8-bit Nostalgia and Miss September 63's Influence on Tactile Controls.

I love my wife’s new nano, the slickness of the interface, its ease of use and the fluid movement of pages on such a small screen is pretty darn cool.  I almost wish Apple would release a developer’s kit to add a control interface capability. Aww, com’on you know you agree, this would be the ultimate key fob.

Yet, am I alone in feeling that the new nano and even the iPad is well, soul-less? I am troubled- only somewhat mildly mind you (I DO work in the belly of the beast)- by the frictionless gloss of icons.  In fact, in the spirit of true disclosure I have to admit that I do not get surround sound, having compared it to overblown quad some years back on a pro AV forum on AOL.   I still, mostly, stand by that assessment today. 

Which brings me to my main point; I miss the tactile feel of a physical interface.  Perhaps it is simple nostalgia but I long for the clickty-clack-clunk of an 8-track tape, the solid mechanical ka-chunk of open reel tape decks, and the tactile feel and response of weighted gain knobs. I am not sure just why I love these knobs so much, the sheer pleasure of them in my hand – they just feel right, perfectly balanced in my fingers and against my palm.  I could make an innuendo here, which would be apt and very Miss September 63, but I think you get the gist.  So deep is my love for the classic high-end gain knob that I argued vehemently to include a version on a product, I was asked to do some preliminary concept work on. (I also wanted it to have a more ‘retro’ look with a maple or cherry wood front. Perhaps I do have too many vintage Playboys with their Cutty Shark ads).  The product got its gain knob but the front is basic black and silver.  

Additionally I tend to gravitate toward older looking games. I still watch in awe at the offerings G4 reviews and get that reflexive itch when I am near new game consoles but I am drawn by a greater gravitational pull – the text based Zork.  If you have ever played this game, you know what I am taking about.  It is a simple game really; it is a treasure hunt with fighting trolls, endless caverns, singing demons in hades and an abandoned dam.  All of this, and your action commands, are in text for which you have to draw maps if you are to get through it all.  It is work, hands on paper and brain imagining in 3 dimensions. Do you know the old saying, that things are far more provocative when a little is left to the imagination, yeah – Sophia Loren like.

So, why I am blathering on about all this? What point could I possibly be trying to make?  I really dig this video by HOLLERADO:

 The Video is a one shot, one chance to get it right, human analog of effects.  'There was a time when we made things with our hands'

 

 

 

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Station X (or why Math is equal to guns in war)- Memorial Day

 
 
Why did the allies win? For a good deal of WWII the allies were on their heels, fortress Europe appeared to be lost. A good many fine men and women gave the ultimate sacrifice, meeting their end by a bullet. The bravery and ultimate good of these soldiers in defeating the German and Japanese threat is well know and unquestioned. What many people do not realize is just how important the code breakers of Bletchley Park were to the success of the allied effort.

Bletchley Park and its main mathematician-Alan Turning- figured out methods to decode the NaziEnigma machine and later other high level Nazi and Japanese codes. Early on the codes were decoded by the brute force method of hundreds of ‘decoders’ working of every possible variation. While this worked it was hardly ‘real time’ and the information could be irrelevant by the time it was fully decoded. The site received thousands of coded messages a day. Imagine trying to find what was important and what was old news! 

Alan Turning designed a machine to decode the messages in ¼ the time. Bombe was something of a difference engine- only its purpose was the salvation of the world.

President Obama has asked (we Americans anyway) to thank a soldier, I have done so at today’s Hastings on the Hudson memorial day parade, I also plan on a moment of silence  for the code breakers of Bletchley Park- for without them it would be uber alles, uber alles.

Be in my broadcast when this is over

Paul Sidney died a few weeks ago, in all likelihood you have never heard of him but if you are in anyway involved in community building, you need know about him.  Paul Sidney ran and was the voice of WLNG radio out of Sag Harbor Long Island.  WLNG is local as local radio can get. The station is a throwback to late 50’s style of operation where announcers add echo and heavy bottom EQ to their voices and the News is local, local and local.  Growing up in the Hamptons of Long Island it was it was impossible to not be influenced by the sound and programming of WLNG as it was everywhere and literally at every event.

