The dictionary defines fate as “forces outside your control that make things happen.”
In this age and time where almost any event -past or present- can be explained by science, the concept of a God or a “Supreme Being” dominating us is simply a myth — just another concoction of the human mind. But, is it???
Science and religion (or just the belief in a superior being) are strange bedfellows that govern our lives once we’re brought forth. We were not given a choice to be born, but we also don’t want our existence to be predictable and measurable by one of the main branches of science – mathematics (together with logic).
Do Humans Have Total Control of their Destinies?
Today, we have created all the tools to predict and manipulate one’s thoughts and way of life. Money, media, advances in travel, and, of course, technology have made this planet seem smaller and more accessible. These, together with the explosive increase in the world’s population, had completed the quest to stand out and be the envy of others —an obsession for some people.
In this context, humans forget that life is not an exact science and that everyone’s life is unpredictable. While genetics has shown that traits, abilities, diseases, and life spans can be passed on or measured, life’s immeasurable variables are just too much for science. Even the science of weather forecasting can be wrong.
Humans are not robots that can all be shepherded into a controlled environment for the masters to have total control over their slaves. The human brain is just too complex that even science, and its fantastic role in human advancement, has barely scratched the surface of how it works — every individual being is unique. Multiply those variables by the global population, and you’ll get a result that is too overwhelming for science or mathematics to measure accurately. And humans keep evolving.
Despite these, a few people try to manipulate others into how they think or perceive the concept of good and bad. Some do it for pure monetary gain, some for raw power, and some do it because it is in their genetic makeup, or so it seems.
Media, money, and technology are prime examples of how these supposedly helpful human-made tools have manipulated people’s perception of reality as well as good and bad. More so in advanced countries where crass materialism had permeated daily lives like the spoon and fork.
It’s also too sad that some news mediums have abandoned truth – even bits and morsels of it- for ratings and sensationalism — which equates to more money. They had gone so low in favor of makeup and flesh over grey matter.
A few people had also used the same tools for their glory. Goodness or what is normally perceived to be good in society doesn’t matter as long as they live the good life, the envy of others– their goals are achieved. For these few, morality no longer matters. Everything could be bought and turned into their lapdogs. What God? I am God. Look, I am too popular. I could do anything I wanted, and it was all too easy.
But it’s also too easy for science to remind us that if someone achieves power and truly believes he’s among the gods, he goes mad. And Fate steps in.
Man versus Fate
With their belief in many gods and goddesses, the ancient Greeks and Romans constantly reminded us that some form of tragedy awaits mere mortals once they cross that invisible line separating humans from the gods. The Greeks even have a word for it – hubris.
Therefore, whether humans evolved by natural design or not, the ability to perceive what’s good or bad seems to be a built-in mechanism. Nobody has to tell the other what’s good or bad.
In the end, despite the fame, fortune, and adulation one gets, in a person’s communion with one’s self, the voice within our hearts will grow louder once one nears the end of life.
As if the Fates keep whispering in our ears that they are always around to keep an eye on us and what we do— that They are the Masters of our destinies.
After being a Netflix member for 21 years, I finally terminated the service in August 2019. Did I miss it? The answer is 10% YES and 90% NO.
At least, for me, the service is no longer a necessity, so eliminating it from the monthly household bill was an easy decision.
But what were the real reasons why I decided to terminate my Netflix subscription? For one, it was not really the cost. The last monthly bill was only for $15.99 (Premium Plan).
In the U.S., Netflix started in 1998 as a DVD-by-mail service. By late 2006, it began to offer a few movies to stream online but only through the use of PCs. When standalone media streaming devices like Roku, Apple TV and Fire TV proliferated, Netflix started its streaming-only subscriptions in 2010.
After 21 years of being a Netflix subscriber, l had never looked back since August 1, 2019. Looking forward to something new.
In 2011, Netflix split off its DVD-by-mail service (dvd.netflix.com) and streaming-only service (Netflix.com). While both units are still active and profitable (note: the DVD-by-mail service is available only in the U.S.), its streaming-only business had been the main driver of growth as it was able to offer this service on a global scale.
Netflix through the years. This was the 2011 e-mail when they informed subscribers of the split of the DVD-by-mail and online-streaming business.
This leads again to the question: why did I terminate my Netflix (streaming-only) membership when it such a good deal?
Here are my answers:
#1. Amazon Prime. Yes, membership* ($119 plus tax a year or $10.90 a month, tax inclusive) with the world’s online superstore includes unlimited viewing of Prime Video movies. Their selection had been growing by leaps and bounds despite being a latecomer in the streaming-only business.
When I had both (Netflix & Amazon Prime), I watched more movies that were to my liking with Prime than Netflix. Moreover, most movies that are available on DVD sometimes don’t make it in the streaming-only format in Netflix — but I happen to find them in Amazon Prime.
And. if you love documentaries and other hard to find movies in the streaming-only format, nothing beats Amazon Prime.
#2. Free Streaming Sites (Ads supported or Totally-Free). During the last three (3) years alone, the apps, as well as Internet TV channels that are in my media streamers and Smart TVs, had grown to a gazillion. Although some of them had come and gone, in the U.S., apps like Tubi, Roku, Popcornflix, Pluto, FilmRise, IMDb (acquired by Amazon), YouTube plus tons of others had been offering both totally free or ad-supported movies and TV shows for the last few years now.
You can even have a totally-free (yes, no ads) streaming service by just being a member of your local library. In the U.S., this service is provided by Kanopy.
The apps or websites, as well as content-aggregators mentioned above, may not have the latest offerings or come only in SD (standard definition) format or that they may have viewing caps (like Kanopy, at fifteen (15) movies a month), the tons of choices from all of them are more than enough for the casual viewer.
