MP3 Car Stereo [Revisited]

A good while back I talked about wanting to get an MP3 Car Stereo. What I ended up buying was a Goodmans Car Stereo. The reason I bought this one was because it had a USB port on the front panel. That meant that I could simply insert my USB flash drive (which incidentally has recently died) and I listen to mp3 songs.

This has turned out to be a very good alternative to an actual mp3 car stereo. It’s so easy to add or delete songs and it also means there’s no longer a need to haul around a case of CD’s :)

Live 8

Remember Live Aid? Well guess what? 20 years on and there’s to be another one.

The free event will be held in London’s Hyde Park on 2 July with concerts in Philadelphia, Paris, Rome and Berlin.
Geldof said the event was “not for charity but political justice”, adding that organisers had “scrambled like crazy” to stage the concerts to highlight the plight of Africa.

More Reading:
Geldof unveils Live 8 show plans

Buying from an International Retailer

One great thing that has come from ecommerce, is the ability to shop around for the best prices. Being able to choose from not just a select few retailers but from hundreds or thousands really has it’s advantages. Competition is always a good thing. Every retailer is constantly trying to outdo the other.

I do a good bit of shopping online, mainly for music, dvds and books. And I think that if I hadn’t, I’d be down a lot more Euros than I am right now.

Lately though I’ve been feeling more guilty about my online shopping. All of my purchases in recent months (if not since my first ever online purchase) have been from a retailer in another country. What’s to be feeling guilty about you ask? I’m saving money right? Yes, but the money I spend is not going back into my country’s economy – which it needs.

I’ll admit, I do my fair share of complaining about how this country is run, but when all is said and done, I’m still proud to be Irish and want to help make it a better place.

Some might argue that my online spending habits won’t really make much of a difference, but every penny helps (even though we’re using cents now :)). Others might argue that if the economy can be affected by the small number of Irish people spending there earnings online, then the government should do more to help lower prices.

Maybe they should. Maybe they are. Or maybe I shouldn’t worry about my country’s economy so much, and let those elected do the worrying instead.

Music for the jilted designer generation

I’m a big fan of music. I listen to it all day, everyday. The radio is on in our house from the time the first person gets up until the time the last person goes to bed. It’s been like that for as long as I can remember.

Although the radio is on, I prefer to play my own music when designing or coding. I’ve burn the majority of my cd’s onto the computers hard drive, so I’ve got a good selection to choose from.

Generally I like to listen to upbeat music (Gigi D’Agostino, Daftpunk, Fatboy Slim, Prodigy, etc) when coding and alternative music (Radiohead, Ocean Colour Scene, Keane, Snow Patrol, etc) when designing.

Have you got any favourite music for when you design or code?