You can read Paul's obituary here, it tells the tale of his coming over to WLNG, becoming its driving force and cult of personality. What it will not tell you is just how deeply he ingratiated himself and the radio station into the very fabric of the lives of those who listened to ‘LNG and even those who did not.  The comments section of the article will do that well enough.

In addition to music and local news WLNG features live call in shows such as "Swap n' Shop" -where people call in to trade a 1940’s fly wheel for a couch or someone looking to buy or swap for a full set of tools and toolbox.  While at times it can be nap inducing it also is a window into people’s lives, needs and character. Paul would not just help the caller to describe what they wanted to trade or relive themselves of but also would check on their status – he engaged them in conversation about the news of their neighborhood.  It was not radio it was community.

The radio station was among the first to have merchants record their own commercials, clearly not professional actors but direct and personal. The ads could be grating and awkward but then so were all the rest and yes, it was the person who owned the store. The ads always left  you feeling – ‘that’s Jim’s place, I should stop by and see how things are doing.

Having the mission to be local as local radio gets WLNG and Paul would travel to every possible event occurring on the east end of Long Island, eventually using two fully equipped remote trucks .  The remotes were Mr. Sidney’s glory and crowning achievement.  These over-sized airstream RV’s were literally at every store opening, town parade, fund raiser and carnival. The draw an ‘LNG remote could –(and still does I am told)- muster was phenomenal. It was not an event of note if the remote trucks were missing. Paul knew how to work a crowd, how to detail just enough to give listeners a good picture- keep them listening AND to attend the event.

In my mid to late teens I developed an overly impressive angst about my surroundings and began a lifelong quest to find new, interesting and thought provoking music and media. This local radio station was the epitome of all I wanted to get away from. In my rush to find something else, the remarkableness of Paul Sidney and WLNG was ignored. As a young person, grappling with defining a personal identity, you grew to loathe when parents put WLNG on, pronouncing it one of the seven signs of local lameness. Yet hearing the station was always comfortable, like going to the carnival with your younger brother- you would rather go alone, check out the girls and hang with friends. But he’s your brother and its okay. 

I left for NYC and its heady world of aggregating cultures and slick production values leaving the ‘farm report’ station behind me.  Imagine my shock when I attended an NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) tradeshow and one of the first things I see upon stepping on to the exhibit floor is Paul surrounded by a flock of people.  I nearly retained my youthful arrogance and rushed by thinking ‘what’s this goat doing here, intruding on my sanctuary?  Instead I stopped to see just what everyone was doing around Paul Sidney.  The questions were eager often hyperactive, asking just how such a small station could grab such large shares in the face of the conglomerates and city backed stations. Paul Sidney’s answers stuck me and started to chip away at my preconceived notions.

My thoughts wandered back to WLNG and Mr. Sidney as I started to get involved in hosting bulletin boards on BBS, AOL and later a few web communities in the early to mid 90s.  It always struck me that group chat rooms were, in effect, community halls- only broadcast. Many compared and still compare them to the days of CB radio popularity, complete with the snide disregard for the value of conversations it generated. The online community often overtly revels in the fact that they are community, ideas are shared and bonds forged. More often than not individuals or groups talk just to hear themselves but in the end fundamental value is created– community radio.  Social media now is, in part, the largest community radio project only the community is not a location but global and based on common interest. 

Next time you tweet an event, start a rolling discussion on FriendFreed or post ‘real-time’ photos to facebook, remember that you are utilizing a form once dominated by people who used radio to build and keep communities talking. We owe our current mass media social networking to men like Paul Sidney, they may not have fully understood the import and impact , they provided the framework for it to be successful.

  

Paul Sidney’s Über local radio is the model social media should pay attention to, all media is local, regardless of the physical location of the community. Those of us who take forward positions in the creation and application of social media groups need to remember the passion, investment and yes, love of the community Mr. Sidney exhibited.  I for one will miss his voice and although I rarely venture back to the Hamptons he and WLNG will always be the sound of The sound in my head.

 

 Edit: *added August 9, 2013 - Inspired by a Post on the 50th anniversary of WLNG in the Sag Harbor Experess 

 

As a Co-Founder and producer for the Pro Audio Visual community podcasting network AVNation.tv I find that I take Mr. Sidney's leadership and example to heart with every show and every episode we produce.  Love the medium, love the community - revel in every nuance.  