#3. Your Internet Service Provider (ISP). Most ISPs in the U.S. today have their own streaming-only portal built-in to the service. They offer both free and paid streaming videos and some – like Comcast/Xfinity- will even give you a free media streamer of their own. Comcast/Xfinity just recently renamed their video streaming portal, Peacock.
Lastly, #4. Netflix itself. A lot of movies released on DVD don’t make to the streaming-only format with Netflix — which was the main reason I joined them in 1998. During their early days, they offered the best selection of movies on DVD from the comforts of your home with free shipping and no late fees.
Their concept was such a huge hit among movie buffs that it forced the big brick and mortar video rental firms like Hollywood Video and Blockbuster out of business.
Netflix’s 2007 e-mail to subscribers. Note that online-streaming was available only through the use of computers and was capped for just 14 hours a month.
Just a year later, in 2008, and with the proliferation of dedicated media streaming devices like the Roku, Netflix members were upgraded to unlimited online streaming.
To keep their streaming-only customers beholden to the service, they had resorted to producing their own films and TV shows. And released they did – all episodes of shows are all in one big bundle that you’ll bound to waste a lot of your precious time on this planet and led to the term, binge-watching.
After 21 years, I missed Netflix only by 10% because I might go back to their DVD-by-mail service only.
But, then again, times have changed. Today, for their $7.95 a month subscription (unlimited but only one (1) DVD rented out), I can have more than one (1) DVD — as my very own.
*NOTES: On February 18, 2022, Amazon Prime annual membership increased to $139 (plus tax) while the monthly membership went up to $14.99. In spite of the increase, I continued my Prime membership as, IMHO, the benefits still outweigh the cost.
Once in a rare while, while shopping, you will find an item that is priced so ridiculously low that you’ll have to convince yourself thata). there’s an obvious pricing mistake made by an employee, b). a mischievous person switched price tags, c). there must be something wrong with the item, or, d). you must be just plain lucky to be at the right time and place.
Exactly two weeks before Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) of this year while doing my early morning grocery shopping at the retail chain store that made someone from Oklahoma spectacularly rich and famous, two (2) sealed boxes of Linksys AC1200+ Gigabit Router sat among other gadgets atop one of the shelves in the electronics department.
This $17 Linksys router may not be a top-of-the-line model, but the price tag is simply too good to pass up on
I was there to get some eggs, milk, a few cans of Spam & some other ingredients for a seafood dinner as well as new SkinGuard razor blades. But, definitely, not shopping for any electronics that particular day.
But, for a tech-junkie, how can I pass-up and not buy a brand-new, in still-sealed-box Linksys dual-band router with 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports & a USB 3.0 port — for just $17 ????
It’s an older model alright -after I checked the product specs on my phone- but, nonetheless grabbed a box and headed off to the nearest price scanner to verify the price. It was not a mirage. It was really $17.
Back at home, I pondered what to do with my latest score. I already have two latest model Netgear routers as well as indoor & outdoor Hawking WiFi extenders – already a bit too much for such a small area of about 5K square feet.
Three days after my purchase, I had decided just to store the still-sealed router in the attic –as a backup unit.
It was only after three weeks that I would find out that the $17 Linksys router would serve as my new indoor WiFi extender after I discovered that the Hawking was no longer functioning.
Operating as a WiFi extender, this $17 dual-band Linksys router has 4 gigabit Ethernet ports to hook up even more devices
Tying it up with my other 2 Netgear routers & making it operate as a dedicated WiFi extender -to the 2nd NG router that serves as an access point– was a bit tricky and took a bit of time.
Last week, Don, my brother-in-law, picked up his metallic deep-blue Tesla Model 3 from one of the company’s showrooms –they sell their cars direct and not through a dealership– in Fremont, California.
A year ago, he had put up a US$ 1,000 deposit for the promised US$35, 000 Model 3 unit that had just gotten off Tesla’s designers’ drawing boards and into production mode then.
The Tesla Model 3 was supposed to catapult the fledgling company into the mainstream car market.
All their previous models, the Roadster, the Model S as well as the Model X (an SUV – sports utility vehicle) are relatively expensive, and only a few middle-income American consumers could afford them.
Tesla had been at the forefront in the rebirth of the all-electric vehicle boom that had seen the release of competing models from the big Japanese and European carmakers -notably Nissan (the ‘Leaf‘) and BMW (the i3 – with the latest release, a 2-cylinder ‘range extender’ engine is now just optional )- as well as from the top 2 American car firms — General Motors (the Chevy ‘Bolt‘) and Ford (coming up with its ‘CUV‘).
The Model 3’s simple interior and almost bare dashboard are both a boon and a bane
As it turned out, Tesla’s promised consumer-friendly price tag of US$35,000 for the Model 3 ‘base model’ ballooned to almost US$57,000 after the company failed in its promise to offer one with the ‘standard batteries‘ during the consumer rollout.
Eager to drive home with his Model 3, Don was compelled to buy a more expensive unit with long-range (up to 310 miles) batteries + a premium exterior with rear-wheel drive. His choice of color, deep blue metallic (extra $1500), and alloy sports wheels (extra $1500) set him back another $3,000 plus all the taxes and fees.
The price would have gone even higher had he opted for one with an all-wheel-drive (extra $6,000 for the ‘basic’ all-wheel drive and an extra $15,000 for the ‘performance’ all-wheel drive) & enhanced Autopilot (extra $5,000).
After all the extras, a fully loaded, top-of-the-line Model 3 goes for about $75,500 before all the taxes and fees –and that’s not a price for the average consumer. For all that money, you could buy four (4) brand-new (latest model) Toyota Corollas and still have a few thousand left in your pocket.
Charging the car at home via a dedicated 240V outlet.
So for the US$57K price, he shelled out -before Federal & State tax incentives- Don’s Model 3 car should, at least, be impressive. It is but not without some drawbacks.
