
I still think Minidisc was an under-rated format, and I've doggedly held on to my 200+ discs, 2 x portables and hifi separate. I can still rip CDs to MD, but stuff I've downloaded digitally can't be directly transferred, until now. Link above is to a blog where a bloke has made a browser-based thing to transfer music to a MD player. It's a bit slow, but very easy to use.
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 19:17, Reply)

there is a mechanical process that requires time - the laser heating a spot of material to the curie temp and then the magnetic head transferring the data the spin of the motor etc
half way thru archiving to hd before my last machine gave up the ghost a few years ago but never had a usb model so dunno - does it transfer both ways? disc to usb would be more useful to me and maybe even worth an ebay if it works surely reading from is faster than writing to?
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 20:22, Reply)

cheers - saved me a google. had enough trouble trying to rescue dodgy discs in the past so glad to avoid another md rabbit hole
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 21:07, Reply)

You used optical for recording in real time.
At the time you could get MD drives to hook up to a computer like a Zip drive, but hardly anyone bought them outside Japan.
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 22:10, Reply)

is a function of processor time not mechanical was my point i think - usb transfer is only shaving a few cycles from the process?
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 22:18, Reply)

ATRAC3 was used to fit vastly more audio on an MD than recording lossless PCM or original ATRAC. This effectively turned a Minidisc player into an MP3 player with removable storage.
If you wanted to do this you had to connect USB (before USB 2.0, mark you), and you had to use Sony's ATRAC3 format as well as their slow, shitty and generally unpleasant software.*
If you were hooked up to the optical in, you could only record in realtime but the quality was much better.
( , Sun 21 Feb 2021, 1:00, Reply)

bailed way before atrac3 - before 'lp' even
i fink i geddit now
( , Sun 21 Feb 2021, 1:06, Reply)

( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 20:34, Reply)

Bring back OGG.
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 21:01, Reply)

I can remember my boss buying one decades ago (worked in a nightclub at the time) "its the future" he repeatedly said. It lasted about a day in that sweatbox of a club.
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 22:40, Reply)

If the fog itself doesn't interfere with playback, then the residue build-up over time traps dust.
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 23:57, Reply)

Recorded all the basic tracks for a Pretty Popular Film Soundtrack on it and it stands up very well when bumped up to Super Dooper Dolby 5.1
( , Sun 21 Feb 2021, 19:17, Reply)

Given I could record five or six albums on a disc, I could carry about thirty albums on me. With the extra battery bolted on I could get about 60hrs play, too.
( , Sun 21 Feb 2021, 22:52, Reply)

If you still have your vinyl copy of this, I don't, apparently it's worth about £300.
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 15:30, Reply)

may bear passing resemblance to various tv shows
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 14:40, Reply)

The first half of that is very good indeed. "Then we shall leave", cut to credits, job done. No need for the weak second joke.
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 18:17, Reply)

I enjoyed all the jokes, and didn't think it was really labouring things at just over a minute! Good stuff.
( , Sun 21 Feb 2021, 1:53, Reply)

ronseal
I think I can guess 99% of the first picture from the people on this site (cos I did one as well)
Iceberger
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 8:21, Reply)

No matter what ratio I have between my cock and balls only 5-20% is visible from the surface, and I'm still trying to access what proportion of tits are a danger to icebreaker shipping.
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 10:28, Reply)

Mount your sculpture on top of a large block, and it'll stand to attention like a good 'un.
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 11:42, Reply)

I'm quite jealous.
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 17:50, Reply)

Can easily get cock into erect position. Would draw again. 5/7
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 12:25, Reply)

sew-on patches when you sent in a photo of the TV screen if you achieved a high score.
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 18:43, Reply)

Burnley FC manager Sean Dyche decides not to do a pre-match interview about football
( , Fri 19 Feb 2021, 21:50, Reply)

they were dancing tango on Mars
( , Fri 19 Feb 2021, 20:37, Reply)

Audio.
Almost all of the coal in the entire world was made during the carboniferous period. 60 million years - a blink of the eye, in terms of Earth history.
Why? 'coz before trees, it was mostly
60 mill years later, the detritivores figured out how to eat it.
If you find this kind of thing interesting, you'll enjoy Matt Parker. If you don't, fair enough - this is an incredibly geeky rabbithole.