 

 

Neo Industrial Technorotic Aesthetic Death Trip.

Design, the facet of presentation which attracts the eye and stirs thelittle grey cells into action. I have long understood that I have an aesthetic which is somewhat off center with most of those around me. Yet, If I were to invite you to my second life abode the chill would soon settle into a yet unrecognized comfort; like sinking into the plush furniture of proper Victorian drawing room.

I bring this subject up from a find whilst I scrolled through my 300 news feeds in my Google reader, (love google reader), and came across a metal skull lamp in an article in Gizmodo. The writer of the article calls it “..the most terrifying table lamp…”.I call it beautiful. I want it, crave it.
If I could have my druthers I would have a ‘den’ which looked much like the ‘Closer’ video by NIN, this is what I would do if means were no object.
 
Growing up in Sag Harbor I was fascinated by the Victorian aesthetic and had ample opportunity to explore show homes which reproduced this, but it was too soft, too tranquil. Where, I asked were the drawing rooms of great explorers, whalers, and botanists?-(think about it, in order for someone to see and study a rare plant he would have to travel in harsh accommodations and face death by nature every moment. No rescue by GPS here. Darwin was a tough mother!). Everything had been sanitized by the local historical revisionists.

I left the semi isolated Sag Harbor to shack up with an artsy hipster in downtown NYC and found a world I only previously dreamed I could be part of. The girl and I soon parted but the stamp of what I was introduced to struck home, THIS is where I was supposed to be, this is what I had been searching for.

Concurrently I had just begun to understand and appreciate the Punk and hardcore movement in music when I met Pam and Marc. The Koch’s were uber NYC downtown rock hipsters via  Buffalo and close friends with one of the great unknown bands of the early 80s, The Splat Cats. Marc collected the ephemera of kitsch gothic ghoulishness. Their Ludlow street apartment was filled to the brim with records, comic books, videos, pop culture models, books of suspicious origins and early 19th century coffins-the ones with viewing windows on the cover. I still have several of the birthday cards given to me which consisted of heavily gilded photos of a specific coffin or groups of coffins. One birthday I was given the book Wisconsin Death Trip, a book I read nearly as often as I do Cyrano de Bergerac or  Foucault's Pendulum. The Koch’s home was not so much an education as a revelation, that central aesthetic which I had been searching now surrounded me each time I entered their home. I was introduced to the art of Joe Coleman, Joel Peter Witkin and innumerable bands of nearly every genre. It was a cross between Maxilla and Mandible and the Rembrant room at the Met.

Around the same time I chanced to meet Robin Ludwig, an artisan for whom the word itself is his being.  I met Robin through his daughter when I was in an Aveda show, I had very famous scissor hands cut my, then looong, hair and got a few products and bucks to boot.  Robin played gritty guitar, growled when he sang and created works of art out of metal with skilled delicate hands. Watching him work was nearly as intoxicating as the mead wine he brewed in the loft apartment they occupied smack dab in the heart of Chinatown.

This combination of old world craftsmanship and a full involvement of the modern drew me into a local high end audio store to drool over an early 80's retro tube amp placed in the front window, and to be promptly be escorted out by staff – “come back when you have money to spend kid!”.   The amp itself was evidently very good but the cost was for the art of the product, it called out and pulled you in with how it played with the light, its warmth and visual shimmer.

While I worked in recording studio and learned the in n’ outs of the main gear I was constantly drawn to theFocusrites, Joe Meek gear and theUREI LA-2A’s . The fascination was not just as moth to flame but a concerted study of the device and the names behind it.  The boxes spoke to me, called me in to learn not just about compression or EQ but about the early days of audio and the men who made or inspired these gleaming boxes; I also found out about their inspiration and obsessions.

So, you’ll excuse me as I mount this “…most terrifying…” lamp to a brushed aluminum stand shaped like a gothic fence rail and revel in its lineage of history, artisanal heritage and learning it encapsulates for me. 

Its like being at your summer retreat, only there are not so many drink specials

see me at

My Daily Twitter:

http://twitter.com/TuckerTues

My Tumblr Account: (short and sweet ramblings)

http://tuckertuesday.tumblr.com

 

The Typepad blog: (full fleshed out articles)

http://tuckerstuesday.typepad.com/

LinkedIn: (Business Resume

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/2/a12/73a

BrundleFly?

