The Thinking Blog - Hardware

Luis and Clark Violin review

nospam@example.com (Albert Yang) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 01:23:21 -0600

You want to know what crazy is? Crazy is when you have never seen or heard a violin, and you drop $5500 on it. Sight unseen, music unheard, I bought this violin. Crazy huh? I agree. But hold on, let me tell you why. I am currently living in Reno, NV, and it gets below freezing here. And it is also very dry; so I wanted a violin that was impervious to the elements. I wanted a carbon fiber violin.

Looks: I don't mind the look of it, I think the scroll could be prettier, and my wife doesn't think it's as pretty as a traditional one, but over all, I think it looks just fine. The carbon fiber is pretty cool. Looks is a very personal think. One of the things that makes it strange at first sight is the lack of cornices.. You get a really smooth body, and no cornices. But we shall talk about the cornices later.

Feel: The violin is LIGHT. Ridiculously light, so light in fact, when it came, I thought the box was empty! That's how light it is!! Light is good in an instrument made for resonance. The pegs are incredible, and I really like the geared pegs! Every violin should use these. Easy to tune. And you won't need to tune that much; the violin never really "warms up", it is good right out of the gate and stays that way. The strings do de-tune once they warm up, but with the pegs and the micro-tuner, it's all very easy to tune. There is a lip built on the back towards the tailpiece of the violin so my Kun rest sits perfectly tight on it. Had they just smoothed it out all the way, you wouldn't be able to use a chin rest, and so I guess they did think of everything. Overall, the violin is light, and lively. The biggest difference in feel though, I believe is the neck. The neck is very smooth, and slightly cold to the touch. The smoothness though makes it easy to over-jump your positions when playing until you get use to it. But again, not good or bad, just different from a traditional violin.

Sound: When it's all said and done, a violin is made for listening.. and here, the Luis and Clark delivers in spades. The sound is bold, and strong, but also very smooth. Compared to my old violin, well, I can't! I had an old machine milled, hand finished German violin, which was heavy and pinchy with a slight nasal sound. The L&C however, has none of these problems. G string was bold, and E string did not whine. I did feel that D string did not give quite the boldness that I was expecting; but everything was smooth. What I love about technology is what it allows you to fix from the old world, while leaving what was good alone. Because the body of the violin is made from a single solid sheet of carbon fiber, and because carbon fiber is so strong, you do not need cornices, and I am glad that Luis and Clark did not include them. The cornices were there to add strength to the instrument at the cost of a dampened sound. But because the violin is carbon fiber, there is no need.

I have tried a few violins in the $20K ~ $25K range, and think this violin is on par, if not better than all those. Couple it with the fact that it's weather resistant and can be cleaned with just a little bit of windex, and you have yourself a winner. I have been waiting over 3 years to buy it, and now that I have, I am happy with my decision.

Seiko Perpetual Calendar Scuba Diver SBCM023

nospam@example.com (Albert Yang) — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 19:27:00 -0600

Seiko SBCM023

I bought a Seiko Perpetual Calendar Scuba Diver 200M watch from Taiwan's evilbay. Why did I?

I have a Wenger Swiss Army watch. I've had it for 12+ years, have changed 6 batteries on it, it's just fine, not a problem. So why did I change my watch? Well, last week, I decided that I am SICK AND TIRED of having to fiddle with my watch at the end of every other month. See, most watches go to the 31st whether it's the 31st or not. Mechanical watches don't know the difference between months. So I started looking for a watch with a perpetual calendar. And I finally found one. Most of the Seikos SUCK. They are big, complicated, you can't even read the time off of it, and they are so heavy and complex. So I started looking for the older ones. This is what I found. This watch tells time, and has a perpetual date. THAT'S IT. My write is fairly small and so I wanted one with a < 40mm diameter, and none of the new ones were; most were 45mm way too big. I ordered this online, without trying it on; this is a fairly big gamble, but it turned out well. The watch looks great, and it runs and tells the correct date, what more could you want? So this is my new watch. Yes, it's quartz movement, so what? It just means it's accurate both in time and date, and that seems to be a forgotten theme for watch makers these days.

