ones, take up quite a bit of space. If you never watch them on iTunes, and just use it as a means of getting stuff onto your iPod, all that space is wasted. root@brokies.com Tue, 04 Apr 2006 15:05:00 GMT http://brokies.com/brokies/60 ipod itunes podcasts http://brokies.com/brokies/59 We all have cellphones these days, and all of them have voicemails. Voicemail systems typically have two greetings - one you record, and the instructional one provided by the system. It's the latter that is in most cases way longer than it needs to be - it lists every possible option every time, which is especially frustrating when you just need to leave a quick note and have just waited for 10 rings for the voicemail to kick in. root@brokies.com Wed, 29 Mar 2006 21:59:47 GMT http://brokies.com/brokies/59 voice mail cell phone http://brokies.com/brokies/58 Those who get their coffee from a deli on the morning commute know this one well. For some reason, the vendors always put napkins on TOP of the coffee cup, effectively rendering them useless - whatever coffee seeps through the lid gets the napkins wet. root@brokies.com Tue, 28 Mar 2006 14:24:22 GMT http://brokies.com/brokies/58 deli http://brokies.com/brokies/57 Modal dialogs are, unfortunately, quite common in GUI applications. A modal dialog is a dialog (message box, for instance) that blocks the application that popped it until the dialog is closed (answered or dismissed). A variant of a "modal dialog" is a "system-modal dialog", which blocks all applications until the dialog is closed. Fortunately, that one is very rarely used. So what's wrong with these, you ask? A number of things. Often modal dialogs are used for user-entered information - say, creating a new database record. Information to be entered typically depends on some other information available in the application, but guess what - you can't get to it until you close the dialog. So, you have to close the dialog, find what you need, copy it somewhere else (!!!), and then get back to creating your record. Very convenient, isn't it? It's especially frustrating when the information you need is one dialog below and just needs to be scrolled a little bit - you try, but all you get are error beeps... That's not all, though - Windows takes it one step further. Under Windows, any application which pops up a modal dialog is automatically brought to the front of all other application windows. Receiving new emails is notorious for this - the "You have new mail" dialog box interrupts whatever you're currently doing, which is especially fun if you're editing a document - whatever you were planning to type in ends up going to the dialog instead of the document. root@brokies.com Sun, 26 Mar 2006 20:32:02 GMT http://brokies.com/brokies/57 windows gui user interface http://brokies.com/brokies/56 Ah, podcasts. Podcasts are great - fresh content every day on a variety of topics. The iPod, though, doesn't let you browse through the variety to pick something to listen to. Many podcasts have a summary of each episode, sometimes it's quite detailed. Daily shows often pile up, especially something like NPR's Most Emailed Stories - each episode is around 30 minutes long, and contains stories on a variety of topics. Each story is descibred in the episode summary, but in order to see it on the iPod, you have to start playing the show - then you can navigate to the "Lyrics" screen and read the summary. Often you're interested in maybe two stories out of everything included in the episode, and this brokie makes is quite annoying to pick something interesting to listen to. root@brokies.com Sun, 26 Mar 2006 00:43:45 GMT http://brokies.com/brokies/56 ipod podcasts http://brokies.com/brokies/29 I hate how porn is so unprofessionaly done lately, I don't want to see flashes while wathing a video, you can't tell me that a multimillion dolla rindustry cannot afford a fast lens. I also dislike the lack of choreography in a threesome where the second girl seems to be sitting by herself all the time as opposed to joining the action. Trotski@brokies.com Tue, 07 Mar 2006 21:35:23 GMT http://brokies.com/brokies/29 pr0n http://brokies.com/brokies/14 Everyone has seen these - fused plastic packaging containers for small products, such as CompactFlash cards - my most recent experience has been with an iPod case. These packages are pretty much impossible to open without a knife or industrial-strength scissors, and of course those often aren't available. It's especially bad for packaged small multiple items - by the time you finally rip the package open, the amount of force that is being applied sends contents all over the room, quite often never to be seen again. root@brokies.com Wed, 25 Jan 2006 22:17:02 GMT http://brokies.com/brokies/14 packaging retail http://brokies.com/brokies/13 The Video iPod is a great little gadget. I've had one for about 5 months now, and I think it's the first gadget ever I've used for so long without getting bored with it. It does, however, have a number of shortcomings, one of which is this brokie right here. I mostly use my iPod on the train, when commuting to and from work. Typically, I'd watch a couple of relatively long shows, and then attempt to pick something to fill up the remaining time until my stop - and that's one of the things you can't do with the iPod interface the way it is. To see how long a particular clip or an audio track is, you have to start playing one, which defeats the purpose if you're looking for something with particular length. This little brokie makes the last couple of train stops quite annoying. root@brokies.com Wed, 25 Jan 2006 22:06:11 GMT http://brokies.com/brokies/13 ipod video ipod