There's no such thing as a free lunch...Or is there?

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It's official. The next president of Indonesia is former army general Prabowo Subianto. Quite how the next five years will pan out is anyone's guess but hopefully the foreign pundits who always bring up his dodgy human rights record will be proven wrong. Nonetheless, on policy making, Prabowo's popularist move to literally offer the poor 'a free lunch' every day of the week does not augur well for the future. Such a policy - if it ever came to fruition - would cost a phenomenal amount of money and likely lead to huge inefficiencies (food waste) and poor incentives (make people lazy). Another concern is Prabowo's strong nationalist bent. Thus, in the possible event that he finds himself with his back against the proverbial wall in the face of stern economic challenges, there is a big chance that he will simply scapegoat foreigners. But he will have to be careful. Construction of the new capital city, Nusantara, for example, is highly dependent on foreign in
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FiiO E7: product review

There aren’t many gadgets that are truly useful but this little beauty is one of them: the FiiO E7 USB DAC and Portable Headphone Amplifier. The size of a packet of cigarettes, just put it on your desk, connect it to your PC via the USB cable, plug in a pair of quality headphones and enjoy the music.

FiiO E7

 The difference between plugging your headphones into the headphone socket in your computer and using this device is astonishing – the difference between eating at McDonalds or a gourmet restaurant.

What it does
Converts the digital file on your computer into an analogue signal and then amplifies it.

 The sound
The sound is detailed, neutral, and balanced. No harshness. Instruments are separated well and the bass is solid and punchy. However, the old hifi adage of “garbage in, garbage out” still applies of course, so don’t feed this device compressed and crappy MP3 files but use uncompressed FLAC files instead. It really is worth it!

Specifications
- USB receiver, 48kHz 16-bit support for Windows XP/2000/Vista/7 and Mac OS
- Wolfson WM8740 DAC, ADI AD8692 OP Amp and TI TPA6130A Power AMP
- Dual 3.5mm headphone output jack which makes it easy to share music between two listeners
- Anodized brushed aluminum case
- Build-in rechargeable 1050 mAH Li-ion battery for up to 80 hours of continuous use (if you want to use it on the move - with your Ipod for example)
- User defeatable USB charging.

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