Disgusting

"Litter is disgusting. So are those responsible." That's the current slogan for the anti-litter campaign.

Perhaps whoever did this to the litter bin was trying to make a point. Not sure what point, though.

Not much to report today. Carl lent me a DAC (digital to analogue converter) which he decided he didn't much care for, and I connected it up to my MacBook to give it a whirl with some of my high-resolution music files. The first problem was the US-style plug on the power supply. I tried Woodies up the road, but all they had were Continental adaptors (round 2-pin in, 3-pin out). Then I had a brainwave and went up to Dublin Airport, thinking that perhaps a shop there would have a universal converter.

DAA (the Dublin Airport Authority) are up to their old tricks and are busily turning the area around the actual airport into a concrete desert of roads and parking areas, mainly associated with the white elephant which is Terminal 2. It's all a bit of a confusing maze at the moment, but I finally managed to find my way to the short-term car park. I ended up in Area 2 in the car park, which is the oldest part and is desperately grotty. Even grottier is the access from the car park to the Arrivals Hall (dirty, in disrepair, confusing, ugly). Moving quickly through this embarrassing eyesore I quickly established that arriving passengers are not intended to do any shopping when they get through baggage reclaim. Upstairs in the Departure Hall I spotted a pharmacy, which looked a likely bet. Sure enough, they had what I wanted.

Once I got the DAC connected I immediately threw some really high-res content at it. I'm sure it's because I chose ultra-high-res files and was accessing them wirelessly that I was getting audio dropout. Certainly, CD-quality files played perfectly. Mind you, the high-res material sounded really wonderful, so for the purposes of the test I'll probably copy some of these onto a portable drive and cut out the wireless access business. I'd say that will do away with the audio dropouts and give me an better opportunity to put the DAC through its paces. The rest of the day went on some more DAC listening, along with a bit of work on material for a number of web sites I need to update.