Timewaster's Guide Archive
Departments => Music => Topic started by: The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers on March 17, 2005, 11:21:50 AM
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so.... XM Radio...
ANy of you use it?
Because I've been slugging, and several of these guys have XM radio. It's really cool. I keep hearing really cool music that I haven't heard in ages. With 120 stations, I'm sure to find a few that match my interest (heck, the classic rock stations are doing pretty good for it so far, and I know there are regae, modern rock, classical, and news stations that'd work for me).
So I think the service is great.
It's just, i have this resistence to paying $13/mo for my radio. I guess it'd be worth it. FM radio is so disappointing that I'll only listen to it if I have no other choice. AccuRadio is getting old really fast, and I'd use it for at least 8 hours a day at work, so I'd certainly get money out of it.
The other thing is that the minimum you have to pay to get into this gig is $150 for equipment (there are receivers for $100, but they need an adapter to a stereo that costs $50). That'd also be easier if they had a deal like cell phones where you can commit to 2 years and get a free receiver. Besides, the one I covet it actually $350.
Maybe I should just wait till they strike a deal with Apple and we get an iPod with 80GB storage and a portable XM receiver combined. Then, if I needed the $13 that month, I can just listen to my electronic music.
How cool would that be?
/me writes a letter to Steve Jobs.
edit: oo! and throw in a PDA for good measure. All it'd need would be a telephone to be the ultimate geek toy (though I'd think it'd be too big to be a practical phone)
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I got it for Astrid so she can listen at work, and we use it at the wine store too...
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How's she like it?
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good...
She has an older stereo with it...
they now have a walkman like device for it...
I like it at work... a nice stream of music, innocuous Station ID's and good programming...
Today there are 4 irish stations
My favorite
Irish Hooligans... Irish Punk and hard rock
And
Celtic classics...
Just got finished w/ the clancy brothers singing rocky road to dubnlin.
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Yeah, the one I want is a walkman that will plut into any powered speakers. Expensive piece of electronics, but that might be why I wanty.
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What's slugging?
So, this has no commercials?
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Slugging is waiting around at one of the major bus stops and waiting for someone driving alone to come by and announce he's going to the same general location and is willing to give you a ride.
Slug drivers do this so they can use the HOV lanes, which makes a HUGE difference in travel time if you live further south than Arlington: at least 15 minutes, depending on the time/traffic/destination, sometimes as much as an hour. The local transportation departments have encouraged this, since it gets cars off the road and doesn't cost them as much as subsidizing expansions to the bus/train routes, so many places, like the Pentagon, have signs up for even more generalized areas
So I'll go wait at the sign that says "Springfield/Burke" on my way home and wait for someone to announce they're going all the way to Rolling Valley (there are 2 other stops that don't go that far, and a third that goes a slightly different direction that are all considered Springfield/Burke) and just wait for someone to show up.
Anyway, yeah, XM relies on subscriber fees to pay their costs. They don't do advertising, and there's no DJ that I want to punch in the face doing a stupid morning show. The more I think about it, the more $13/mo is SOOOO worth it. I just need to get the equipment cost budgeted.
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and they also do have news shows and talk radio if your so inclined...
plus stuff like the National Geographic channel, and even a movie soundtrack channel... Over a hundred and fifty channels I think...
Franks place is good, (sinatra like stuff but all of it original) the Jazz stations are excellent. Classical Music stations are also good as are the hits of the 80's, progressive rock, and so on.
also it doesnt take much to set it up to hijack the audio content and play it back later as an MP3...
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The new receivers even have tivo-like capability of storing a certain amount of programming for later playback
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I think Jeffe has used up his ellipsis allotment for the year...
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yeah...
I know I over use them...
and use them wrongly too...
:P
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XM radio is definitely something I"ve looked into as well. We need a new stereo for our car at some point and I'm kind of like, "well, as long as we're putting out the money ANYWAY..."
But I'm far more interested in slugging. And kind of annoyed. If *I* tried that everyone woudl tell me how I"m going to get kidnapped and killed. Eric, being a decently size guy can probably slug with impunity.
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Given what happened to his Knee, I'd hardly say impunity.
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Yes, but that was an escalator attack. had nothing to do with hitchhiking.
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viscious attacks from wild, rabid escalators have nothing to do with hitchhiking..
anyway, EVERYONE slugs in this area. It's safe because it's institutionalized. Everyone waits their turn and calls out destinations when they're at the front so only one person has to walk the whole way. If you came out here, Fuzzy, you could slug no problem.
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Its actually kind of amazing... since its institutionalized hitch hiking...
It started because Folks at the Pentagon needed to get to work back in the days when there was no parking, and before they outsourced a lot of the building... since at the time it was literally the largest office building in the world and the american dream means you have to own a car, people started slugging. Plus it took the metro a LONG time to come to the suburbs...
Still not very close to a lot of places, and since busses take so long... and since most people are heading one way... slugging works well.
Plus its free.
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XM Radio doesn't really appeal to me as I can listen to just about anything I'd want on Winamp (perhaps thousands of audio streams, all free).
If I go somewhere and I want music, I bring my mp3 player. My music collection is large enough to be able to keep me entertained.