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My iPod Video doesn’t like phones post has been making its rounds around the web. Here is where its been mentioned so far:

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
Mac4Ever
Macfeber
Engadget
Slashphone
Macenstein
Macorama
iPod Fun
MacWorld (SE)
Sektori
Onliner

Choosing the right headphone is very difficult. I have never used the iPod ear buds because they suck really bad, instead I have used my iPods with the following: Technics DJ1200, Bang & Olufsen A8’s and the Shure E2’s. The Technics made my ears sweat and they hurt after long use. The B&O A8’s sounded terrible with a complete lack of low frequency response (ie no bass). The Shure E2’s are the best earphones I have owned so far. They are canal phones which basically means you stick them deep inside your ear. They provided excellent sound quality and provide amazing isolation from the outside world. If you have them on with music playing at a decent volume you won’t be able to hear anything around you. I once made Nat scream at the top of her lungs right in my face with my E2’s on and I didn’t hear her at all. The downside though is they take like a minute to put on and in a working environment with lots of interruptions, they weren’t practical at all.

So since I ordered my new iPod Video, I wanted to order new headphones. I did allot of research and I finally brought down my options to two headphones, The Grado SR60’s and the Sennheiser PX100. Both are open air speakers which means my neighbors would hear what I was listening to but that wasn’t a concern. What I was looking for was good sound, portability, comfort and practicality. The Grado SR60’s are one of the best quality headphones you could buy and for their price ($69) they are a steal. Many audiophiles compare their quality to much more expensive headphones costing hundreds of dollars more. The Grado’s are handmade in Brooklyn and they have a retro look which you will either love or hate. I was about to get them when I realized they didn’t fit the specs I wanted. They were not comfortable, they were not portable and because they came with a really long cable they weren’t very practical. So my only option was the PX100.

I just got my PX100 over an hour ago and here is my first impression. The headphone case is amazing, the PX100 fold down to a very compact size and which you can then shove into this cool plastic case it came with. Sound wise they sound really good at the moment with very decent bass and very clear highs and mids. According to forums the sound will also get better once I break the headphones in over the weekend with a continuous 48 hours of non stop music playing through them (to help speed up the break-in period). The cable length is perfect and so far the headphones are very comfortable, so comfortable that I can’t actually feel them on my head! The downside of the PX100 so far is that it looks pretty cheap, but that’s expected since it cost me only $49. So far I really like them, once I get my iPod on Saturday and I finish breaking in the headphones I will post another better review so check back.

Update: I have had my PX100 on for 3 hours now and I had totally forgot they were on until I just tried to scratch my head. My neighbor can hear the music I am listening to but I made a deal with her, she now can play music through her computer speakers if she wants to while I am listening to my headphones, that way I don’t bother her.

How come no one calls me from space? I am jealous! [Link]

The editor of Bazaar has replied to the previous post Bazaar Magazine Knows Shit. This is what he had to say:

mark,for your information I am a regular reader of your blog and am always very impressed by it as I am by all of you guys!. I wish we had a tenth of the freedom you guys have in expressing yourselves.Moreover,just to clarify something to you,we dont edit writers and we dont pick and choose what we print and what we dont print depending on OUR point of view. We dont neccesarily agree with what our writers submit,but we do give them space to express themselves. Unfortunately,sometimes that means that some readers will definately not agree with something written.These views do NOT represent our point of view,and to prove it,have a look at all the positive articles on blogging and on bloggers we have had over the years.I strongly urge you to write a column regarding the article that came out with your views on the matter and I promise you it will get published in bazaar! best regards.

I am personally not a good writer (my vocabulary is very basic) but maybe another blogger out there like Nibaq, shewritesq8 or K can write an article from a bloggers point of view.

I just watched this amazing video of a slot car race which under normal circumstance would be normal except the guy had mounted a tiny camera on the tiny slot car. It was really cool watching the video from that perspective but if only it was a bit brighter. [Link]

These webcams were found automatically through a variety of clever search techniques. Their owners might or might not have intended for them to be public. But they obviously are. Many of them are security cameras in companies or semi-public places. [Link]

Revolver
I usually like Guy Ritchie’s movies (haven’t watched Swept Away yet) but I didn’t like Revolver. It was very entertaining to watch in some places and Ray Liotta was really good but my problem was that the movie was trying too hard to be weird while I would have rather it tried to look funky.

