(no subject)

[zotz]

The next few days could be . . . odd. In an inconvenient and probably overly intense way, when I was hoping it would just be interesting. Oh well.

Anyway, on a different topic perhaps you can help me. Anyone used an iAudio X5? Much cop? And can anyone recommend a good bomb disposal company? These two questions are, by the way, entirely unconnected.

London was good last week. I actually made it away from the Westminster-Kennington axis, briefly. It was good to get home, though.

Comments

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

Interesting in the Oriental sense, I suppose.

Hope it's not too difficult.

Should I be worrying that you need bomb disposal? I don't know if there are companies in the UK that do this or whether you want the police bomb squad.

[zotz]

The bomb disposal isn't for me, or even for anyone I know. The bombs in question are probably too old and decayed to be dangerous, but for obvious reasons they have to be professionally dealt with anyway. There are at least several companies that do it, but as I was asking questions anyway I thought I'd put it to the assembled oligotudes.

Hope it's not too difficult.

It might be more of a chore than I expected.

[mageboltrat.livejournal.com]

Er.. I had problems with my iAudio X5s headphone connector, we have just sent it back... Can't remember what Jo is getting instead.

[technotom.livejournal.com]

For bomb disposal, try your local parish council. Either they'll remove them and your mate will have no bombs, or they'll detonate them and your mate will have no bombs OR parish councillor. Either way it would be a bonus across the board.

Best wishes with the next few days man.

[zotz]

Was it broken when it arrived? How did it seem apart from that? I'm trying to decide between gettin one of them and getting a iPod and replacing the firmware.

[zotz]

Cheers.

[lsur.livejournal.com]

I would have thought the police for bomb disposal - there could be more and the authorities should know. If you do try to dispose of them yourself, wear earplugs :-)

[zotz]

In this case, we are the authorities, and this branch, at least, doesn't know. The police will call in the Bomb Squad if anything is found (this has already happened and the found objects were made safe), but site clearance is only their job if the ordnance was demonstrably left by the government. In a case where the problem can't be traced back to the government it's a job for private-sector outfits.

[devilgate.livejournal.com]

Is it common for the government to leave bombs around? Kinda careless, I'd've thought. Now if it was the German government that left them, I'd understand...

[zotz]

Given that it's by a port near a major explosives plant, it is actually entirely possible that the site has been used to store British military munitions . . . but nobody has proof.

Apparently one of the found objects was a shell for a 13-pound field gun.

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

Cool! Would they not let you keep it?

[zotz]

I didn't find it. I've never seen it. I've no idea what happened to it.

[mageboltrat.livejournal.com]

Ok, Which? rates the iAudio X5l as very durable, but ours suffered from loose headphone connection and when I googled for how to get support it looks like this is a common problem with it.
Also its a bit inflexible with its playlist - cant search by artist.

Also Cowons customer service really stinks - the email address on the warranty card is no longer used, you have to sign up and use their Q&A board instead - IF your ISP will let the password email through! Then they tell you to send it to Korea.

I just bought an Archos gmini 402 which has good playlist functions (though it only arrived today) and was also well rated by Which. I also had change from the refund for the iaudio from amazon after getting the player and a case.
Only annoynig thing with it so far is that in windows xp it was trying to be an MPT device and failing and took a little tweaking in windows to get it to be a good old plain usb drive instead.

[zotz]

The 402 doesn't play oggs natively and doesn't run Rockbox. The iAudio has native support and the 80gig iPod looks likely to do Rockbox Real Soon Now. Both are very large-capacity, so they're currently the favourites. Thanks for your impressions on the iAudio - that'll be very helpful.

[dreema.livejournal.com]

friend of a friend.

I've got the x5 60gb version. I like it, although have to admit i don't stretch it to anywhere near it's capacity. I've loaded it with about 30gb of mp3s, and use it in the car when driving distances. I have it on fully random most of the time, so i get an interesting selection of music. The battery's good for a drive from Edinburgh to Cambridge plus an hour or so, so not bad. Would probably be better if i didn't have it on random. I got the optional headphone remote for it, so i haven't had any issues with loose connections.

Plays video fine, although i only tested it once by downsampling a downloaded movie. The provided software did that for me, i've not tried it other than that.

The stick controller could be more responsive, using an ipod's dial is easier when you're driving, for example, it's harder to navigate the x5's UI.

My pet grumps about it. You need to carry the sub pack around with you if you want to connect it to a pc, or you want to charge it up. There is a usb socket on the unit, but it's for host mode only, and you need a dongle to connect to that too. Would have been a better idea to put the standard usb on board and make the host mode socket need the sub pack. Again with the charging socket, it's tiny anyway... Saying that, it will charge from usb, using the sub pack connector