Darrin S.

As with most things I knock off this list, this was completely impulsive, unpremeditated, and done just because I had the proverbial “bug up my butt” today.

Having a substantial chunk of change left over after paying bills this month (for the first time in two years) and finding myself defending a bold assertion about a particular new technology that I think is going to take off, it was suggested that I put my money where my mouth is. Always one to rise to a challenge, immediately after lunch, I opened an account at sharebuilder.com, transferred some money into it, and bought ten shares of stock in a company that I think has some interesting growth potential over the next 24 months. If I’m right, I’ll probably make enough money to buy the good, fresh steaks instead of the “throw out after today” ones. If I’m wrong, I’m only out what I would have spent on a couple of “date nights” with the wife. Either way, it’s probably a better investment than buying comic books or MP3’s, which is what I WOULD have spent it on.

... and assuming I don’t lose my shirt, I’ll invest a similar amount next month and try to build one of those “diversified portfolio” things that people keep telling me about.

Okay, so when I added this goal, it was intended as “Get and iPod-Like device” and to be fair I did research the iPod in making my seletion. However, not wishing to be locked into the iTunes store, or to pay a premium to have the apple logo on my MP3 player, I eventually narrowed it down to the iRiver Rhapsody and the Creative Zen.

The Rhapsody was the only major model that had my favorite feature, variable speed playback, which allows you to listen to podcasts and audio books at accelerated speeds and hence cram more listening into less time. The Zen on the other hand, offered and SD card expansion port, which was very appealing since it would effectively better than double the capacity of the device, and allow me to have different libraries on different cards. One card can be downloading podcasts or video while I’m at work, while the other can travel with me.

The tie breaker between the two finalists was a quick review of their support offerings. Creative had a phone support number right on the box, an extensive knowledge base on their website, and numerous published contact methods (email, message boards, etc.). iRiver had an unintelligible menu system that claimed to understand English, but didn’t, and pretty much nothing else.

Selection made, my lovely and charming wife bought me Zen as my birthday present, and I purchased the additional SD cards and some smart accessories to round out the purchase. All-in-all: completely satisfied with the decision so far.

Creative expert, technical consultant, casting director, script editor, I mean, I don’t act, but I’m pretty multi-faceted and I think I would be of use to SOMEBODY.