Added this weird article about mp3 player from 200{1..4}

author: Aki <please@ignore.pl> 2024-01-05 21:55:15 +0100
committer: Aki <please@ignore.pl> 2024-01-05 21:57:58 +0100
commit: e2529120ab1c3be293ffa16226350dc3654e58f8 (patch)
tree: 5f3419d4d6a58b61147b8fbb98e374ea938ba8ad
parent: 79a335ea07236ad5cd0fec5be17ac23e6232eb26 (diff)
download: ignore.pl-e2529120ab1c3be293ffa16226350dc3654e58f8.zip
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 all: content feed
 
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-	rsync -t [^_]*.{html,png,css,map,jpg,txt} ignore@ignore.pl:public/ignore.pl/
+	rsync -t [^_]*.{html,png,css,map,jpg,txt,webm,ogg} ignore@ignore.pl:public/ignore.pl/
 
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@@ -37,6 +37,8 @@ projects and whatever else.
 <h2>Posts</h2>
 <p><a href="atom.xml">Atom feed</a>
 <ul>
+<li>	<a href="review_of_hyundai_mpf825_mp3_player.html">Review of Hyundai MPF825 MP3 Player</a><br>
+	<time>5 January 2024</time>
 <li>	<a href="how_to_write_install_targets_for_lua_modules_in_makefiles.html">How to Write Install Targets for Lua
 	Modules in Makefiles</a><br>
 	<time>29 December 2023</time>
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+<!doctype html>
+<html lang="en">
+<meta charset="utf-8">
+<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
+<meta name="author" content="aki">
+<meta name="tags" content="hyundai, mp3 player, MPF825">
+<meta name="published-on" content="2024-01-05T21:55:00+01:00">
+<link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="favicon.png">
+<link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css">
+<style>
+video, audio { display: block; margin: 1em auto; max-width: 600px; width: 100%; }
+</style>
+
+<title>Review of Hyundai MPF825 MP3 Player</title>
+
+<header>
+<nav><a href="https://ignore.pl">ignore.pl</a></nav>
+<time>5 January 2024</time>
+<h1>Review of Hyundai MPF825 MP3 Player</h1>
+</header>
+
+<article>
+<p>I have something slightly different for you today. In one of my totally-not-garbage-electronics storage trash bins I
+found a somewhat old MP3 Player labelled as "Hyundai" "Digital MP3 Player" "HD-MPF-825/12". I put a new battery in it,
+connected headphones and turned it on. A welcome screen. Music started playing and of course it had to be a piece that
+thrown me into nostalgia.</p>
+<video controls>
+<source src="review_of_hyundai_mpf825_mp3_player-1.webm" type="video/webm">
+<p>Out of focus video of Hyundai MPF825 starting up.</p>
+</video>
+<p>I didn't find certain production date or any related documentation. I probably didn't dig deep enough and I'm not
+very good at finding things through Wayback Machine. Model identifier, specs and files stored suggest that this device
+was produced sometime between 1998 and 2002. I compared it to several models that I found manuals for and it seems close
+to MP566, MP1281, MP567FM, MP755FM, MP1190R, and MP1220. Naming scheme doesn't seem consistent as MPF825 doesn't really
+fit between the MP755FM and MP828 FM Sport very well functionally and especially aesthetically. Label on the device is
+different, too, "MPF-825/12" despite probably fitting more as "MP825 FM" to the rest of the names I found.
+<p>Unless they just didn't have any sense of direction.
+<p>It has three major functions: playback, recording and FM receiver. User may play music or any of the recordings.
+Music playback supports MP3 and WMA formats and LRC lyrics. Recordings are done in WAV format. Playback supports A-B
+mode, pausing, seeking and volume control. FM receiver stores 30 channels that can be set between 87.5 MHz and 108.0
+Mhz. FM mode has awkward controls.
