Free Units! Will It Be Real?

[Kodiak]

Here is my thoughts on the freebie units.

First off Roy should be taken out of the equation. He has been here the longest and at times was basically a one man show. No one here has done as much for this site as he has, so IMO he gets first pick, whether he wants one or not. For years when a spammer would attack the site and post 69 spams, we had to go through and delete them one at a time. Some days hours were put in just cleaning up the crap. It is much nicer now. Also Roy is an avid user so his unit will get put through the paces.

While I have been here for a somewhat long time too, my needs have changed tremendously. I came here with the release of Gen 5 and in fact still have and use a 605. How my battery has not died or blown up I do not know. I must have one of those "one in a million" units. It has lost about 30% of its run time but I do not use it much anymore. I use to travel cross country every week so I spent untold hours in airports and on planes. I do not do that anymore.

I did have my heart set on a 5 inch unit. I believe that size is perfect for both portability and viewing pleasure. I was bummed to learn that the Gen 9 did not have a 5 incher in the initial release of products. Perhaps they will add one at a later date.

The next size I would have liked would have been a 7 incher. These two sizes are perfect for me. I have a 10 inch netbook and love traveling with that already. It comes with a full size keyboard and a high rez screen so watching movies on that is a pleasure. It is a little slow, but it is alright in a pinch. I do not want a 10 inch tablet. That 8 incher looks nice though.

With that said I would be willing to volunteer to wait to see if Charbax can squeeze another unit out of Archos. This might give Char some ammo if he can say to Archos that a Mod that did not get one has been helping Archos since 2007, 4 generations ago. Perhaps I will even get lucky and Archos will announce a Gen 9, 5 inch unit. If not maybe they could send me a 32gig SSD Archos 5 with Android they may have left over. That might be the last 5 incher they make. I hope not but who knows.

I only ask that if you do get one of the freebies that you use it and come here and help out the site. Put the unit to use and help new members that get stuck with issues. Those are the things that make the site a community and make the place fun to come back to.

[viking]

I earlier proposed to charbax that I be put on the wait list for his 1ghz sample... if and when he also gets his freebie 1.2 upgrade which makes it redundant.

That way you old timers get the 1.2ghz and he doesn't have to beg favors. If someone else prefers 1ghz for some crazy reason (conceivably it could turn out to be the only one that actually is given out) then please claim it. Whatever is the bottom priority suits me.

I am only pining for minimal Archos video capability after I just blew my budget on an Arnova 10g2, which only plays a fraction of my media types. I am attempting to help those in my boat in the forum, especially because the Arnovas try to download a new flash version which breaks it.

Normally I am a third wheel here, with Harfainx typically nuking all spammers shortly before I log in. It almost seems like you folks have an RSS-like way to examine all recent posts. Where is Harf this month anyway? We were in the middle of an exchange of information, but all his communication seems have been cut off a week ago including to the forum.

[Kodiak]

I do not know where Harf is. I know all to well that life events come up and your attention must go other places, so I'm sure he'll pop back up. I hope all is alright with him or his family.

It sounds to me that you may use the unit more than I will. If that is the case, and you will use the unit, you can take the 1.2 and give it a work out. I have no problem with that as I would hate to take a limited freebie and deprive someone else that could use it more than I will. I really do want, and need a replacement for my 605 so that is the unit that I would work out daily. I'll leave it as your call. It was nice of you to offer that, but if you can use the new Gen 9, take the first batch, and give it a work out. I will feel better knowing someone gets it who will use it more. No problem here. Your call. Also take into consideration that I am slowly (or quickly really) aging into "Old Goat" status. I have been fortunate in life and really could just buy whatever I want anyway. I am not rich but I have all that I need so I count my blessings every day. If you can use the better unit take it.

[viking]

No, I can get along with my A70 alright now, and would be happy just for the off-chance for the runt of the litter of gen9. I originally planned to buy the biggest, baddest gen9 with hdd, but made my premature commitment to Arnova.

[Kodiak]

Very good. I hope the big HDD units do not go away. That is one option that sets Archos apart. I personally want a 32gig SSD, but I know the 500gig DD units were big sellers. I don't think they are even going with the 32gigers anymore either. IMHO 8gigs is close to a waste. 16gigs is just barely doable.

Charbax: Just let us know when you need us to send you our addresses. I hope Harf shows up.

[Harfainx]

Sorry everyone for not telling you what's going on. It's nice to see that you're worried about me though, makes me feel at home here.

