My new favourite thing.

I will get around to revisited something I wrote a few months ago about my use of the iPad as a traveling device, but in the mean time here's the latest reason why I think the iPad is a great device.

Apple's iPad accessory adapter for cameras, the iPad Camera Connection Kit, supports audio interfaces that are compatible with the USB Audio Class.

Now that might not mean a lot to many people but it means that the iPad can pass a digital audio signal to a USB DAC (digital to analogue converter). To put that in reasonably plain english, the iPad can output CD quality music to audiophile quality devices. Suddenly the iPad has become one of the best devices for true audiophile quality music on the go.

For years expensive Hi-Fis have used dedicated CD transports to pull the digital data from a CD and pass it to an outboard DAC for conversion to a signal an amplifier can use. Overkill perhaps, but thanks to a £30 adapter designed for cameras the iPad can now perform the same task as those expensive CD transports. While I won't be using my iPad at the centre of my Hi-Fi, it does mean that the iPad has become the perfect partner to the headphone amplifier/DAC I use to get great quality sound from my Laptop. The same great quality without the need for a laptop, and with 15 hours battery life.

iPad, amplifer/DAC and headphones in perfect harmony

To get this CD quality you need to use Apple's lossless audio codec as this is the only CD quality lossless audio format the iPad supports. This meant I spent several hours over the weekend re-ripping some CDs, and converting music from other lossless formats, into this iPad friendly format. But once synced onto the iPad and played back through some decent headphones using the headphone amp/DAC the quality is most impressive and far better than anything I've previously heard from the iPad.

The only slight downside side, and it is a slight downside, is that the iPad only supports the CD standard bit depth of 16 bit and sample rate of 44.1 kHz. The latest true high definition music that you can listen to requires a bit depth of 24 bit and sample rate of 96kHz, which both my Laptop and headphone amplifier/DAC support. Given that Apple doesn't make any references to the current audio capabilities of the 'Camera connection kit' I can't see them rushing to improve upon it.

While the ability to support true audiophile quality music reproduction won't appeal to a signigicant number of iPad users it is another excellent string to the iPad's already capable bow.

A musical constant

Every now and again I take to the sofa with a Coffee or a Beer and watch a film from my youth. They typically aren't the greatest films in the world, they tend not to be classics and upon re-watching their flaws can become more than apparent. But these are films that at their time of original watching, struck a chord.

One such film, and the one I watched this morning, is 1995's Empire Records. The basic premise of the film is that a bunch of impossibly good looking and improbably cool American teenagers try to save the independent record store they work at from turning into a typical corporate retail music outlet. It's a tale as old as Hollywood's realisation that teenagers spend money and think adults are dumb. Naturally, they win the day and all sorts of emotional, romantic and personal issues are resolved in the course of a single workday. It's all very inspiring stuff.

Having watched it again for the first time in years there are a couple of things that I noticed. Apart from the whole Hollywood fairy tale aspect to the story, it's odd to think that with the benefit of hindsight the victory they won in keeping the store out of the hands of a corporation seems rather hollow. When I first saw this film 15 years ago the only place to get music you could 'own' was in a record shop, selling music on CD and vinyl was one of those facts of life, and fighting to keep an independent music shop was a plot that was easy to buy into, but the last 15 years has seen a sea change in how music is sold.

With few exceptions modern record shops seem to be outlets for movies, box sets of popular TV shows and console games. What little music that is available is Simon Cowell approved, or greatest hits and selections from the top 100. Good luck trying to find Ben Folds' album of a Cappella cover versions of his better known tracks.

The one thing that does stand the test of time from Empire Records (apart from the future careers of Liv Tyler and Renee Zellweger) is that the music is still with us. Despite the realisations that life is not like the movies or that music no longer requires a physical stock control system, it's the passion that people feel for the actual music that gives this film it's last remaining foothold in reality.

Decent independent music shops on your high street may have gone the way of the Dodo and the idea that all of life's issues can be resolved in a day thanks to an impromptu gig on the roof without anyone getting arrested (even the Beatles got arrested for that) was never true. But the final scene during the end credits where two of the films' characters passionately argue about which band has the better bass style, Primus or The Pixies, is one of the few scenes that feels real, and perhaps more tellingly, could still be played out 15 years later and not feel dated.

