EricDalen.com

I went to record a TV show and the DVR put up a warning screen: "You do not have enough space to record this program."  Huh?

So I go to check the recordings and find a huge list of . . . um . . . stuff my wife saved.  It included:

12 All My Childrens
11 Desperate Housewives
10 Grey's Anatomys
9 Flash Forwards
8 Dirty Sexy Moneys
7 Mediums
6 20/20s

5 CSI's

4 Law & Orders
3 Biggest Losers
2 and a Half Men
And an Oprah from last June

Witness a tornado from an unusual perspective. Occurred in Illinois earlier this year. Watch, especially to the left -- the trees bend, debris in the air, and you can see the tornado pass from right to left. The trestles were moved out of alignment to the left 18 inches -- the tank car at the finale was a load of Ethylene Oxide. It takes about 30 seconds before the rain starts, so stick with it.

Thanks to Smort for passing this along.

Ah, marriage.  It's the little things that make you wonder.

No, I'm not going to do any kind of bashing, just kind of thinking out loud . . .

So, the printer is out of paper.  I had a ream here . . . somewhere.  I thought I knew where it was, but it's not there.

I asked my bride if she's seen it.

She says she "put it away."

Unfortunately, she doesn't remember where.

I will have to ask her -- in a nice way, of course -- if putting something away and hiding it are, to her, the same thing.

I also have to consider if putting something away might involve a trash receptacle.  That might explain where my favorite baseball cap went.

I am now going to do what millions of people in this world do on a regular basis . . .

Criticize something I do not own, use, or have any kind of input to actually change.

The Sirius XM iPhone App.

Long story short, my friend Scott got it, because he has an iPhone.  Because I don't have an iPhone, Scott was kind enough to let me play with it for about half an hour.

I have been an XM subscriber for 4 years, so I know the service.  This is an advantage only in that there is less of a learning curve compared to someone who hasn't had satellite radio.

First (and only) impressions:

• Easy and intuitive.  I'm sure part of it is the iPhone, since that's how it is designed, but I had no problem figuring everything out.
• Great sound.  I mean, wow.  Of course, I've spent most of my 4 years with XM listening to their broadcast from the satellites, and it hasn't been great.  (Good, but not great.)  The app audio quality is great.
• Connection is stable.  Of course, I was sitting in one spot the time I played with it, but I never lost a connection or got a "buffering" notice.  (Scott said he has, usually when he went out of Wi-Fi range.)
• Changing stations is a snap.  Select a new one, and you're there in about five seconds.

After hearing a lot about other iPhone music apps, Scott also showed me the ones from Pandora and Slacker, which I have listened to on my computer.  Both were just as easy and intuitive, and had great sound, but changing stations is not as easy.  In fact, I got lost, but that's probably because I just don't know the service that well.

One thing I can say, listening to XM, Pandora and Slacker online are the differences in the presentation.  First, XM offers 120 stations, all of them going 24/7.  If you put on the 60's station, you generally come in the middle of whatever song they're playing.  Pandora and Slacker operate differently as they start the song from the beginning when you click the station.  In essence, it's like an iPod except you don't get to pick the songs.

You can "personalize" the stations on Slacker and Pandora, but with Slacker you have to pay the annual $48 subscription to really fine-tune things and get rid of the commercials.  At least they reduced the price -- it used to be $96/year.

The cost for listening to Sirius or XM on the Sirius XM app is $12.95/month ($155/year) if you're NOT a current Sirius XM satellite subscriber, and $2.99/month ($36/year) if you are.  This means if you've got an iPhone, and no satellite radio subscription, and you're trying to decide between Slacker and XM, you might look at it like $48 vs. $155.  I think Sirius XM would justify it by saying they have "exclusive" programming and specialty talk, news, comedy, sports and entertainment channels that Slacker or Pandora don't even offer.

(Edit -- Pandora offers a commercial-free upgrade for $36/year.  It seems everyone is trying to price themselves in the same general area.)

I don't want this to be a XM vs. Pandora/Slacker thing, but only want to point out that they are apples and oranges in their approaches.  True, they're all fruit, but different.

Pandora/Slacker, to me, are really iPod-like services that stream music to your phone or computer.  It's not, technically, radio -- but you have some control over what you listen to on a particular station.  Sirius XM is radio, but there is no control.  I'm not sure I'm explaining this well, but if you've listened to all three, then you know what I'm talking about.  (Sorry, that's lame if you haven't listened to them.)

Anyway, is this app enough to run out and get me an iPhone?  Of course not.  I still like my Samsung BlackJack even if it is a relic.  But what I saw of the Sirius XM app, I liked it.

Two thumbs-up, and throw in my big toes while you're at it.

Okay, so I don't post as often as I should, but I do post.  And now I've set my Facebook username so it's easier to find . . .

http://www.facebook.com/ericdalen

Original, eh?

And remember, I can also be "followed" on Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/ericdalen

Too much of me, mayhaps.