Creative Nomad Jukebox ZEN Xtra, 40GB MP3 player
So back in 2003 or 2004, I had the choice between buying a 40GB iPod for $400 with the feature that the user could not change the battery (giving it an effective life of 18 months) or buying a 40GB MP3 player made by Creative (makers of the best-known sound cards around) for $250 with the feature of a user-changeable battery.
I chose the Creative. Since, I have sworn never to buy an iPod so long as I can't change the battery myself. The inflated price and the draconian iTunes have further cemented this oath.
Since I upgraded laptops and lost the software CD that came with it, I have not been able to put new MP3s on my Nomad for the last few years. I have gone to the Creative site, downloaded the latest version of the software and drivers, installed them, but no juju. I've tried several times in the past year or two, but no luck.
I wanted to use the player for the Army 10-miler, which I ran today and finished in 1:32:34. Let me tell you, running 10 miles at 6000 feet above sea level when you haven't run in a month, in this filthy air and over some seriously crazy gravel was a new visitation upon suffering, but I finished, and finished well. I hadn't really thought I could do it, and figured I'd have to stop and walk from time to time, but I made it running the whole way.
Anyway, I wanted to listen to Escape Pod casts while I was running, which I needed to load on the player. After three hours of research, installation, uninstallation, restarting, reinstallation, etc., I finally got it to work. Here were the problems:
1. You have to install the WinXP driver for the player. (no surprise)
2. You have to have MediaSource 5 installed, which is the software. (no surprise)
3. You have to download and install a special plugin for that software to be able to recognize the CNJZ Xtra. (...what?)
4. You have to have Windows Media Player 10 installed. Not 9. Not 11. Not the 11 runtime library. WMP 10 and only 10. Otherwise, the software doesn't recognize that the CNJZ Xtra is attached. (WTF?!)
It also seems that getting Vista to recognize the player is even more of a pain in the ass.
Oh, and did I mention that there's a newer version of the firmware? That reportedly breaks the player more often than not? And installation of which erases the MP3s on it? I was grateful that I was able to get it working without this new firmware.
Needless to say, getting this up and running has been a pain in the ass, and until I get the Vista process down, I have yet another reason to keep an XP boot (something which bothers me on the basis of necessitating/justifying running 2-5 OSs on a single computer).
In the end, running with that brick was also somewhat of a problem. So I will be acquiring a new MP3 sometime in the near future to facilitate running with 'tunes.
But I did get to listen to three stories (26, 27, and 28)! The third of which sucked ballz as a short story, but would have been funny as a one-page joke.
I chose the Creative. Since, I have sworn never to buy an iPod so long as I can't change the battery myself. The inflated price and the draconian iTunes have further cemented this oath.
Since I upgraded laptops and lost the software CD that came with it, I have not been able to put new MP3s on my Nomad for the last few years. I have gone to the Creative site, downloaded the latest version of the software and drivers, installed them, but no juju. I've tried several times in the past year or two, but no luck.
I wanted to use the player for the Army 10-miler, which I ran today and finished in 1:32:34. Let me tell you, running 10 miles at 6000 feet above sea level when you haven't run in a month, in this filthy air and over some seriously crazy gravel was a new visitation upon suffering, but I finished, and finished well. I hadn't really thought I could do it, and figured I'd have to stop and walk from time to time, but I made it running the whole way.
Anyway, I wanted to listen to Escape Pod casts while I was running, which I needed to load on the player. After three hours of research, installation, uninstallation, restarting, reinstallation, etc., I finally got it to work. Here were the problems:
1. You have to install the WinXP driver for the player. (no surprise)
2. You have to have MediaSource 5 installed, which is the software. (no surprise)
3. You have to download and install a special plugin for that software to be able to recognize the CNJZ Xtra. (...what?)
4. You have to have Windows Media Player 10 installed. Not 9. Not 11. Not the 11 runtime library. WMP 10 and only 10. Otherwise, the software doesn't recognize that the CNJZ Xtra is attached. (WTF?!)
It also seems that getting Vista to recognize the player is even more of a pain in the ass.
Oh, and did I mention that there's a newer version of the firmware? That reportedly breaks the player more often than not? And installation of which erases the MP3s on it? I was grateful that I was able to get it working without this new firmware.
Needless to say, getting this up and running has been a pain in the ass, and until I get the Vista process down, I have yet another reason to keep an XP boot (something which bothers me on the basis of necessitating/justifying running 2-5 OSs on a single computer).
In the end, running with that brick was also somewhat of a problem. So I will be acquiring a new MP3 sometime in the near future to facilitate running with 'tunes.
But I did get to listen to three stories (26, 27, and 28)! The third of which sucked ballz as a short story, but would have been funny as a one-page joke.