Abby Normal

I'll have to ask my brother who is a linguist and actually fluent in our native tongue (and yours), but this must be a cultural thing. I'll attempt to interpret the above for the masses so people aren't misled: I believe Arvin means: These seemingly erroneous deeds lend themselves to more profit for Sony. Even if the statistics could lead to another conclusion, when profit is one of the choices then it cancels out all other possibilities; therefore, my opinion is that the statistics can lead to no other conclusion. My opinion is so strong that I have convinced myself it is the absolute infallible truth.

"What if there were no hypothetical questions?" the late, great George Carlin

Not exactly I was referring to the deliberate vs. error argument--but whatever.

I'm not asking you to change your opinion--I'm simply asking you to qualify your statements so people know it is an opinion. The way in which you present your opinions leaves people thinking that it's established fact and that if asked you could produce documentation. Since you cannot, I'm requesting that you leave it open for debate instead of creating the illusion of "fact" by the force of your personality.

So you have copies of these SOPs now? I just want you to stop acting like your "educated guesses" are gospel. That's all. I never even said that your explanation was out of the question--I just said it was less likely than "error".

That's not evidence that it was done deliberately. That only suggests that the wrong values were presented to the technicians doing the calibrations. I don't know where you get this "random distribution" scenario--that's a straw man. Under normal circumstances the mistakes wouldn't be random, they'd be consistent with an errant SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) manual. The bottom line is you are guessing and presenting it as fact. I'm suggesting that an alternative explanation (and the most likely one) is that they made a mistake.

Yes, I knew you were going to attack the word "theoretical". The possibility that the setting was a mistake is still there--unless, of course, you're prepared to produce evidence that it was deliberate.

I don't doubt that the laser was set above nominal, but you've not offered any evidence that it was done deliberately. Unless I missed something, your logic sequence is as follows: Premise: Manufacturers don't want their products to last forever. Premise: The laser diode is an ideal component to manipulate to enforce maliciously planned obsolescence. Premise: Some RH1s have the power set above nominal, which sometimes causes read errors and theoretically shortens lifespan. One possible conclusion: Sony did this deliberately. (the one you chose) Another possible conclusion: Someone at Sony or the factory made a mistake. (another conclusion, and the one to choose if we use Occam's Razor)

Take a deep breath. I didn't say I agree, I just said it's plausible. I have been surprised more than once by cultural quirks. Direct eye contact in Asia is considered obnoxious, for example. Supposedly you're supposed to look at them kinda cross-eyed--at the bridge of their nose/eyebrows, but never the eyes. Did I say it made sense to me? Nope. We don't know if it was the exact same factory. Same country, yes.

I would say that they make it better for domestic, not worse for foreign. This isn't out of the question. I've seen reports of great gadgets which NEVER get released outside of Japan. I don't know why, but it is the truth.

I just want to know what school of business says you should make your pitch, wait less than 24 hours, and then say you'd rather not sell it if someone doesn't buy it. Does that work?

Well, there will indeed be a tie-in insofar as sub-domain redirects will reach the same reputable and knowledgeable user base. All the old posts will be there as well. Would you stop reading your favorite columnists and reporters just because the newspaper they work for changed its name? I think you'll find that as far as being the #1 resource for knowledge and experience in the MD arena, you'll still find it when the forums content and users database resides on SonyInsider.

I believe kurisu manages both domains. Current links to the forums should continue to function because there will be forwarding in place. As far as what the future holds for polishing up the content left on minidisc.org (there have been lots of dead links for a long time), that's at kurisu's discretion. I can't speak officially to the request of the branding, but as I said before, what makes this site is the community not the brand or logos. I suspect that adding a subtitle would be confusing, not to mention inconsistent from a design perspective. What I can say is that I believe the community will survive largely in tact. I echo kurisu's plea, at least for those of you who come here for the common cause of enriching your MiniDisc experience, that you give this a chance. I do not think you'll be disappointed.

Best way to find out these things is to register under a disposable name (one that wont clash with your name here) and experiment. You can add forums to a watch list and manage viewing new posts from your watched forums panel. You can also configure each "subscription" to either send you no email notification, delayed email notification, immediate email notification, daily digest, or a weekly digest (of new posts). Pretty cool. The other thing I've noticed is that the board doesn't look terribly busy right now. If there is going to be REAMS of anything it'll be MINIDISC content when WE arrive.

In the rural hilly part of NY that I live I would love to have Sirius again. I stop by an automotive hifi shop every now and then to check if there is yet a receiver than can be driven by my stock Honda (no nav) head on my 2008 HCH. I don't want another ugly appendage on my dash like I had on my old car. Plus on the stock head I can control it from the steering wheel. For now I put up with bad reception on standard broadcast. I'm mostly trying to get NPR, so an ala carte subscription would be handy.

