After getting well and truely sick of my discman's broken anti-skip I've finally bitten the bullet and joined the true portable MP3 age.

I haven't played with it much but so far it seems pretty good. You get everything you need with it including some headphones, USB cable and battery (AAA). Some had complained about the interface and buttons but they seem fine to me.

Voice recorder works, although it seems you can't play the results with the player (they're WAV files), you have download via USB and listen on the computer. Not a disaster. I wanted a voice recorder so I could record riff ideas on the run.

I also decided FM was a must. I've been really enjoying listening to the radio in the mornings and afternoons lately. You can't record the radio but that would be illegal anyway... Reception is good (as good as my discman). Presets for FM hidden away in another menu (Settings).

I happened to have an MP3 at work so I've had a play with the sound. It sounds OK. Not great, but more bass than I expected. Good enough. Browsing seems to be via ID3 (by Artist, Album, Track etc.). I'm told that it doesn't pay any attention to folders. I'll let you know how that goes. I suspect it isn't as annoying as people think as I intend to play albums with it anyway so the sort by album function should be fine.

I was tempted by the SanDisk player that took SD cards, however the reviews I had read of it indicated it had pretty bad sound.

My only real worry is the knowledge that flash memory degrades over time the more you use it so I'm unsure how long the player will last. We'll see.

mid '90s - Sony Walkman (tape)
I remember when it got older it would play tapes too slow. I remember I got so angry at it I threw it against the wall. It broke. Dad fixed it. Dad rocks. I suck.

late '90s? - Sony Discman
A gift. Well used and loved. Antiskip sucked. Played burnt CDs without a problem.

1999 - Aiwa Recording Walkman (tape)
Used to record many a gig and a few solo/Walken jams. I still have the box but the Walkman has gone AWOL.

1999 - Sony Minidisc MZ-R50
Used to record many a gig and every Walken jam and gig since the very beginning. Never really used for listening to pre-recorded music though.

2000 - Panasonic Discman SL-SX279V with FM
Purchased in San Francisco's China Town for around AUS$200. Very well used over the years. It's in my bag now. The anti-skip is starting to go. Never really played burnt CDs very well. FM is a nice bonus. Has been dropped many times.

2004 - Panasonic Discman SX418 with MP3
No radio, but MP3 playback from CDr. Worked fairly well for a year or so but didn't survive being dropped a few times. Lost the clip that kept the lid closed so it was kept shut with a rubber band for a while. Discovered it was scratching my CDs. It's in the bin. When it broke I went back to my 2000 player.

2006 - SanDisk Sansa m240 MP3 1Gb with FM and voice recorder
Purchased today!

That is, I'm not so good at cutting back expenses.

I have successfully avoided purchasing CDs and DVDs as often as I used to, I walk to the station rather than drive, but that's about it.

There are many many things I could do to cut back, but I haven't. And yet I'm constantly walking around thinking "how could I make a bit of extra money on the side?" or "what could I sell?".

I have no trouble putting my mind to making money, but I can't seem to think about saving money.

So it's a mindset game...

Instead of not buying coffee in the morning to save myself $3.30, I'll pay myself $3.30 not to have that coffee. I'll pay myself $2.50 not to buy a drink with lunch. I'll pay myself $10 to cook dinner instead of getting lazy and buying it.

The main point being, at the end of the day that money is taken out of my wallet and put into savings.

It seems stupid, even to me, but it might work...

acb proposes street-level postcodes for Australia.

In England, all you need to put on a letter is the street number and the postcode and it will get there.

I've spent many a year working directly and indirectly with Australian addresses and address matching and I can tell you from the heart that it is a nightmare. Usually it's simply enough, but it's the 5% or so of exceptions that kill you every time. A street level postcode system would take away most of the pain.

And it fits right in with our new nanny/police state. The easier it is to track and match addresses, the easier it is to keep an eye on the public.

Everyone wins!

Oh yeah, and Google Maps now has actual maps as well as prettyskypictures for Australia.