Mp3 Player Woes

So a few weeks back I had a really bad day. On top of a whole bunch of other things that were happening that day, I also managed to break an Mp3 player that I had only bought a month before. Because it was a really bad day, I was in a rather delirious state of mind when I logged onto Ebay that night and I found what I thought was a really good deal, a 32 GB player for under fifty bucks. I acknowledged that it was a Mp3 player out of China and so I wasn't expecting a whole lot, but what I got didn't even live up to those low expectations. I found out that 8 Chinese
Gigabytes is in actuality only 1 Gigabyte. The reason for this is apparently because the manufacturers of these Mp3 players don't know the difference between a bit and a byte. There is indeed a 32 Gigabit flash memory card in my device, but 32 Gigabits amounts to 4 gigabytes. What is worse though, is that they hacked the firmware to tell the computer that it is indeed a 32 Gigabyte Mp3 player. This causes a host of other problems, because the computer will try to write data onto the imaginary 28 Gigs of memory.
The only redeeming quality it had at this point was that it could supposedly play .OGG vorbis format. But this proved to be not quite true either. So I have given up on it and I am going to ask for a refund.
Why is it so hard to find a good Mp3 Player? And before you Mac zealots chime in and giggle at me saying "Why don't you buy an Ipod.. it's so convenient.." Here are two things that are absolutely essential that an Ipod have before I buy it, expandable memory slot, and a decent price. (ahh heck lets throw in the fact that it has to come free of mind control devices too. But that is a totally different rant...)
Seriously, it seems like all of the portable playing devices are way behind todays technology. This is a list of functions that we are fully capable of implementing into our Mp3 players now, but notice how so many of these are still absent from even the top of the line models.
Expansion Card: I don't care if it has 32 GB, in time I can fill it up. If I can plug cards into it than it has no real space limit, I will turn a 2 GB into a 64 GB with cards.
Hold Button: We have seen hold buttons used widely on CD players, why hasn't the transition been made. Nothing aggravates me more than bumping into something, and fast forwarding to the next chapter in an audio book, then having to sit and try to get back to where I was for five minutes because the fast forwarding function is slow. Either put a hold button in, or put the buttons on the side.
Screen Protection: If you are going the way of touch screen, make some way to reinforce the screen. Palm protected their touch screens with impact grade plastic covers that you can snap on and off. Lack of screen protection is why my last Mp3 Player broke.
Standard USB hookup: (Apple I am looking at you) I don't want to go buy a special/ more expensive cable from you guys if my link cable goes bad.
Drag and Drop Folder Capabilities: Ok, if you don't know how to organize your music, you need to take some basic computer courses. Don't let the computer organize it for you, especially if you are like me and have only one song from several different artists. I want to put all those loose ends in a folder together.
It should Not have a Start up Animation: (Ok, Mac got this one right.) I want to go strait to my menus, I don't need to be greeted with a Hello every time I turn on my Mp3 player.
Tru random play: If I tell it to random play all, It better play All the songs, not just the first 300.
Tag Capabilities: One thing I haven't seen on any Mp3 Player is advanced Tag capabilities. If you brows around the Internet radio site Last.fm you will begin to understand what I am talking about. You can put whatever tags you want onto a song, then you can go through a list of the tags you have made and tell your Mp3 player to play those tags. This is fundamentally different from play lists because if you try to play a play list that is supposed to play some songs that are not on your Mp3 player any more, it can mess up. Play lists are stagnant, Tags are fluid and continually adjustable. They are far easier to use.
It must not be Hacked: Aka, it tells your computer the real amount of memory that it has.
Currently, there is no Mp3 player out there that has all of these functions. But is this really too much to ask for?
The Revolutionary
~SB

Peace Connotation

When I say the word Peace, or Love everyone, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? If you are like me, one of the first things that comes to your mind is the Hippies. Hopefully the thing that comes to your mind is the teachings of Jesus Christ, but we will get to that in a moment. It is such a shame that Hippies are so closely connotative with the word Peace because lets face it, Hippies in and of themselves carry such bad connotations, drugs, STD ridden communes, large scale protests, long hair and bell bottom pants. Inadvertently, because they are connotative with peace and with all these other bad things, the concept of peace also becomes connotative of drugs, STD ridden communes and large scale, not so peaceful, protests. If you don't believe that these connotations exist then try talking peace with your coworkers at work. Talk about the world problems, talk about the partisan competition in the states, talk about the "off the cuff slandering" that people in general are serving to one another. Then mention, "Man if everyone would just cool their jets, stop arguing, and give peace a chance it would fix so many things in this world." Then watch the reaction of your coworkers. Count the number of eyes that roll. Listen closely for the sighs. If you have a particularly choice audience, one might say "That will never work." or "Were you a hippie in some past life?" Try it.
This is such a catastrophe. It is like we have gotten ourselves backed into a corner because of jargon and connotations. I would say that if the Devil was responsible influencing the current state of things, he is one cunning bugger. We can hardly speak of our two greatest weapons against the problems of our age, Love and Peace, because we don't want to be associated with the hippies and their less-than-noble agendas.
I guess that is the way the Devil has always worked though. Look at the crusades. In this day and age, the crusades have become a black mark on all religions. The Catholics are not the only ones to suffer from that atrocity of the past. Those who denounce any sort of conviction that is based upon a religious foundation use the crusades as a major attack, embedding this ill connotation on all religions, especially on Christianity.
Let us throw off these connotations and honestly speak of peace. Let us stop fighting one another, and slandering one another, but seek instead for understanding of one another, regardless of wither or not that person's viewpoint is in opposition to our own. It would be my wish and desire for all people to just take a stand back and consider those principles of peace, charity love, understanding, kindness, and good will toward all mankind.

The Revolutionary,
~SB