Most electric cars have impressive torques, and the rear-wheel-drive Model 3 can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in about 5.1 seconds. The car’s handling was impressive as the 19″ wheels were big enough to mitigate some road imperfections.
You can’t say enough praise for all the tech goodies inside and outside the car with its gaggle of radars, sensors, cameras, software updates for the touchscreen control panel as well as the very impressive all-glass roof. All of the Model 3’s glass parts, including the windows, were made by Saint-Gobain Sekurit, which traces its roots all the way back to 1665 in France as the Royal Glass Works.
The Model 3’s all-glass, UV protective roof is very impressive. Those 2 micro-LED pin lights provide just enough illumination for the passengers at the back
And, as this is an all-electric vehicle, you tend to rely less on the brakes to slow down the car —just release your foot on the accelerator, and you accomplish two things: 1). slows the car down to a halt, and 2). you charge the batteries (regenerative braking).
Let’s get to the things that I didn’t like about the Tesla Model 3:
Firstly, the door handles. Opening a door is a two-handed affair. What??? You have the push the recessed handle with one hand and grab the handle’s end once it pops out with your other hand —yes, just to open a door.
If you’re quick, you can grab & open Tesla’s Model 3 doors with one hand. For most others, opening a door is a two-handed affair.
Second, there is no manual override to open the glove box compartment. To open it, you must turn on the touchscreen tablet (which acts as the sole instrument panel and controls everything inside the car) and push the ‘open glove box‘ button. Too cool but also too dumb. Any determined thief can simply use a screwdriver and force it open.
Third, and as mentioned above, the car relied too much on the 15″ touchscreen tablet in the dashboard’s center. I honestly believe that Tesla did it to cut costs in the guise of the ‘cool’ factor.
This 15″ touchscreen tablet is the only instrument panel inside the Tesla Model 3.
This is especially too distracting when driving around the city as you have to deal with all the functionalities of the car on a touchscreen panel. As if texting while driving is just not bad enough.
Fourth, for the steep price tag on any premium variants of the Tesla Model 3, real leather seats should be standard. As it is, the ‘premium interior’ model could only boast of faux leather in black.
Lastly, except for topping off the windshield washer fluid, there’s nothing a Tesla Model 3 owner who’s keen on maintaining the car himself can do. Most of the other end-user replaceable parts & fluids are either hidden underneath the car’s chassis –where the engine sits in your typical internal combustion vehicle is now a front luggage compartment- or, not that easily accessible.
This means that if ever the car needs even the most simple maintenance, you may have to take it back to a Tesla dealership. Bottom line: costlier upkeep.
Other minor flaws need no mentioning and can be ignored, but the ones above are simply too obvious to be overlooked.
After all, Tesla’s mass-production model cars -starting with the 2012 Model S- had only been around for a few years. Improvements should come in the next iterations of those models.
That is, if -with their massive debt and government subsidies in the form of tax incentives ending soon- they will remain viable and, most importantly, become profitable, as a company in the coming years.
Old habits die hard and R/C flying is one of them.
Since I caught the aerial remote-control bug during my almost 4-year stint in Saudi Arabia in the early 80s, I had never forgotten this sometimes expensive hobby. They say that the hearts of adventurous people lies in the extreme desire to fly like birds.
R/C flying had come a long way since the days of gas-powered COX engines and radio controllers with telescopic antennas –with small banners attached to them that denoted the radio frequencies.
In today’s world dominated by computers, software, cell phones, and other Internet-connected devices, it comes as no surprise that the hobby of R/C flying had also evolved to take advantage of them.
Today, you no longer need a dedicated controller to operate an R/C device –a smartphone and the appropriate app will do it for you. Changing crystals (to change radio frequency transmission) inside the transmitters are so passé –almost all new R/C these days have Wi-Fi built-in (mostly, at 2.4 GHz) and utilize that same wireless frequency to connect to the smartphone. Bluetooth is also built-in for pairing with a dedicated remote controller for easier flying.
A Wi-Fi extender (shown here attached to a battery pack) and a Bluetooth controller for extra fun.
More sophisticated but expensive models incorporate a GPS, 1080p, or 4K cameras propped on small but high-end gimbals as well as a gaggle of extras for easy maneuvering even at long-range distances. Not to mention longer flight times as well as apps with sophisticated features.
Currently, a Chinese company called DJI dominates the aerial R/C market and had relegated the term ‘R/C’ to something more futuristic — ‘drone‘.
The drone market had exploded in the last six or so years after amateur and professional photographers alike had made them an essential part of their toolkits to take visually stunning aerial photos and video footage.
This unedited photo was taken with the DJI-Ryze Tello at 15 meters up in the air.
DJI not only makes a variety of off-the-shelf hobbyist drones that caters to everyone’s budget but also custom-made ones depending on the application — be it in military, science, agriculture, engineering, and of course, the movie industry.
To capture the lowest end of the hobbyist drone market, DJI partnered with Intel and Shenzhen, China-based Ryze Tech, and brought out the Ryze Tello.
The fun-to-fly Ryze Tello drone (shown here with a packet of some unique ‘skins’)
It’s a vision positioning system-equipped US$99 toy-hobbyist drone with a programmable Intel processor as well as a 5-megapixel 720p camera (at 30 fps) -not sure though, if some Hasselblad technologies were incorporated after DJI bought into the Swedish camera company in 2015- as well as some other tech goodies packed in 80 grams -battery included- of good-quality plastic and miniature circuit boards.
It’s basically a very, very small home computer with a nice webcam that flies.
What makes this little toy drone so fun is that it won’t hurt your pocketbook so much if ever you crash or lose it. But, it’s so stable to fly that the only way you can lose or damage it is to fly it in very windy conditions.
In actual use, the Ryze Tello flies for a good 10 minutes -specs say 13 mins.- on a full charge with a range of about 100 meters. But hacks like using a US$10 Wi-Fi repeater or range extender improve not only the range but also the video quality transmission.
