Pro Tip: Transmitters
use battery power
You know...I love when you do stupid things on a Thursday. We get to spend the entire weekend thinking about what an idiot you can be. Refreshing.
Today's Sametime Status is not another in the long line of "Jeremy Is A Genius" messages, but more of a cautionary tale which can be told for future generations who find themselves in a very specific set of circumstances.
So not long ago, I purchased a speaker which can clip to the handlebars of a bicycle. This speaker has a wireless connection to a small transmitter which plugs into the proprietary connecter found on an MP3 player made by the only company arrogant enough to put a proprietary connector on an MP3 player. We'll go ahead and leave that company nameless, but suffice to say, if you listen to your music on this device once a day, canonically speaking, you'll never have to go to the doctor.
The idea is, you can broadcast your MP3s to this speaker and listen to music as you ride without wearing headphones, since it's a remarkably bad idea to be riding a bike with headphones on.
Important safety tip, thanks Jeremy.
Well, the problem we run into with this setup is that the transmitter uses battery power from the MP3 player to transmit. One would think this is pretty basic and self explanatory, but sometimes things fall through the cracks. I turned off the speaker attached to the bike and turned off the MP3 player, leaving the transmitter connected. At the time, I figured this was good enough, since it would no longer have anything to transmit. Problem, of course is that the transmitter doesn't know or care if it's broadcasting anything...it just goes along with its signal, pulling battery power from the mp3 player. I get to the trail yesterday and turn on the speaker, then click on the MP3 player only to have it stare at me blankly, the battery having been run dry. I got to spend my entire quiet ride wondering what exactly made me think that the battery would still be full.
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