( , Fri 19 Feb 2021, 19:41, Reply)

The book is now on my shopping list - cheers!
I can't believe I've never seen the "double domino" effect before.
youtu.be/EYkBctqyKic
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 7:47, Reply)

300 million years ago. Grasses didn't arise until about 55 million years ago.
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 11:25, Reply)

Fair point, thanks.
I think it might've arisen about 100 mya or so though.[1]
Still, way after the carboniferous, sure.
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 11:55, Reply)

Loved it and his YouTube channel is pretty fine also.
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 16:34, Reply)

So this is of interest thanks
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 8:30, Reply)

I have a couple of early 'gas' tapes somewhere.
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 23:12, Reply)

The song is fun too
NSFW if plastic toy porn is NSFW otherwise - -is you pervert?
( , Fri 19 Feb 2021, 16:33, Reply)

A documentary about animals and a tale about a cat family and a wolf.
Including the bear brothers.
( , Fri 19 Feb 2021, 15:41, Reply)

Pretending to know the mind and motivations of cats, wolves and bears, and telling a story made from cobbled and obviously contrived footage, it's not exactly a scientific documentary.
Skipping to the credits to find out which McGann was doing the narration (Paul), I came upon this quote: "nature can triumph even when man has done his best to destroy it." WTF? Nuclear power is A) natural, B) not designed to destroy anything, and C) very far indeed from man's best attempt to destroy nature, which I would say is probably golf.
( , Fri 19 Feb 2021, 19:47, Reply)

"son, I like to go the wild, untouched places on earth, see herds of ibex grazing next to pristine fission reactors. you feel like you're in the garden of eden"
( , Fri 19 Feb 2021, 21:13, Reply)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_nuclear_fission_reactor
Perhaps the common ancestor of the ibex grazed in Gabon.
( , Fri 19 Feb 2021, 23:44, Reply)

generally, if something requires you to build a giant power plant, cooling towers, mine and enrich uranium, then initiate a controlled thermal fission reaction to drive a turbine, we'd tend to define that as a man-made or artificial rather than a natural process or something you're likely to stumble across in nature. I mean, I don't want to belabour what I thought was an uncontroversial correction, but if everything is natural according to the brb definition (ipads? just atoms, mate. Totally natural), it's somewhat pointless to use it as a defence of nuclear power as you have
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 0:26, Reply)

or are you arguing that the universe is unnatural?
anything else would be supernatural - and that is just silly.
like, do you imagine human beings as somehow existing and operating outside of nature?
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 1:32, Reply)

what underlying concept is being hinted at? sub or super both are outside the realm of human experience?
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 2:13, Reply)

And by fatuous I'm using the dictionary definition of "silly and pointless", but feel free to substitute in your own definition as you have want to do.
"Nothing wrong with nuclear power plants"
"Why not?"
"Well, they're made of stuff that's found in the universe. Same as ox tongues and supernovas and ak47s and anthrax bacillus. all natural. Need I say more?"
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 3:35, Reply)

because we all know the sky falls on your head when you admit to saying something wrong or stupid
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 3:54, Reply)

Things are either natural and in existence (or potential existence), or they're supernatural and they're not.
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 14:45, Reply)

the opposite of natural is artificial, not supernatural
happily, language is democratic: it's not that you're wrong per se, just that very, very few people will agree with you.
perhaps there's a facebook group you can join :)
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 20:10, Reply)

bending the runners in a three-drawer filing cabinet, so that the drawer doesn't stop when it's pulled out? or filling the stationery tray with thumb tacks?
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 20:34, Reply)

add lead weights to the drawer-fronts and super-glue the stationery tray first?
( , Sun 21 Feb 2021, 4:10, Reply)