Also, software hacks like TALS (free) and Altitude Limit for Tello (US$ 0.99) – but both are available only for iOS devices– can extend the 10-meter height limit of this little drone to 10x or 100 meters. Be careful though as the vision positioning systemof the drone gets compromised at over 10 meters.
Accessories for the Tello are also inexpensive like the US$29 GameSir T1d Bluetooth controller and about US$ 15 to $25 for a 3 to 4 battery-charging hub. Extra original batteries -made by FullyMax– are about US$19.
These prices might be even lower if you get the Ryze Tello in ‘bundle deals‘. I once saw a DJI stall inside a very popular shopping mall in downtown San Francisco selling the Ryze Tello with an extra battery for as low as US$ 89.
Inexpensive Ryze Tello accessories: GameSir T1d Bluetooth controller, Wi-Fi extender (on the right of the silver packet), extra original battery, and Tello battery charging hub
All in all, for about US$ 200, you can truly enjoy the thrills of R/C flying -or, shall I say, drone flying- without the nasty additional expenses associated with the learning experience alone.
Once you had mastered it -it’s so easy flying this tiny toy drone or, simply has grown tired of it but truly enjoy aerial photography, then, you could upgrade to a DJI Spark…and then to a Mavic Air, Mavic 2, or Pro.
April 2019 update:
In late 2018, a new app -available only for Android- called Tello FPV + RTH was released by a German hobbyist called Volate!lo. Priced at $5.49, the feature-rich app made the Ryze Tello drone much more capable particularly the return-to-home feature despite the unit’s lack of a GPS.
Last November 2018, Ryze sold their Tello Boost Combo at a discounted price of only $99 (plus tax) from the current/regular price of $149 (plus tax) on DJI’s website.
The package includes the Tello drone, two (2) sets of spare propellers, three (3) original FullyMax flight batteries, a 3-battery charging hub, and a USB cable.
All the contents in the Boost Combo set would have easily cost between $150 to $170 if purchased individually.
It was such a steal that I couldn’t resist but get one as a spare unit.
Ryze Tech ‘Boost Combo’ package includes the Tello aircraft, two (2) sets of spare propellers, three (3) original FullyMax aircraft batteries, a 3-battery charging hub & the USB cable — all for US$ 99 during their 2018 November sale
Also, early this year, Ryze Tech released an Iron Man Edition of their best-selling beginner drone for die-hard Marvel fans which currently sells for US$ 129 (plus tax).
It is essentially the same Tello unit except for the Iron Man-themed protective shell, colors, and trims of predominantly metallic red and gold. This special edition Tello also comes with its very own app called Tello Hero.
Note that you can use the standard Tello app to fly the Iron Man Edition Tello aircraft but you can’t use the special Tello Hero app to fly the $99 ‘ordinary edition’ Tello.
But, of course, you can also use the much better Tello FPV +RTH app by VolaTe!lo on the Iron Man Edition unit.
A must-buy for all Marvel fans and avid Tello flyers!
Sorting out my tech stuff in the attic for spring cleaning, I was surprised to discover a cache of old MP3 players. Among them were five (5) Rio 500 made by Diamond Multimedia in the late 1990s. They all came complete with odd-looking (smaller than a standard 5-pin Mini B) USB cables and some old batteries.
I had totally forgotten why I had five (5) of them. Excitedly, I inserted a fresh Duracell AA battery into one of the units and slid the power switch on. The unit’s small, rectangular (1.5″ x 0.57″) screen glowed a warm blue hue, and the first track in the playlist appeared.
This thing still works!
The Diamond Rio 500 MP3 Player and its unusual USB cable
The Diamond Rio 500 Digital Audio Player was one of the early MP3 players that tried vainly to simplify the intricate and sometimes confusing domain of digital music transfer and rights management until Apple’s iTunes hit the jackpot in 2001.
Released in 1999 for about US$270, the sleek 3.5″ x 2.75″ x 0.6″ gizmo (just slightly thicker than a deck of playing cards) came with 64MB of memory built-in, a SmartMedia card slot for expansion, a minimalistic design, RioPort Audio Manager software, and, most importantly, a USB interface.
Note that RioPort Audio Manager was a Windows-only interface when it was released. It would take three (3) ex-Apple software engineers to port it for the Mac (worked well under Mac OS 7. x to 9. x) that same year, and they called it SoundJam MP.
SoundJam, the company, was eventually bought by Apple in 2000, and its code would subsequently result in – you guessed it right- iTunes 1.0.
Today, there is still a slew of digital audio players that eschew iTunes yet are still so easy to use because of the USB cable, plus the fact that computer OSes have become so much better–just drag and drop your audio files!
So, the Rio 500 has a USB interface, and I have the original USB cable, so transferring a few MP3s using the latest versions of Windows, Mac OS, Linux, or even Chrome should be easy, right?
The trouble with goodbye is hello. Or, should that be, “hello again”?
The trouble with using old technologies with modern tools is the accompanying hassles that naturally come with them.
No, the Rio 500 won’t simply appear as another USB device after I connect the unique USB cable to any one of my latest computers.
It only worked -transferred a few more MP3s- after I got hold of an ancient Dell Latitude (with a vintage Pentium 233 MMX CPU) laptop -luckily, with a solitaryUSB port– that operated under Windows ME (Millennium Edition).
An ancient Dell Latitude CPi (with a Pentium MMX processor) laptop running Windows ME
Thanks to RIOsitude (v3.12), a software provided by the open-source community, I was able to transfer a few MP3s to the vintage player via USB. In 1999, an MP3 player holding about 20 songs (at 128 Kbps bit rate) in its internal memory was impressive.
The Open Source community delivered once more to make this MP3 player usable; the player runs on one (1) AA battery!
For folks on the Apple ecosystem, you need a vintage PowerPC-based Mac with a USB port and at least System 8.1.