200M water resistance

Hardlex

The Total Gym.. Be like Chuck Norris!

nospam@example.com (Albert Yang) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 17:53:00 -0600

Since I moved to Taiwan, I missed my total gym. So I wanted to buy one, after all, they are all made in Taiwan!! But of course, I over judged Taiwan, anything halfway decent made in taiwan is for others to use. So there doesn't exist one in all of taiwan. Well, there was one, but someone bid on it and won it before I got to Taiwan... You add the love of Taiwan to not actually use anything they produce, and tada! You live in a country that produces a Total Gym but you can't buy one. Well, last week, I spotted on online, and promptly ordered it. It was delivered to me, and I was just excited. Now I can exercise again! So I exercised the first day and because of the lack of use, the wheels dried up, and cracked and broke.. So my total workout on the total gym was ONE DAY. Having waited 6 years, I wasn't going to let a little thing like a missing wheel deter me. So I went treasure hunting in Taiwan and I found a semi-comparable wheel. It was too fat though. So Bad Wheel 1, Me 0. But again, I've waited 6 years, wasn't going to let the fact the replacement wheel was too fat deter me right? So.. out came the hack saw. But slicing through half an inch of brass prooved too much for my little hack saw, and so... Bad Wheel 2, Me 0. That's ok... I don't give up that easily. OUT CAME THE ANGLE GRINDER. at 15,000RPMs.. sparks were flying. A lot of microburns later... My total gym is working again.. Who's your daddy?? Damn right!

Hacking the Cisco Pix 506E !

nospam@example.com (Albert Yang) — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 14:12:00 -0500

I have always wanted to have a pix.. and so I decided one day, yes.. I will run a pix firewall for my home firewall. Overkill? Sure.. But what's worth doing is worth overdoing, so the Mythbusters have taught me.

There are 2 PC100 RAM slots inside, so the first thing I did was buy another 32Megs. Turns out, I didn't really need to because the ram usage never really topped 17Meg, which is what it starts out at, and never climbs. The load on the CPU, which was a Celeron 300Mhz with a 66Mhz bus, was at a load of somewhere between 2~7%, depending on how many connections were open. I manage to get it up to 49% usage, when I was doing 3DES VPN. I picked 3DES to test because AES is much more efficient, and I wanted to load up the CPU. The CPU runs really really hot..

Upon reading the Cisco Pix Wiki , I discovered that the motherboard of the 506E is the same as the Pix 525, which has a 600Mhz Coppermine Pentium III CPU. So I put that on my todo list. I surfed and googled around, and found a guy who hacks Ciscos. I asked him about it, and he said it was a fairly strange idea but probably quite doable. So researching, I figure I would try to mimick the specs of the original 506E but times 2.

Cisco Pix 506E's CPU (Original):

300Mhz Celeron with 66Mhz Bus on Socket 370

(Ugly looking CPU with no markings on it.. It's made of ceramic, very heavy, and really hot.

Planned Modification:

600Mhz PentiumIII with 133Mhz Bus on Socket 370

The reason I picked these specifications were for a number of reasons:

I was scared that with the horrible heat distribution of the 506E, a super fast CPU might burn the mobo.

I didn't want to pick something with a 100Mhz bus because I wanted the multipliers to be multiples of the original. So in this case, 300Mhz => 600Mhz. 66Mhz bus => 133Mhz bus. I figure compatibility would be better this way and I'd have a better shot at making this work.

Because the 525 uses a 600Mhz and I assume the same motherboard, or at least it uses the same Intel 440BX Seattle chipset onboard.

The voltage requirement was lower than the Celeron, not higher.

So I found one on the Taiwanese ebay for $4USD. So I bid and bought it. Today was the big day. I pulled out the Celeron and slapped in the PIII. The "theory" was that I just slap some heat transfer compound, close it up, turn it on, and away it goes!!

And... (drum roll).. it just booted up. Absolutely no drama whatsoever. Now, the CPU runs at 0% all the time... I am not sure if it's running at 66Mhz or 133Mhz, and don't know how I'd be able to check, but in theory, this chip is 4x faster (300Mhz vs 600Mhz) and (66Mhz vs 133Mhz) I doubled the clock bus speed as well as the CPU speed.

The other part of the good news is that the Celeron ran at 2.0V, while the PIII runs at 1.65V. So the lower voltage should be a heatsource and power savings (hopefully). The heatsink on the Celeron is MASSIVE. The one on the PIII is really dinky, so I hope that heat transfer isn't a problem.

I don't really do any VPN or anything that drastic with my firewall.. If I did, I'd upgrade it to 256Megs of ram or something. Anyway, my 506E is effectively running like a 525.

506E (New) MSRP $1549 USD

525 (New) MSRP $4000 USD

32Meg additional PC100 ram cost me $10.