+<p>The rest of menus are, let's say, OK. You can choose equalizer settings from presets, change playback mode (e.g.,
+repeat all), change screen contrast and backlight colour, choose between power saving (I assume, it's "powerset") modes,
+change interface language, and change recording settings (e.g., sampling rate).</p>
+<video controls>
+<source src="review_of_hyundai_mpf825_mp3_player-2.webm" type="video/webm">
+<p>Out of focus video of changing through backlight colour settings.</p>
+</video>
+<p>Some other menus are as awkward as FM. The primary reason is inconsistency for what certain buttons do in what menu.
+The other reasons are: intuitive actions are not a thing and other settings making fun of your choices. The best example
+of this is "About" menu/page that displays version information and storage statistics.</p>
+<video controls>
+<source src="review_of_hyundai_mpf825_mp3_player-3.webm" type="video/webm">
+<p>I must scream and I have no audio recorded. Still out of focus.</p>
+</video>
+<p>Storage is around 496 MiB. Advertised as "512 MB" I suppose.
+<p>Sound quality is comparable (if not equal) to my audio card and phone. However, unlike some audiophiles I know claim
+they have, I can't tell difference between 32 bit and 64 bit processors running Foobar2000. I can't run Foobar to begin
+with, since I use Linux.
+<p>As for what was stored on it. The oldest file is a voice recording seemingly from the 27th of December 2002:</p>
+<audio controls>
+<source src="review_of_hyundai_mpf825_mp3_player-4.ogg" type="audio/ogg">
+<p>The first audio recording on the device.</p>
+</audio>
+<p>I'm not sure whether this actually is from 2002 nor do I remember the situation. I mean, I remember countless cases
+in which I personally created similar sounds but not when I held this MP3 player in my hands and around the date. An
+easy way to verify it would be to record new thing and check the date.
+<p>Today is also 27th of December 2002. It's exactly 19:44:58 all day, too.
+<p>Weirdly specific. For a moment I was thinking about disassembling it to check how exactly it is built and if there
+are any obvious shortcomings in the design that could result in this. It could be a date and time related to the
+lifetime of this device. Or a simple bug in the firmware. All speculations.
+<p>There's a "SETTINGS.DAT" 492 bytes file that I assume holds selected settings. It is also marked with the same date. 
+I opened it with <b>hexdump</b>(1) trying to make sense out of it at first glance. There are some patterns to it.
+Changing settings and diffing proved that it hold settings and better shows the structure than just stupidly looking at
+it:
+<style>
+.bl { color: blue; }
+.cy { color: cyan; }
+.gr { color: green; }
+.pu { color: purple; }
+.re { color: red; }
+.wh { color: white; }
+.ye { color: yellow; }
+.diff { outline: 1px solid; padding: 1px 2px; margin: 0 -2px; }
+</style>
+<pre>
+<span class="wh">&gt; 00000140  40 03 00 00 00 00 00 79  47 40 03 00 00 <span class="diff">00</span> 00 00</span>
+<span class="pu">&gt; 00000140  40 03 00 00 00 00 00 79  47 40 03 00 00 <span class="diff">01</span> 00 00</span>
+<span class="ye">&gt; 00000140  40 03 00 00 00 00 00 79  47 40 03 00 00 <span class="diff">02</span> 00 00</span>
+<span class="re">&lt; 00000140  40 03 00 00 00 00 00 79  47 40 03 00 00 <span class="diff">03</span> 00 00</span>
+<span class="cy">&gt; 00000140  40 03 00 00 00 00 00 79  47 40 03 00 00 <span class="diff">04</span> 00 00</span>
+<span class="bl">&gt; 00000140  40 03 00 00 00 00 00 79  47 40 03 00 00 <span class="diff">05</span> 00 00</span>
+<span class="gr">&gt; 00000140  40 03 00 00 00 00 00 79  47 40 03 00 00 <span class="diff">06</span> 00 00</span>
+</pre>
+<p>This is the difference between colours of the backlight. Don't worry, you don't really need to see them. There's also
+a "auto" mode that should be called "disco". It switches colour when you press buttons:
+<pre>
+<span class="re">&lt; 00000020  00 b6 49 40 03 00 00 <span class="diff">35</span>  00 00 b7 49 40 03 00 00</span>
+<span class="re">&lt; 00000140  40 03 00 00 00 00 00 79  47 40 03 00 00 <span class="diff">03</span> 00 00</span>
+<span class="re">&lt; 00000150  7a 47 40 03 00 00 <span class="diff">01</span> 00  00 94 47 40 03 00 00 00</span>
+<span class="re">&lt; 000001c0  00 00 94 49 40 09 00 00  <span class="diff">35</span> 00 00 00 00 00 00 00</span>
+&gt; 00000020  00 b6 49 40 03 00 00 <span class="diff">36</span>  00 00 b7 49 40 03 00 00
+&gt; 00000140  40 03 00 00 00 00 00 79  47 40 03 00 00 <span class="diff">06</span> 00 00
+&gt; 00000150  7a 47 40 03 00 00 <span class="diff">00</span> 00  00 94 47 40 03 00 00 00
+&gt; 000001c0  00 00 94 49 40 09 00 00  <span class="diff">36</span> 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
+</pre>
+<p>It was compared to red and green was last colour before I connected it to the PC.
