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Hi, just a "semi-off topic" topic. I haven't written much the past years, so now that I have something interesting to tell, I thought I might put down a rant with some info that you might find interesting. Part 1 Around 2007 I bought a Toshiba Gigabeat S (now discontinued since Toshiba allied with microsoft for the horrbile Zune). I hated Ipods (despite the excelent interface) for all of Apple's propietary/exclusivity shit , the overpricing, all the U2 hype and the fact that other MP3 players at the time were better sounding and relatively open (creative ZEN being the best sounding at the time IMHO) so I bought the Gigabeat S 60GB for about $300. I hoped I'd take it with me for travelling, but I soon realised that I don't want to carry a $300 piece of tech with me, so I settled for a shitty 20 eur chinese mp3 clone for when I travel. So I was left with a semi-dissapointing gigabeat that stayed for many years in my gym (I have a small personal gym/room) and I took it with me for jogging, I always said that's it's the only piece of OVERPRICED equipment I've ever bought. And I say semi-dissapointing and overpriced because: 1)The interface is from microsoft, it's not good and battery consuming 2)It only syncs with Windows Media Player via a database/mp3tag system, so you don't have access to the file tree (I now found out that WMP autorenames the files to numerics so even if you manage to have acces to the files you're screwed). Obvioysly it doesn't work as a HDD and has a limited number of file types supported. 3)The battery is a generic Toshiba bat and doesn't last long The sound and amplification is fine though and the HDD is fast and stable. So it's OK for casual listening. The past weeks, my brother who's unemployed (after being fired like the majority of Greek youth emplyeees) has been messing around with hacking/moding his Samsung S2 phone, he's an IT genius so he can program, hack, and repair most IT stuff (and if he can't, he'll just study and do it eventually). So I thought I might have a go at the Gigabeat. So after a bit of searching I ended up @ rockbox.org. A free music player firware that is meant to overcome all those apple,microsoft et all, locks and exclusivities. Even though the Gigabeat S is not fully supported so I had to manually do some compiling (nothing special really), I flashed the old firware and installed rockbox. For the fully supported players it's a piece of cake. So what happened??????? The shitty Gigabeat S has been turned to A SUPER SUPER DUPER HDD/Media player system not a simple mp3 plater. I can't compliment this piece of software enough!!!!! It's like nothing I've ever seen or heard of before . It gives Winamp for the PC a run for it's money and it's a bloody FREE OPEN SOURCE portable player. Video and sound capabilities ,parametrisation and customisation are UNBELIEVABLE. I'm so excited that I went and gave them a $20 donation. I won't even bother with most of them but I'm sure some of you migh find those capabilites intersting. The sound is even better and the amplification too. I put a custom theme (I wear glasses so I need big fonts) as well and the Gigabeat is now SMOKING HOTTTT!!!! p!!! And the possibilities it gives you are fantastic... You can do some search and find which supported portable players (check the website for the supported players, most are older ones) has the hardware you want, go on ebay, buy a used on for less than 50 eur and VOILA you have a TOP NOTCH media player system and external hard drive. I guess most of you might already have one of those and install a dual boot so you can keep the old firware. I tottaly flashed the Shitty Microsoft CE firware and I'm getting a new battery. That's the first half of the story. Part 2 2 years ago I had a meniscus knee surgery from lifting weights without warm-up and with the wrong technique. At the time I could lift over 50 kilos with the turkish sit-up (a wrestling exercise) and I had just bought a full set of kettlebels (girya in Russian) instead of dumbells so I thought I'd give it a go with 12 kilos ONLY just for a test.... Result of wrong tech: I collapsed, my knee locked and luckily I was early in the movement, otherwise the weight could have fallen on me, or I could have gotten injured on any othe iron lying on the floor. The leg unlocked qucikly but eventually after progressively increased locking I had to get meniscus surgery a few months later. Since then my Judo/grappling/wrestling training has been totally iconsistent due to injuries and professional issues (work in the afternoon occasionaly). But since we are on a deep depression here in Greece, I now lack workload not time, so around May this year I thought I'd get more serious and consistent with my training. So in accordance with that AND THE GIGABEAT, I went for a jog yesterday that turned into a run/srpint and tabata training session. GOA-trance, gives me wings on the track The original Rezwalker and other fast-hard tracks from the likes of Astral, Chi-ad, Alienapa, Shakta, X-dream.... (while lifting weights I prefer groovie metal and harcore). So I put my earphones and run like a madman for more than an hour. I was so excited with my upraded Gigabeat that I tooootaly overexcerted myself, now my right leg (the injured one) is hurting from buttocks to toes, while my left is normal... which obviously means that my right leg's nervous and bone system hasn't recoverd despite the 2 years passed. Running with GOA in my ears for me is a bit like meditation: First its hard to get focused, than I start getting in the mood, different parts of my body hurt, then the pain goes aways and for a little while I'm calm, and then ZAAAAAAAAAAAAPPPP hell breaks lose, I can't stop running, I have a premise to run until a part of my body gives in, usually my legs or my lower back, I don't care if my lungs burn, I run until a muscle group starts disfunctioning, ie cramps, shakes... the problems is that if I'm in shape this can take a long time and the stadium shuts down at 10pm (I usually go there aroun 8-9pm), so it's not rare for me to run in the darkness when there's the moon. If I'm in a hurry though, after running I swtich to tabata sprinting, ie 200m sprint then 200m jog, or 100m sprint then 50m jog or sprinting then anaerobic endurance training (typical wrestling exercises) all of which require enormous amounts of energy and after less than 15 minutes I'm dead. Yesterday I actually stopped the process, fairly early, I hadn't run in a few months so although my muscles could have kept me going for much longer I thought I'd go home early... despite this my right leg still hurts... Anyway in conclusion: 1) Exercise with caution, don't overxcert yourself and always warp up, especially if you're listeing to GOA 2) GOA can help your endurance training (aerobic or anaerobic) 3) GET YOURSELF A ROCKBOX POWERED MP3 PLAYER, IT MAY BE ONE OF THE BEST INVESTEMENTS OF YOUR LIFE. That's all, my shift is finished, I'm going home limping, to rest my right leg. Tomorrow is physio training at the wrestling gym, it's a nightmare and unfortuanetly I can't put earphones on. Sorry for the long post.... my next one will probably be in a few months time, taking into consideration my habits.