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A while back I made mention of Phyllis Diller, and the fact my mother was a fan of hers. This weekend we watched Who Killed the Electric Car? and by chance Diller appears in it for a few moments.
One popular new feature on the Net is [the] Associated Press service. From anywhere on the Net you can log in and get the news that’s coming live over the wire or ask for all the items on a particular subject that have come in during the last 24 hours. Plus a fortune cookie. Project that to household terminals, and so much for newspapers (in present form).
Stewart Brand
Rolling Stone
December 7, 1972
In 1972 a truly astounding educational film was made, with the thoroughly boring title, “Computer Networks: The Heralds of Resource Sharing.” It’s a bunch of academics and engineers in Boston explaining how they were changing the world forever.
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Movies/Wordpress/DEC06/ComputerNetworks.flv 440 330]If you’re not into technology, probably only the last few minutes of this 25-minute film will be of interest. The original format of this video prevents me from extracting excerpts, but I can offer you a few minutes of audio. Listen to this, and keep in mind that it’s from 1972. The voice at the start and the end is J.C.R. Licklider, who died in 1990.
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Here’s a brief bit of video about the iPod. Watch that, then read this quote.
Since huge quantities of information can be computer-digitalized [sic] and transmitted, music researchers could, for example, swap records over the Net with “essentially perfect fidelity.” So much for record stores (in present form).
Stewart Brand
Rolling Stone
December 7, 1972
When vinyl was king, and FM Album Rock had yet to completely take over from AM Top 40 radio, Stewart Brand made the conceptual leap past CD, all the way to Napster.
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This series isn’t a history of the Internet, per se. It’s a gosh-wow look back at an article in Rolling Stone that I read in 1972, while still in high school. Part 1 showed a mock-up of a proposed personal computer called a Dynabook, that was the brainchild of Alan Kay.
Here is Kay’s original drawing for the Dynabook, which was ahead of its time, to say the least. Kay is credited with uttering the notable quote, “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”
Another visionary whose work was discussed in the article is Ivan Sutherland, who between 1961 and 1963 created the groundbreaking computer program called Sketchpad. The video above is an excruciatingly dry, but exceedingly significant, 20-minute demonstration of Sketchpad. It was produced for Boston PBS station WGBH by Russell Morash, who introduced TV viewers to Julia Child and created the show “This Old House.”
Recently, I offered some Beatles studio session outtakes of HELP! , and before that an outtake of I Feel Fine, and in the comments I made mention of “The Beatles Recording Sessions,” by Mark Lewisohn. As pointed out by best buddy Denro, Lewisohn admits his 1988 book is now superceded by “Recording the Beatles,” a $100 tome that is essentially self-published by its authors, Kevin Ryan and Brian Kehew.
I had no idea of this book’s existence until today. The first printing of 3000 copies is sold out, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the second printing is already spoken for. But I’d better get in line, as this is an irresistable item that, despite the expense, I must have.
Click here to read a New York Times article about Recording the Beatles, and other self-published Beatles books. If that link asks for a registration you don’t want to have, click here instead.
Among the items that Santa brought our way this year is a CD set that caught my interest last summer when I heard a favorable review on the radio. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Complete Works.
The $135 price seemed all right, until I read the comments on Amazon that it could be had for $100 elsewhere. When it appeared at BJ’s for $100, Santa couldn’t resist. 170 discs! All of them are now installed in my 300-disc Sony CD changer. The set includes a CD-ROM with 800 pages(!) of liner notes and librettos, but unfortunately the music discs don’t have CD-Text, so I had to get out my spare PC keyboard and laboriously type in 170 abbreviations.
If you’re interested in the set, you can read much more at the link above. I’ve scanned some random selections, and all sound super and none are defective. At the moment I give “Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Complete Works” a HIGHLY RECOMMENDED rating.
Another fun item delivered by The Man in Red is a Panasonic DMR-ES15S DVD recorder. This was also obtained by Santa at BJ’s, for less than what the Mozart set costs on Amazon. I haven’t played with it too much yet, but my short evaluation is it works great but the analog cable tuner is weak. A DVR it isn’t, but as a VCR replacement it’s absolutely the way to go.