PIII 600Mhz with 133Mhz bus, cost me $4.

So if you buy a 506E and dump another $20 into it, you will have a 525 equivalent. Yes yes yes, I know, 525 will run the ASA. You can hack the 506E to run ASA as well. But I don't need UTM and so no need for me to. I might do it though just so I can truly have a hacked 506E. But for now, I'm super happy with the CPU upgrade.

You can pick up a 506E for cheap on evilbay, and PC100 ram is cheap, and so are PIII's. If you are brave (or stupid) and would like to try an even faster CPU, knock yourself out. But so far, no problems with the PIII. I am still concerned about overheating so time will tell.

From Tom's Hardware :

	Celeron celeron	Pentium III
Socket	Socket 370	Socket 370 or Slot-1
Processor Speeds	366, 400, 433, 466, 500, 533, 566, 600, 633, 667 MHz	500, 533, 550, 600, 650, 667, 700, 733, 750, 800, 850, 866, 933, 1000 MHz
L2 Cache Speed	Full CPU clock speed	Full CPU clock speed
Operating Voltage	2.0V (366-533 MHz) 1.5V (533A-600 MHz)	1.60/1.65V/1.70V
L2 Associativity	4-way set	8-way set
Price of slowest model	$70 for 366 MHz	$175 for 500 MHz

Note that the L2 cache is much bigger on the PIII, 2x as big. Also, the bus speed as well as the inherent CPU speed.

So there you go! Hack your 506E into a near 525.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Update ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am curious, the "show version" shows PIII 448Mhz.. ???!?! Oh well..

Copy & Past Below:

Cisco PIX Firewall Version 6.3(5)
Cisco PIX Device Manager Version 3.0(4)

Compiled on Thu 04-Aug-05 21:40 by morlee

pixfirewall up 32 mins 3 secs

Hardware: PIX-506E, 64 MB RAM, CPU Pentium III 448 MHz (Why 448Mhz?? I'm not sure.. Mobo restriction??)
Flash E28F640J3 @ 0x300, 8MB
BIOS Flash AM29F400B @ 0xfffd8000, 32KB

Since I don't have the budget of cisco, I really couldn't test the router in the way I would like to.. so I had to start thinking up creative ways. So..

I created a 3DES VPN from my desktop (Windows XP) to the router. I then looked for an open iperf computer online, (Thank you University of Florida! ) and begin to iperf the crap out of it.

I then did a

iperf -c [server] -u -b1000m -w2m -i1s

to see if I can get the CPU load up. Well.. I ran 10 of these concurrently, for a full cached saturation of close to 80megs of data. (I'm sure my ISP is gonna ban me now..) I got the CPU up to 75%. So that means on this setup, I can reasonally expect about a 100meg ceiling for VPN. (I picked 3DES instead of AES because the load is heavier on 3DES and the goal was to load up the cpu). Without VPN, the load topped around 11%. For regular usage though, the system shows 0% utilization. So there you go, I haven't quite figured out how to spawn a ridiculous amount of connections to test, but I have over 200+ BT files going, and the connection load floats at around 1000+ at any given time, so it's not too bad. All in all, excellent upgrade. Will I notice a difference in my browsing? Probably not. Will I smile with pride and joy at hacking yet another piece of hardware? Absolutely.

My actual pics:

Here's the Pix 506E opened up. Notice the 2 rows of 32Megs of ram. I will probably upgrade this later.

Here's a pic with the CPU fan off, showing the Celeron.

Here's a Celeron vs PIII shot.

And Finally, here's the PIII installed.

One more comment; I changed out the CPU thermal compound and the box got HOT.. which is a good thing, which means it's wicking the heat from the CPU much better. I was originally concerned about the heat since the heat sink contact point on the PIII is so small compared to the Celeron.. The compound on the Celeron had hardened already, and so changing it out is a great idea regardless if you are going to upgrade the CPU or not.

Bought a Palm Z22 (again)

nospam@example.com (Albert Yang) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 22:26:00 -0500

I bought a Palm Pilot Z22 after careful research of the functions I needed. I didn't need to listen to music, since I already had a mp3 player . Watching a movie on something this small was a waste. I Already had a cell phone, that was till in mono color but was rugged, durable, allowed me to call and receive calls, and so all I needed a PDA to do for me, is keep a calendar, provide me a place to make a list, and allow me to scribble things down.