One has to wonder if the quest for wireless HD distribution is more closely related to the Philosophers Stone then Grand Unified Theory at this point.   A friend of mine compared this to eating a cake by saying 'you never know if its going to taste good until you eat it, and then its too late.  A lesson in confections from the kitchen of Mrs. Schrodinger indeed.

Wireless HD distribution is something I would install in the blink of an eye, were I confident it would\could work reliably in both speed and location. My home is not new, not nearly new, not was new to my father  in his youth; in fact my home is just barely considered new by the strict definition of antique. While spacious and accommodating my 1901 colonial home still has walls of 1x3's and lathe under plaster. I spent a good portion of my formative childhood tearing down just such walls in the numerous homes we lived in to rebuild and update. I know just how difficult it is to retrofit these homes with modern wiring without planning a complete renovation. It is not a task I look forward to with any pleasure. 

 I also have years of experience working with wireless systems of all sorts and know full well the fragility of the connective infrastructure.  RF transmission of media can be summed up simply  - Wireless transfer of data is the most convenient method yet developed, it is also the most inconsistent and unreliable form ever put into operation. (I think this statement has a very Mark Twain lilt to it and given his relationshipp with Tesla quite possibly attributable to him in an alternate Universe).

The EE Times has published, as part of a year end 'Hot Technologies to Watch for in 2009, an eye opening article on the the relative stasis HD home distribution over RF has exhibited. In the article 'Not getting the big pictures(s) yet', the EE Times editors describe 802.11n as 'troubled', UWB as a 'failure' and the 60GHz as '...too immature...'.  

So, why pursue an RF HD distribution model?  HDMI has some notorious short falls when it comes to whole house distribution which include but are not limited to cable length and physical connectors. It is a market that has huge potential to make redundant  an entire category of cable and distribution.  Trouble is what we have currently and for the near term results in an end video more BrundleFly then Seth Brundle. 

I suppose I should take a deep breath, thank my mother for having the forethought to prepare me for this moment and  with wrecking bar in hand begin the process of renovating to run wire.

Then where would I keep my pencil?

While I only rarely write about the newest or hot item, I came across the Truphone product. The Truphone allows a user to turn a iTouch into a wifi ready phone.  It struck me that this would be a steampunk application from the perspective of my three year old (or at least when he is old enough to understand such things).

So, an iPhone that is not an iPhone can now be an iPhone(ish). VerySteampunk, in a post post modern way -(maybe neomoderist?).

If you are unfamiliar with the culture of steampunk think of a world where Victorian England driven by the revolutionary difference engine creates a world which has many of the same modern convienecines  of the 21st  century just not based on the transistor.  A good start is " The Difference Engine"  byBruce Sterling and William Gibson. Much in the same fashion as the Maker Movement  hardcore fans of steampunk retro fit modern equipment to reflect their pre-modernist aesthetic.  On first look it can be a bit daunting and too much of a contrast for some viewers; it bears to reason  that it should not work this re-purposing of 19th century technology and  modern computers. Once the initial shock wears off, one finds a warmth to these hardware mash-ups which are far more enticing than the gleaming cold Borg boxes such as the Mac Air.

In a world where no one knows what tomorrow will bring economically or technologically and despite the was to rich for my blood now cheap as sand in Dubai cost of oil we do have to consider a life after the End of Oil. Is the SP movement a harbinger of a new technological age, where products contain a minimal to no petrol base products - Bakelite enclosures anyone ? 

Another major influence on the SP movement is the original Tech punk himself Nikola Tesla. If you only know the name Tesla from an 80's hair band then you should really listen to the Studio 360 Broadcast concerning him (Thanks to John Huntington's link on his Control Geek blog). Much of this modern world started in the brain of dear ole' Tes, Yahoo Serious's Young Einstein notwithstanding .  Two of  His last ideas to be tested were the 'death ray' and wireless power, one inspired the Regan era 'Star Wars' development and one has actually been shown to work!

So, are you ready to be a 'Clacker'?

[Gordon produces a notebook and pencil on wrist springs]
Capt. James West: You know, you could put a gun on that.
Artemus Gordon: Then where would I keep my pencil?
quote is from -[Wild Wild West]

I Sing the Building Electric

David  Byrne has performed several exhibition pieces around the world by playing (and letting attendees play) buildings. The instrument consists of hooking up an organ keyboard to servos and motors attached  to the structures of buildings (columns, beams, radiators, etc) .  

 

David Byrne has more videos of the set up and performances on his website

 The sound is somewhat ambient, moves like dada, and has at its heart the early punk ethos –‘a musician could not play it any better a person off the street…’

 

 

My God it’s Full of Stars.

Just how does your space influence you?   NPR’s ‘On the Media ‘had an interesting show entitled ‘Space Odyssey’.

My industry is one of creating or enhancing the personal space of a corporation or home.  It’s simplistic and direct so this issue of OTM caught my attention immediately.   

Some regard personal space as a minimum of 3ft at any time (beware close talkers).   If you disagree, try living in NYC right after a major snow storm and navigating the barely cleared sidewalks.  Then talk to me about personal space.

Two sections of the ‘On the Media show’ felt particularly relevant. 

Clearing the Air

Discusses how San Paulo has banned all outdoor advertising, social issues it exposes and the apparent positive cultural effect this has had.

The article spurred some thoughts in me:

Love Piccadilly square but it can get a bit Enki Bilal or Blade runner.

I worked on an install at the Maiden Lane offices of TBWA\Chiat Day, creator of many Apple mac and the early wonder Bra ads. The company (the Chiat day portion)   had three floors of no offices- just wide open mobile work spaces, dramatic paint schemes, fire polls between floors- who needs’ stairs?  As well as a fantastic view of lower Manhattan and the meeting of the rivers.  I wanted to work for them right there.  The environment was perfectly suited to creativity, so much so that I wrote journal entries and poetry for each night I was there and weeks after.

It is interesting to note that the partner company TBWA was a strict black tie| white shirt culture, when they showed at Maiden Lane it became, well odd.

Sound Reasoning

Discusses the early 20’s research on how excess noise reduced productivity and the reactionary response of installing sound-proofing acoustic tiles- (they originally used the wonder product asbestos by the way).

 If you grew up or worked in studios during the early 80s you would still encounter some dead rooms. Dead rooms were popular from the late 50’ to the early 70’s where it was thought that a room devoid of any reflections or resonance was best for recording music.  My experience in these few remaining rooms was not quite unlike entering an anechoic chamber; for a young man who had the beginnings of tinnitus from too many roadhouse sessions behind the boards it was always a bit disturbing to have the ringing come from the background to front and center.

How many of us really understand the function ‘the space’ effects our interpretation of an event.  Acoustic, video and audio ‘sculptures’ clearly understand this and use subtle environmental queues to influence our reactions.   For the media this means branding via ads and viral campaigns  to associate image to feeling to sense of belonging .  For the Audio Visual industry it is about combining the elements of a physical environment toward a emotional result – usually excitement or relaxation or a mix of both.  

How often do you examine why you feel a certain way in a place, do you know who’s zooming who?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jack Butler: Yeah. 220... 221, whatever it takes

John Huntington of www.Controlgeek.net has posted a classic example of just how insane some of this industry can be. 

John posts a picture of a flyer from a 90's NSCA show of a product called the J-CON, a product which consists of an Edison socket connected directly to a 1\4" TRS plug. Yah.

You have to go and read the mind boggeling response from the Rep on the potential dangers. http://www.controlgeek.net/blog/2008/5/29/j-con-an-oldie-but-goodie.html

While your at it why not view a few more electrical horrors at http://www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk/forum1/more-electrical-horrors-t2444.html

Or check out the boys who build patneted devices to see if they could ever work. The Re-inventors http://www.history.ca/ontv/titledetails.aspx?titleid=103872

"When properly lit and shot on film, this makes for the best test of flesh tones one can find." -TW

It is indeed interesting what one finds whilst trolling manufactures websites – Yeah, I know I need to get out more.

