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MISSING_BOX

                                                        July 8, 2011

Perhaps the weirdest thing about
the circumstances mentioned in:

         LONG_SEGUE

Is the absence of an mp3 player.
                                    
They're not exactly expensive these        
days and I have no particular reason       Unlike say, cell phones,
to avoid them--                            which have an associated
                                           social dynamic I'm leery of.
   For some time I was using my laptop    
   as a (rather clumsy) bedside mp3
   player, and it was clear to me that
   a dedicated mp3 player would have a
   lot to be said for it.

     I would say the main reason I don't
     have one (even now) is I dislike
     the necessity of shopping around
     and doing product comparisons.

         What cost, what size,
         what features exist,          And there's robustness to consider:
         what political issues
                                       I bought one as a gift for Dangerbaby
           Avoiding anything           once, and it died distressingly quickly.
           that uses DRM would       
           be good.                        And on top of all that there's the
                                           possibility that I'd rather go
                                           for something multi-function, like
                                           an ebook reader that also works
                                           to play mp3s.
           

             Possibly this is a case of
             freedom shock, or whatever
             it is they like to call           Myself, I actually
             paralysis due to an excessive     wonder why anyone gets
             number of choices.                interested in buying the
                                               latest stuff...  it's
                "paradox of choice"            all such crap, half of
                                               the time it just leaves
                                               me feeling ripped off.

                                                   You need to spend
                                                   hours on research
                                                   just to find
                                                   something that's
                                                   not garbage, and
                                                   then I feel ripped
                                                   off by the amount
                                                   of time I have to
                                                   put into it.


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