Wow. I knew I was close, but spot on? It just goes to show that nobody needs to have mind reading ability to use a little common sense and see the logical conclusion. Thanks kurisu!

You're right--but I hadn't realized you were asking for the service manual. Heh.

I keep this page bookmarked: http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/select-system.pl type in the model without dashes, click submit, click manuals-specs-warranty, click operating instructions. Some models (rarely) force me here: http://www.sony-asia.com/section/manuals Also remember that sometimes models have extra letters or numbers designating a specific configuration. If the search fails, try leaving off anything trailing after the numbers.

Whew. I KNEW that, wiz. No worries. My "good riddance" wasn't directed squarely at you, your comment just happened to be the one that popped my "patience" balloon. Thanks for clearing it up, dude.

You're missing a lot of possible issues. When you buy hosting (not domain registration) for high traffic sites the bandwidth usage becomes a significant expense. Chris may be paying for a certain tier for SonyInsider that has a lot of unutilized bandwidth. On top of that, he's paying hosting fees (again, not domain registration--domain registration is cheap--so it's a non-issue) for minidisc.org--a lower tier, but maybe he's still exceeding his quota and is having to pay for overages. Let's say 98% of this bandwidth on minidisc.org is the forum (not unthinkable). If he shifts that over to SonyInsider, he's saving a ton of money. I should add that I doubt that cash expenses have much to do with this decision. I put more weight on the increased ability to efficiently maintain the software, database, and content. I doubt IPS (Invision Power Services) licensing has much to do with it either. Their pricing is not that extravagant.

I don't agree that it has been maintained that fastidiously here. A look at the contrast between here and SonyInsider bears witness to that. Taking these slightly out of order because the bottom line is cost and maintenance efficiencies are probably a core reason for this change: It's not about a fresh look--a fresh look is just a side benefit. The hardware, software, database and some of the content needs to be maintained. The management feels they need to consolidate their resources (hardware, software, database, management-maintained content). It is all about efficiencies. It can't get much less vibrant than it is now. Compared to the heyday, I understand that traffic here is, to say the least, severely muted. As a matter of fact, this will probably increase exposure to the format slightly. It's a bit like the Internet equivalent of "foot traffic". This forum will be moving to a location with a lot MORE visibility.

skogens, By saying Christopher founded the forums I wasn't trying to appeal to your gratitude or anything. Here's the deal. When I debate I try to acknowledge the purely emotional components of the opposing argument and then I put them aside. After that, I attempt to lay out the facts and how they relate to opposing arguments' assertions. Let me see if I can break it down to the "brass tacks", as it were: Assertion: Moving MDCF to sonyinsider represents fundamental changes in management, ownership, or policies. Fact: MDCF management is consolidating resources. No change in ownership or policy has been announced. Assertion: This change will result in more deference to Sony as a corporation. Fact: No facts have come to light that support this assertion. I do see your point about his enthusiasm for the brand, though. I assert that this change doesn't represent an uptick of that--it is a purely logistical move. tekdroid, I don't believe this move is intentionally symbolic of the format's "last legs" status. As I state above, it is purely a consolidation of resources that has the additional benefit of giving us access to an installation of IPB (the forum software) that is better maintained. It's a win-win. Abby Normal

skogens, Christopher MacManus (kurisu) founded this forum. "MiniDisc" is a Sony trademark. "kurisu" has already been supporting Sony all these years by maintaining this forum on minidisc.org. That is the reality. Your argument presupposes that a major management change is occurring when it is not. The "marketing" angle is splitting hairs. Surely both kurisu and Sony have been in a co-beneficial relationship whether it has been officially or not--and if it is true, moving MDCF to sonyinsider changes naught. I smell breakfast. Talk later. Abby Normal

Since this board and SonyInsider both use the same forum software the data will make it there just fine. The only tricky part may be links in old posts pointing to the right place, but it's not an insurmountable task.

I wish people would stop characterizing this as changing anything but the branding of the site and the domain that it resides on. It's not the branding, logo, and domain name that make this site what it is--it's the people who are engaged in the discussion. If this means any significant change in policy or terms of use that would somehow restrict us from voicing our opinion on the Sony brand, then I'll take up pitchforks with you. Beyond that, I think you're all making a big stink over someone just wanting to consolidate resources and probably improve the functionality of the site to boot. Now, could this change be made to look more seamless than it will be? Chris could write some Url Rewrite rules that would keep the URLs displayed as minidisc.org. He could adapt the current theme so at least profiles imported into sonyinsider would see roughly the same interface when they visited the minidisc section. That may sound like a great idea to you, but when you think about it carefully it just illustrates exactly how unimportant the differences will be. If it's important enough to you, write a GreaseMonkey script to accomplish the same thing. Abandoning the forum due to changes that are largely cosmetic seems awfully petty in my humble opinion.