The MiniDisc Experiment

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After discovering that there’s modern software that supports NetMD, I found myself acquiring something few people want anymore. Also, it’s my first Walkman since portability had more in common with books than floppy disk. I was always fascinated by MiniDisc, but they were never really a thing where I grew up–and now they’re basically thrift store material.

In terms of audio quality, at SP, it’s definitely close enough to CD quality that I can’t complain. In LP2 mode, it’s certainly no worse than the older MP3s in my music collection. While I don’t consider LP4 to have enough bits for more than a Bluetooth microphone (and an old crap one at that), I’ll admit that the few samples I’ve encountered sound just fine. Being second hand, several of the discs had music already in various SP/LP2/LP4 combinations.

The battery life is also pretty impressive. Playback time is forget about it off one of my eneloop AA rechargeable, most of which have about 4-years of charge cycles between game controllers and other small peripherals. Only thing that really seems to put a real ding in it is recording, since SP record uses the recorder’s own ATRAC3 codec rather than the PC.

Using LP2 may actually be worth it, since that appears to do the encode on PC, resulting in a lot more write speed. The Walkman’s codec is probably a higher quality than what comes bundled with ElectronWMD, but it is still a twenty year old chip.

Encoding at SP seems to run about 2/3 to 1/2 of real time, which isn’t great since we’re talking about 20-40 minutes an album. Minutes per track. By contrast, throwing my laptop’s processing power at the problem, it’s seconds per track. In terms of disc runtime, 74-80 minutes at SP is on par with CD and the 140-160 minutes or so at LP2 will usually fit longer albums this side of ‘not made for physical release,’ but I’ll admit, encoding time seems to be a bigger factor than audio quality. ATRAC3/LP2 is actually a lot better than I expected.

In any case, I do have to admit, it’s a lot nicer to do File Server -> Laptop -> Walkman than it ever was dubbing to cassette on my mom’s stereo 🙂

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Today I learned it’s possible to combine packing tape and erasable markers. Now, I can’t help but wonder, how well this can be applied to floppy diskette in place of erasable pencil. E.g., a bit o’ tape over the label.

There’s also the obvious problem that 20-year-old CD-Rs don’t always hold onto their sharpie markings, but that seems like a less stellar idea for rotating media. But I think the answer to that still largely remains archive and digitize.

The difference between imperial and metric

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I have to admit, this makes me want to look up the series. While I suppose blaming the issue on the French is a bit inappropriate today (but still amusing for those in non-metric countries), I can’t help but enjoy the clip’s finish.

Ahh, dramatic adaptations of history… there are so many opportunities there.

The Saint of Steel series is definitely worth reading

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A mention because it was so good, I lost sleep over it: Paladin’s Grace was an awesome book. Literally, that may be the worst thing that I can say about it. Paladin’s Grace isn’t quite fluffy romance and isn’t quite murder mystery or legal drama, but does weave a delightful tale; or perhaps you could say, it’s the kind of romance story that I enjoy.

Stephen and Grace make an excellent pair, but we are also rewarded with something that I’m very fond of–the witty supporting characters. I’m pretty sure that Istvhan and the bishop’s antics alone make the book worth reading. I’m not really fond of highlighting passages in novels, but found myself marking quite a few of them. Also, laughing my ass off in spots.

One of the things that I also particularly applaud is the level of veneer. We don’t need a detailed view to experience the pathological horror that Grace’s backstory may imply, nor the trauma that Stephen has suffered, but the characterizations and details that we do encounter weave what’s necessary. Plus, to be honest, I kind of love how that sometimes manifests itself.

Seriously, the paladins guarding the bishop made me cackle so much. Imagine a bunch of bored paladins discussing how to stab people with statuaries and the occasional oversized hat. Not to mention the knitting and other flavorful oddities.

Yep, I think my reading queue has shifted for a while. I’m not sure if the next book, Paladin’s Strength, will be as spectacular, but I plan to find out. The worst case is I lose a few hours sleep over reading late into the night. Fortunately, it’s the weekend coming…

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In one of those rare cases where I don’t fizzle out mid season or totally binge the series, I think that I’ll Become a Villainess Who Goes Down In History is making my anime worth remembering list.

Its protagonist is a bit more unique in being both a baddie and a good-hearted type, in a kind of beautiful balance. Simultaneously able to make your inner child go “That’s so cool!” while also wanting to slap yourself in the head at the main character’s antics. Also, the ending is kind of awesome.

From the looks of Wikipedia, it seems translations of the light novels on which it is based have just started to be published in English as well. Hmm, more temptation for the backlog…

An RE3 music parody

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Random find located in the crossing point between “What the frak did I just watch” and “Damn, that was awesome.” But I think I’ve gotta lean in the latter.

Urge to play Resident Evil, rising….

A lazy Sunday

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On one hand, it feels like it’s been a terribly unproductive day–the most that’s really gotten done this Sunday is grocery shopping and making coffee. On the other hand, that feeling of “Fuck, sometimes it’s nice to sprawl out on the couch,” does rather summarize the need for rest and relaxation.

Of course, that doesn’t counter the fact that eventually, I still have to get up for one reason or another \o/.

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Watching the latest episode of The Too-Perfect Saint, the series continues to be the best anime of the season as far as I’m concerned. Episode 7’s meeting between Philia and King Parnacorta is especially pleasing, given the mask the character typically wears. No to mention Mia’s pursuit of the disposed crown prince; her speech at the end is both poignant and cathartic IMHO.

I’ve enjoyed the series enough at this point that reading the light novels is now on my backlog.