I killed my iPod on the way to work yestarday. I have an issue now. I've seen the Microsoft Zune ads around and I was going to get a new music player soon anyways. The El is known for some violent parts and I banged it against a pole pretty hard. It rebooted and seemed to be good but not so much.

However with the death of my old 3rd generation iPod, I'm left wondering where are the 6th gen iPods. The 5th have been out for almost a year. They are due out for a revision shortly.

The Microsoft Zune is due out "Summer 2006" whenever that is. I want to play with it and abuse the API to do my will. Plus I'm a Microsoft fanboy. They've gone toe to toe against Sony / Nintendo and are doing well. How about Apple (again).

I need something and I need it now. Programming without music is not fun. And I just had to give away all my old beta Rio mp3 players didn't I.

So I've been working a lot as of late, however, I have done a bit of research into custom building some segway love AND an automated bartender.

The bartender's hold up is valves. They will be the biggest cost since I want 16+ different drinks in it. I was hoping for a 4 in 1 out valve solution.

The segway is a different ball park. I want to use Microsoft Robotics Studio CTP, but I need to actually do research on it and figure out what processors are supported and how to design a circuit that will talk with the gyros and have c# understand what the F is going on ( or me for that matter ).

I've found a lot of neat stuff on the net regarding it. Some of which I've posted a bit back. I think this is overkill for being my first real true hardware design, but come on, I don't participate in the sport of modesty.

I'm thinking a post lollapalooza 2006 August 4th