I'm still using my iRiver H320. It works perfectly, has plenty of space on the mini HD and I was able to replace the battery about a year ago.

Nice physical buttons that can be navigated without looking.
Standard 3.5mm plugs.
Presents as mass storage on USB.
Handles mp3, Ogg-Vorbis, Flac, Wav and some vid formats (can't remeber which - never use them)

So much disdain, and even outright hostillity towards the Pi, yet it continues to confound its critics with its popularity.
I wonder where the disconnect is.

It seems ther've finally caught up with what was possible on Linux over 5 years ago. Virtual desktops too. How very, erm, usual!

One person, with no such decision authority, and who co-incidentally brokered Microsoft's move to Munich wants this to happen.

I wonder why.

Seems people are more interested in the tech than the actual content. If I'm listeing to speech my attention is on what the speaker is saying, not where in the room they appear to be. If it's music, I'm more interested in hearing all the instruments and the dynamics than any positioning that I wouldn't know about anyway.

If you have visual cues then this positioning information will be more effective than playing with sound phase relationships etc. If you don't have such cues then does it matter at all?

To be worthwhile, something like this has to be the first; the best; unique.

This is none of those.

... the gods themselves, contend in vain. The first time I heard of this, my instant thought was that it was utter stupidity to connect any industrial process to the Internet. Since then, every comment I've heard or seen from every source follows the same idea, so why is anyone still doing it?

The cost argument really doesn't fly. Can you imagine the firestorm of compensation claims when (not if) the first major disaster takes place?

Agree totally. Openbox on the very thinnest layer of X, and ROX as the filer.

It all depends on how much real imagination you've got. I designed a text adventure many years ago for the BBC Model B. Doors were based on reality. Some opened inwards, some outwards, some had locks (and you had to get the right key). The nasty ones would swing shut behind you and you'd find there was no handle on the inside.

There were, of course a host of appropriate messages :)

What is far more important is that you have a game plan, room list, alternative routes/actions, and most important of all an objective.

There sure are a lot of jealous people on /. these days :(

... was not telling him to bugger off 43 yeasrs ago. That was in 1971. As a trainee I was working on aligning servo motor controls in 1967 - it used them thar new-fangled transisitor things {bloody wickless wonders}

I thought they were talking about politicians at first ... all of them.

See it while you can. If the 'managers' of the Bletchly Park Trust get their way, Colossus and the National Meuseum of Computing will soon be made homeless. Sounds a lot like the /. situation doesn't it?

This is actually quite interesting. We have now moved from 'everyone knows' to someone has actually spelled it out.

There are a lot of ordinarly people out there who are not in the 'everyone' category and may now become aware of this.

Indeed so, added to "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain"