FM transmitter audio quality
I might've taken my eBay obsession a little too far.  Lately, I've been finding all kinds of cheap stuff on eBay, most of it made and sold by the nation of China.  It's a bunch of knock-offs, but most of it is good enough quality at a low enough price to be attractive.  I got a few lenses for my camera.  Then I got a lens cap.  Before that, I got a few accessories for my cell phone.  Nothing to write home about, but it was fun finding good deals on cheap little gadgets. 

But I found the limit, the line after which cheap eBay products are no longer acceptable.  In this case it was audio equipment, and specifically an FM transmitter for using an mp3 player with a car stereo.  I bought a cheap, cigarette lighter-powered transmitter and got it last week.  I plugged it into my car's cigarette lighter and it powered up, so things were going well.  But as soon as I plugged the audio cable into my mp3 player, there was a god-awful noise loudly flowing through my car speakers.  I wiggled the plug around a little bit and eventually got the noise to stop, but the audio quality coming out of my radio was pitiful.  I briefly imagined I would just have to deal with it as yet another hindrance in the whole audio portability problem

I went to a store and happened to see a similar FM transmitter for a similar price, but this one was made by Philips.  I decided to give it a try, wondering if a brand name audio device would have any superiority over a cheap Chinese knock-off. 

It turns out there's more than a slight difference.  The difference in audio quality is unimaginable.  The quality of sound coming out of my car's stereo is equal to CD quality audio.  And this is with an mp3 player, with songs encoded at 128 kbit/s.  There isn't even a comparison.  The "thing" I bought off eBay isn't in the same league.  It barely even qualifies as an FM transmitter in my opinion. 

So, in conclusion, eBay isn't the best place to buy everything, especially in terms of the third definition of fidelity:  "The degree to which an electronic system accurately reproduces the sound or image of its input signal." #products

Don't buy me dinner (7)
Wendy and I went out to dinner with another couple on Friday, and when the bill came, the other guy took it.  He said, "I got it."  I gave him the "why are we even doing this?" face and said, "Let's split it."  He refused.  I insisted.  He refused again.  I conceded.  Insisting again would've been taking things too far, so I let him win his little game.  I couldn't understand why he didn't at least want to split the bill.  If anything, we should've paid for them.  They're poor.  They're saving for a wedding.  They're really not in a position to be buying people meals, even if it was at a cheap pizza place.  But what really gets me is that, without question, the next time we go out, our side of the table will absolutely be obligated to pay.  And more than likely, we'll go to some expensive Italian place, order seven bottles of imported wine and dine on the finest of seafood and filet mignon, and during the whole meal, I'll be hating everything you do and say, knowing I'll have to pay for the calories that enable you to exist in the first place. 

Bottom line:  Don't buy me dinner unless it's completely clear that I owe you nothing.  I hate feeling obligated. #money

Mass text messages
A great way to get people to ignore you and form a growing dislike for everything you do is to send mass text messages, especially during major holidays.  I got a mass text message this weekend wishing me a Happy Easter.  That's nice.  Or, rather, it would have been nice if the sender had spent even a fraction of a second thinking about who the message was being sent to and why the message was being sent in the first place.  But, more likely than not, the sender has a "send crap to these people" mailing list in their phone so they can send unthoughtful, meaningless messages to as many people as possible, giving the impression they truly care about each and every recipient. 

To be fair, I've received a few good mass text messages, including an engagement announcement and a few other things.  But that's the exception, not the rule. 

I guess what annoys me most about this practice is that it didn't even exist a few years ago.  Before text messaging, it's not like people sent emails or made phone calls about this type of thing.  But like any new technology, as soon as it got in the hands of the common man, its usefulness dropped off exponentially.  Remember when email was useful?  When you could send a message to a friend and have a legitimate conversation, unhindered by forwards and spam and advertisements?  Like email, text messaging is starting to become less and less useful. #technology