DRM - Daniel’s Random Mutterings

It appears — OK, we’ve all probably known this for a long time — that it’s not just us software folk who come up with incredibly bad designs now and then. Sometimes you come across a design “feature” that makes you wonder “Don’t these guys have even the smallest iota of common sense? And even if they don’t (some people just don’t) - don’t they do ANY usability testing?”

I recently received a nice, shiny, new Creative Zen Touch 20GB MP3 player. Yes — long after the iPod craze took hold, and aeons after everybody around me was already on their second or third device, I finally bought an MP3 player. The reason for this could go into another rant — I’ll just say that it has to do with open office doors and groups of inconsiderate fools who have to have hallway discussions about absolutely inane issues, seemingly at the tops of their voices, right outside my current office. Anyway — let’s not get sidetracked here.

The Creative Zen thingamybob is a great piece of hardware. With 20 GB of hard drive capacity it holds about three times as much music as I can ever think of carrying around at one time. It’s light enough to carry around with you, yet it’s hefty enough to appear sturdy and durable. It has great sound quality, built-in equalizer settings that actually do something and it has a very slick means of navigating through the menu via a touch-pad area recessed into the case. Neato!