leifw

You may have noticed that the USA's alpine skiers didn't do so well in the recent Olympics. I've got a theory about that. A fair portion, nay a majority, of the worthwhile skiing areas in the States is not coastal, but significantly inland, sheltered behind coastal ranges. Consequently, they receive lighter, drier snow, not Cascade Concrete or the Atlantic equivalent. Kids who grow up skiing at these areas live for powder days, as evidenced by the local paper reporting that nearly 1 in 6 students were absent from the local high school following "the storm of the year." Their health was reportedly "going downhill." Contrast this ethic with the inscrutable scruples of ski racing where

Course workers pulled an all-nighter to prepare the Giant Slalom course for yesterday's race, trying to get rid of all the powder and scrape it down to that bulletproof ice that only a ski racer could love.

Not only are the majority of American ski areas blessed with conditions imperfect for ski racing, but also they are culturally skewed against conditions conducive for racing.

Please submit your favorite caption for the following image:

Here are my current best attempts:

• Have you ever seen two folks so proud of their new CDs?
• I went to Turin and all I got was this lousy CD.
• Want to wear your music without being like all those iPod weirdos? Think different.

About six months ago I broke down and bought a digital audio player after six months or better of looking for the correct device and price. I settled on a Samsung Yepp, specifically a YP-MT6Z, for which I paid $117 including cheap skate shipping at futureusa.com, refurbished. It's a 1 GB flash based player of mp3s, oggs, etc, as well as an FM receiver and mp3 encoder. In all ways but looks and naming I believe it excels similar devices on the market for value.

In general I've been very pleased with the device.

• It works well with Linux. It mounts nicely as a mass storage usb device without incident.
• The UI really isn't too goofy. The hardest aspect for me was figuring out how to turn it on.
• A standard AA battery powers the device, an enormous advantage over players, such as iPods, which have integrated rechargeable batteries because when my Yepp's $10 worth of 4 rechargeable batteries eventually give out, it'll cost me just another $10. When my friend's fancy iPods' batteries give out, it'll cost them much more to replace. Moreover, if I ever forgot to recharge my player's battery, grabbing a fresh one is simple; try that with a pretty iPod.
• FM reception is reasonable. It's certainly not as good my alarm clock radio and is roughly equivalent to a $20 walkman style radio from Wal-Mart.
• The ogg audio file format is well supported. I've not found a quality setting or sampling rate in my casual examination that couldn't be played.
• Output levels can be cranked. 20 mW of output seem to be enough to drown out my lawn mower, which is impressive.
• It seems to be a hardy little device having suffered the dampness of being sweated on and soaked in melting snow and the impacts of drops and my general clumsiness.
• It really is a small device with a readable screen. I think it's a more portable size than an iPod Nano and more practical than an iPod Shuffle.

I am displeased with the device in a few ways.

• Long start up times are annoying.
• If my hand hits the device stowed in my pocket while I run, the shock seems large enough to cause the device to reset. Given the preceeding point, this is rather annoying. Given that the device doesn't pick up at the point at which it left off, this flaw is really annoying.
• Occasionally, my YP-MT6Z will skip to the next track partway through a file. I've updated firmware and such, but the problem persists. The issue does seem to be software related because the skipping is deterministic.
• Fast forward isn't fast enough for skipping to the last 10 minutes of an hour long podcast.
• The name. So nerdy, it's even painful for me.

I can't comment on the quality of the earbuds that come with the device as they fell victim to my bike's spokes early. Neither can I comment on the player's ability to play Windows Media files or to interoperate with any form of music service; I indemnify my bike for my ignorance in the latter, however.

All the same, I recommend the device if you're in the market for flashed based MP3/Ogg player and aren't addicted to iTunes.