Well okay, you make good points, @shadowfax. We all earn our money and we choose what to spend it on. By the way, I enjoy Startalk radio too, I pull it in for free from the website, but I have to be home to listen to it, which is just as well, because I usually have to ‘jump back’ and re-listen to the parts that go over my head. . . .
But I stand by my point, people need to be vigilant about subscriptions. $10/mo. here $15/mo. there, one can fritter away thousands of dollars a year this way. My cable company recently informed (threatened?) me that soon they will be changing the service such that I will have to pay a monthly fee for a “box” in addition to the fee for cable. I called them up and asked if I could buy this “box” straight out instead of paying for it 10 or 100 times over via the monthly fee; they said “no, you will have to pay the fee every month”. So I told them, when that day comes, cancel my service instead. I figure if I can go 30 days without cable, then I’m good to go. Maybe I’ll get back to reading books like I did when I was younger.
@VOLVOV70, yeah, a lot of my co-workers subscribed to satellite radio after HOward Stern took his show there. I never thought he was funny. “Oh, but Ed, you don’t understand, he can use dirty words on satellite radio that he couldn’t say on the regular radio.” So? I’ve heard dirty words before, why would I pay a fee to listen to Howard Stern say them?
And what about, I seem to recall, when Serious and XM got their licenses, they super pinky swear promised the government that they would never ever never try to merge with each other? And then spent themselves almost bankrupt buying up big name “talent” like Stern; and then decided that they did indeed want to merge, and the government let them? Kinda shiesty, I’d say.
Hi. I’m not jumping to close this right away, but it’s skirting the edges of being off topic. Could you please bring it back closer to the car stuff? Thank you.
Really? I mean REALLY? $22 (and more, by the looks of things) to listen to the RADIO?!
Ha, ha. If you stand back far enough, just about anything you pay a fee for could be boiled down like that. First and foremost, it’s not just RADIO. It’s a wide range of ENTERTAINMENT including radio but that’s just one segment of what they offer. I’ll leave it to your curiosity (or not) to log onto their web site and see the various channels and their content.
If you think $22 is ridiculous, hang onto your hat because I pay around $280/year for this between all the cars and internet service. I could easily trim that back by having only two portable radios and internet streaming but for me, it’s not worth the inconvenience. YMMV.
I don’t think I can stream with my “flip phone” and don’t think I have a data plan. It works just fine for a phone though.
Ed, I went through the same thing last year when they went all digital signals instead of analog. I had 7 or more TVs with cable. So I have just two now with cable but activated the antenna that had been in my attic for 20 years not hooked up. I pulled in about 23 channels over the air with it. Of course had to throw out the non-digital TVs and get a few new ones but still 23 channels for no rental fee. The only thing I don’t get is a decent news station and financial station over the air but I do get old TV shows like Andy Griffith.
What was the subject of this whole discussion anyway? Oh yeah, CD players. I was going to junk or sell my Olds Aurora but it still has a CD player in it. Maybe I should keep it or at least pull the radio. I could store it with my spare 100 watt bulbs.
going, going, gone…applies to ALL non vehicle related technologies built into vehicles.
as time passes, the vehicles easily out-live the non-car tech.
My son’s 78 Grand Marquis had an ashtray and lighters in all four arm rests…and an 8-track.
My 79 Chevy pickup has a 3-speed automatic, manual seat and windows, and simple gauges not tied to a computer.
but what’s really scarry about all the time related changes is…
Getting one of these things serviced in, say…10 years. and the fact that since so many functions are integrated through multiple computing modules…one malfunction and BZZZT !
My 1936 Chevrolet had, um, some lights in various places. I had a black smith change the headlights to sealed beam, though it has been so long I don’t remember exactly how we did it. It seems like we also did something to the generator, maybe a newer one with a voltage regulator. At the time that was all the technology I needed.
My wife not long ago bought a modestly priced record player from Target. We have a number of good old records. One I missed was Guantanamera by the Sandpipers, from the Sixties. We took the record player to Mexico with us.
My 2002 Sienna has AM/FM/CD/cassette. Perfect. I shudder to think what the used car we must buy soon will have.
@“ken green” is right.
I’ve heard of cars where electronic motherboards are no longer available and there are ongoing businesses that sell refurbished ones with turn in of old boards for refurbishing.
I suppose the same can be true for mechanical parts in old cars…
I like books on CD (used to be tape) but I don't think they're likely to have books on thumb drive for a while. At least not at the public library. They just got done making all the books on tape obsolete
I like audio book on CD too. Both for listening in the car and at home. My own public library offers both CD audio books and downloadable mp3 audio files on certain books, so I could listen to those from a thumb drive instead of CD if I wanted to.
Those audio books on cassette tape, I remember those. Pretty much all the ones I tried had the same problem. You’d hear not only what you were supposed to be hearing, but at the same time, in the background, a copy of the same audio, but delayed 5 seconds. I finally decided what must happen is when the tapes are stored for long periods of time all wound up in a reel, some of the magnetism that makes the audio transfers from one winding on the tape to the next. I was very happy when they replaced all the audio books on cassette with audio books on CD.
Yeah I’ve still got a bunch of diskettes loaded with stuff but no slot for them. I guess I’ll just have to destroy them. A lot easier than going through tons of paper.
I was able to transfer the floppy drive from the old pc tower into the new. It bolted right in and there was a plug on the mother board…yet… I’ve never needed to use it since.
Overdrive: Download e-books, e-audiobooks, videos and music for your computer or mobile devices. This requires log-in with a library card and password. Smartphone and tablet apps make reading, listening, and watching easy while on the go.
For my wife’s work desk, she asked me to find a little am/fm radio…just a radio !
Not a clock radio. ( well, maybe if it’s small enough )
Not an mp3 requiring ear buds.
Not a boom box with cd players and big speakers. ( too big )
Just a radio…small enough the park in the back corner of her desk and play her oldies station loud enough for her to hear.
DOH !..Do you know how hard it is , these days, to find just a radio ?
Off to my garage and storage building I go to dig in my stash…cuz I know there’s one in there somewhere.
@ken green: Re. a radio, try a thrift store, where old tech goes to die. Personally I have a 6-disc CD changer in my car, which is about 10 years old now. It was just before USB slots became common. But it does play MP3s, so I have 6 discs full of them, which is probably about 1,000 songs, and XM and standard broadcasts if I get sick of them.
But I personally think USB slots are the best thing to happen to car radios—you can put thousands of songs on a flash drive vs. maybe 20 or so on a CD. Like anything new, there is a learning curve, but it’s really pretty simple to do and well worth it.
Yah, I guess I’ll have to break down and hit the flea market and used stores…hey, maybe Good Will, to whom we donate on a regular basis.
Usually boom boxes galore…BUT …you’ve hit on a great possibility there oblivion.
Yeah I hear ya. In my little shop attached to the garage I’ve got an AM/FM with tape and CD in a cabinet with speakers wired in the garage and shop. Its just what I want. The tape went south, then the CD, and the rest of it is none to stable. You think I can find a replacement?
I believe the Smithsonian has one in mint condition
I bought a Jam Party box from Walmart for around $100. It’s wireless and rechargeable. I just carry the speaker and my phone wherever I’m working and stream audio to it. It sounds better than most home stereos IMHO…