3M has announced a functioning video projector designed to fit into a mobile device (Cell Phone, Blackberry, and Digital Camera).  The 3M site http://www.3m.com/mpro/index.html states the unit is

"Roughly the size of a wireless earpiece, and a half inch thick..."

can project an image of

"VGA 640x480 Resolution"

And - most interestingly or curiously

"Projects sizes 5' to 50' or more"

The 3M description markets this as a social tool for sharing photos and videos; I see the break mobile content providers have been looking for in particular the WiMax folks.  All those arguments against people watching content on their phones because the screen is too small just may have gone away. 

Taking a futurist POV, imagine a time when there are no 103" plasmas just your mobile content device which projects an HD image of up to 60" or 70".  Aside from a central sever for storing your terabytes of content you take it all with you. (that which you could not store on the mobile device could be accessed via a slingbox like connection) oh, and it can make phone calls as well.

While the techie in me gets all worked up about the above being possible and I am intent on finding system diagrams to figure out how this works, the luddite in me bemoans the loss of regionalization. With the advent of cable, Satellite TV and the Slingbox type devices we no longer allow ourselves a chance to see local programming. Often locals do not see local programming - aside from the 6:00 news. Accents are becoming homogenized, Story lines all the same. Instead we arrive at the hotel, set up our PC to connect to the Slingbox and watch all our shows including our local news-(not the local news of the place we are staying). I do have hope that IPTV and sites like YouTube will always provide an outlet for truly regional culture; does anyone know exactly what happened to the Manhattan accent you last saw in 40's movies?

There are a number of troublesome possibilities as well:

·       Those lovely folks who seem to think the rest of us are utterly fascinated with their lives and use their Nextel or speaker phone on trains have a new way to invade personal space.

·       The potential for showing images you would really not rather- or I'd rather not see.

The lure of showing something elicits in a public manner -even if just as a laugh- can be quite strong.

In the days of the first single gun LCD projectors a number of techs-(including me) and a projectionist stayed late putting a new unit through its paces. The company I worked for rented several floors which had windows on two side streets and the main ave. Initially we pointed the projector out one of the open windows facing a block long side street wall to see just how big an image the projector could actually produce.  The image was big and damn bright! As it grew later on an early summers day we became even more impressed as the video engineer tweaked a few things and was able to produce a super bright image of about 20' (remember the throw was just a Manhattan side street width).  The projectionist wondered aloud if this 'data' projector could moonlight as IMAG support - (IMAG commonly is the projected talking head of the on stage speaker).  Someone mentioned that it must be fairly inefficient in handling flesh tones. 

Here is where the title of this entry comes from. Our ever resourceful projectionist placed a tape in the SVO deck and hit play. Up before us leaped to life a 20' super bright image of a couple in flagrante delicto. Yeah, you read that right.  There in full color was a 20' porn playing. We laughed, snickered, and thanked our stars that this was an industrial area after 8 pm on a Tuesday night. Then we heard a Yelp, expletives and our desk phones started to ring.  It appears two senior management types had stayed late as well and were just at that moment crossing the side street when our impromptu show had started.  Suffice it to say, the next few days were a bit tense in the office. Those who know the story, who’s initial are credited to the quote and just why we had ready access to the content will completely understand why I still find it hilarious.

We were some high tech geeks with access to very pricey toys and took a moment to misuse it. It was a one off event unlikely to happen again for some time.  Now anyone with a penchant to cause a ruckus could do nearly the same but all from his \ her mobile device.

Considering the two leading specs quoted above from the 3M site. 

640x480 is just tolerable looking at a 5' image, any bigger and you lose all definition.  I see no way the "..up to and above 50' image" is plausible.

Heisenberg Exits Forthwith, Whereabouts Uncertain

There are many dimensions to our universe, some say it is fixed at 4 or 5, others state a 12 dimensional universe actually makes the math in a grand unified theory nearly work.  A good entry level book on this subject is Hyperspace by Dr. Michio Kaku - http://www.amazon.com/Hyperspace-Scientific-Odyssey-Parallel-Universes/dp/0385477058 .

