I’m getting an iPhone!

No I’m not.

I just feel so isolated out here… maybe if I put iphone in the title, I’ll feel more welcome. I’ll fit in better. Then I can start talking up Vista!

Ok, I’ll stop.

Let me think about the top tech acquisitions for the near (and far) future.

Well, some nice soul recently gave me a beautiful old Telefunken radio, straight outta Germany. It has all German writing on it. It’s an Opus 55 in magnificent condition. Since I’m talking tech, this will probably spawn my next tech purchase. It took a while to find the list but I have to retube the bugger. It came in working condition, unfortunately without most of its tubes. And they’re old, obscure European tubes, with the exception of the good old EL84’s (6BQ5) that power its speakers.

Yes, you heard right. My next purchase will likely be vacuum tubes that are significantly older than I am.

But wait - it gets worse…. this weekend is the hamfest (radio amateur electronics flea market, not a place where you bid on pork products) in Frederick County, MD. Maybe I’ll find the tubes there. It’s a long ride but it’s a lot of fun. Maybe some more old tube radios!

So… let’s see what else is on the list… well, I haven’t bought a new guitar or tube amp in way too long. That might explain why I shake so much lately - I’ve got withdrawal symptoms. I have a lefty Les Paul Studio that I’m trying to trade for something new and interesting in the music area. A Tele or G&L ASAT would be pretty cool, provided it has that nice old v-neck with a 7.25″ radius. Fender has been almost genetically incapable of producing nice lefty necks in the past twenty or more years.

Without need for an iPhone, a Mac, or Vista, maybe there will be some room for other computer gear. Since I just built a nice computer, I won’t be needing an upgrade anytime soon. My Treo (the iPhone killer before there was an iPhone) makes calls, plays any kind of media, emails and surfs. More and bigger hard drives are always nice. I discovered external hard drive enclosures, which have helped quite a lot.

I’d love a new broadband connection. My current provider, Comcast, has given me almost 100% uptime. This is alongside 100% rate increases and 100% increases in the number of warnings that I’m using too much bandwidth (although no one is allowed to tell me how much is too much).

I never thought I’d say this but I no longer want for software. Ever since I switched to linux (Xubuntu), I have found almost everything I need. For free.

Ok, I’d like a nice set of computer speakers. The last set committed suicide by leaping off a tall shelf. My new motherboard has 5.1 or something like that. I’d like to hear it once but it’s not a dire need.

I’d like some of my coworkers to just go away quietly, but that’s not within the scope of this topic.

My wife lusted after my Treo (talk about misdirection) but couldn’t find an acceptable deal on one through her carrier (Cingular - the No Network… whatever the question is, the answer is No!). She wound up with some horrid generic phone. She asked for a micro memory card but has yet to do anything with it. Oh well, at least she’s no longer terrified the laptop is going to leap up and bite her (although she already hates Windows unprompted and asked me to install `that oobyuntoo program thingie’ on it).

We both need new car stereos. She needs one because hers is only a radio/cassette player. I purchased a Sony two years back for my car. My main criterion was that it have an aux input so I could plug my Treo into it and play podcasts or mp3/ogg’s. This worked flawlessly until one day when it stopped working at all. It simply would not recognize the aux input. It was perfectly ok with the tuner. It had no problems whatsoever with the cd player. But there was apparently something so evil and nasty about the aux input that it refused to acknowledge its existence.

After a week of the Sony’s stubborn insistence on excommunicating its aux input I could stand it no longer. Radio is completely worthless in PA. One would think that in the (more or less) fifth largest market in the country, there would be a little variety. And if one did, one would be horribly mistaken. Given those circumstances, I quickly tired of the one cd I could remember to bring out to the car, so I removed the faceplate and figured I’d have a look.

Circuit City `installed’ the unit for me after I purchased it. When I say installed, I mean they took about two hours to completely disassemble the massive dashboard, beat the radio into submission and into the small hole provided by the four hundred dollard worth of adapters I had to purchase to go along with my `free’ installation, and hastily SCREWED the dash back in place. It was dark and I didn’t notice the screws for about a month, when the dash began emitting strange noises, causing me to believe the windshield was trying to disassociate itself from the car.

Safely back in the house and ensconced in my room (my Womb, as I call it), I began to take apart the faceplate. I had no hope that it would be covered under warranty and in order to get it fixed I’d probably have to remove the dash, engine, and rear tires to get the radio out. I got a number of screws the size of human hairs out of the unit but it would not come apart. I found one more screw but this also failed to help. In fact, I went at it with everything I had, including a pneumatic road chopperl but this little bugger would NOT open.

Figuring I didn’t want to break it even more, I sent an email to Sony, asking for some tips. I told them I knew it wasn’t under warranty but could they give me a hint as to what to look for. I’m pretty good with electronics and a soldering iron, so I figure I could probably fix it myself (if I could get the blinkin’ faceplace apart).

Forty-eight hours later I had a solid response from Sony Auto: We have reviewed your request on the Sony Hyper X 900 Watt Head Unit and find that it will require service. Please send it to……

Thanks for all the help, Sony. I’ll make sure to replace this unit with a different brand next time. And I’ll definitely avoid Circuit City. The only reason I went there is that Best Buy deliberately ignored then mistreated me for over an hour when I attempted to purchase a unit there.

If I have to install it, the dash will wind up in the back seat and the steering wheel will have to rest on my legs while I drive. I hope it’ll pass inspection next time…

Wait - I’ve got it! An actual tech purchase and I’m not kidding. A few weeks ago, due to my wife’s lack of car aux input, we found a closeout FM transmitter at Target that not only has an aux in, but it plays USB drives. I may go back and get the next model up - it also plays SD cards. This will be much easier than trying to do anything with the existing units. These cars are the size of small countries - there’s no WAY we’ll be able to get into the dashboards.