MOTOROKR S9-HD: Meh.

One of the features that really got me excited about the Cupcake update (also known as Android 1.5) for my T-Mobile G1 was (finally!) support for stereo Bluetooth. What did this mean? No longer would I have to listen to music on my phone through wired headphones that I had to plug in through an adapter cord -- the G1 lacks a stereo headphone jack, so you have to plug your headphones into a cord that then plugs into the mini USB port in the bottom of the phone.

So I was eager to get the Motorola MOTOROKR S9-HD wireless hi-def Bluetooth headphones. There's some good and some bad about them. First, the good. They sound really good, most of the time, both for listening to music and for phone calls. Especially the bass. And they seem pretty durable. I wouldn't let your dog loose on them or anything, but I'd feel comfortable throwing them in your backpack with a bunch of other things. The buttons work pretty well for controlling playback and answering calls.

Now the bad. Note that, I said they sound good "most of the time." The key word here is "most." Unfortunately, I did notice a couple of glitches. First, while the range of the headphones is supposed to be 33 feet, I noticed that if I moved more than about 10 feet from my phone, the audio would cut out...a lot. That would be ok (how often would I listen to music more than 10 feet from my phone?), but it also cut out every now and then even when I was only about 2-3 feet from my phone (i.e., the phone was sitting on the table next to me). The other glitch I noticed was that songs seemed to slow down and speed up during playback -- it was as if either the data rate of data going from the phone to the headphones was inconsistent or the processor inside the headphones couldn't quite handle the streaming audio data. I'm thinking (hoping?) it's the former.

One more thing -- if your head is of an appreciable size like mine is, you might find these headphones uncomfortable. I found that the speakers fit snugly in my ears -- as long as I kept my head relatively still. If I turned my head, however, the back of my head would push the back of the headphones, causing the speakers to slip out of my ears. I don't think they'd ever actually come off of my head, but my listening experience was affected. This isn't Motorola's fault -- I acknowledge that my head is pretty large, maybe even abnormally large, and that this type of form factor just won't work for me.

I think these headphones would be just about perfect if the Bluetooth were improved for more consistent data transfer between the phone and the headphones. It could be my phone, but I doubt it -- my phone works very well with my Plantronics headset. Ultimately, I decided to bring them back to the store.

J is for Giraffe!

My daughter just opened her new Fisher-Price Little People A to Z Learning Zoo. She's having lots of fun with it, but I noticed some weird animals among the menagerie. For instance, U is for Uriel, apparently a ram like creature. This one is just wrong...

What's Your Theological Worldview?

What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Classical Liberal You are a classical liberal. You are sceptical about much of the historicity of the Bible, and the most important thing Jesus has done is to set us a good moral example that we are to follow. Doctrines like the trinity and the incarnation are speculative and not really important, and in the face of science and philosophy the surest way we can be certain about God is by our inner awareness of him. Discipleship is expressed by good moral behaviour, but inward religious feeling is most important. Classical Liberal 96% Emergent/Postmodern 86% Modern Liberal 82% Roman Catholic 79% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 71% Neo orthodox 46% Reformed Evangelical 21% Charismatic/Pentecostal 7% Fundamentalist 0%

What American Accent Do You Have?

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Inland North   You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop."
The Midland
The South
Philadelphia
North Central
The Northeast
The West
Boston
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Neutral Good

Your Score: Neutral-Good

64% Good, 54% Chaotic

Plane of Existence: Elysium, "Blessed Fields". Description: The plane of peace. Notable Inhabitants: Guardinals - noble immortal humanoids with bestial features.




Examples of Neutral-Goods (Ethically Neutral, Morally Good)




Cloud Strife (FFVII)

Boogenhagen (FFVII)

Mother Theresa

Ghandi

Sidhartha Gautama (the Buddha)

Gandalf

Bilbo & Frodo Baggins

Samwise Gamgee

Indiana Jones

The Dali Lama

Ben (O-Bi-Wan) Kenobi

Luke Skywalker

Harry Potter

Hermionie

Dumbledore




Often goes along with the laws and desires of the group as being the easiest course of action, but ethical considerations clearly have top priority. May pursue quite abstract goals. Often aloof and difficult to understand.




Will keep their word to others of good alignment

Would not attack an unarmed foe

Will not use poison

Will help those in need

May work with others

Indifferent to higher authority

Indifferent to organizations



Neutral Good "Pure Good"

"Benefactor"



A neutral good [person] will obey the law, or break it when he or she sees it will serve a greater good. He or she is not bound strongly to a social system or order. His or her need to help others and reduce their suffering may take precedence over all else. Neutral good [people] do good for goodness' sake, not because they are directed to by law or by whim.



This alignment desires good without bias for or against order.



Other Alignments and Tendencies (Tendenices are what you would more often sway towards; esp. for Neutrals):

0-39% Good, 0-39% Chaotic: Lawful-Evil

0-39% Good, 40-60% Chaotic: Neutral-Evil

0-39% Good, 61-100% Chaotic: Chaotic-Evil

40-60% Good, 0-39% Chaotic: Lawful-Neutral

40-60% Good, 40-60% Chaotic: True Neutral

40-60% Good, 61-100% Chaotic: Chaotic-Neutral

61-100% Good, 0-39% Chaotic: Lawful-Good

61-100% Good, 61-100% Chaotic: Chaotic-Good

Link: The Alignment Test written by xan81 on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Aquarius Sun, Pisces Moon

I am utterly amazed by how well this profile (from astrology-numerology.com) describes me.

11-12 Aquarius/Pisces
The combination of your Sun sign and your Moon sign produces a mind that is very original and able to grasp the most vague, ethereal and extreme concepts. The blend mixes friendliness, originality and independence of Aquarius with the emotional sensitivity and imagination of Pisces. You are a person who is naturally persevering and conscientious, being interested in detail, method and order. Your way of reacting to the world is very interesting. You can spend days just dreaming and speculating. You are fascinated by the unusual and the abstract, finding it interesting to take up studies in any number of bazaar topics. Loving to read and study, you may become very well informed on a wide variety of subjects. You lean heavily on your hunches and way out ideas, and you're easily distracted from routine work. You dream a lot and you have an utter faith in the dreams you dream. Your mind can get so far afield on some vaguely related tangent that you may even forget what the task at hand originally was. Your perceptions are so vividly acute that it is often not practical to pay attention to all of them. You live a private life of your own, into which few others ever penetrate. A keen imagination or a sort of mental vision allows you to be good money-maker in a variety of fields; you seem to be able to intuitively realize possibilities and take advantage of them. You success relies on talent and intelligence since you don't project a particularly strong leadership personality. There is a tendency for you to let things drift. At times you should display a more forceful will, but by and large you develop a very pronounced prudence and sense of caution. You can benefit in overcoming or controlling a tendency to accept things in a passive way, or in being too friendly and obliging if others incline to take advantage of your good nature.

What's Your Political Persuasion?

You Are a Liberal Republican

When you tell people that you're Republican, they rarely believe you. That's because you're socially liberal - likely pro-choice and pro-gay rights. You're also not so afraid of big goverment, as long as it benefits people and not politicians. You are the most likely of any Republican type to swing over to the Democrat side sometimes.

What's Your Political Persuasion?