Blogs Are For Assholes

Ok, so my birf-day is coming up at the end of the month, and I've decided that it's time to replace my ailing 256MB Memorex metro flash MP3 player. Not being one to jump on the iPod bandwagon (because the iPod is clearly inferior to almost any other HDD-based player out there), I looked around a bit and have settled on the Cowon iAudio X5L 30GB player, which is currently going for $290 on NewEgg.

Of course, I do have good reason to have settled on this. Matt has the 20GB X5L and he loves it (he let me try it out for a day and I have reached the same conclusion). A couple members of my family have the iPod, and after using both, I can safely say that the iPod sucks dehydrated goat balls.

For me, the feature that had the most appeal at first (and quite frankly, is somewhat of a requirement for me) was the ability to play not only MP3s, but also Ogg Vorbis and FLAC files. I use Ogg heavily, and recently have taken to ripping all CDs to FLAC, so this is very nice. Also, the X5 has much much better sound quality than the iPod, which seems to very noticibly distort even before one reaches the halfway mark on the volume scale. (if you're using something like the Griffin iTrip, this distortion is even more noticible).

Some say they dislike the X5's interface. I find this to be the exact opposite. One thing I love about my Memorex is that fact that it uses a joystick. This is of immediate benefit to me because if you know how everything is laid out, you can navigate without looking at the screen (which is very useful when changing tracks when listening during class =]). This is near-impossible with the clickwheel of the iPod. Also, people say they dislike the fact that the X5 doesn't use an ID3 database. I find this to be a very good thing, because you have to ability to lay out your music exactly how you like it. For me, I have a very organised collection, with all files having uniform naming conventions (Artist - Album - T# Title.ext), so writing a script to parse these names and generate a directory structure was trivial (I already did it in perl, and I don't even own the bloody device yet!). The script will generate a tree that looks like {First letter of artist}/{Artist}/{Album}/{Tr#} {title}.{ext}. If you want it, let me know.

Not to mention that the X5 requires nothing of the host computer except USB mass storage (which on FreeBSD is handled by umass(4)) and FAT32 support, while the iPod and friends need some proprietary bullshit to generate the directory structure and ID3 databases (ever tried using gtkpod if you use Unix? Now there's an exercise in masochism). I have already tried Matt's X5 under FreeBSD and it works flawlessly.

Also good to note is that the X5 has an FM radio, while the iPod does not; a voice recorder, while the iPod does not; the ability to record an external source to disk using the line-in port, while the iPod does not; and absolutely fucking amazing battery life (the X5L, which has an advertised battery life of 35 hours, has been reported to survive 2 weeks without charging under normal use). I will admit that the X5 is somewhat lacking in the video and photo department (though the USB OTG feature is really cool if you're going on a trip and need to copy stuff), I am primarily purchasing an audio player....if I want to watch videos I'll use a television (and I can always use my Tungsten if I need to).

The X5 also sports cool features like a dynamic playlist, a nifty text file viewer, the ability to display lyrics (though it needs a windows application, LDB editor, but I'm sure it works fine under qemu if I really want it), and the ability to set an image as the background for the Now Playing screen. I'll admit, the iPod's album cover thing is cool, but this is nothing compared to all the other areas that the X5 just blows it away. And if I want to be trendy, I'll steal procure a pair of iPod ear buds (which sound like complete and utter shit anyway) to use with this player. (I was looking at the Shure E2c in-ear buds, which have very good quality and isolation, but I'm probably going to get something else, since 1) they are $60, 2) they are a tad difficult to put in properly [a problem for me, where I need to take them out and put them at will if I'm at school], and 3) completely isolate you from the world around you [this can be a good thing, but for me it is very bad because I will have no idea if a teacher is trying to talk to me :)]).

So there you have it. I'm bored as hell and have a week of this ahead of me.

Dan out.

Today was the SKMUN conference...it was pretty good. I was the delegate for Uruguay on the UNSC. The topic was the current drug trade problems and conflicts between Colombia and Venezuela. Fun stuff.

I sponsored one resolution along with a few of my friends, but it never made it to debate since we ran out of time. Oh well. At the end of the day, we passed no resolutions, out of the 3 debated (two of which were voted on; the other was tabled before it made it to vote) and the 5 drafted total. It was quite the fun waste of time.

Also of note was the guest speaker for the UNSC, whose name eludes me at the moment. However, his credentials were fairly interesting, having worked with these issues back in the 70s and now being employed by the state of Rhode Island under some drug control agency (I think).

But anyway, he told of his various trips to Colombian villages and how the crop spraying for coca (which US tax dollars pay for, yippee) has destroyed lives and villages. He told of one incident he witnessed first-hand where sprayers came in to spray the garden of this school (keep in mind, this isn't your average backyard vegetable garden; this garden basically fed the children who went to the school) and basically obliterated it. Another thing he mentioned is that the herbicide tends to drift with the wind (the planes usually fly at high altitude to avoid being shot down, so the herbicide just forms a cloud and slowly rains down on everything, including legitimate crops, houses, farm animals, and other stuff, eventually also making its way into the water supply and contaminating it [the labelling of the herbicide says clearly not to use in areas where water supply contamination is possible]).

You see, these legitimate crops are what feed these people. There are no roads; they can't drive down to the local Shaw's and pick up groceries. What the sprayers usually do is come in with planes to photograph crops, look to see what they think is coca, and come back 6 months later and spray regardless of what is growing in that same spot. Eventually, after a few sprayings, the land just becomes completely sterilised, and the local residents move up to the city. However, being a rather poor city, they can't find jobs, and then move further north to--guess where?--the US! And here we are trying to shut them out with immigration laws. (Ooh! A law designed to deport the majority of our nation's workforce! What a great idea!) It's just a vicious cycle of bullshit policy created by clueless politicians (and before you dumbasses start calling me a left-wing sympathiser, might I remind you which president Plan Colombia was instituted under? That's right, Clinton. And guess which president is still giving $907mn in military aid to Colombia and $727mn to the Andean counter-drug initiative? That's right, Bush!)

So there's my rant for today. Take it or leave it.

Dan out.

So today was an interesting day. First, during study, Brian and I witnessed someone urinate on the cafeteria floor. As I recall, we heard the distinct sound of water hitting floor tile and looked over to see the person in question putting his phallus away. He subsequently moved to the next booth over with the acquaintance he was sitting with. As I recalled in an AIM conversation with Matt:

(18:02:04) Dan: after it happened I just was staring at Brian in disbelief going
(18:02:29) Dan: "we're in high school. we are all over the age of three. someone a grade higher than us just urinated on the floor."
(18:03:00) Matt: haha

Then, a certain asshole decided to put gum in my hair during band today, which I didn't notice until I got home and was leisurely running my fingers through my hair. I know exactly who it was. If you also know who it is (just ask me...I would post his its name here but that's just asking for a lawsuit of sorts), I urge you to harass him as much as possible. You know, with usual Dan harassment, such as "I hope you get an STD of the worst kind; one that involves pus leaking from the short organ you call a phallus for the rest of your life," or "The gum thing was quite funny, but it'll be my turn to laugh when you're the one manning the frialator at one of the fine local restaurants specialising in reconstituted animal patty on a bun."

That is all. Dan out.

©2005-2007, Dan Ponte <dcp1990@neptune.atopia.net>
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