I am finally recovering my ability to type..

And why would I need to recover my ability to type you may ask? The simple answer is that I have a fractured right wrist. The more complex answer goes something like this...


Summer 1994, this was my last season of competitive soccer. I was 18 years old and my team, the University Cities United, was in the final of the Idaho state cup competition. We were up against the defending champs, the Boise something or others. They looked to be the better team, but you could not count the small town team out. We had played a good tournament so far, and I had played a role in getting us to the final, scoring in one of the qualifying games.

I played center forward. My role was simply to get the ball in a dangerous position and put it in the goal. I wasn't the most skilled player on the field, but rather than relying on finesse, I had speed and strength and a wicked shot (when I didn't launch it over the top of the goal). I also was not the starting center forward, the coach used me like a secret weapon. He would bring me on in the second half to shake up the opposing defense with my physical play.

So the time came in the final for the coach to bring me on. The coach seemed to have waited longer than usual, but we were loosing 1-0 and we needed to create some scoring opportunities. I was so psyched up from watching the tense match for 70 minutes, I could hardly contain myself. I had a chance to be the hero, to put in the goal that would tie the match. I sprinted out onto the field into my familiar center forward role. I lined up near the menacing figure of the opposing center full back. It wasn't long before the ball was coming my way. Unfortunately, the center back was also well aware of this and he gained the upper hand by getting between me and the ball. I wasn't going to give up the opportunity that easily, I went into a vicious sliding tackle to retrieve the ball. I missed the ball and completely took out the player from behind. I was lucky to only receive a yellow card for my offense. But the worst insult was yet to come. Two minutes later, I was substituted out of the game. The coach didn't like my out of control play, he decided I was a liability and he put someone else on in my place. I sat on the sidelines in disgrace. We lost the match 1-0 never getting any good attacks on our opponents goal.


That was my last competitive outdoor football match until last Tuesday night. This match brought a new challenge. My colleagues and I were facing a team composed of young men with different mental disabilities. It was a charity match in support of the program that they were enrolled in. Looking at these guys, they did not seem at all disabled to me. If anything, my team with the fat old engineers on it was the disabled one. On this occasion, I was a starting player; playing on the left wing. All game long I was causing the opponents problems, putting in the crosses for two of our three goals and almost getting one of my own. In the closing minutes, we were winning 3-2. They were pressing very hard for an equalizer, and I had dropped back to help defend our lead. One of them made a break on goal and I was the only defender with a chance of catching him. He was almost to the goal and my only chance of stopping him was a pin-point accurate sliding tackle. If I missed the ball and got the man in that location, it would be a penalty kick and would allow them to tie the game. I threw myself down stretching my left foot out after the ball and I just scraped the ball away from him and out of play. I was a hero, I had saved an almost certain goal.


In the process of making this wonder of a challenge, I landed very clumsily on my right arm. The net result is that it will be in plaster for the next 4-6 weeks. Was it worth it?

Of course!

JE

The Transporter

The article about this new product addresses many of the MP3 issues that I was complaining about in my previous post.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5212396.stm

From the article:
Patrick Cosson, from US manufacturer Slim Devices, said: "Audiophiles are investing a lot of money to rip their files at more than simple 128kbps MP3."

He said many people did not realise what a compromise they were making when ripping CDs into formats such as MP3.

"People have not been trained. MP3s are stuff you listen to at the gym.

"Audiophiles do not see digital music as throwaway music - which is what digital music has become to some people."

JE

MP3s are Bad!!!

While I'm complaining about the woes of today's society (see "Disposable World" post below), I have another topic that I want to cover.

I am soooo irritated by the soaring popularity of MP3s. Many might question what I, as a technogeek, would have against this wonderful technology. My main issue with MP3s is not the fact that people use them to steal music (that is a completely different discussion, and in my opinion unrelated to a file compression format). My main issue is the fact that MP3s are a step backwards in sound quality. Claims are made that a 192kbps MP3 is equal quality to a CD. Let me tell you all, IT IS NOT! Even on a modest sound system, the difference in quality can easily be heard between an MP3 and a CD. A CD is simply better.

But people are willing to stake their entire music collections on it, spending hundreds on sites like apple’s iTunes. Everyone is so excited to have their entire music collection in the palm of their hand.

With this MP3 frenzy, we are telling the record companies and the people who make music (and people who make audio equipment), that we don’t need the quality of CDs any more. We are quite happy with (often low bit rate) MP3 quality. This is so sad because on the horizon are music formats that are better quality than CDs, formats that can give us an even better musical experience. But these formats are being suppressed because the general population seems disinterested.

Now, I do believe that MP3s have their place. I own an iPod, and I freely admit that it is one of the sexiest pieces of technology that I have ever laid my hands on. Portable music players are great for listening to on a noisy street, in the car, or perhaps even as background music, but when you sit down in a nice quiet environment to really listen to the music, the sound quality is completely unbearable.

