Webmasters RoundTable

Exciting News from your Nebraska State Director

Little, Plastic, Different Part II

OK so you've probably seen my last posting and the forum thread on my little gadget that I found on Amazon.  At this time I can fairly report back my success with this new found toy of mine.   Recall that my only motivation for buying it was so I can listen to MP3's on my Gold Wing.  It only has a tape deck and an AM/FM radion on it.  Lets face it, listening to commercial radio stations is getting more and more painful every day.  If you're like me you're getting tired of all the commercials which are rising up the "lamer" scale three fold. 

Anyway, over the past few weeks I've been using the MP3 player in the truck on the way to work (and back).  I can't quite try it out on the bike because of all this cold weather we seem to be stuck in.  The player has worked flawlessly except for one occasion when it wouldn't play.  I eventually took it out and stuck it back in with success.  One thing that I don't like is it automatically fades songs in when it plays them.  I can do without automatic fading. 

When I first received the player the sound was pretty distored but after using the remote to turn down the volume it sounds just as good as the radio.  I've read reviews online that indicate the satellite companies are craming so many stations into their lineup that even their sound quality has degraded.  If that's true then this thing is better than satellite (the only difference being who owns the music). 

Last night we (the neighbor and I) ran a range test.  Their house is behind ours and over one so we tuned his car radio to my MP3 player and I drove away slowly down the street.  Just like the Energizer Rabbit I kept going and going and going until I got all the way home.  After a few minutes I got a phone call from my neighbor who told me he could hear it fine until I turned the truck off in the garage.  That's quite a signal this little thing has.  This could be pretty handy for say parades when everyone is listening to the same station.  I suppose any FM modulator would perform like this but it was un-expected for this little deal.  I guess this feature might backfire a little when everyone in town buys one.

I understood the MP3 player would remember it's location in a song when you turned the ignition off.  I thought this because when reading about it on Amazon, people were saying that it was good for books.  When I tested this out I found that the player will remember what track you left off on alright but it would not restart automatically and it would not remember where to restart within that track.  When you turn the ignition on again, it is necessary to hit PLAY and the player will resume again at the beginning of whatever track it was on before.  This doesn't hamper my enjoyment with the device but it would be really neat if it would remember the exact spot it left off.  Also the seller was very helpful in pointing this out.  After re-reading the description it would appear that I did indeed read this incorrectly.

The remote is very handy because typically the lighter in vehicles is down low and there isn't anyway in the world you can read the print on the MP3 player without taking your eye off the road.  What I don't like about the remote is that the volume control is located only on the remote.  If you were to misplace your remote you can't adjust the players volume anymore.  On normal circumstances you wouldn't adjust this setting but once or twice anyway.

Still to come...how will this thing work on the Gold Wing?  I'll find out when the weather finally warms up and I get my Gold Wing back into once piece (early Spring is a great time to add stuff to your ride).  I must admit that overall I am very happy with this purchase and as cheap as this thing is, it sure beat buying an expensive integrated MP3 Player system and spending all Saturday adding it to my bike.  Installation of this thing only takes 14 seconds and can be moved from ride to ride to truck. 

Also still to come...It was advertised as working on drives up to 1 GB.  It worked with my 2GB drive but will it work on my 250GB drive?  If a 2GB flash drive holds say 32 CD's worth of music, imagine how many would fit on a 250 GB Drive.  Stay tuned for "Little, Plastic, Different Part III" coming soon to a GWTA Region C Blog near you...

MP3 Modulator - Little, Plastic, Different

OK so many of you may have been on the edge of your seat while waiting for the outcome of the MP3 FM Modulator Thread.  For the two of you who didn't catch the thread yet click HERE to get all caught up.

To me the whole idea that I could spend $30 and turn my FM radio into an MP3 player was crazy.  Then again, $30 is so cheap that even if it doesn't work I don't have to sell my bike to recover. 