Anyway, had a kidney stone in my right kidney. They examined it and found it to be 22mm, so they sound-blasted it so I could pass the smaller stones. Went to the ER three times for it... Then they discovered that I had a 31mm kidney stone on my left side which they determined was too big to blast and pass (I guess they would have noticed it before if I didn't have an artificial disc in my back, seems that the disc made the CT scan results come back fuzzy). So they did a small surgical operation to remove the on one my left side. It was a quick, small operation. They thought I would only be in the hospital for a few hours...
Then a disaster struck while I was there. After the operation my kidney had some kind of weird spasm or something and tore the stitches from the inside. I was bleeding internally and it took a few hours after I told them I was in pain before they decided that anything was wrong. They had to cut me open again, drain all the blood surrounding my kidney and search around to see if there was any damage to anything else. Luckily for me, there was nothing else. They kept me in the hospital for two days just in-case.

I have no idea why I had such huge kidney stones, they couldn't explain to me why I would have them that big either. Other than the people I work with and my wife, nobody knows about all this. I didn't even tell my family back home, as my mother is crazy and goes overboard when anything happens. I don't need my mother trying to fly all the way to Alaska to "check on me" like she tried to do after my back surgery.

I'm back now though, mostly recovered. It seems like my plans of climbing Mount McKinley at the end of this month are going to have to be put-off until next spring. Too dangerous to climb it in the middle of winter.

About the free units... If you guys want them, feel free to pass them out amongst yourselves. I still have my A101IT that I use all the time. Honestly the only device I want is another 10" model, but I was planning on waiting for the 1.5GHz version. I was thinking of getting the 1.2, but I'm going to wait. If anyone wants the free models, feel free to leave me as the 4th person. I would love to rip one apart and examine it's guts, but I don't need one right now, I can wait.

[Kodiak]

Welcome back, you have my sympathy. I have seen kidney stones, small ones, bring very large, very strong, men to tears with pain. Yours were monsters.

Skip Colas and drink 7up or Ginger Ale if you drink soda. Also make a habit of squeezing lemon into anything you drink. This will turn your piss acidic and will help prevent the environment for stones to form and grow. I have heard that it could help reduce them too.

Again welcome back!

[viking]

Maybe you all should send in your addresses to charbax with your preferences; he may run into a now-or-never opportunity that can't wait to touch base with every reticent person. Now to digress:

Diet advice is easy for the doctors, who don't have to live with having your chief joy in life ruled out, maybe sometimes on a "just to be safe" basis. Can be useful to drill down on the basis for their recommendations and finding the degree of certainties or alternate theories.

I got stones and in many agonizing trips to the clinic it was misdiagnosed as a tummy ache with apparent hysterical hypochondria. Even when I paid for a CAT scan showing the stones, it seems my medical record remains blemished and I can see in their eyes I am still not taken seriously. So now I revert to my lifelong pattern of avoiding doctors unless on brink of death.

I recovered, then lost the stones in heroic efforts to be able to analyze the cause. But I suppose they are the common calcium kind, and that brings up the cola issue which is my sole but sacred vice to overindulge with. Cola appears to have statistical correlation to problems, but the proposed mechanism (phosphorous) is well challenged by Coca Cola who show they use less than common non-soda beverages.

The national kidney foundation site does not mention the favorite whipping boys of cola or caffeine, but salt as a catalyst for excreting excess calcium. That is something I can easily slash from my diet. I eat a lot of snack foods but actually hate the saltiness. I can eat the no-salt varieties or cut back with little pain. It's my tradeoff, and I'm willing to take the risk. Now excuse me while I break open my second twelvepack of cola for the day...

[roylovelock]

OUCH sorry to hear that mate, i also had kidney problems earlier in the year, this was a nasty infection that wouldnt go away - after 4 rounds of antibiotics and 6 weeks off work my quack told me that if the lasts ones didnt work i would be in hospital with a camera into the most unpleasent of places to investigate the problem, i think that threat worked better than the antibiotics.
Ive now changed my fluid intake - i was a coffee alholic - very rarely i was seen without a coffe in my hand.
Ive now quit the coffee and only drink ice cold water - i agree that caffine is probo a likely cause,
i hope your feeling better now - feeling your pain mate!

[Charbax]

OK the Turbo G9s haven't been released yet. We still wait for those to be released right? Please send me your addresses in PM so I can shoot them off to Archos as soon as the Turbo tablets are ready. I recently got the Archos 101 G9 1Ghz, which I need to do a video review on, and if they send me a Turbo upgrade I can thus send one of you guys this one if Archos doesn't send us enough for one for each moderator. Though I think Archos probably will send us the 4.

Maybe you can just tell me which type you'd prefer, 1Ghz now, wait for 1.2Ghz or even wait for 1.5Ghz? And tell me which size you want.

My guess is Archos may release 5", 7" maybe even 12" G9 also, but maybe those other sizes not before after the end of the year. First they got to sell about half a million in 8" and 10.1", which I also think they are carefully manufacturing as the Turbo processor becomes available.