In my opinion, MP3s are practically obsolete already. Broadband internet is the norm, hard drives are massive. There is getting to be less and less need for compressed audio when there is plenty of storage and bandwidth to handle uncompressed audio formats. In fact, the standard 16bit, 44.1 kHz CD should be obsolete as well. All new music should come out in rich 24bit 96 kHz digital sound.

Eventually, I think things will turn around; the better sounding formats should prevail. So what happens if your entire music collection is a bunch of antiquated compressed audio that you bought from Apple? Hopefully, there would be some kind of free upgrade available so that you could “trade in” your compressed music for the full quality versions (we all know this won’t be the case and that you will have to pay again for an upgrade).

So dust off those old CDs that you have lying around and really listen to your music again. You will be surprised how good it can sound.

JE

Disposable World...

I'm finally getting over my cold (over a week later!) and I am gathering the strength for a rant.

When we moved to the UK, we did not have very much "financial leverage". We had spent our savings on moving expenses, and we could not get a UK bank account, so when we had to buy things like a fridge and a washing machine we had to put them on the credit card. My preferred method for buying such things is to find them used, but the credit card just does not work for that (sadly, not everyone in the world has a paypal account). We were forced to go to one of those horrible appliance stores and buy a brand new fridge and washer / dryer.

Fast forward a year and a half to today, and we now have a broken washer / dryer and a broken refrigerator! Both are out of warranty, and both cost more to repair than they do to just replace. Granted we did get the cheaper units available in the store, but I expected better than a year and a half out of them.

Sadly, most products are made like this today. Cars, appliances, electronics, computers, furniture, even buildings seem to be made to last a few years and then replaced with something new. And all of the old broken junk ends up in a landfill. Quality is virtually nonexistent and out of reach of the average consumer. Even once famous marques like Mercedes-Benz have fallen. They used to have the highest owner satisfaction, known to run for millions of miles in the most adverse conditions, but now they are known to be unreliable having some of the lowest owner satisfaction.

And the problem seems to extend into the arts as well. Look at pop music today. Artists are made to be forgotten and replaced by new music. Record companies don’t look for quality acts that will live and grow for many years. They are all looking for the newest teen sensation that they can milk for a few years and then toss aside when they are all used up by the age of 23. Movies also seemed have lost that intangible “quality” that they used to have.

So the question is why are we falling down this slippery slope? Why, in the age of information and constantly improving technology, are our products all about the initial wow factor and less about doing the job for a lifetime. It is a complex question with many different answers and I am by no means an expert, but I do have a few ideas… I blame it on the consumer driven capitalist society that we have created. Our economy is only successful if it continues to grow. Companies are judged by how much return they give their investors. Stock prices must go up, and for stock to rise, more profit must be made, for more profit to be made, more products must be sold. So products are designed with a few new must-have, whiz-bang features, and a limited lifespan. You own your computer for a year, then it is time for a new one, and the old one is worth nothing. I fear it is a fragile bubble that is doomed to burst. The economy cannot continue to grow forever, the resources will run out.

So what can we do? Perhaps nothing, I fear that the only way to snap people out of their consuming frenzy is some kind of major catastrophe. “I’m sorry, there is no more oil left to make gasoline”, or “I’m sorry, there are no more trees left with which to build your house”, or maybe “I’m sorry, we can’t supply you with any more electricity”. But in the mean time, I will try to be less of a hypocrite. I will try to think about why I buy things, and try to buy things that will last longer. This may be a bad example, but I will use it anyway…In 2000, I bought a Mac G4 400Mhz, I still use it today for all of my music recording, internet, and word processing. Of course I am tempted by all of the shiny new computers out there, but the truth is, the old G4 does the job just as well as it did when I bought it (sadly, one of the hard drives died last night, but I think I can save it).

I have found a replacement refrigerator. It is a German made Bosch brand, and supposed to be better quality. It is also a few years old and is costing me less than half of what the broken piece of junk that is currently in my kitchen cost me…

I know this post is a rambling mess, and not completely thought out. But I think the important thing is to have these thoughts at all. The funny thing is that I make my living doing the very thing that I am preaching against. I design shiny new stereo equipment for people to buy to replace their current stereo equipment. My living requires people to continue to consume…

JE

Edited to add: I forgot to mention that Heather was telling her parents about our appliance woes. Her mom said that they have had their fridge for over 30 years!!! They didn't get anything special just your standard everyday refridgerator. Products simply aren't built with the same quality any more!

Sick Again...

I had just typed up a long post bemoaning England's recent loss in the world cup, when a circuit breaker tripped and I lost it all. The bottom line is this: England lost in a penalty kick shoot out again and ever since then, I have been sick.

Hoping for a quick recovery :(

JE