June 27, 2008

This is one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. I had to share.

As creator James Houston explains,

I've just graduated from the Glasgow School of Art's graphic design course. This was my final project.

Radiohead held an online contest to remix "Nude" from their album - "In Rainbows" This was quite a difficult task for everybody that entered, as Nude is in 6/8 timing, and 63bpm. Most music that's played in clubs is around 120bpm and usually 4/4 timing. It's pretty difficult to seamlessly mix a waltz beat into a DJ set.

This resulted in lots of generic entries consisting of a typical 4/4 beat, but with arbitrary clips from "Nude" thrown in so that they qualified for the contest.

Thom Yorke joked at the ridiculousness of it in an interview for NPR radio, hinting that they set the competition to find out how people would approach such a challenging task.

I decided to take the piss a bit, as the contest seemed to be in that spirit.

Based on the lyric (and alternate title) "Big Ideas: Don't get any" I grouped together a collection of old redundant hardware, and placed them in a situation where they're trying their best to do something that they're not exactly designed to do, and not quite getting there.

It doesn't sound great, as it's not supposed to.

Big Ideas (don't get any) from James Houston on Vimeo.

That's right. James created a mix of Radiohead's "Nude" using the following:

• Sinclair ZX Spectrum: Guitars (rhythm & lead)
• Epson LX-81 Dot Matrix Printer: Drums
• HP Scanjet 3c: Bass Guitar
• 10 Hard Drive array - Act as a collection of bad speakers: Vocals & FX

An amazing show of modern creativity using tools of our favorite bygone era. Hats off, James!

June 21, 2008

Back in April I made a post regarding the Uthernet card, Ethernet for the Apple II. As I indicated, I laid down my $89 and ordered one as soon as I learned that a2RetroSystems was selling a new batch. It promptly arrived and I promptly threw it into my Apple IIgs. Let me tell you about it.

The hardware install was rather straightforward; I just dropped the card into slot 2. As for the software, I wrote out an image of Contiki and also installed the Marinetti TCP/IP stack for GS/OS. To my surprise, Contiki provides a much more full-featured web suite than Marinetti and the available GS/OS Internet apps I've been able to find, which I find to be an unfortunate situation as I'd hoped to use the graphical WIMP interface of GS/OS for most of my IIgs net activity as opposed to the text-based interface of Contiki. Perhaps this will change down the road. (Any suggestions on useful GS/OS web apps would be most appreciated.)

So far I've browed the web, chatted on IRC, performed various FTP operations, and fiddled with tenet on the IIgs using Contiki. The most valuable of these functions to me is FTP, as it was always a massive hassle to get an Apple II disk image downloaded from the net my Mac Pro to the IIgs--my previous drill had me routing the image through my Mac Plus. Now it's cake. As well, It's great fun to mess around on the net in general using the IIgs.

My $89 was definitely well spent. I had, for some time, contemplated the purchase of a LANceGS Ethernet card which debuted a few years earlier than the Uthernet, but its higher price always kept me from making the leap. It's great to have found a route to Ethernet on my IIgs for under $100.

Have a look at my IIgs photo gallery and get a look at the Uthernet board. Thanks a2RetroSystems. This is what retro computing is all about.

June 11, 2008

For the past week or so I have had basically no connectivity via my normally blazing fast Comcast internet connection. It's up for brief moments, but that's it. It's rather unfortunate as Arnold Kim and I are trying hard to make Touch Arcade the end-all reader destination for iPhone gaming news. But it's turned into a bit of an academic evaluation of my life as a hardcore geek.

I have been using the net more than casually for, well, ever. I had a home PPP connection back in 1994. That was early. In 1997 I had my first high-speed internet connection. Since then it's been more or less golden at home. Well, the net has eluded me in my home for the past few days.

And I just can't cope.

A while ago I embraced Facebook and it's gotten me in touch with schoolmates I've not spoken with in 15 years. Lovely. More recently I have embraced Twitter and a few other social networking services as part of my daily routine. Without the net, my inability to "tweet" my latest inconsequential event has left me feeling utterly...out of my element. I have come to realize I am more dependent than I have ever in my life been on technology. And I don't apologize for it. I warmly welcome the fact that I need to tweet about how a drink I've never ordered at Starbucks before tastes. I do not apologize for the fact that I need to post iPhone game news on my new site Touch Arcade late into the night.

The lack of immediate web access makes me realize that--yes, what I most want is a discreet, headset HUD and a chorded keyboard ball to finger on the streets as I walk about my daily life--a daily life that now is rather fully tied to the web. Am I an internet addict? Perhaps. Is everyone else a "talking addict?" It's really the same question.

I hope the Comcast tech scheduled to visit me early on Friday morning can ease my pain. Else...what am I to do?

June 1, 2008

As my readers are likely aware, I'm a big fan of the Apple Newton. I consider my MessagePad 2100 to be the finest PDA I've ever owned, relatively speaking. That said, imagine how surprised and happy I was to run across an active Newton blog!

Have a look: Newton Poetry: MessagePad Jabberwocky

So what's it all about? As Dave Lawrence who runs the site describes it, Newton Poetry is...

A blog about Apple's MessagePad, Apple in general, and Newton Poetry.

What's Newton Poetry? I find a poem. I input it into my Newton MessagePad 110. The Newton galumphs and translates the text, and spits out Newton Poetry.

As you might have guessed, the site was inspired by Gary Trudeau's famous August 1993 Doonesbury comic strip which lampooned the early Newton's (less than ideal) handwriting recognition. It's a nice mix of the amusing poetry translations and Newton news and thoughts.

I'm very glad to have found it. Strong work, Dave!