Technology 3, Hausfrau 1

Technology is really, really not my friend these past few months.

First the Tivo.

Then my laptop backlight (which I have yet to have fixed).

Then yesterday, the audio jack and speaker on my Palm decided to stop working. Now, I will admit, I can be a bit of a klutz with it and it must have just taken one thunk too many, but it was just sitting there when it decided to stop working. No sound thru headphones, and when I disconnect the headphones, no sound through the speaker.

And I know I remember hearing that Palm wasn't developing any more handheld PDAs for the time being while they focus on the Pri and the whole cellular phone thing... but how did I miss that they've pretty much sold out all their "new" stock and I'm gonna be up shit creek without a boat when my PDA goes *poof* or I decide I want to upgrade??? Because I don't want a Pri or anything like it... me likes my PDA as a device not connected at all to my phone, thankyouverymuch.

Sigh.

At least one good thing... there is one book I've been trying to find at brick & mortar stores for a couple months and I haven't found it anywhere in like a 20-mile radius, and it's also been hard to get from the library. So, I decided to go for the Ebook. I'm a big fan of the Ebook lately, it's easy to tranfer PDFs to my handy little Palm and read away. But noooooo.... apparently now at the PDFs have digital protection on them with Adobe's "Digital Edition" so I had to spend a good, oh, five minutes trying to figure out how to make it an unsecured file so I could have it as a regular PDF and not a "can only be opened by this special program on your computer hahahahaha" file. Because I don't want to read it on my PC. I want to read it on my Palm.

I like PDFs... I really do. But apparently, unlike Adobe, I realize the fact that the words "digital protection" are really only just words... as fast as you can figure out how to try and put it all under your control, some other talented person across the globe is going to figure out how to crack it. It's like communism... it might be a sort of nice idea in theory, but it just don't work in the real world. I'm more than willing to pay for PDFs, but I still want to be able to use them like a book. That means not tied to my PC and desk chair, but portable. I'm wondering if the publishing industry is trying to play the same game the music industry tried to play... Total Digital Soverignty over stuff just ain't going to happen. Just like I used to tape songs off the radio and make copies of tapes for friends, I get some of my music without going to a record store and paying for it, but I still also will happily pay out for music that I do like (I've always been amazed at how artists know so little about the breakdown of costs for things like CD... if you walked up to a band and gave them a dollar, that is more than they usually make off their cut for a CD... I spent waaaaay too much time learning the music biz back when I was thinking of going into it....).

And I guess this will also play out as technology and I go another round... currently looking at MP3 players (I was really unhappy with the 1 gig limit on my Palm, anyway) that are NOT iPods. I really just want something that can shuffle, manage a couple playlists, and not try to tackle my entire digital music collection (which is at about 16 gi) - just the stuff I want to transfer over depending on my mood. Currently eyeing the SanDisk Sansa players, but we'll see. I did try to look them over at Best Buy this morning, but the way the "display" models are bolted down, I couldn't get a good look at the thing, and the way the sales dudes were hovering over me, I just wanted to make a break for it. I also fear a fistfight breaking out if I have some sales dude who really wants to try and talk all "iPod" to me. I already belong to the Tivo cult... I don't need to join the iPod cult. The Tivo cult might get jealous.