Straight into Darkness
This was a war movie about two American deserters during World War II. I hadn’t heard of the director Jeff Burr before this movie and I hadn’t heard of any of the actors either. This movie isn’t like Platoon or Apocalypse Now and you won’t be seeing any large military battles between the American and the Germans etc.. There is only one small battle near the end of the movie but I won’t give more details so I don’t ruin the movie. The movie was interesting but nothing spectacular.

Two years ago I purchased two PowerMacs and two 21inch Sony Monitors from my previous agency. I gave the newer Quicksilver PowerMac to my brother and I kept the older Graphite PowerMac for myself. When it came to the monitors, I gave the older Sony G500 to my brother and kept the newer G520 for myself. Come back to the present day, my Sony monitor is fucked. There are a couple of white horizontal lines that show up on dark areas of an image which makes things really annoying, plus there was a sharpness issue, I couldn’t read small type on websites anymore and especially if they were grey. When my brother moved to Lebanon for university he kept his Sony monitor at my parents place, so I decided to go get it and try it on my Mac to see if it was any better. Wow what a difference, after installing my brothers monitor I realized how fucked mine was. The colors are more vibrant now, the text is wayyy sharper and when there is a dark image on the screen I don’t see any horizontal lines! I can’t believe I spent all this time working with such a messed up screen. I feel like my Mac is reborn again, cool shit.

I just found out that the new Jaguar XK uses Macromedia Flash for its interface. The touch screen control panel uses Flash and with it you can adjust the audio, navigation, climate control, telephone and vehicle settings. I just really hope it doesn’t start up with a stupid flash intro page. [Link]

Eric Spiekermann designer of my second favorite typeface Meta has a fucking blog! Most of his posts are posted in German and English which makes things easy for me since I neither speak nor read German. My favorite typeface is Frutiger by the way which was designed by Adrian Frutiger. A good friend of mine was very lucky to have met him at a design conference. When he was introduced to Adrian Frutiger he told him that Frutiger was his favorite typeface, Adrian replied asking him at what point size, my friend replied saying 9 ofcourse.

Anyway here is Eric’s blog. [Link]

My friend told me about this place in Kuwait that can pimp out your car by making your doors open vertically instead of horizontally.. like Lamborgini’s. I think he said it costs KD1000 per door or something. So today on my way back home from work I saw this pimped out envoy with the doors open and I took a quick picture.

Oh and earlier tonight I was crossing the traffic light (walking) behind this old Ford Bronco when I saw a sticker on his rear window that said “Don’t Look Inside”, so I looked inside and wow, the guy had the whole interior of the car laid out with speakers on the bottom and the amps all around the inside windows. There were atleast 12 subs and an equal amount of amps all laid out. Really cool shit.

I just got the following message with bad punctuation about a rock concert that will take place in Kuwait but it doesn’t even say where the place is and I have no clue who sent it to me:

Rock Show on 24th of November ! ,thursday, doors open at 6 . Band silent scream . For tickets call: rashid 9551602 or max 6224577 . “BE THERE” !!

The Princess of Brunei just contacted me asking me for help. She basically has money stashed in various parts of the world and needs my help in retrieving them. In return I will get rewarded financially. I love these spam mails. Click on more to read her email.

Comparing my ad agencies office to Widen + Kennedy’s office is so fucking sad. Why can’t I work in a place like that! I want a bigger desk! Lots of pictures after the jump [Link]

Starting today I am on a new healthy diet.

– No McDonalds
– No Hardees, KFC, Texas Chicken, Burger King etc..
– No Softdrinks even the diet ones
– Subway is allowed (although after my last visit I won’t be going back)
– Gulf Royal Chinese is allowed but not 2 days in a row
– Will start eating more fruits. (I like melon, grapes (with no seeds), bananas and apples)
– Will start drinking chocolate milk every morning
– Anything from Kababji, Sajj House, Mughal Mahal, Great Steak & Potato is allowed
– No chocolate bars for breakfast or when bored at work. Chocolate bars will now be replaced with a handful of natural nuts (not fried)

I was going to try and be a vegeterian but I would end up starving to death since I don’t eat vegetables.

Update: Day 1 and I already broke rule #3, I had a pepsi for lunch. But I decided anyway that a bit of Pepsi is ok, it helps me digest…