Space and Time are funny things, interrelated and so very separate. Into this fray comes the company Alien which has announced a product which can tell the speed and location of a tagged item. The article

RFID reader can now identify velocity, position of tags

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9917346-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

discusses possible uses for airport and military cargo. I see the possibility of using this technology for environment automation. Many green initiatives require occupancy sensing to minimize energy use in unused rooms. Most of these 'people counters' are microwave sensors which only indicate movement or,when mounted to a door frame, numbers in and out of a room. This is a highly inefficient method as the timing between sensing a presence and sensing no presence is awkwardly long.  Imagine using this Alien RFID product to sense presence, speed of the person and by extension direction - to intelligently decide just how bright to make each room traveled through and prepare the next room to be entered.   This is a much more efficient method where the lights are kept on only to ensure an individual can see enough to travel through safely, no time delay.  This is only one possible application, silly versions can have doors open slower or faster depending on your travel speed - thus helping avoid a crash into a half open\closed door.

Now, does this make the   CERN ATLAS particle accelerator  unneeded?

Eh?! Whats that you say? It sounds like a barking dog, or Caruso Singing. I am not quite sure.

So, I get this new found energy and desire to re- start up the blog, and things are going well.  Then BANG I catch the nasty cold that has been making the rounds between my 2 1/2 year old, my 9 month old and my Wife.  I am a bit bleary eyed and my nose is running like a leaky spout. 'I love it when a plan comes together'.

While my biting repartee is muted I did find some interesting items of  Tech Arcane -(dammit, I still cannot get the Jerry Reed song  'East Bound and Down' '...cause the boys are thirsty in Atlanta and there's beer in texarcana',  song outta my head).  What this really shows is that I watched the first Smokey and the Bandit movie way too many times as a kid. SATB may very well be where I caught a hook into the then 'hillbilly sounds' of country. I soon found better refuge in the likes of Hank Williams.  Then Rock n' Roll took hold O' my soul, but of the pure guitar pickin and twangy harmonies made their way back to me in the likes of X, Wilco, Lucero and the Rock-a-Billy \ Punk-a- Billy of The Cramps, The Reverend Horton Heat, Slick Pelt  and garage -billy bands like the Stumbleweeds.   Technologically we live in gilded age of musical access where many of us only have the slightest inkling as to where it all started.

Edison is heralded by the mass culture as the inventor of recording.  He certainly had his hand in making a mass market device which allowed for the music to come to you rather then having to go out and see it live. (it is interesting to read archival articles on how stunning people thought the sound was, how true to life , and also to hear the naysayers declare it did no justice to being in the music hall to hear first hand.   The modern equivalents have allowed us mock the over reaching comments of yesteryear but in reality our grandchildren will say the same of us).  Yet, Edison apparently is not the first to conceive of and operate a recording device.  I found  an interesting article on the NPR site about  much earlier French devices which only recently could be listened to.  The article describes and has an audio sample of an 1857 recording of a French folk song:

Sound Recording Predates Edison Phonograph

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89148959&ft=1&f=1019

I also found a nifty little article and video of a Japanese learning toy manufacture who made a limited quantity of Edison phonograph toys.  The Toy will record and playback from a standard plastic cup:

Plastic Cup Gramophone Kit: Edison Reproduced

http://gizmodo.com/373307/plastic-cup-gramophone-kit-edisons-invention-reproduced

Why Do All British Computer Geeks Look Like They Just Stepped Out of a Doctor Who Episode?

In my effort to catch up on tech news and obscura I came across a BBC article about an exhibit on the British Micro more often called the Beeb.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7303288.stm

I am struck by a number of things in the article

1.  That nearly all 'home' computers circa 1980 looked like giant typewriters

2. Just how fantastic the BBC \ Acron effort succeeded in improving general literacy and raising a generation of computer literates. I can only dream of such an effort being undertaken in this country.

3. They sold 1.5 million of these babies!

4. Fast! with an 8bit\ 2MHz processor.

5. Did the British tech society have a special set way of being photographed? I swear every picture I see looks like it is a promotional shot of a Tom Baker episode of Dr. Who.   The man who practically single handedly forced modern computing into existence - Alan Turing-  looks almost Bogart like in comparison.  ( Mr, Turning is also one of the main reasons the Germans were defeated in WWII; I would argue equal  to the impact of the heroics of the D-Day soldiers)

6. Google reader kicks all other aggregators ass.  I have avoided using it preferring the more staid and austere RSS reader, but I finally got my act together and started to work with the tool. I already cannot understand how I found items in the past.