I have been badly neglecting this blog over the last month or two. Last week, I finished my last exam for the summer semester and have decided to kick start this blog back into action.

This week, I will be posting a picture a day. Here is the first one. I am back home for a break between semesters and my family is going to be cooking a lamb in a pit next weekend.

For those unfamiliar with cooking underground, check out this article.

We just dug the pit yesterday. Check out the pic below:

At the start of last winter’s semester, I bought a new office chair at Zellers. It is just over six months old and is in pretty rough shape already. The fake leather has worn down in a few places. I have patched these areas with duct tape. One of the arms has also broken off.

I do spend a fair amount of time at my desk, but this is just unacceptable from an $80 chair. Check out the pics below.

A few weeks ago, I was given the opportunity to review a second generation Zune care of matchstick.ca.

I have been living with my new Zune and using it on a daily basis. Before I received the new Zune, I was solely an iPod user. I have an old fourth generation iPod and a first generation nano. They have been very good to me as music players over the years and I was not quite sure about not using them for a while.

I decided to leave my pro-Apple bias at the door and see what the folks at Redmond produced for a music device. Here are my thoughts.

What’s good

For some quick stats, the Zune I received is an 8GB second generation Zune which retails for about $180 CDN. It is comparable to the iPod nano. It is very similar in features, except the Zune has a few extra goodies thrown into the mix.

The feature that I liked the most is the inclusion of an FM radio. The reception isn’t great in my basement suite, but outside it is crystal clear.

There were also a pair of Zune premium ear buds that were thrown into the bundle. These are probably the best pair of ear buds that I have used. The cord doesn’t get tangled!

What’s bad

The major complaint I have about the Zune is that it is a windows only device. This means no Mac and no Linux. I do have an XP box, but my primary machine is a mac. To sync the Zune, I was forced to use my windows machine. iPods work on windows; why can’t the Zune work on the mac?

The second pitfall is related to the first. The Zune forces the user to use Zune software. I do admit that the iPod also has the same problem and I would be complaining about how the iPod only works with iTunes if I was already an established Zune user. I guess that is the benefit of getting to the market first for Apple.

The Verdict

I would defenitely recommend the Zune to anyone looking for a new mp3 player. I wouldn’t, however, recommend this to established iPod + iTunes users, as it is quite a hassle to transfer all of your music and media to a new device. Besides this downfall, the Zune is a solid mp3 player and I will defenitely keep using mine.