Mobile Ghetto Blasters

Mobile phones have really evolved from huge self defence bricks (or water bottles as I fondly remember) to small little communication units packed with MP3 players, mobile games and what have you. And with the advancement of mobile technology, people nowadays do not need to walk around town with a boombox blasting their favorite tunes. Instead, they play them via the handset's loud speaker.

And that's quite a pain. I know that the doctors have advised us to avoid listening to music using earphones to minimise damage to our ear drums but do we really need to share your favorite songs with everyone?

No matter how advanced or expensive your handsets cost, the sound quality of a handset speaker should be limited to that of conference callls. I can't recall how many times I've heard "The reason" and "My humps" blaring inaudibly from someone's handset. Seriously, it doesn't do the handset nor the songs your playing any justice.

Worse still, try travelling on a train or bus with passengers trying to outdo each other by blasting music via their handsets at the same time. The winner, of course will always be the beng with a comprehensive collection of repetitve euro-techno MP3s.

Let's get this straight, everyone loves music to a certain extent. But please, don't be too fanatic to the point that everyone's being forced to listen to your music blaring from your handset; having an MP3 handset doesn't make you a DJ! Perhaps this year's courtesy campaign should read something like, "Pass on a little kindness by keeping your music to yourself".

Tales from the Bootleg Boutique #2

I'm very surprised that the neighborhood bootleg boutique has stood the test of time. Maybe because the elections are drawing near so no clampdown or raids will be taking place until after we've cast our votes.

Was there the other day on my way home from work when I overheard a guy telling his girlfriend how he despised people who bought MP3 CDs. However, he went on to tell her that it was okay to pirate software and games...

How ironic! As long as you pirate one of the following; movies, music, software, games or e-books you're still a pirate! There's no such thing as pirating one thing being okay while pirating something else isn't. A pirate is a pirate, no two ways about it. Either way, I doubt he succeeded in impressing his girlfriend with his justifications.

And dude, why even bring your girlfriend to the bootleg boutique?