Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Geek Out



This is my MP3 player. I paid $95 for it in 2005 on sale. At the time, people were buying these things and then taking them apart to remove the 5G Compact Flash hard drive, which was worth about $150, to put in digital cameras. Back then, Compact Flash solid state memory topped out at 1G.

Because this is an MP3 player that I take with me everywhere and use while riding my bike, I knew that the hard drive inside was highly susceptible to damage should I drop it or land on it.


Compact Flash 5G hard drive - Compact Flash 8G memory card

In the last three years, prices on solid-state, Compact Flash memory cards have dropped drastically while capacity has increased. Last weekend, I bought an 8G card for $20 at Fry's. In essence, the CF hard drive was damn near obsolete as soon as it came out.



I opened the case of the MP3 player and replaced the disk with the card.

I am geekicus.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

you are so green, with the recycle.

D said...

Lavi is not so much green with the recycle as he is green in his decision not to begat spawn.

However he doth exhibit much technical adroitness replacing the spinning disc of rust with the CF card. You go guy!

Even though your mp3 player is several generations old, runs CP/M, and is the size of a 1st gen cell phone - it is now spiffy and new; suitable for both bicycling and flaunting at CES.
Congratulations!


Every now and then when your life gets complicated and the weasels start closing in, the only cure is to load up on heinous chemicals and then drive like a bastard from Hollywood to Las Vegas ... with the music at top volume and at least a pint of ether.

-Hunter S. Thompson


Dedicated to the other side of Las Vegas, namely; the sprawling, mad, incoherent underpinnings of the world's favorite destination.

That, and the occasional ranting about nothing in particular.