Peanuts is cooler than cool: Hey Ya

This peanuts rendition of Hey Ya is great. I like Linus & Charlie Brown covering "ice cold!" at 02:20, and the attention to detail with the clapping/snapping along at all the right moments.

This is going to be a lot of work

This wikipedia article is about 1001 albums to listen to before you die.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1001_Albums_You_Must_Hear_Before_You_Die

This seems like just a monumental amount of work.  I'm thinking I'll need a google doc list to check off what I've heard, and it will take years.

These Are My Friends Now is Train to Miami by Steel Pole Bathtub

I've gotten a whole lot more traffic since I've started posting about L4D, including this post, which got about 320 times more hits (320) than I expected (1) last week.

I'm pretty sure those googling for "These are My Friends Now" want to know what song it is and where to get it, though, so here's some help:

"These are my friends now" featured in the L4D TV trailer #2 is Train to Miami by Steel Pole Bathtub.

Current Music: Flobots, No Handlbars

I guess this is part two in my thousand-part series where post what music I'm listening to now.

Today it's Flobots - No Handlebars. With a great rotoscoped/animated video, good music, and inspired lyrics, this one is an obvious hit. Mix that with my recent TF2/L4D obsessions, and some clever rewriting of the lyrics at ubercharged, and I'm hooked.

Here are the gamers lyrics:

I can play my game with no voice commands

No voice commands, no voice commands

I can play my game with no voice commands

No voice commands, no voice commands

Look at me, look at me

Pushin’ the cart like it’s good to be

On BLU, and I’m a Payload champion

Even when I’m outnumbered 10 to me

I can show you how to pop an uber

I can show you how to eat a Sandvich

I can dominate an entire team

Even when I’m playin’ on my crappy bandwidth

I can stab and run without gettin’ shot

I can outmaneuver any Sniper dot

I know all the routes to the final point

And I can flank any defence you’ve got

Me and my friends, we never lose

Me and my friends got “Cook the Books”

And guess how long it took

I can dominate who I want, ’cause look

I can kill heavies with a bit of lead

A bit of lead, a bit of lead

And I can see you’re playin’ some Left 4 Dead

Some Left 4 Dead, some Left 4 Dead

Look at me, look at me

Just typed to say that it’s good to be

Alive, with hordes of zombies

Tryin’ to stop my victory

I can dodge Hunters without getting leapt on

I can stop a rush, don’t matter how large

I can jump on that wall fan

And I contribute to Boomercharged

I can take out 3 Tanks at once

I can make up for the team dunce

I know how to hold my own on Expert

And I can make a zombie player ragequit

Boomers, Hunters, Tanks and Witches

Me and my crew can wipe out those b*tches

I can outwit the AI Director

I’m one guy you can’t infest, ’cause

I can lead my teammates with a microphone

A microphone, a microphone

And I can win a match with a Molotov

A Molotov, a Molotov

Look at me, look at me

Making zombies go POP!

And it feels so good to be alive and on top

My gun is loaded, my saferoom secure

My win is noted, my victory sure

I can own zombies across the nation

Kill ‘em with bullets or immolation

Turn ‘em into a mass cremation

Whatever guarantees my team’s salvation

I can make boss zombies lose their patience

Send them to exasperation

My team fulfil my machination

To achieve complete pacification, ’cause

I can guide players like a flock of sheep

A flock of sheep, a flock of sheep

And I can leave one dying without a care

Without a care, without a care

And I can board the copter and leave them behind

And leave them behind, and leave them behind

And leave them behind, and leave them behind

And leave them behind!

I can play my game with no voice commands

No voice commands, no voice commands

I can play my game with no voice commands

No voice commands, no voice commands…

Disassembling the Sandisk Sansa Sanmeister

I bought a Sandisk Sansa e260 from woot.com recently, even though I agree that the mp3 player is an obsolete technology. I really like the UI. They copied Apple's click wheel design, but used an actual plastic wheel that spins (instead of the stationary touch-sensitive wheel Apple uses.) I actually prefer it because of the physical feedback you get from spinning it.

It has a small, sleek design, very bright display, and does a great job at all it's tasks: video playback, photo slideshows, music, radio, voice recording, 4GiB USB drive.

Also, Sansa let's you use the USB Mass Storage Device Driver to copy music, instead of enforcing MTP like they did on previous players. MTP completely sucks in comparison.

The downsides: custom cable. Why does anything have a custom cable? Everything should use the USB mini-b so we don't need to keep 20 cables on our desk to plug in all our gadgets.

My particular e260 also had a problem: only 1 channel of audio would play. I took it apart to see if I could fix it. Disassembling things is always fun. Here are the pictures:



The electronics in this thing are tiny. Almost all of the weight is in the heavy steel case back and the battery, and almost all of the volume is in the frame & battery. I had fun pushing the battery back onto the power terminals and running it naked:



I eventually decided the problem was in the stereo headphone socket, which has 3 conductors for left audio channel, right audio channel, and a common return (see TRS connector). Looking down into the socket, I can see that a contactor is broken off. I couldn't get a focused image with my digicam though. Here's a shot of the back of the electronics, at least:

I think that the stereo socket needs replacing, and I'm not going to try to remove and solder a new one in place. I hope Sandisk will do it for me. I wonder if there were any hidden warranty-voiding stickers that I broke when taking it apart . . .

Current music: Charlotte Sometimes, Metallica

What I'm listening to now is mostly Charlotte Sometimes album, Waves & the Both of Us. For some reason, the album doesn't contain this great piano rendition of Build the Moon that is on youtube. Too bad.

I also queued up Metallica's St Anger album, which has been sitting on my hard drive since it was released, waiting for me to decide to listen to it. Apparently, that's been over 5 years. wow. So far, all I can say is that the title track is long, and nothing else stands out.