If you have a G3, a G4, or a G5-powered Mac running OS X, make sure that it is loaded with Mac OS X Tiger (10.4.x ) or lower, for it can run in Classic Mode (typically, System 9. x).
Note that Apple discontinued the ability to run Classic Mode in subsequent revisions of Mac OS X, which was 10.5.x (Leopard) and later.
Then utilize –what else?– iTunes precursor, SoundJam MP, to transfer your MP3 files to the Diamond Rio 500 MP.
Before iTunes and the iPod, there was SoundJam MP and the Diamond Rio 500 MP3 Player.
Today, most portable gadgets are designed for ‘planned obsolescence, which is why it’s always nice and fun to rediscover technologies of yesteryears.
While my 6th-generation iPod nano, released in 2010, had been out of service for almost three years after the tiny built-in lithium-ion battery inside gave up & trying to open it up required the skill set of a world-class surgeon, this 20-year-old music player still works.
As long as you have the right tools, there’s a good chance that gadgets made 20-30 years ago — or even older — would still be operational today.
NOTES: You can download the English version of RIOsitude (v 3.12) and the USB drivers for the Diamond RIO 500 MP3 player as a zipped package here. Please note that these would work only under Windows 98, ME & Windows 2000.
For vintage Mac OS users, you can download the version of SoundJam that suits your needs — a zipped or bin file version on this page.
On the last week of January of this year, I was reunited with my vintage Toshiba Aurex System 10 hi-fi stereo set that I had been using in Manila since 1984.
I purchased the micro hi-fi system back in 1982 in the commercial district of Al-Batha, Saudi Arabia. It was the height of the oil kingdom’s industrial phase and I actually worked in the district of Al-Hair -about 20 minutes from the capital city of Riyadh- for a business conglomerate owned by a sheik.
Life was not only lonely but also very boring in a country whose religion is Sunni Islam and where Sharia laws are strictly enforced. Moreover, I was there to make a living and not as a tourist on a short visit to explore and enjoy the desert kingdom.
The Toshiba Aurex System 10 as it appeared in a German hi-fi catalog layout in 1979, with dimensions shown. Top to bottom: SB-A10 amplifier, ST-T10 hi-fi AM/FM tuner, and PC-D10 dual-head, stereo cassette tape deck.
During our day-offs -Friday and Saturday- we usually go to the big city to window shop, meet friends or relatives of friends, hang around in a park where most ex-pats congregate, or just about anything to keep our sanity until we finish the terms of our work contracts.
Typically, after our working hours, listening to music on our stereo systems provided us with some of our great joys while we watched the sun transition from a fiery ball of yellow to a magnificent mélange of orange hues as it hides behind the sand dunes.
The late 70s up to the mid-80s was the peak of hi-fi’s golden years as digital music began its slow-but-sure march to take over the entire musical landscape. I could still recall those early models of CD players were priced as high as US$ 1,000 plus in the few electronics & audio shops that showcased them.
Back then, Sony had been dominating the music scene after the huge success of the Walkman. Because of its portability & affordability, it also made the compact cassette tape the de-facto standard.
At music shops in Riyadh in the 80s, the average price of an original music cassette was about 10 riyals (about US$ 3) while the bootleg version was about 3 riyals (US$ 0.90). Like any marketing ploy, the so-called ‘metal tapes‘ (type 4), of course, provided the best sound if you have the appropriate cassette tape deck/player.
I bought the Toshiba Aurex System 10 after I had saved enough money and had grown tired of listening to my growing collection of music cassette tapes on my portable cassette player.
I emphasized music cassette tapes since plain audio cassettes were also the very popular media ex-pats used to record and send messages to their loved ones back home as the Internet was still reserved for a few people in the academe and government back then.
Via the AUX (auxiliary) jack, this vintage Toshiba Aurex System 10 can still play today’s digital devices –iPods, CDs, and, yes, MiniDiscs as well as DAT (digital audio tape) players.
Prior to my purchase, I had just watched with envy as my coworkers -especially the senior ones with much fatter paychecks- unloaded and unboxed their expensive, high-end stereo systems with huge speaker sets inside their villas.
Sansui, Denon, NAD, McIntosh, Nakamichi, Tannoy, Pioneer, Marantz, Bang & Olufsen, JBL, Teac, Grundig, Kenwood, and other leading Japanese, American, and European hi-fi brands were the buzzwords those days. And those systems were really manufactured in Japan, the U.S., and Europe.
I had visited several audio shops in downtown Riyadh before I decided on the micro-sized Toshiba Aurex System 10 because of its uniqueness, design, and almost magical impression on me.
The PC-D10 cassette tape deck simply needs the replacement of a few rubber belts inside. The DC motor & tape heads still function well. This unit has manual tape controls.
Both models were spectacularly designed and housed in high-grade aluminum chassis that made them withstand the elements as well as high-quality internal electronic components.
And, as a bonus, the Aurex models that were sold in the Middle East had power supply voltage selector switches so that AC power input can be set to either 115V or 230V -depending on where you are or what country you’ll plug them in.
So what are the differences?
The System 15 has a beautiful main amplifier (SC-M15) housed in a one-piece diecast aluminum with an all-DC toroidal transformer that drives 40 watts per channel into 8 ohms (or, 100 watts in ‘BTL’ mode). The back of the amp has professional-grade connectors (screw-on and ‘banana’ plug) for 2 sets of speakers.
The separate pre-amp (SY-C15) came with 2 phono inputs, a variety of switches typically found in bigger high-end stereo systems plus gold-plated contacts for all the RCA jacks at the back.
The FM-only tuner (ST-F15) has a VFD (vacuum fluorescent) digital display with a 10-button direct/up-down push-button tuning with memory presets capability.
