Jaco’s Random Writings

So here’s yet another Cheese Wars sketch. I really should apologize for these. And yet, I’m completely unrepentant. So in this installation, Gouda receives swift retribution from Sharp Cheddar.

You know, in retrospect, maybe I shouldn’t have given Sharp Cheddar a katana… Seems a little inappropriate for an English cheese. But then, lasers on a Gouda doesn’t make much sense either. Actually, why am I even trying to apply reason to this? This whole premise makes no sense anyway.

In other news, I went and got myself a Sansa Clip+ last week. Arrived in the mail yesterday. I have to admit, I am very impressed by this little MP3 player. Actually, calling it an MP3 player is a little in accurate; it can play MP3, Ogg Vorbis, WMA, secure WMA, FLAC, and Audible. No AAC, though. Oh well, I don’t buy anything from iTunes anymore anyway (boo DRM!). Just one important note for any other Sansa Clip+ owners out there: It is very particular about tags in Ogg Vorbis files. If there’s even the slightest thing off, it will freeze when it refreshes its database. To my understanding, this appears to be a bug in the firmware.

However, there is a way to ensure that your tags don’t send your Clip+ into deep freeze. On a Windows machine, use Winamp or Tag&Rename to fix the tags (simply opening and saving will do the trick). On a Linux machine, go with EasyTag. On a Mac… well, that’s where it gets more complicated*. None of the Mac native editors that I have tried properly fixed the tags. The only remedy to this is to build EasyTag from source. There are two ways to go about this:

1. You download the source and compile it
2. Download MacPorts or Fink and install it through there

Personally, I would just install it through either Fink or MacPorts. It’s the same as compiling, except about 60% less complicated. Then, using X11 Extensions, you can create a custom launcher for EasyTag instead of having to launch it from Terminal all the time. Or you can use XDroplets to create custom launchers as well.

Seems a little round-about, but until SanDisk updates the firmware, the other Sansa Clip users and I will just have to deal with it. So, may the cheese be with us all.

---

* Fancy that: something being more complicated on a Mac than on anything else. It happens more often than Apple would want to admit.