Confessions of a compulsive gizmo freak

I have a confession to make. Always been fascinated by gadgets - especially those economically cheapers ones which still score high on technology. You will get a lot of those in Delhi - my home for the last 6 months. The fascination stems from the fact that these things are so "cheap" its almost like cocking a snook at the Apples and Sonys of the world - "Hey bozos, we do it too and do it cheaper!"

But anyway recently at Dubai, I felt the shopper's itch to buy something from "Duty Free". I was stuck between a Merlin 60 GB MP4 (which actually syncs with TV and records TV programs even as they play back + FM radio + does everything that an Apple Ipod does!!) & a 80 GB Apple Ipod. About an hour of deliberation and no small amount of hardsell from the sales guys (don't understand why since both were priced the same), Apple won me over. I had my reservations even as I got onto the flight and was practically ruing my decision the next morning. Things got worse when I was not able to transfer my CDs/DVDs onto my Ipod. The only thing that worked was the music. Movie downloads from Itunes cost about INR 240 which is still 10 times higher than a rental on a projector screen and way too high for a 3 inch screen. Then one fine evening, I decided to junk up the net for everything that I could find for converting video to Ipod. Hallelujah!! Here I am with my findings:
- Video CD to Ipod - "Check",
- DVD to Ipod - "Check",
- YouTube to Ipod - "Check" (I know I know...it allows you to download from YouTube and then convert),
- Google Video to Ipod - "Check",
cheap 7+1 Delhi Street DVDs to Ipod - "Check" !!!

Dude, that was way too cool. How funny it is when you are running up against a technological wall and then when the answers hit you the next day, you feel on freaking top of the world. Hey man, the Ipod is cool. It rulez!! I would recommend the Koyote Ipod Video Converter and the Videora Ipod Video Converter to all my Ipod junkie friends. Its freeware on the net.

Whenever I think of an alternate life and a different field of work, I go back in history (mine) to that one impressionable instant at 16 years of age where I decided to take up the study of commerce and economics over the lure of the more lucrative options and then go "Oh heck!!" Technology does it for me. Its an everyday challenge to solve this conundrum but hey, I am game.

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