So I really liked this PDA, but this being taiwan, the moisture ate away at the screen cable, and it broke. So I set out to buy a new one, didn't sell them in Taiwan.. So I finally ordered one from the states. So this is my second one.

I gave my HTC PDA to my wife.

Of course aside from the calendar, the most useful program on the palm is DiddleBug . DiddleBug does what apMemo is to the PPC.

This is what Diddlebug looks like:

And it is just ridiculously useful. You can not believe the amount of stress you can alleviate with this one program. Most complain that it's not in color, but I don't really care. It allows me to write down what was in my brain before I forget, and that is worth its weight in gold.

Digital Camera on board? NO.

Cell Phone? NO.

Audio Out? NO.

GPS? NO.

Photo Album on board? Yes, but on a screen that small do you really want to view any photos?

RAM/ROM/Storage: 32 Megs, 24megs available to the user. Sounds so small when you come from the world if microsoft bloat, but honestly it's not designed to run Folding@Home, it's designed to store tidbits of info.

eBook Reader: Sort of.. You can download eReader, or MobiReader. I find that pdf's on this thing is nearly impossible to read, as you are zooming and scrolling all around. So stick to converted ebooks or Gutenburg Project books.

Ridiculously long battery life? YES.

A billion times easier controls than the PPC? YES.

It does what you need a pda to do, keep some info, keep a calendar, keep a todo, and jot down things on the top of your brain.

I'm all about utilitarianism..

Bought a PS3!!

nospam@example.com (Albert Yang) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 22:12:00 -0500

I bought a PS3!! I was by the Taipei 101, having a cup of Illy coffee, when it started raining. So we went to the mall "New York New York" and guess who was having a show.. Sony!! Demoing the PS3.. Since I was Considering One , So I bought one.

Black one.

It kicks ass. The avi's from it are amazing. I just wish it wasn't so picky about the types of avi.. Right now, I'm battling the easiest way to convert rmvb's so they are playable via my Synology streamed uPnP to the PS3. Once I get that down, it will be sweet!

I got Yellow Dog Linux installed on it, not very fast, but kind of cool the fact that I got linux to run on it. Now if only Yellow Dog can have a kernel that's optimized for the Cell Processor, then we'd be smokin'...

Considering PS3 as my new media center

nospam@example.com (Albert Yang) — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 12:33:00 -0500

I am seriously considering buying a PS3 as a new media center. Now all I gotta do is figure out how to get it to play RMVB's and we are good to go..

My wife thinks my 7 year old computer looks ugly as sin by the TV. The Made in China, $29 DVD player is a POS when it comes to audio output. I am hoping that the PS3 will not disappoint me.

Foot Massager for IT nerds 吳神父腳底按摩機

nospam@example.com (Albert Yang) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 10:06:00 -0500

I have one of these at home. The guy in the picture is a Catholic Priest. He became famous in Taiwan helping people, speciality being foot massages as therapy.

I've got this machine under my desk. It's the easiest way for an IT nerd to get more blood circulation.

The massaging of the feet as therapy is called "Reflexology". It stimulates the internal organs and detoxes the body. It increases blood circulation which we as IT people need help with. I love my machine. The cloth cover on it, wears out, so you'll need to order a new one eventually, I'm on cloth cover #2, and it's worn to shreds and so I'll be ordering another one soon.

OSIM makes 2 foot massagers:

The iPoke

and

The iSnug

The iPoke does only the sole of the foot. The iSnug is a bit better, it does the bottom and the sides, it also adds heat. But I still prefer the 吳神父腳底按摩機 to both of these.

One of the things I really like about this machine vs something from like OSIM, is that it is able to hit all the major pressure points, including the topside of the feet. The two little grayish bubbles pulsate to give a massage. You can stick your feet into the two slots to get a "side" massage of the foot too as it squeezes the sides. I really really love my machine, the buttons are all in japanese, which isn't that great, but come on, there's like 5 buttons.. There are 3 speeds, 2 directions, and 2 program buttons. I usually use it at the highest speed. It stops by itself after 20 minutes. Don't use it after you've eaten. Other than that, I use it before I go to bed to get rid of tired feet, and use it when I first turn on my computer in the morning, to stimulate blood circulation.

If there's a machine that pays for itself in terms of health, this machine is it. Some people put it in the living room for use by the family when they watch TV. I don't agree with this strategy. You are watching tv usually after you eat, and that's not when you can use it. You need to put it under your computer table. This way, whenever you are sitting too long, just press the button with your toe and you will get instant blood circulation. This is great when you are feeling tired and fatigued.

