Category: Tech

Mars War!

I’m very impressed with Criterion’s Blu-ray presentation of Paramount’s 2018 restoration of The War of the Worlds, from 1953. The print was created digitally, for perfect alignment of the scans made from the original 3-strip Technicolor negatives.

Paramount’s goal was to recreate the Technicolor experience as much as possible, and I can confirm they succeeded. This Blu-ray really comes alive with a good video projector.

A fascinating and entertaining alternate take on the H.G. Wells classic is the fantasy docudrama, The Great Martian War 1913–1917.

Aww, who needs to worry about a Martian invasion anyway, when we have the pandemic? Or… has it been their plan all along, to weaken us with a virus they’re immune to, avoiding the fate of the Martians at the end of Wells’ book??

‘Mars Attacks’ with original art by Wally Wood and Norman Saunders

Prattling Repost: The Other Computer War

Something I posted four years ago that’s worth repeating, now that the video of the movie has been replaced with a fresh HD copy. A part of Acorn Computer became ARM, the leading designer of processors for mobile computing:

At the same time the competition between Microsoft and Apple was beginning, in England there was the computer rivalry between Sinclair and Acorn. I think somewhere in the basement I still have my tiny Sinclair Z80 computer, which was distributed in America by Timex. This 2009 movie, featuring Martin Freeman, is a lot of fun and well worth watching.

Alexa, We Need to Not Talk

Having watched “The Man Trap” on Star Trek, Thursday, September 8, 1966 at 8:30, I’m a first generation fan. Despite that, I don’t care to converse with computers, so there are no smart speakers in the house. My FireTV remotes have a mic for Alexa, and using the button for it means you don’t have to start commands by saying “Alexa…” I test the feature occasionally, with the results being useful about 75% of the time.

Amazon has a new feature, called Sidewalk, integrating with their Internet of Things (IOT) things. Creating a WiFi mesh between residences sounds cool, but just because something can be done doesn’t mean it should be done.

Yesterday and Today

In 1972 we stopped putting men on the Moon, but our Earthbound future was just beginning. That year, Stewart Brand explained it in his article “Spacewar” for Rolling Stone.

The world of tomorrow, that we have today, was also described in 1972, in perfect detail, in a couple of films. The promise of interactive television, as narrated by DJ Casey Kasem…

… didn’t happen with analog cable systems, but it was of course eventually realized by digital networking.

“Computer Networks: The Heralds of Resource Sharing” was produced in 1972 at WGBH-TV in Boston. That same year, WGBH also produced a much more entertaining movie, the cult favorite Between Time and Timbuktu. It opens with none other than my childhood idol DJ from WABC in New York, Cousin Brucie.

https://youtu.be/Sdp5-YdS9aE