I found this modulator on Sunday on Amazon from a guy who, as it turns out, is just starting a profile.  It really made me nervous ordering it but as I said before it's $30.  Plus I trust Amazon to refund my money in the event this sale didn't work out. 

Anyway 6 days later this white box arrives in the mail.  Even though it arrived just one day late to be on time for my trip, it was still a very responsive sale.  That is, it got here fast enough for my taste. 

Looking at it, my immediate thought was "Little, Plastic, Different".  I found similar items on Walmart.com but they didn't have the remote.  My thinking was if I could conceal the player in the trunk, I could use the remote to control it.  Plus it was one less thing I'd have to do when stopping in to eat someplace (or for any other reason to leave the bike unattended).

Well that didn't work out because as it turns out the remote requires a line of sight before it would work.  That's okay though because the location of my lighter on my 1500 is perfect for controlling this thing while driving (I'll have to set the cruise is all). 

After opening the modulator I ran up to the garage and stuck it in to see if it would play.  Right away it didn't work.  Because it was a little cool in the garage (10 degrees) I figured it would be something to look into later in the year.  Oh wait...gotta turn the key over one more notch.  The headlight comes on and so does the MP3 Player.  I fumble around with the tuner on the radio and eventually find the right channel. 

It sounded really good until I tried to crank the radio up.  When it gets up on the higher side the song sounds a little distorted.  It's almost as if the player has the volume too loud.  That's okay.  I think this thing will sound fine out on the highway.  There's only one way to find out and that's not going to be today. 

The website advertises that the player would work on any flash drive up to 1GB.  For those who know me know that I am going to use a 2GB Flash Drive.  I copied a few Johnny Cash MP3 files on to the flash disk stuck into into the modulator and off it went.  I didn't fill up the flash drive but it did play them.  Also it was Johnny Cash.  I didn't test it with Abba or anything like that. 

Anyway, I'm not going to be listening to MP3 Files in the rain and not cranked all the way up as loud as she'll blow but I think this thing might actually work.  I'll be sure and update this BLOG when something changes.  I'm not sure how this thing will stand up in the heat and with the vibrations etc. etc. 

Overall at this point I'm looking forward to Spring and I'll be using it in the truck for the long ride to work until then.  Two things I don't like about it though are:

• Wireless remote requires line of sight (not a big deal in the car but not so good in my case)
• The station selected to be transmitted on is printed so small you'd never be able to safely see it and operate a vehicle.  If you have to change the setting you'll either have to pull over and squint like hell, have a co-rider do it or guess by thumbing up and down on the radio's tuner.

UPDATE 2/5/2007

Ok so today I did some running around in the truck with my wife and we tried out the FM Modulator.  I loaded some files on to my 2GB Flash Drive and away we went.  Right away, in the driveway, I noticed that on the remote there is a volumn control.  I was unable to turn the modulator up any higher which means it must of been all the way up.  Previously I mentioned that at high volumns, the sound gets distorted.  I turned the volumn down on the modulator and the sound got better.  I'll have to go back to the bike and retry the sound feature again.  I think this will improve the quality of the sound.

The other thing I noticed is that when I restarted the car the player didn't resume playing.  I was thinking that it should restart automatically per the Amazon article.   Pushing the play button restarts the last song that was playing.  I understood that the player should restart at the same point in the song where it left off.  I am not sure if this is because of the size of the flash drive, if I misunderstood the ad or it just doesn't work.  Having to push play and restarting at the last song is not a big problem (it would be if it started over from the beginning though). 

Continue to Part II

Region "C" Pictures

Hey everyone, I posted some of my Region "C" Rally Pictures Here.  If you sign up in the forum (for information on the simple registration process click Here) you can leave comments about each picture and rate each picture too (some are better than others). 

Good Luck and Happy Viewing!

Website Updates Proceed Despite Stupid Cold

Well guess what.  I'm sick yet again but I'm still alive.  I slept most of the day Sunday and missed Daytona but I'm feeling a little better.  I still managed to gain some progress on my current website project for the Nebraska Website. 

