FLOSS-/hacker-friendly music-players?

[Benjamin Scott]

On Mon, Mar 22, 2010 at 8:31 PM, Joshua Judson Rosen
<rozzin at geekspace.com> wrote:
> ... people working in government or industry where
> there is a concern about espionage, accountability, privacy, or fodder
> for blackmail or public criticism (so: G-men ...

  Government people carry BlackBerries and leave them in the bin at the door.

  A lot of those designated areas don't allow *any* PEDs (Personal
Electronic Devices), whether or not it has a camera/mic/radio, so the
distinction is largely irrelevant there.

> lawyers ...

  I can't speak to that.  Could be.

> ... social workers ...

  ?

> R&D labrats producing `high-value IP' ...

  Yah, right.  Like any of those types are going to leave that stuff behind.

  Sure, the rules say they have to leave them behind.  The rules are
ignored.  Just like the rules about not bringing cell phones into
hospitals, or turning them off when driving by a blasting site.
Finding someone who is even aware of the rules (let alone follows
them) is hard.

> people working with high-sensitivity equipment where RFI is
> a significant concern (scientists, some musicians..., others?);

  Some very particular science applications, yes.  But musicians?

> paranoiacs who really do think that they are `allergic' to Wi-Fi
> or who think that RF `radiation' is going to give them cancer;

  Who won't buy anything anyway and thus are not of concern.

> ... and people who are just afraid that `too many features' will
> make the device `too complicated'.

  I haven't seen any evidence that that group of people doesn't buy
phones.  Sure, they don't know how to use them and complain they are
confusing, but they still buy them.

> I can't, for example take a call
> while I leave my multigadget plugged into a stereo to play party-music.

  That's a limitation of the device.  There's no good reason the 3.5mm
jack couldn't continue playing music while your Bluetooth earpiece
handles the call.  It's just a Simple Matter of Programming(TM).

-- Ben