The Butt Ugly Weblog

The headphone thing means resorting to old Walkman tricks - stuffing the cable *inside* any clothing (shirt etc.) and pulling the headphones out the top. Might not work so well with the in-ear ones that rely of ear canal friction to stay in.

I must admit I'm the same with listening to music outside - I feel I'm missing something. I used to be able to do it all the time, but now, even in the office, I feel something else important is going on.

--ChrisH, 04-Jan-2005

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I think the point about "not needing and iPod" is not totally correct, atleast in my case. As long as I remember I've been pissed off with carried music devices (still am but now it refers to battery life mostly), as they didn't hold enough music and were too bulky among other things.

I eat and breathe music, alongside oxygen and foodstuffs. Around 70% of time I am awake I have some sort of music playing, one form or another. Not having it around me makes me uncomfortable. Yes, I do agree it is a luxury item, but to me it is a bit more than that too (right now, I'm salivating over the 60GB iPod Photo). My collection of music spans around 1500+ CDs, around 5-6 meters worth of vinyl, countless tapes of which most are... in boxes somewhere. I've also got Mini Discs on the shelfs, and old recording walkman and a CD one. My 20GB 3rd gen iPod is full, has been from the week on I got it and iTunes has 4600+ songs right now. Just to give you an idea of what kind of -ism I'm talking about here.

The best solution I've come across to the ambient noise problem is Koss The Plug. Not perfect but so far the best solution. I also agree with the earbud line under clothing trick, works every time as long as you get iPod into a pocket not too far off.

--Shrike, 04-Jan-2005

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I have a roommate that loves blasting his music. I always tried to drown it out with my own but his system was an expensive one and my cheap speakers had no chance. I found that Sony makes ear buds that totally block out all noise. In my case I can finally listen to my music without hearing my roommates (I still feel his base but I can live with that).

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I don't think I actually *need* a portable music player, and I rarely listen to music on the street. However, I actually have some real use cases for the iPod. The main one is that it is very handy that I can listen to music while stretching after dance classes. It is relaxing, it passes the time (stretching is boring but reading while doing it is not always comfortable), and it lets me ignore the dressing room chat. ;) (For sure, I definitely would not need a 20GB shiny-white hi-tech hyper-design too-expensive portable music player - but that is a different story altogether. ;))

--Janka, 04-Jan-2005

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Actually, I *do* stuff it inside any clothing. This seems to make the problem worse, as after some movement the wires will attempt to tug my head into the shirt. Don't know why.

I have the Sony active noise canceling headphones - and my ex had the earbuds. They're very cool, but they're still big enough to be a hassle to handle.

--JanneJalkanen, 04-Jan-2005

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Get retractable earbuds! I picked a pair up for $20 - they work great!

--Jonathan Aquino, 05-Jan-2005

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I have a small USB memory stick / MP3 combo. (Sandisk) I fasten it to my shirt collar (I wear mostly polo type shirts). The cable is now only going 18 inches, so there is less for it to get snagged on. A 512Mb stick holds 6-7 hours of music.

--Foster, 05-Jan-2005

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