Category: Tech

Never Before

I have LaserDiscs that suffer from laser rot and burned CDs with more errors than music. But I’ve never before had trouble with a manufactured CD. Until Never Before, a gift from a couple of not-so-secret Santas at work back in ’89.

I popped that Byrds disc into the Panasonic DVD player I use for CDs. Spin and click, spin and click, without reading the table of contents. Uh, oh. The deck is over 20 years old, so is it starting to fail?

In the Sony Blu-ray player, that’s only a few years old, the CD did the same thing. Spin and click with no playback. One more test in the DVD/CD drive of the old Dell tower PC confirmed the problem must be with the disc.

The album is on Lyrion Music Server in lossless WMA format. I was thinking of ripping it again into lossless FLAC. Would I have to resort to using FFMPEG to convert the files? What about trying the Samsung USB DVD/CD drive I bought twelve years ago for $30?

Success! Never Before played and ripped. What was the trouble it gave the other players? I put it back in the Panasonic DVD deck and… it played fine.

I left the CD in the player, turned it off and, 24 hours later, turned it back on. The player spun the disc and clicked.

Back into the Samsung it went. It played, I skipped around the disc a bit, took it out, then put it back in the Panasonic. No problem with playback.

So, what the heck is going on? Is the heat of the laser in the player that’s able to get past the starting point doing something to the reflective aluminum surface to flip bits, so they stay correct long enough for transplant to the other player?

Amazon Subprime

I was looking for an excuse to complain about something on Amazon, and Jeopardy! has provided it. Here’s another pop culture clue from the 1/1/26 game.

The response was wrong, and so is Alien as it appears on Amazon Prime. I ordered a 4K/Blu-ray copy of the movie at a super discounted price of $12.95. Delivery was estimated to be sometime later this month. Based on past experience with Amazon, that means availability is uncertain.

https://www.amazon.com/Alien-Sigourney-Weaver/dp/B07P83ZXX4/

The movie is available to watch instantly on Amazon Prime, in UHD format, for only five bucks. I had my doubts about this deal as well, so I applied some American Express points to make the out of pocket cost $0.00.

I was right to be doubtful. Not only is the movie in standard definition, or it’s a very poor HD transfer, the aspect ratio is wrong. Being 2.00:1, when it should be in Panavision 2.39:1, the image is stretched vertically. Here’s a sample.

I cancelled the 4K/Blu-ray disc order. Maybe I’ll buy a physical copy later.

4a Foray

The IFIXIT battery kit for my Google Pixel 4a is here. It includes a tube filled with something to heat in the microwave, to soften the glue that’s holding the OLED screen. I also have another, crafty, microwave oven option for warming up the glue. It was a gift from a friend years ago, during a bout of lower back pain.

I won’t rush into this job. Before tackling it, I’ll watch all of the available videos on the repair, to see the various techniques people have used, successfully… or not.

Germany Calling?

Here’s something I haven’t seen before in a comment submission:

Anonymous Reader
reader@example.com
176.117.65.176
Test comment: Exploring user interaction on dograt.com.

All comments from unknown sources have to be approved by me. I think I may know who submitted this, and why. If it’s him, I have this to say: I’m preparing more Prue audio clips for you!

P.S. I now think it isn’t him, because we have been in regular contact through Patreon. More likely, it’s the shockfactor_ai guy: