ARCHIVED FORUM -- March 2012 to February 2022READ ONLY FORUM
This is the second Archived Forum which was active between 1st March 2012 and 23rd February 2022
Man, I so love nixie tubes. I'm old enough that the first frequency counters and digital multimeters I used had nixie tubes in them! To this day I have a love of them, and this Christmas a nixie tube clock is going to be my present to myself.
Jeff
I'm afraid I'm recovering from the BeoVirus.
Jeff: I've always been fascinated by obsolete technology, including but not limited to audio/video and the associated storage devices like LP, tape, etc. That's why I always intend to keep at least one tube amplifier around, I tend to view it as technological archeology! In my day I've seen, just for audio, Edison Cylinders, 78 rpm records, LPs, 8 tracks, open reel, Elcassettes, cassettes, and CDR! In computers, I remember 300 baud acoustic modems and bulletin boards (BBS), ARPAnet/Usenet and the online newsgroups, mag tape, large commercial disk packs, 8, 5.25, and 3.5 inch floppy disks, CDR, DVDR, and BlueRayR for storage. I love old tech, but for my day to day use I've firmly adopted streaming in the modern world.
I've always been fascinated by obsolete technology, including but not limited to audio/video and the associated storage devices like LP, tape, etc. That's why I always intend to keep at least one tube amplifier around, I tend to view it as technological archeology! In my day I've seen, just for audio, Edison Cylinders, 78 rpm records, LPs, 8 tracks, open reel, Elcassettes, cassettes, and CDR!
In computers, I remember 300 baud acoustic modems and bulletin boards (BBS), ARPAnet/Usenet and the online newsgroups, mag tape, large commercial disk packs, 8, 5.25, and 3.5 inch floppy disks, CDR, DVDR, and BlueRayR for storage.
I love old tech, but for my day to day use I've firmly adopted streaming in the modern world.
I have very similar look on obsolete tech. I am still hoping that one day I would have room to have my Laserdisc player hooked up and ready to play the one and only LD I own (re-cut single part version of 1970's Doctor Who story "Brain of Morbius") I also have a Sony Elcaset EL7 (with the wired remote!) hooked up thrue an audio switch into my Beomaster 7000!
While working as an IT support (trying hard to convince users to move into MS Office 365, and finally let go of their VHS tapes so we could stop supporting those in the classrooms) I found great enjoyment playing with these oldies at home. And fe. learning programming on my Commodore KIM-1. Sometimes the contrast between the two realities feels a bit overwhelming...
When I got my first plasma and DVD player, I gave my collection of LDs and the player to a friend of mine. To this day I wish I'd kept them, there were things I had on LD that I've never seen and will never see on DVD. Including a Pink Floyd concert video for "Delicate Sound Of Thunder" tour. That and some truly awful scifi/horror movies that were so great because they were so bad! Along with a lot of Ingmar Bergman films, talk about a schizophrenic mix of LDs!
We had the Elcassettes for sale in the stereo shop I worked at in college. To my knowledge we never sold a single one, but they were very high performance. As advertised, they were indeed like an open reel with the convenience of cassette.
When we moved to the new house, in a new state, I finally got rid of my old Atari 400/800/1600 gear. BASIC was your friend!
Watched the first episode of Burn Notice last night. Very fun, kind of a cross between Magnum PI and McGuyver. Good humor and I love Bruce Campbell. Great recommendation. Edited to add, Burn Notice is a combo of Magnum PI, McGuyver, and Miami Vice. The scenery is nice, and I don't mean Miami.
New season of Black Mirror dropped today on Netflix. Can't wait to watch.
Jeff:When I got my first plasma and DVD player, I gave my collection of LDs and the player to a friend of mine. To this day I wish I'd kept them, there were things I had on LD that I've never seen and will never see on DVD. Including a Pink Floyd concert video for "Delicate Sound Of Thunder" tour. That and some truly awful scifi/horror movies that were so great because they were so bad! Along with a lot of Ingmar Bergman films, talk about a schizophrenic mix of LDs! We had the Elcassettes for sale in the stereo shop I worked at in college. To my knowledge we never sold a single one, but they were very high performance. As advertised, they were indeed like an open reel with the convenience of cassette. When we moved to the new house, in a new state, I finally got rid of my old Atari 400/800/1600 gear. BASIC was your friend! Jeff Beovirus victim, it's gotten to be too much to list!
Stargate the movie rocked, great set and costume design and an intriguing idea. The series, not so much. The series got its start on I believe Showtime, a premium subscription cable movie channel. They showed it on Friday night, along with a show called "Total Recall 2070" which was a wonderful, dark, dystopian cyberpunk thriller set in the Total Recall universe, with the big villain being the Rekall company. It was far better than Stargate SG1, much more original and thought provoking, so naturally it got canceled and SG1 went on basically forever after.