And, finally, a better metal-capable tape deck (PC-D15) that utilized two (2) separate DC motors to drive the reels. A touch-key tape operation control pad perfectly complemented the elegant unit.
The very elegant Toshiba Aurex System 15. Including a pair of speakers, it would have cost me a month of my salary back in 1982! Top to bottom: SC-M15 main power amplifier, SY-C15 pre-amp, ST-F15 FM-only digital tuner, and the PC-D15 stereo cassette deck with 2-motors plus IC-logic control.
System 10 was a much simpler set with just 3 pieces. An integrated amplifier (SB-A10) that’s also encased in extruded aluminum with a much smaller DC toroidal power transformer that drives 20 watts per channel into 8 ohms, an FM/AM tuner (ST-T10) with an old-school, knob & scale tuning, and a tape deck (PC-D10) with a single servo motor to drive the flywheel & reels plus manual tape operation controls.
You could actually mix and match decks or components from either system and even use two (2) SC-M15 amplifiers in monaural mode via the BTL (bridge tied load/ bridged transformerless) feature to drive a massive 100 watts per channel.
There were cheaper mid-sized/micro components options during those days like Sony’s FH-7 or Technics’ Concise series but most of them used either plastic or sheet metal housing and did not look as elegant as Toshiba’s Aurex System 15 and 10.
After 36 years, I am still amazed how this vintage hi-fi system can remain to look so beautiful and elegant as some of today’s latest digital audio decks and sound so impressively– after I hooked up either my FiiO(X2 and X3 Mark III) high-resolution audio players, the iPod Classic or, yes, a Sony Discman via the amp’s auxiliary input.
Sometime in May of this year, my six years old (purchased in January 2011) Sony Dash Personal Internet Viewer (HID-C10) received a control panel update to inform me that service for the device would end in July.
The last firmware update (from version 1.7.1461 to 1.7.1526) was done on April 08, 2016, after the device had issues “downloading the main control panel” and rendered it useless.
Over the 6+ years that I had owned the unit, there were intermittent issues with Sony’s backend servers that kept it inactive. But, Sony was always able to come up with firmware updates to keep the service going — until July of this year.
Sony Dash (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Sony Dash is a small tabletop alarm clock-radio-weather/gadget with a 7″ touchscreen that sold for $199 when initially released in April 2010. Its functionality relied 100% on the Internet, hence, WiFi (a/g) is built-in.
Aside from the beautiful design, the main attraction of the gadget, just like a smartphone, is its capability to load additional “widgets” (or, apps) via its built-in memory. It enabled owners to stream videos and music from content providers like Netflix, YouTube, Amazon, Pandora, Slacker, Sony Music, etc. There are also thousands of other useful widgets that range from the arts to zoology.
And so, one day in July this year, I saw the dreaded firmware update – 1.7.1604– that would turn an otherwise very useful device into a door stopper.
Don’t hit the OK button!!! The dreaded Dash firmware update -1.7.1604- would stop all functionality of the unit
Of course, I did not do the firmware update but, instead, called Sony’s customer service (in the U.S., it’s: 1-800-222-7669) to ask them what to do with a useless unit.
To the company’s credit, it promptly replaced a product that had reached its ‘end-of-life’(aka, planned obsolescence), with a choice of either an alarm clock/AM-FM radio(ICF-C1) or a Bluetooth speaker (XB10) after I e-mailed the image of the unit’s serial number.
When the replacement ICF-C1 clock radio arrived a week later via FedEx (shipping also paid by Sony), I grabbed the Dash that sat atop one of my stereo speakers – still with the ‘Update available’ screen- and yanked out its power supply.
Sony sent this free ICF-C1 clock-AM-FM radio (or, the XB-10 Bluetooth speaker) as a way of recompensing owners of bricked Dash units
Meanwhile, somewhere in the coastal city of San Diego, California, a guy had been very busy writing code to port the Dash (running firmware 1.7.1526) to make it work with Chumby.com’s server(s) after Sony’s May software update alert.
Chumby (now, operated by Blue Octy, LLC) is a small company behind a line of very affordable “Internet viewers” similar to the Dash. The Dash runs on an OS modified from the Chumby OS.
Finally, in early August, Blue Octy released the software patch (but only for the Dash HID-C10 model) that resurrected some Dash units. The patch is Chumby-HIDC10-1.0.0.zip. It could also be downloaded here.
So, if you have an HID-C10 Sony Dash, just ensure that your unit is running firmware 1.7.1526. If you had accidentally installed firmware 1.7.1604 and bricked the unit, simply revert to firmware 1.7.1526 via the instructions here before applying the patch.
All set to install the patch to the Sony Dash (for model HID-C10 only) to enable it to run off Chumby.com’s server
If you applied the patch correctly, you should have restored some usefulness to your Dash such as the clock, weather, and a few radio stations. A $3 monthly subscription fee would enable one to get numerous apps as well as multiple channels on this gadget that — simply, refuses to go away.
Sony Dash is back in business with a new Blue Octy channel/control panel interface!!!
In Manila, it is not uncommon to see mothers spending countless hours playing bingo, ‘tong-its’ (local version of poker), or mahjong while neglecting household chores.
Mothers are mindless of their children crying and unaware that they are burning hard-earned money their husbands had brought home from scavenging or construction work. Look around; there would always be dirty kids running and playing and not giving a damn if they have taken a bath. There would also be kids who, instead of being in school, must work daily to help their parents make ends meet.
Their jobs vary, from digging the muddy and heavily-polluted seabed of Manila Bay to getting pieces of metals, which they call ‘kalakal’ (merchandise) to sell at opportunistic junk shops, to carrying heavy loads of fruits and vegetables in the early hours of the day.
In the streets, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see jobless but non-disabled men on drinking sprees in front of ‘sari-sari’(a small family-operated shop typically attached to the house) stores. They laugh heartily at their senseless conversations because they don’t even know whether they’ll have something to feed their family the next day. They flaunt their big bellies, their tattooed arms, and worst of all; they brazenly display unproductiveness.
