I spent some time yesterday listening to WCBS-AM, to get some last listening in before its demised.
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@inthehands @SteveBellovin @mattblaze so much gorgeous human problem-solving embedded in musical instruments and such tools of human expression ️ as someone who plays a very ancient instrument frequently dismissed as "simple" or rudimentary (lever harp) I find it simply tremendous that I am using a solution that was worked out so many thousands of years ago and still very much serves what I want today
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@grimalkina @SteveBellovin @mattblaze
You play lever harp? That’s so cool!!I once had a wonderful experience preparing a concert with a harpist who played a cross-strung chromatic double harp with levers, and she did some truly incredible things planning out her tunings for each piece. Found some of her pieces online (audio only, sadly): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-szsSYy3oQs
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oh eff yeah how cool!!!! There are so many wild harps out there, I honestly feel like the constraints of the lever system introduce some really clever tuning+stringing setups almost like a big logic puzzle!! I do play harp, just for fun and just for myself
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@grimalkina @SteveBellovin @mattblaze
So much of (most of??) the history of music is people discovering magic inside constraints. -
rk: not a typewriterreplied to Paul Cantrell last edited by
@inthehands @SteveBellovin @mattblaze
Magic, got it.
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Paul Cantrellreplied to rk: not a typewriter last edited by
@rk
“Any sufficiently advanced technology…” -
@inthehands @SteveBellovin @mattblaze
go for it! i find keyboard instrument mechanics fascinating. harpsicords are just crazy.
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@SteveBellovin @inthehands @mattblaze
the old mechanical phone switches are amazing
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@paul_ipv6
The harpsichord and the clavichord are the historical starting point. Figuring out an alternative to the escapement was a multi-century journey.I tried to find a good video about how a grand piano action works, and there are many, but none really nailed it in my view: they walk through the parts but don’t do a good job of showing the motivations and the design pressures that shaped them. Everything there solves a problem!
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Adam Shostack :donor: :rebelverified:replied to Paul Cantrell last edited by
@inthehands @paul_ipv6 Did you try youtube or tiktok (or something else?) I've found that fix it videos are MUCH better on tt because they impose time limits rather than using minutes watched as a signal of quality.
I don't know if that applies to explainers like you're looking for, but I watched 5 minutes of a YT video on Alcatraz doors and learned exactly nothing.
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Paul Cantrellreplied to Adam Shostack :donor: :rebelverified: last edited by
@adamshostack @paul_ipv6
I used a general DDG video search. I’m sure something is out there somewhere. If you find it, lmk! -
Vick Forcella ™🌈🌳❄️☑️:verifireplied to Paul_IPv6 last edited by
@paul_ipv6 @SteveBellovin @inthehands @mattblaze How did the old people take pictures with their phones?
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Paul_IPv6replied to Vick Forcella ™🌈🌳❄️☑️:verifi last edited by
@VickForcella @SteveBellovin @inthehands @mattblaze
used the phone to call someone with a camera?
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Paul Cantrellreplied to Vick Forcella ™🌈🌳❄️☑️:verifi last edited by
@VickForcella @paul_ipv6 @SteveBellovin @mattblaze
We’d call someone, stretch the long cord waaaaay out there, and then do a kind of police sketch artist shtick while they drew it on paper -
@paul_ipv6 @VickForcella @SteveBellovin @inthehands
Believe it or not, there were person-sized kiosks every block or so containing large books of telephone users in the local geographic area, with a unique seven-digit code for each user. (One of these books, printed on yellow paper, had a section for "photographers".)
Also in the booth was a coin-operated device, connected by wire to a central office, that allowed two-way voice communication with the person associated with each code number.
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@mattblaze @paul_ipv6 @VickForcella @SteveBellovin
Ah…! The loss of the phone book as a metaphor, as a process example, and as a useful physical object is profound.Now for the phone book’s actual intended purpose…meh, our current situation is a net improvement. But for all that other stuff…!
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Analog TV static is one I will certainly miss. There are so many emerging patterns in a random changing screen of dots-- with digital broadcasting, screens just go black.
It used to look like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_FVFMdiZ0w