Any foot massager is better than no foot massager, but of all the ones available on the market in Taiwan, this is the one I prefer the most. It does what it says, and hits all the pressure points. Easy to use. Lasts a long time, I've had mine for over 3 years and I use it for about half an hour every day. My wife uses it too when she's on my computer. While it's not cheap, it's not as much as the OSIM. And besides, what kind of price tag can you put on health anyways?

It easily pays for itself within the first month.

HTC Touch Cruise P3651 PDA Phone Hardware..

nospam@example.com (Albert Yang) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 21:56:00 -0500

So I wanted to buy a PDA. I was going to buy the Eten Glofiish M800, but when I was at the store, this old dude about 55 years old told me not to get the M800.

He said that he was semi-retired, and that his favorite hobby was to buy a bunch of electronics gadgets, play with them for a few days, and then sell it back to the store at a loss.. I guess whatever floats his boat..

But he said the only item he did not return and continued using was the HTC Touch Cruise. So he _HIGHLY recommended it to me...

So I bought it.

I bought the "Euro styling" version instead of the American version. I thought it looked better.

I first hacked it to install the English version on it, but found out after 2 weeks that it was nigh impossible to get chinese fonts back on it, because in a world of internationalization and compatibility, Microsoft made best efforts to prevent internationalization.

So I just reinstalled the Taiwanese version back on it, so I can use PaPaGo! Which is a GPS software for Taiwan..

The one thing I do like about this PDA is the USBmini connection for everything. I use to charge my cell phone at night, but with the PDA phone, it seems that I charge it during the day.. since I'm almost always at a computer, it's actually quite easy..

The Chinese version recognized Chunghwa telecom here in Taiwan and the signal seems stable. The English version was not. So I have no idea. The same thing with the GPS. The GPS signals were ridiculously weak with the English version but quite strong with the Chinese version..

So I guess when you buy a PDA, when in Rome, use the Roman PDA firmware.

I highly HIGHLY recommend against buying a PDA in a foreign country, you'll cry. Especially if it runs Pocket PC. Next entry I'll talk about software for the PDA...

Transcend T.sonic 520, the best mp3 player in the world

nospam@example.com (Albert Yang) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 21:39:00 -0500

I own a Transcend T.Sonic 520

I'm going to make a ridiculous statement and then I'm going to back it up.

This mp3 player is the best investment on earth. PERIOD.

I will do the math to back up that claim..

I categorize mp3 players into two categories:

1) Those who want to be cool

2) Those who want something functional

If you are part of group 1, then buy an iPod, be proud that you've over spent, and be done with it. Truth be told, as a Microsoft hater, I would STILL rather buy a Zune than an iPod... how's that for dis-endorsement of an iPod?!?!

So we will be focusing on group #2, the people who actually have something useful for an mp3 player.

Brian Tracy says you should always have something educational playing in the car and I agree. "College on Wheels" as it were..

If you have an mp3 player capable car CD player, then great! If you don't, then I highly recommend you go the cheap route and buy a FM car transmitter that plugs into the cigarette lighter. These things are cheap and they are great. Plug your mp3 player's audio out jack to it, and it will broadcast via FM so you can listen to it via your car stereo. This is one of the cheapest and smartest devices in the world. I loved mine until I got a CD player for the car that plays MP3's. This way, you can carry all your music with you, and no need for CD's.

So let me get to the criterias for picking a good mp3 player that is functional. There are 2 main points and I doubt they are what you think they are..

1) Standards compliant battery. That means AA or AAA ONLY.

2) Changeable playspeed. The Pièce de résistance.

Batteries:
This player would be even more perfect if it used AA batteries instead of AAA batteries. But as it stands, AAA will do. One of the reasons I wish this was AA is because AA's will last probably 3~4 times longer as far as play time per charge. But the reason you want an AA or AAA based mp3 player is simple; you don't get locked in by the battery. Most mp3 players, in their quest to make the player so small you will lose it, use a lithium ion battery. They last a long time on a single charge, but as the battery begins to die, the playtime shortens until you need a new one. With an AA or AAA battery based one, this will never happen. So the first thing you need to do is "open source" your battery so to speak.

The other reason is speed. If you have a lithium ion based one, you have to charge it or else it will run out of juice. The newer ones use a usb cable to charge, which is great, unless you are in the middle of Africa, then you are screwed. Do you really want to carry a laptop around just so you can charge your mp3 player??

