There is something soothing about these noises. They reassure you that the device is doing something. I've never seen a MiniDisc player in person, but I remember PSP with an optical drive that made similar noise while your game loaded.
Hard drive seeks used to be the way I'd tell if the Windows 98 SE machines were doing something or just hung - if you didn't hear the hard drive seeking it was probably time to reboot.
The Windows Task Manager does that for me. I like staring at graphs to reassure me the computer has not stopped.
Re:The Web MiniDisc App (2020)
by johnchristopher on Friday April 09, 2021 @07:03AM
(#26748947)
Well it does seek tracks since it's basically a high density floppy.
Actually it's HAMR disc. :D
Re:The Web MiniDisc App (2020)
by johnchristopher on Friday April 09, 2021 @12:33PM
(#26752641)
I totally messed things up, minidiscs were optical discs and `MiniDiscs use rewritable magneto-optical storage to store the data. Unlike the DCC or the analog Compact Cassette, the disc is a random-access medium, making seek time very fast.`
Sorry.
We all mix things up sometimes. My comment's supposed to be soft hearted and humorous, not a stern one.
We're humans, here's HN. We're just chatting, and misremembering things is alright.
Have a nice and safe weekend. :)
As a side note - I recently found my old MiniDisc player in an old shoebox. Popped in a new AA battery, and it still worked perfectly! Some funny notes... I can't believe it lasts for ages on a single AA battery. And, I had forgotten how noisy they are, with constant whirring and spinning noises coming from the player as it seeks tracks.