I spent almost the whole day in the car yesterday, making a business trip to Reston, Virginia. It was my first road trip as an iPod owner; I visited the library last weekend and checked out a couple of audiobooks to rip. “The Mysterious Affair at Styles”, Agatha Christie’s first novel, is a six-CD set, and I was making elaborate plans:

1. Rip six-CD set to iTunes (50-60 minutes)
   
2. Synchronize iTunes with iPod (2 minutes)
   
3. Attach iPod to FM transmitter (2 minutes, many cables for non-Apple-designed transmitter.)
   
4. Locate unused radio frequency (7 minutes)
   
5. Transmit audiobook to car radio using iPod and FM Transmitter (bring fresh batteries for FM transmitter.)
   

Then, in a blinding flash of insight, I figured out that I could just listen to the damn CDs on the car’s CD player.