While in Aachen in the Summer of 1992 I listened to music on a personal stereo that used an iron coated plastic tape to store low fidelity music that I had purchased on the high street. Today I use digital media to store high resolution music purchased from an on-line store. While the technology for playback and distribution has advanced, I'm still listening to that same Tori Amos track I was listening to almost 20 years ago, and while the version I listen to today sounds infinitely better, it still has the power to transport me back to that summer I listened to it on a beaten up Walkman. Regardless of all the changes in life or technology in 20 years, the music remains the same.

Welcome to the start of the next 10 years

Since the IMF rode into town last week there has been lots of talk of Ireland surrendering it's sovereignty to save the banks, and asking how those who gave their lives to free Ireland would think of the events of the last two weeks.

The journey that led to Ireland's freedom to determine its own future was a long and costly one. Those who gave their lives for the freedom of this country may be appalled by what we've done, but freedom to make our own decisions does not guarantee that the decisions we make are all positive. What we did with that self determination was ultimately elect ineffective politicians, where was our concern for the freedom and future of the republic while our elected officials were laying the foundations of the crisis we are now facing. Regardless of the cost of it's victory, the value of your freedom may go down as well as up. It's not that Freedom is overrated, it's that those who enjoy it, value it less than those who paid for it.

Had the country gone bankrupt while trying to offer the best education, healthcare or social welfare that €80 billion can buy I could at least understand that we the people may have got some benefit from it, but that €80 billion was spent to save private organisations. The country didn't go bust, the banks did. The austerity measures and bail-out are not designed to ensure the short term freedom and welfare of the population, but something much more insidious, that wonderfully nebulous modern concept of confidence in the financial market. Having made bad investments and collapsed into a grave of their own making the bank loses have simply been passed onto the public. Far from letting the market decide we have allowed capitalism to reap the profits and socialism to bear the loses, investors have been saved by the Irish public

The Fianna Fail party has governed this country since 1997, and for most of the last 50 years. Having presided over the greatest sovereign crisis since the formation of the state it's members have seen the writing on the wall and those who can are starting to desert the government ship as it starts to sink. The minister for Justice announced he will not stand in the next election, and thanks to a loophole introduced by another Fianna Fail minister for Finance he will get his full ministerial pension even through he is taking early retirement by effectively resigning while in office. I'm glad the party that presided over the boom and bust are still in power as the IMF bail out the country, and I can hope that for at least the term of the next government we may see an end to rampant cronyism that they seemed to stand for. But it seems just as likely that incoming government, no matter how good, will have a rough ride for next five years.

I read a joke last year that asked what the difference between Iceland and Ireland was? The punchline was, one letter and about six months. While I don't believe we should be looking to leave the Euro, Iceland's ability to devalue it's currency and impose capital controls have helped limit their slump. Meanwhile Ireland is entering the third year of public spending cuts and banks guarantees, the IMF has just bailed us out to the tune of €80 million, yet the all important market confidence that we are desperately chasing is no where to be seen. Paul Krugman summed it up in his op-ed piece in the New York times last week;

"you have to wonder what it will take for serious people to realize that punishing the populace for the bankers' sins is worse than a crime; it's a mistake."

The next ten years don't look like they're going to be fun.

History repeating itself?

Being back in Ireland it's difficult to avoid the economic crisis facing the country. The topic is receiving so little coverage in the main stream press in the UK that I had to ask an Irish colleague if the crisis had got worse in the 4 weeks that I’d been back in Ireland, apparently it's just that I wasn't aware how bad it was.

The major causes seem pretty clear. Large foreign investment coupled with low interest rates after joining the Euro resulted in a massive explosion of the property market.  Irish banks borrowed funds on the international markets to lend to Irish developers who used property as collateral. Once the world economy turned the banks found themselves exposed to loans that couldn't be repaid, secured against property that wasn't worth close to it's claimed value. Ladies and Gentlemen, we have that worst type of crisis, one that was entirely predictable.

And then things got worse. In order to keep the plates spinning the banks went to the government for help. The banks and government advisers claimed that the banks were profitable and well capitalised and that the immediate problem they were facing was simply a liquidity gap. The government paid €4 million for advice that agreed the banks were probably okay, but the same report explicitly warned of the possible future problems with providing a government backed guarantee for all depositors and creditors of Irish banks, especially given that the world economy was in what was described as a "very fluid" situation. Despite that advice, in late September 2008 the Irish government gave that blanket guarantee. It now seems clear that the banks either lied, had no idea of the level of debt they were holding or failed to appreciate  just how far property prices could fall, because as the world economy and Irish property prices continued to drop the extent of the problems with Irish banks became clearer. As as result of that government backed guarantee the whole country was in serious trouble.

