Bunnyman mourns the Pentium II, discontinued by Intel almost 20 years ago. Today, the package is comparable to the size of a phone!
Category: Tech
Tech Tidbits
A some point, back when Windows XP was the standard system, it became standard practice that to fix a problem on one PC, a second PC was needed for research. Technology was becoming ubiquitous. XP was introduced in October, 2001. At that same time, work on remodeling my kitchen was wrapping up.
Thanks to tastewar lending me his toolkit, I had wired two of the bedrooms with Ethernet jacks. The way the basement is arranged made that an easy project. Installing Ethernet in the kitchen? Not so easy. There had been some trouble with the electrician the general contractor was using, so I dropped the idea.
Not too many years later my concern about kitchen connectivity disappeared when Wi-Fi replaced the need for Ethernet. These days in the kitchen I use a Fire HD 10 tablet, which has an excellent screen. Amazon has occasionally put it on sale for half price, $75.
Those headphones hanging on the book holder are the Sony MDR-W08. I bought two pairs in 2011 for $15. The MDR-W08 has a large following, but I can understand why Sony discontinued it. The market has, regrettably in my opinion, moved away from wired headphones for portable use. For that matter, portable headphones have fallen out of favor compared to earbuds.
https://us.community.sony.com/s/question/0D50B00004IKvxTSAT/why-discontinue-the-mdrw08l-headphones
A hardcore fan of Sony’s gone-but-not-forgotten product had this to say recently.
https://mrmarc.com/the-venerable-sony-mdr-w08-headphones/
On the subject of headphones, in my post about WION a couple of days ago, I mentioned that as a radio DJ I used my AKG K-140’s (that I no longer have). I had a LOL moment when spotting a pair of AKG K-140’s in the WION broadcast studio.
Extreme AM
Radio station studios and transmitters are only somewhat the same as they were when I was in the business. This hour-long video tour of WION, 1430 AM in Ionia, Michigan, scratches a major itch.
What’s missing? Russco Cue-Master turntables with Micro-Trak tonearms, fitted with Stanton 500 cartridges!
Back when I was sitting in the DJ chair at a commercial AM station, I’d sometimes switch my AKG K-140 headphones to monitor the on-air signal. With the transmitter tower in the field next to the station house, the sound was almost as good as monitoring directly from the control board. AM at its very best can be heard on WION’s online stream, which is sourced from their AM stereo broadcast signal.
This image, with Russco/Micro-Trak turntables, is from a PBS documentary that aired in November. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/taken-hostage/.
Spamalot
Let’s see what’s in today’s spam mailbox. Yep, it’s the same, old stuff, but it’s being updated by somebody, as indicated by the reference to Southwest Airlines.
These messages are obvious phishing attempts. I started receiving them a long time ago, after a friend’s contact list was obtained in an e-mail hack.
I use various e-mail addresses, over half a dozen of them, for different purposes. This particular collection of spam arrives in my primary account for personal communication. The source of the spam seems to come and go, and every time it disappears for a few weeks, even months, it reappears. I may delete this account, but it will take a while to migrate everybody who writes to me at that address.
The Place Where Nothing is Real
Glass Onion the movie is, of course, a reference to the song “Glass Onion” on the Beatles’ so-called White Album. The movie is a lot of fun, with Daniel Craig reprising his role from Knives Out. A parallel between Craig’s character, consulting detective Benoit Blanc, and Sherlock Holmes, is revealed in a cameo appearance by another British actor.
The premise of the movie borrows from Agatha Christie’s famous story “Ten Little Indians,” which was retitled “And There Were None” in the United States. The reference to “Indians” was itself changed from something else, as explained in the Wikipedia entry for the story.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_Then_There_Were_None
The movie also borrows from the video game Myst, which is coming up on its 30th anniversary. The comparison is made explicit in a 3D tour of Glass Onion Island.
The island doesn’t exist, but the special effects making it seem like a real place are utterly convincing.
Taking the virtual island tour doesn’t require a Netflix account.
https://www.netflix.com/tudum/glass-onion-knives-out-island
Spector’s Christmas Spectacle
On this Christmas Day I have posted something about Phil Spector, and something about Joe Sinnott. Now for the kicker.
A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector was released on the day that JFK was assassinated, November 22, 1963 (two days before my family appeared in Parade magazine).
Fifty years ago, Apple Records re-released the album, retitled as Phil Spector’s Christmas Album. Spector posed for the cover photos wearing “Back To MONO” buttons, as seen in the enlarged scan I made for the previous post.
The following year, 1973, John Lennon was photographed wearing a Back To MONO button. It’s probably safe to assume that he got it from Spector.
https://sfae.com/Artists/Tom-Zimberoff/John-Lennon-Back-to-Mono-Pin-Los-Angeles-1973
The origin of the button is uncertain. An account I read in an audio magazine many years ago credited the creation of the buttons to a well-known name in Hi-Fi at the time, whose name I don’t remember. He attended a music industry event and allegedly handed out the buttons, that were circulated from there. Even today, true mono mixing has an advantage over stereo that’s been “folded down” into mono. I’ll try to explain that later.
So what does this have to do with Joe Sinnott? Take a look at the back cover of the Apple album.
What does “Santa” have there? It’s a comic book!
Fantastic Four #127, October 1972 cover date, with art by John Buscema and Joe Sinnott.
https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Fantastic_Four_Vol_1_127
Well, there you have it. Joe’s work hiding in plain sight, with one of the most notorious names in the history of popular music.
Ten years later, forty years ago in 1982, a CBS Records subsidiary, Pavilion, released Spector’s Christmas album in stereo. It wasn’t actually mixed in stereo, however. It’s a twin-track master, like the first two (according to George Martin three) UK stereo Beatles albums are. The sound is nonetheless, like those early Beatles albums, jaw-dropping revealing of studio ambiance and wonderful to hear.