Because of all this work, there will be no Winter Scavenger Hunt this year.  I do hope to be able to have the Summer Scavenger Hunt next year though.  That brought in loads of pictures and these made it to the slide show.

That brings up another great point.  With the Winter being so mild, if you have any pictures please send them in for the Picture of the Day page.  I'll eventually get them posted in the database and all submissions will be used in the next Slide Show.  

Please watch this space for future updates.  Oh yea, if you were forwarded this message, you can get your own copy.  Look for the newsletter subscription box on the GWTANebraska Homepage and suscribe.

News Letter Project Issues First Release

Okay so it seems I've had this mailing list for quite some time and never really did anything with it.  People have been signing up all year but probably forgot about it when nothing came.  Tonight I released my first official newsletter for this mailing list. 

The newsletter automatically pulls some of the data collected by various chapters and members and compiles it into a nice handy dandy HTML formatted e-mail message.  I'll try and send this out once per week.  Who knows?  You might find it handy too.

If you haven't already, you can sign up from the GWTA Nebraska Home Page.  Just click the HOME link found at the bottom of any page on the site and then look for the subscribe feature on the page.  You can always unsubscribe by clicking on the tiny link at the bottom of any e-mail message that comes from this subscription. 

In the near future we'll start taking on some of the changes planned for 2006 with the GWTA Nebraska Website.  If you have any ideas, post a comment below or shoot me a private message. 

Jereomy

Verify Your Account or We're Shutting it OFF

Have you ever received an e-mail that said you need to reverify your account and if you don't your account will be suspended?  If so, you may have been a potential victim in a scam. 

Consider This Message

Last week I received the following e-mail message (Complete with E-Bay Logo) in my e-mail box. 

Dear eBay Member,

We regret to inform you that your eBay account could be suspended if you don't re-update your account information.

To resolve this problem please visit the link below and re-enter your account information:

If your problems could not be solved your account will be suspended for a period of 24 hours, after this period your account will be terminated.

For the User Agreement, Section 9, we may immediately issue a warning, temporarily suspend, indefinitely suspend or terminate your membership and refuse to provide our services to you if we believe that your actions may cause financial loss or legal liability for you, our users or us.

We may also take these actions if we are unable to verify or authenticate any information you provide us.

Due to the suspension of this account, please be advised you are prohibited from using eBay in any way. This includes the registering of a new account. Please note that this suspension does not relieve you of your agreed-upon obligation to pay any fees you may owe to eBay.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.

Regards,
Safeharbor Department eBay, Inc.

Inserted into the message was an e-mail link so you can go and verify your account.  If you follow this link you are redirected to a web site that looks like E-bay but really isn't.  Instead you fill out this form "to verify your account" and are actually sending your personal account information to losers that will use it to steal from you.  This is called "Phishing".  Don't fall for it.  The best thing you can do is delete the e-mail message and go away.  Some sites, such as e-bay also have an e-mail address so you can report it to them. 

If you follow the link "just out of curiosity" you might find your PC under a sneak attack (depending on how good your virus protection is) as the site often will try and install spywear onto your PC. 

Microsoft now recommends (finally) that you never click on a link in an e-mail message to load a web site.  Here's why.  Consider the link below:

 https://Ebay.com/Security/Verify

If you click on the link you might think you are going to the e-bay website to verify your account.  It's clear as day right?  If you do click on the link you might find yourself going to another website (my own in this case;you're safe this time).  Instead of obviously being different, I would dress it up like an official e-bay looking site.  You'd never know the difference. 

Microsoft has (finally) added improved security measures with XP SP2 that tries to cut this back.  For instance, if you click on a link on a website and it takes you to another one, you now get a warning letting you know you are traveling away from the site you are at.

One more thing, it's not just e-bay.  This happens with all sorts of websites you may frequent such as your bank or Amazon or anything else I can't think of.  Don't be fooled.  Delete the message and have a great day.  Remember nobody should be sending you an e-mail asking you to verify your account.