On the next block, it is also hard not to notice a group of teenagers, most thin as bamboo and nutritionally deficient like dying carnations. A few of them are playing ‘Cara y Cruz (heads or tails), some would be smoking weed, others are snorting ‘shabu‘ (crystal meth), and some would be sniffing ‘rugby (contact cement) –filled‘ plastic bags to get their highs to mask out their miseries temporarily. These youngsters are not few. Like a vicious cycle, they spawn like rabbits and would join similar ill-fated, innocent souls in sordid existence. But is it all about fate?
Take a casual walk on the streets, and you will notice how informal settlers -squatters- have mushroomed throughout the country, whether in urban or rural areas. The streets are where we would realize that we have not seen and experienced the worst. Scrap materials made into shanties occupied by many as fifteen. They try to fit themselves in a ramshackle abode as small as a bathroom of a typical middle-class family. Here, “houses” are contraptions of recycled wood, flattened biscuit containers, plastic rice sacks, damaged tires, tarpaulins of stupid politicians or B-movie ads, and an assortment of junk. No architectural plans, no concrete, no hollow blocks, no metal trusses, no hope.
A common sight in the urban areas of the Philippines due to overpopulation
There will be mixed emotions on seeing the appalling living conditions of the increasing number of Filipinos. Some would feel sorry because of the plight of the children. Their parents could barely provide them with toys. There’s just one meal in a day, Education good only until the 8th grade, A house comparable to those made for pigeons, and a whopping PHP 150 (about US$ 3) a day take-home pay by the breadwinner. What a fucking way to live a short life.
To observant eyes, how some parents managed to have too many children -without any means of providing them a good foundation in childhood like regular meals, decent shelter, education, clothing, toys, playtime, etc. – clearly borders on ignorance. But, regardless of how we come up with why these people are wallowing in poverty, there is only one thing clear to everyone: the Philippines has swiftly become an overpopulated hell.
The problems that stem from overpopulation are beyond count. One frustration is that locally-produced agricultural products would always be insufficient to feed the entire population because there is a mismatch between the producer and the consumer. The people -as well as consumption- overpower production. Surely and steadily, more and more Filipinos are filling their pie holes with imported products, which is a bane to the economy.
Another hassle presented by population sprawl is job opportunities. Millions would compete against each other over a few job openings; it would be a dog eats dog situation. Small companies tend to hire only seasoned workers and don’t prioritize new graduates. College degrees would be useless; diplomas would be senseless. Only a handful with the skills (and the right connections & recommendations) would be lucky enough to secure employment, and the rest would be jobless, unable to support their families.
Overpopulation is a bane for any government. Three or more patients would share a filthy bed, one with tuberculosis and others with dengue fever. In the ER, people needing immediate care will have to wait. Victims of vehicular accidents would have a very slim chance of survival because only three exhausted doctors are attending to twenty emergency cases.
Inside the maternity ward of an overcrowded hospital in the Philippines
The educational system is another government service that would suffer greatly due to overpopulation. How can we have quality education if one classroom holds one hundred-plus pupil? How can these students focus on learning if classrooms are like a can of sardines?
Can senior high school students comprehend solid measurement or even the basics of Algebra if their classroom is as hot as an oven toaster? How can grade ten students appreciate the epics of Homer and Ovid or the novels of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky? They do not even have a decent chair to sit in or a hygienic restroom to relieve themselves. Or even a comfortable library where they could read books and write poems?
What about the teachers? Can we expect them to be effective? By holding a class in a jam-packed room, the precious time allotted to teaching would be wasted calling attention and reprimanding the foolish ones. With a ballooning population, schools would turn into a chaotic mecca.
An elementary classroom crowded with students is typical in the Philippines.
As stated earlier, overpopulation will bring infinite aggravation. As this currently troubles us, most Filipinos are unaware of the inconvenience it brings to our economy and our future.
It is also worth noting that overextended families come from the poorest sector of the population. A friend of mine told me about a friend who has nine children, the eldest being twenty-two and unable to finish high school. The youngest is in the first grade, barely bringing a meal to school because of abject poverty. The bold, or should I say, the stupid father has no other source of income but through driving a tricycle which he does not even own. The head of the family brings home PHP 150 a day, and it is up to the readers to imagine how the family gets through with the daily expenses.
How can a financially-strapped couple summon the courage (or have the common sense) to have such a big family? Could this be attributed to the Filipinos’ penchant for the “Bahala-na-ang-Diyos” (God will provide) mentality?
What could be the culprit in this vicious cycle of boundless reproduction? Is it the administration? I’m sure the government is doing all it can to educate people about family planning. For today’s youth, is it easy to access pornographic and lustful websites? Perhaps, it could be a factor, but it is controllable. Working or not, some countries censor the Internet to filter the materials its people can see. Is it the people themselves? The root causes of overpopulation depend on many factors. But, in the Philippines, the Catholic Church is both a powerful and unstoppable force regarding the pyramiding population.
The church is opposed to artificial contraception, and this belief dates back to the first centuries of Christianity. Such acts are intrinsically disordered because of the view that all sexual acts must be open to procreation. There was even a point when the church allowed birth control – but only through abstinence. The Vatican even released a document entitled “Vademecum for Confessors,” which stated, “the Church has always taught the intrinsic evil of contraception.”
Furthermore, the church had always pointed to the Holy Bible as it lies in Genesis 1:28, which states, “God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and the animals that scurry along the ground“. The fanatics and the Bible warriors do have a point, though. Who else is to govern all the blessings this world has to give but the people? Who else is to harvest the products of the fruit-bearing trees and cut the wood afterward, not minding landslides and pollution, but the people? Who else is to fish the sea in a greedy manner using dynamite and toxic chemicals but the people? Who else would carve the beautiful and natural shapes of mountains and hills to get precious stones but the people? Who else is to hunt the rare and exotic animals for money’s sake but the people?