The  banks and government in Ireland have an odd history. Despite Government bail outs in the past the banks have in recent years assisted some customers with illegal tax avoidance schemes and concocted illegal bank charges to steal money from other customers. But this is Ireland, and in a country this small the politicians, bankers and developers all know each other and what's good for the banks and developers is good for the government. But as it slowly emerged just how much trouble the banks were actually in, the warning contained in that €4M report must have looked remarkably prescient. The government had propped up the banks and developers, and to a certain extent itself, and in the process had practically bankrupted the country.

Despite the greed and hubris of those in charge who thought the Celtic Tiger was here to stay, the Irish public hold a large share of the blame, and not simply because they believed that property price could only go up. We have for decades elected incompetent politicians to represent us, not on the basis of their positions on national or global issue, but because we know them and they can be counted on for favours. Ireland may have been screaming out for a real transport policy, but being in control of the local planning permission board was where the real political power lay. Being such a small country the parochial nature of our politics results in politicians and business leaders operating in an almost incestuous environment that starts with cronyism, a lack of accountability and general arrogance before developing into full blown corruption.

Political connection will always trump professional ineptitude in Irish government, which goes some way to explaining why in the past a senior cabinet member tried to illegally import weapons, or why a minister for Finance held no bank account and was paid with briefcases full of cash. In most European countries that would be career over, in Ireland they were just mis-steps for the politicians involved before they both went on to become the leader of the country. Time and time again the people of Ireland have elected the same politicians in the hope that this time will be better, and those same politicians have failed us so often that rather than worry about the competence of the politicians I'm start to worry about the sanity of the electorate.

Ireland has the feel of a schizophrenic country at the moment, there is a genuine feeling on the street that things are about to get a lot worse, yet the restaurants and bars are still full. For the moment people have money and the crisis does seem, for the time being, to be limited to the banks and public sector. But based just on the number of people who have asked me about job opportunities abroad I suspect that a whole new generation of Irish are about to introduced to the meaning of the word Diaspora.

This country has seen bad times before and come through, and I believe the coming austerity and fallow years will eventually pass. What worries me the most is that the same incompetent and corrupt politicians will still be in charge.

Meanwhile, with few exceptions it seems the bankers and politicians will head to sunnier climes or retire on fat state pensions. The developers may not fare so well, but it is of little consolation to know that we may end up in the life boat with the people who sank the ship.

Thomas Wolfe was right.

Despite having been born and brought up in Dublin I've never really worked a 'real' job in Ireland. I left in 1993 to go to university in the UK and never moved backed. My job took me all over the world for the best part of ten years,  But now I find myself back in Dublin doing the one thing I have never really done, commuting with my fellow Dubliners across rain soaked broken paving stones on a cold November day that can't decide between drizzle or downpour.

While the Celtic tiger was roaring I held fast to an image of Dublin developing into a modern capital in the European model. A city of cosmopolitan cafe culture, with streetcars transporting it's inhabitants across this thousand year old city, students from all corners of the world attending it's educational institutions and attracting businesses with it's English speaking population perched on the western edge of Europe. I never had a working view of Dublin, for me it was a city of relaxation and long lunches, of family and good times.

As I reached the end of my second week of working week in Dublin I fear my view of that idealised Dublin has been changed for ever. This is not the city I had imagined. Years of working in other cities has had a profound effect on the tint of the rose coloured glasses I viewed my city through. It was never fair to place it up on the same pedestal as Copenhagen or Munich or London. Dublin is a city of poor roads, debilitating congestion and disjointed public transport. Ten years of economic growth seems to have concentrated on tinsel and decoration, numerous modern apartment and office blocks to let, with no pleasant or reliable way to get to them.  While there have been efforts to improve the actual infrastructure of the city I sat in Dublin airport having endured a half hour delay to Dublin's rapid rail transit because it couldn't cope with the seemingly surprise onset of winter in Ireland, a 60 minute taxi ride through the heart of the city because it was quicker and cheaper than the roulette of battling through yet more road works to get to the fast port tunnel that goes under the city ( can I be the only person who sees the irony of raising the toll on a relief road during the rush hour that has the effect of forcing traffic back onto the congested streets), only to reach an airport whose security seems to operate a different set of rules to every other airport, and whose flights never seem to leave on time. I left the office on Dublin's South side at 3pm and got home to South West London 7 hours later.

I can't let one bad week or journey effect my view of this city too much, but I left that Friday night with an suspicion that the city I thought had become truly European, is still far from that destination. Thomas Wolfe famously wrote "You cant go home again", and for the time, I think I understand what he meant.