+<p>I did not disassembly it because it looks like I would need to or easily break certain pieces. I didn't want that.
+<p>Graphical interfaces between MPF825 and other models from the manuals I found is similar. "About" view contains
+version number but I sadly do not own any other devices from this series and can't use version to try to project it into
+timeline. Even then, it would be under assumption that version incremented over selected period and not, let's say, went
+down.
+<p>Back to the content. What music did I find there?
+<p>Most of the pieces were from 2011, 2012 and 2013. Luckily, it seems that it did not contain anything that I would
+scream in pain seeing now. On contrary, to prove my beliefs, it seems I have mostly consistent and matured music taste.
+Other than couple of artists and/or songs that I simply forgotten there wasn't really any surprises. I mean, there
+shouldn't be.
+<p>What's consistent is presence of <a href="https://www.arjenlucassen.com/">Arjen Anthony Lucassen</a>'s work. In this
+case it was <a href="https://www.arjenlucassen.com/content/the-human-equation/">The Human Equation</a>. If you never
+listened to anything from Arjen, do it right now. Next, <a href="https://hevydevy.com/">Devin Townsend</a>'s Epicloud.
+Some Gamma Ray and Axxis. Of course, I had to have some odd things, too. Like anime soundtracks. Tasogare Otome x
+Amnesia, which surprised me, because I most likely didn't hear anything from it since 2012. I tried lyrics function on
+these and it seems to work nicely, too!</p>
+<video controls>
+<source src="review_of_hyundai_mpf825_mp3_player-5.webm" type="video/webm">
+<p>Better now. Video of lyrics showing up on time on screen and being too long.</p>
+</video>
+<p>Most nostalgic ones were Spice and Wolf and Tytania. I just remembered that I have been mentoring an intern a year or
+so ago and he had Holo poster visible in his work area.
+<p>Couple of songs from Katie Melua and Norah Jones that I did not listen to since around that time, too. It seems
+Loreena Mckennitt lasted the longest for me.
+<p>That sums most of it. If won't research more and/or disassembly it, what's next? Is there anything? Yep. I want to
+select some things that I listen to often now, some things that I liked from recent anime, and maybe something more.
+Then put it in this little MP3 player along most of the things it already had in it.
+<p>Then I'll hope it'll last another 10 years.</p>
+<video controls>
+<source src="review_of_hyundai_mpf825_mp3_player-6.webm" type="video/webm">
+<p>Device is saying: "Bye, bye!"</p>
+</video>
+<p>Despite all the flaws, I think there are nice touches that we can bring back from the not so far past.
+<p>But why 27 December 2002? What does it mean!?
+</article>
+<script src="https://stats.ignore.pl/track.js"></script>
author	Aki <please@ignore.pl>	2024-01-05 21:55:15 +0100
committer	Aki <please@ignore.pl>	2024-01-05 21:57:58 +0100
commit	e2529120ab1c3be293ffa16226350dc3654e58f8 (patch)
tree	5f3419d4d6a58b61147b8fbb98e374ea938ba8ad
parent	79a335ea07236ad5cd0fec5be17ac23e6232eb26 (diff)
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