We, the people, are commissioned by the Creator to be the stewards of nature. And, as the logic goes, we should multiply. Even if reproducing is limitless. Even if multiplying equates to self-destruction, isn’t it more sinful to bear when future generations have to suffer?
Who can contest the church’s uptake and exposition of inscriptions when, for a thousand years, they have been used to punish those who dare to question, to subject them to inquisitions, to tell everyone that the Creator’s grace and mercy are exclusive to those who kneel before man-made images purchased in the streets of Tayuman, and to baptize an innocent infant before he even gets a chance to choose the faith he prefers.
The Manila Cathedral in Intramuros serves as the Episcopal See of the Archbishop of Manila.
It has become our habit to follow and believe whatever the man in the white suit, whose car displays the Veritas sticker, tells us. “We follow without question. ” “We follow with the highest reverence.” “We follow with the fear of hell if we do not follow.” It is funny that after the priest chants a Latin phrase, of which the significance or meaning is unknown to many of us, we instinctively chant ‘amen.’ It is funny that the Filipinos, the majority of whom are Catholics, abstain from eating pork during Lent to shun extravagance, only to fill their dining tables with more expensive seafood fares like lobsters, grilled blue marlin, and giant prawns. These make me want to fry hotdogs using floor wax.
Church crusaders should be more realistic in taking a stand regarding the increasing population and traditional faith. While priests are busy preaching ‘multiplication’ and procreation, overpopulation is markedly taking its toll on the Filipinos – hospitals becoming smaller, schools becoming canned sardines, job opportunities becoming elusive, farmlands turning into subdivisions virtually overnight. While the gross domestic product (GDP) grows, our per capita income becomes smaller. And, as always, the rich become richer and the poor. Whatever!
Is this what the Creator planned our country to be? I doubt He wants most of us to live in dire poverty and disorder. I also suspect that the church accurately amplifies the Creator’s orders based on how He wants things to be. A little coherence and correction would not destroy the credibility of the church. The church should also review its stand on procreation’ in light of the changing world.
The price of enlightenment is just too expensive for the country and the people that have long been under the grip of a compelling and untouchable force.
If you’re a hard-core music enthusiast but still listen to your collections on your phone, then, you’re missing out a lot.
And, if you’re an Apple fanboy still buying songs through the iTunes Store and listening to them through your iPhone or iPad, then, you’re simply paying a hefty premium for the brand.
Songs bought from the Apple store are encoded in Apple’s version of the venerated (especially during the Napster years) MP3 format, AAC (Apple Audio Codec). It is streamed at 128 kbps bit rate with a sample rate of 44.100 kHz. AAC (and, MP3) is a ‘lossy’ format but is very popular due to its small file size as a result of compression.
Although you could rip all your CDs to a lossless format within iTunes using ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec), the resulting files are huge and are playable only in, of course, Apple’s devices.
FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) is an open-source musical format that will give you bit-perfect copies of CDs. Not only that but also supports ‘tags’ that enable you to retain artists, album covers, lyrics, etc., on the format.
With FLAC, you’re not only getting half the space occupied by a CD with no loss in quality but you’re also going to be able to get up to 24-bit at 192 kHz of music. That’s studio-master quality. Clearly, MP3 and AAC are no match for FLAC.
Rare is the true high-definition audio enthusiast that listens to his FLAC collection on a smartphone. For Android phone users, even with the rock-bottom prices of microSD cards these days, it’s just so obvious that smartphone makers are just too focused to make the camera features better.
And for iPhone users, it’s going to look ugly if you want to stick in a Lightning-capable microSD card adapterto expand the memory capacity of the unit as there’s no memory expansion slot on those phones. And, the saddest part of all, you can only transfer pictures and videos using the adapter –no music files. Apple simply wants you to pay $970 for their top-of-the-line unit with 256 GB built-in.
Picture of a MicroSD Card with its Adapter. Frontal and Back. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
But even most high-end smartphones from Samsung and Apple don’t have the top-tier, audiophile-grade chips to support FLAC at 192 kHz/24-bit nor do they offer native DSD (direct stream digital) decoding which is the best way to listen to streaming music.
While high-quality audio always comes with a price, this doesn’t mean that you’ll have to break your piggy bank. So, what are the cheaper options?
For content, there’s nothing that will beat allflac.com. The U.K-based music website has one of the cheapest rates around and you’ll be surprised to find some of the songs that you can’t find elsewhere including the iTunes Music Store.
ALLFLAC contends to have the world’s largest lossless music collection
What’s more, not only do they have albums for as low as $1.99 but you can also download them in either FLAC, M4A, and MP3 (or, all) format. There is no membership fee and you can fund your account for as low as $10 with no balance expiration.
There are a handful of high-definition audio players available especially in Asia, Europe, and the North American markets including the Kickstarter-funded, Neil Young-backed PonoPlayer as well as from well-known companies like Sony, Onkyo, Pioneer, and others.
But one company stands out because of its low price without sacrificing quality: FiiO.
Highly recommended to budding audio enthusiasts with limited budgets would be the FiiO X1 (2nd generation) model. It retails for US$120 but could be had for as low as US$80 discounted if you shop around.
It’s a mid-entry model but surely not lacking in features found in their more expensive ones. Most importantly, it supports microSD cards up to 256 GB or approximately 8,700 plus FLAC songs (at 30 MB per song). That’s a lot of studio-master-quality tunes to keep you in the groove.
The FiiO X1 (2nd generation) high-def audio player in action
The company’s catchphrase is “Born for Music and Happy” and, indeed, you’ll be more than happy once you had listened to some of your music collections – in the FLAC format. Of course, using one of their portable high-definition players.
