Re: MD: Rebadged MD gear (was: Dolby and Minidisc Patents)

[Eric Woudenberg, Minidisc.org Editor]

Stainless Steel Rat <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

> * Shawn Lin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>  on Fri, 15 Jun 2001
> | Even test mode is different!  I found an "Auto Adjust" feature on my
> | Aiwa XR-H66MD and I've NEVER found any kind of automatic adjustment on
> | any 1996-vintage Sony MD player/recorder.
> 
> You make it sound like it is impossible for Sony to disable things like
> that.

Conjecture upon conjecture!

Mr. Rat, please stop! You lost this pointless argument when I indicated that
Panasonic makes their own MD components (they've been making their own ATRAC
chips for 5 years [see http://www.minidisc.org/atrac_4.html], and 2 years back
they were touting their newly developed super-thin, single-beam, Minidisc
optical head [see http://www.minidisc.org/part_Panasonic_SJ-MR100.html]).

I say "pointless" because this is, by extension, an argument over a previous
(and equally baseless) conjecture of yours, to wit:

> Then sometime after ATRAC v4.5 they collaborated with Dolby Laboratories to
> make improvements for mutual benefit.  The results are Dolby Digital has some
> of ATRAC in it and current versions of Sony ATRAC have some AC3 in them.

which itself should have ended with a simple "Got a reference for that?" and you
saying either "No, I made it up", or "Yes, please see: http://...";

I find myself arguing with you [mostly] because your style irritates me, but
also [naively] because I hope that in proving you wrong, you will come to your
senses and stop posting your personal beliefs as writ-in-stone fact to MD-L.
Likewise, perhaps you feel that unless you win these arguments, the validity of
your beliefs will be called into question (could be painful, admittedly).  This
is the issue at hand, not how many MD manufacturers there are, or whether Dolby
and Sony collaborated on ATRAC and AC3.

The funny thing is, many of your postings really *are* informed and helpful, and
I hope you keep posting contributions in areas where people are confused and you
*Really Do Know The Straight Scoop*. But may I gently suggest that if you aren't
completely sure of what you're saying, you use "AFAIK", or "IIRC", or "My
understanding is ...". Or simply pose your statement as a question (e.g. "Isn't
it the case that all MD gear ultimately comes from Sony or Sharp factories?").
Likewise, if someone shows you to be wrong, graciously and politely say "Oops,
Sorry!"  It's simple, it's friendly, and you will not be a lesser person for
doing this, honest!

Peace.

Rick 
(who has finally dusted off his own ego)
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