Well, there’s a morning usefully spent ;) #sony #minidisc #musicmix

Wasting a Friday night listening to Short Fictions and other standouts from my 2026 playlist I burned to minidisc.

Just hits a little different. #shortfictions #sony #minidisc #music

A portable Sony MiniDisc MZ-505 player is resting on my knee, with a stereo cabinets and a dog bed in the out of focus background.

Was asked to work on a sharepoint site for office outages…couldn’t help but add a Clippy with a rick roll. The classics never die.

Baby's Sleeping

The current Ai (LLMs ) landscape seems to be aggregating short-term bad decisions in hopes of a future return.
I love the souped-up Google that Ai can be.

However, dumping all of our information into the hands of a few large companies in hopes of an easier work life doesn’t seem like a historically good idea.

  1. These companies, and many others like them, have a history of enshittification. (get in now, watch it get worse)
  2. These companies have a history of playing fast and loose with our private data.
  3. These companies value a profit over all other concerns.
  4. LLMs are an emergent technology that can and will have issues along the way. (deleting things it shouldn’t, hallucinating answers, breaking containment, going “rogue” etc.)

    I love new technology and am by no means a luddite. LLMs, specifically open-sourced local models, can and will offer huge gains in making life easier and knowledge more accessible. But, like a small child, we have the responsibility to shepherd this technology into adulthood safely. Pouring millions into a circular economy, firing thousands of real people, and refusing to put any oversight/legislation in place is the opposite of exercising that responsibility.
A developing fetus is visible inside the womb in a prenatal ultrasound scan.

A larger regret, the only one from this trip, is missing out on the IRM.
We made a long drive to only find Google and Apple Maps did not align with the actual website.
please insert your own womp womp or no dogs allowed type sound effect here. #irm #trains #disappointment

#Chicago

Galloping Ghost Arcade - A massive arcade in the Chicago suburbs is a always visit for me when in town.

You can see a rather crappy (sorry GG) walkthrough video that will show you the scope.

here are a couple random photos looking up the aisles.

#gallopingghost #arcade #videogames

An arcade room is filled with rows of classic arcade game machines lining both sides of a central aisle.A narrow arcade room filled with rows of vintage arcade game machines lining both sides.A long aisle is lined with vintage arcade game machines on both sides in a dimly lit room.

Finds at the market. Ole eagle eye neofobia spotted these in a bucket off to the side of a table. We ended up paying $15 and both are in working order. A Revere Eye-Matic Ca-4 8MM camera A Norelco SC - 7759 electric razor.

Both from the mid 50’as and in working order. #vintage

A vintage movie camera with multiple lenses and a weathered exterior is placed on a brown surface against a plain wall.A vintage film camera is placed on a brown case, accompanied by various camera accessories and a yellow Kodak cleaning paper packet.A vintage electric razor with a coiled cord is placed inside an open, leather-lined case with the brand name Norelco on the lid.

In the early 1920’s we spent over 5 hours a day Cooking, Cleaning, Eating, or with Friends.
-in minutes -

  • Cooking ~75.72
  • Cleaning ~98.57
  • Eating ~70.72
  • Friends ~ 62.15

Vs ~ 2 hrs in2026

  • Cooking ~39.17
  • Cleaning ~32.92
  • Eating ~42.08
  • Friends ~10
    Via Data is Beautiful via Born in Space

the missus is having a lot of fun printing me stuff #minidisc

A black storage case labeled Mini Disc contains several MiniDisc cartridges organized in individual slots.A collection of MiniDiscs and two MiniDiscs cases are organized inside a storage container.

Couldn’t resist picking up this little beauty for $20. Put a new belt in but playing too fast. Gonna do some fettling and see if I can get it to the proper speed and then build a new enclosure.

A vintage tabletop stereo system with an AM/FM tuner, multiple control knobs, a 8 track cassette tape player, and several buttons is shown.

Had a nice start to the weekend by “repairing” the broken track selector on my K-mart special 8-Track player. Seems like as good an excuse as any to relax to the smooth stylings of the Jackey Yoshikawa and His Blue Comets.

testing out MB-Manager by timapple for linux….so far so good….looking forward to preview on posts.

Playing with the CMT-CPX22.

That escalated quickly….

An open electronic device with visible circuit boards and components is placed on a red surface.A dismantled electronic device with exposed circuit boards, wires, and components is spread out on a red surface.A mechanical assembly with gears, spools, and a circuit board is placed on a red textured surface.

New board is in and what better way to test it out than playing some Hench?

Something very right about flipping through this book.

Now that the old board is all the way out I can see that I probably just need to reflow these solder joints and we’ll be back in business.

A circuit board with a soldering iron and metal heatsink attached is set on a wooden surface.A close-up view of a green circuit board being held by a hand, featuring various electronic components and soldered connections.

Seems I may have a problem. Next foray into electronics is the Sony CMT-CP100. Little guy had a non functional tape player which I managed to fix. But, optical out and one channel still not working…some more fun to have I guess. (Music Mr. Dinkles tr.ee/gPBE7NCrP…)

A disassembled tape mechanism showing circuit boards, gears, and mechanical components rests on a wooden surface.A disassembled tape mechanism showing various gears, circuits, and components on a wooden surface. Clearly visible motor in upper left and new belts around gears and fly wheel.

Of marble mice and men.

My trusty Elecom HUGE started giving me fits with the scroll wheel. Little investigation and seems I needed a new encoder. YouTube really does excel in helping boost confidence when tackling this kind of thing. Back together and working like a dream.

A disassembled Elecom HUGE marble mouse is resting on a wooden surface with visible circuit boards inside.A small plastic bag containing mouse scroll wheel encoders components rests on a wooden surface beside a keyboard.A red ball wireless ergonomic mouse is placed on a wooden surface next to a keyboard.

Jsymphonically ( how i learned to stop and love the song)

Follow up on the last.

Sony has fallen at every DRM hurdle and famously locked down their network and minidisc players with proprietary software (SonicStage) and formats (atrac). Thankfully, a open source project called jsymphonic is available to get music on and off of this old walkman. I love that there are people out there still working on making old abandoned, but perfectly serviceable hardware accessible. I must admit some of the documentation could use some help. Specifically I had to generate a key file for my walkman. This is surprisingly easy.

  • install the MP3 FileManager Application from SONY on any compatible PC ( i was able to run it on a windows 10 VM).
  • once installed navigate to the install location “C:\Program Files\Sony\MP3 File Manager” (or \Program Files (x86)\ if ruining in 64 bit and run the CopyTool.exe as an admin. This will place a new folder on your player titled MP3FM. The DviD.dat file may need to be moved from there to the root for Jsymphonic to recognize it.

I have been listening to this thing for a few days and there is a lovely feeling of nostalgia as well and something purposeful about plugging in and turning off other distractions. I went through a half day of work just letting tunes play into my head without pings, boops, and accidental ads distract me every few mins.



Get out there use old tech and enjoy yourself!


I found this forum post helpful.

Little bit of nostalgia. Pulled out the ole Sony NW-HD3 and listening to Submission Hold a band with a message that is more important now than ever. Submission Hold-What holds back the Elephant #submissionhold #sony #networkwalkman

A silver Sony Network Walkman NW-HD3 displaying a music track on its screen is resting on a wooden surface.

Because we need wholesome distracting things, along with the commitment to evolution, even if through revolution.

Original here -> [saturnianspaceghost.tumblr.com/post/7777...](https://saturnianspaceghost.tumblr.com/post/777718307645227008/katajainen-definitelynotaminion)

Reading Fedi.Tips for RSS feeds and this is such a banger!

How to follow RSS feeds from Mastodon

  1. Create a new post but don’t publish it yet
  2. Mention the RSS Parrot Fediverse account @birb@rss-parrot.net
  3. Mention the RSS address you want to follow
  4. Publish the post (it doesn’t have to be a public post, DMs will work as well)
  5. RSS Parrot will create a new Fediverse account that mirrors the contents of the RSS address you provided, and then reply to you with a link to the new account
  6. Follow this new account to follow the RSS feed