Also, what if you forget to charge it or the battery power is low and it won't quite recharge? You are screwed then!! But if you have an AA or AAA based battery, then you can buy one ANYWHERE in the world. I do mean ANYWHERE. They are plentiful and abundant. If your mp3 player dies at the airport, you cry.. Where as I just go to the store to buy another one. I have been to small villages in Thailand, no running water but AAA batteries!!

The other HUGE advantage is non-stop playing as well as out the door quickly advantages. I have 3 batteries that I use; 2 are always being recharged, and 1 in the player. When I am about to walk out of the house in the morning, I take out the old battery, replace it with a freshly charged battery, and I'm out the door. In rotation, 3 batteries will last me forever in rotation, I'm never without a fresh battery.

But what if you are an mp3 listening MONSTER and you think you might be cranking more than 6 hours of mp3?? Funny you should ask, I get that question all the time..

This is the answer.. I bought 2 AAA batteries from GP, and it came with one of these little USB sticks. You can put a AAA battery into it, and plug into a USB port, and voila! You are USB charging your AAA battery. I do this when I'm at work, so on my drive back home, I have a fresh battery. What you can do of course is leave this at work, have 4 batteries, and always rotate the one at work as well. The fact that you can precharge a battery and rotate them gives you infinite combinations.

The last thing I'll mention that nobody seems to take notice of is the fact that 6 years ago, an average rechargeable AAA battery was 650mA. Now the newer ones are 900mA. 6 years ago, the average rechargeable AA battery was 1800mA, now they are 2900mA. So with AA and AAA batteries, they keep improving every year, and you get the benefits of that; but the same thing can't be said for the permanent lithium ion battery in other mp3 players.

Changeable Playspeed

So here is where I back up the statement above.

This player has a function in which you can change the playspeed. I am glad they changed the TEMPO of the play, not the actual speed. The difference? When you change the tempo, everything is faster. When you change the speed, everybody sounds like the chipmunks or in a time dilation device. So this function is technically named incorrectly, but we'll ignore that for now and get to the meaty part.

This player has the following 5 speed settings:

1.00X
1.14X
1.33X
0.80X
0.67X

This means you can set it to play up to 33% faster. This is why I bought this player.

The math of it all:

I commute about 1 hour a day each way, for a total of 2 hours a day. 5 days a week gives me 10 hours a week X 50 weeks a year yields me 500 hours a year I'm in a car or on my scooter.

I only listen to books on tape, so let's compare this to college.

College:

200 Credits required to graduate, average credit per class is 4.
So 50 classes to graduate from a 4 year college.
Each class averages 4 hours a week, for 12 weeks.

50 classes 4 hours 12 weeks = 2400 hours total.

2400 / 4 years = 600 hours per year.

So college-wise, 600 hours a year is college.

Now back to our mp3 player..

If I'm doing 500 hours a year but instead of listening to the book at 1.00X speed, I listen to it at 1.33X (which is what I do) in one year, I'm now getting 165 MORE hours of audio learning, for a total of 665 hours a year. That means listening to this little machine for a year gains you about 4 more classes a year.. Multiply that by how many hours you work, and it becomes staggering.

This however is not a fair comparison, because hidden within it, is a secret. When you listen to everything at 1.33x speed, your brain has like "learning vertigo" and is forced to think and absorb at a much faster rate than normal. Consequently over time, your brain's ability increases by about 33% as it "normalizes" to such a speed.

I have used this mp3 player for over 4 years, so doing the math, I've gotten equivalent of a college degree from it. But one of the things that most don't tell you is that most of the time, the audio book contents are MUCH MUCH better than college lectures. People like Napoleon Hill or Jim Rohn are MUCH better teachers than the ones I had in college.

If you want the single biggest ROI as far as your education is concerned, this is it.

I have gone through 4 batteries so far, for a total cost of about $8. The mp3 player at the time I bought it was about $100. So my total hardware expense for a college degree equivalent is $108.

I can't even begin to put a number on the ROI of something like that..

I have told many many of my students to buy this, and what do they do? Of course, they don't listen to me and they go out and buy the non-AAA battery one... At least all the Transcend mp3 players have a change speed feature so at least not all is lost.

I know of at least 7 people (my students) who have bought this player. They should pay me to do such great advertising..

Play quality.. so so
Sound quality.. so so
Controls.. not so logical
Battery life.. so so
The ability to change playspeeds..priceless..