Nice, we're nearly in agreement. We're close, I promise.
Artificiality is an illogical conceptual throwback to a time when it was common to think of mankind as special and separate from nature (because God made everything for us, and nature must be tamed). But man is not special, separate, artificial, contrived, or fake. We exist entirely within nature. We are as natural as the other tool using animals, and the stuff we make is as natural as the stuff they make.
Why should a birds nest, termite colony, or beaver dam be considered natural, but something built by a human is artificial? What exactly is the distinction being made?
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 21:37, Reply)

No ifs, no nands, what you said about fission reactors and ibex has been shown to be bollocks.
You can get increasingly specific if you like, but that will only make you slightly less wrong, it won't make me less right.
Fission is natural, it's happening all the time. Exploiting it is no less natural than exploiting any other resource or process.
Ask yourself this, is tool use demonstrated by animals natural or not? Assuming you agree it's natural, what is it in your mind that makes human tool use unnatural?
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 14:47, Reply)

( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 22:20, Reply)

Nuclear fuel is orders of magnitude more dangerous than native materials.
Doesn't mention the numerous animals that starved.
( , Fri 19 Feb 2021, 22:27, Reply)

What's a native material? Are radioactive elements foreign materials?
Fear of radioactive materials is orders of magnitude more harmful to your health than the radioactive materials themselves.
( , Fri 19 Feb 2021, 23:49, Reply)

Some are synthetic, like the various isotopes of plutonium.
When the people were bussed out of the area, I doubt they took pets, most of which would starve.
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 2:05, Reply)

where on earth is it occurring then, and how?
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 2:10, Reply)

Far more than would be usually expected in such a milieu as this.
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 2:16, Reply)

might start my own religion soon
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 2:18, Reply)

The oxford definition gives the condition in the definition: "not made or caused by humans". this is the one that is widely accepted. if you were to ask ordinary people whether a nuclear power plant, a tree, uranium ore dug up, or processed uranium, were natural, they'd say, no, yes, yes, no, because unlike you and brb, they have a good grasp on what the term means. however, if brb wants to hold on to this all-encompassing personal definition of natural, then why use it defend nuclear power plants?
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 4:07, Reply)

I bet you there's at least one star out there with even more refined isotopes in its core than we've ever produced.
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 14:53, Reply)

Did Alexander Litvinenko die of polonium poisoning or the fear of it? Did all those people who went into the Chernobyl reactor room have their bodies break down out of fright?
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 9:21, Reply)

not that an individual exposed to lethal radiation won't die.
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 14:41, Reply)

It's one of the cleanest and least harmful methods we have, and our best hope at surviving the next couple of centuries.
It is green energy because it emits zero carbon, just steam. The waste products make more fuel, the associated waste (such as used PPE, metals, glass, water, concrete, etc) and what's left over from the depleted fuel can and should be stored in such a way as to produce useful energy too (the stuff is literally hot, so chuck it down a sufficiently engineered hole and stick a geothermal power plant on top), or make a fucking huge RTG to power your Van Neumann probe or whatever).
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 19:01, Reply)

Fossil fuel deposits would certainly go extinct if all life on Earth went extinct first. It would take a while, but we wouldn't care.
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 22:40, Reply)

It's nearly off the page so I'm damned if I'll let you have the last word.
*raspberries*
( , Sun 21 Feb 2021, 1:48, Reply)

Well done, you're coming along nicely with your therapy
( , Sat 20 Feb 2021, 23:16, Reply)

With the kittens. Without their mother.
I can't watch.
( , Fri 19 Feb 2021, 22:45, Reply)

For those of you who like that sort of thing
( , Fri 19 Feb 2021, 14:30, Reply)

Let's hear it for Sandy Duncan, the Julie Andrews of television and owner of the key to my heart.
( , Fri 19 Feb 2021, 14:05, Reply)

or phobos for that matter
Bit of astronomical humour there folks! I will be here all weekend!
( , Fri 19 Feb 2021, 1:10, Reply)

Not a tapestry, and wasn’t made in Bayeux.
( , Thu 18 Feb 2021, 22:24, Reply)
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