I had both the LD and my first DVD player at the same time. In fact my last LD player also played DVDs, although it didn't have an HDMI out, or even a component out. One reason I got rid of the LD player is that with my new plasma EDTV Panasonic, the new DVD player I bought with component out and HDMI out looked far, far better than the LD player. If I still had it I'd run it through the Oppo BD103 and use the Oppos video engine to clean it up. I had a Harman Kardon AVR that had the Faroujda processor on it and it could do pretty good things even with VCR tapes. Not stunning, but it did improve them. But alas it's gone, along with two whole shelves of LDs. Camelot Music in the mall where I lived sold LDs, and always had a huge cutout bin of ones for cheap. That's where I got "Invasion Of The Space Preachers."
As I said "Black Mirror" season 3 just dropped on Netflix, holy cow, the quality and dark, cynical dystopian nature of it hasn't abated a bit, still just a stunningly good and thought provoking series.
Jeff:The scenery is nice, and I don't mean Miami.
BeoNut since '75
Just finished the new season of "Black Mirror." All were excellent and dark and intensely thought provoking, but the season finale, oh my! 90 min long instead of 60 as usual, like the episode "White Christmas."
Perhaps hard to explain this reaction, as it's not a boogie man jumps out of the closet with a knife kind of thing, none of the episodes are, but this was perhaps the single most terrifying thing I've seen on a TV or Movie screen. Dark social commentary, intensely thought provoking, and completely believable that something like it could happen, which is what makes all of these episodes so effective. And what happened is horrific.
Jeff:Just finished the new season of "Black Mirror." All were excellent and dark and intensely thought provoking, but the season finale, oh my! 90 min long instead of 60 as usual, like the episode "White Christmas." Perhaps hard to explain this reaction, as it's not a boogie man jumps out of the closet with a knife kind of thing, none of the episodes are, but this was perhaps the single most terrifying thing I've seen on a TV or Movie screen. Dark social commentary, intensely thought provoking, and completely believable that something like it could happen, which is what makes all of these episodes so effective. And what happened is horrific. Jeff Beovirus victim, it's gotten to be too much to list!
Hope you enjoy it Duels! To me, it's the single most thought provoking series I've seen since the original The Prisoner series back in the 60's. That dealt with social issues and the Cold War, this deals with very cyberpunk issues of how we misuse technology. Most of the episodes are possible with either what we have today or what will be there in the very near future, which makes them all the more thought provoking and to be honest disturbing.
In the first episode, I thought Rory Kinnear did an outstanding acting job, as he also did in Penny Dreadful where he played Frankenstein's creature. Such drama and pathos for that part, such an eloquent creature.
The episode of Black Mirror, White Christmas, is the darkest Christmas show I've ever seen. Some of the people in it practice startling levels of cruelty to each other.
Yesterday I watched a presentation of fireworks by Flashart in Bielefeld/Germany with music played by a radiostation accompagning the fireworks (Winds of Change, Skyfall etc.) well compiled by a tonmeister of our theatre (He does all the musical compilation work for Flashart).
Today I watched a vimeo movie by Mike Olbinsky called Monsoon III. Be careful! You will be blown away in a double sense of words, meteorologically and proverbial. Music and pictures go hand in hand as well.
What do I prefer? The first was life and once for a lifetime. The second can be repeated and presented at your home again and again ...
Interesting Peter, I bet the fireworks were amazing. Oddly enough, last night I watched a Netflix show called "Sky Ladder: The Art Of Cai Guo-Qiang." It's a documentary of a Chinese artist who both uses fireworks to make paintings (using masks so that the powder burns create an image) and who does fireworks displays, he did the Beijing Olympics for example. Quite the innovative artist.
I also started watching a Netflix show called "Midnight Diner: Tokyo Edition." It's a made for Netflix show that centers on a small diner that's only open from midnight to 7 am in Tokyo. Everyone calls the cook "master" and he will make whatever you want as long as he has the ingredients. It's a very tiny diner, and the stories revolve around his customers and their peculiar interpersonal trials and tribulations. Most have happy endings, people find love, or acceptance of their issues, and all are uniquely Japanese. Very enjoyable.
Edited to add: Monsoon is fascinating. I love time lapse photography of weather. In fact that's one thing I always found fascinating about my trips out west, in the US the plains are so flat that if you're in a city or place a bit up in the hills or mountains that surround them you can see weather patterns roll in from incredible distances. Not so much when I lived in Florida, we had lots of weather, but unless you were on the coast there were so many trees and so little elevation anywhere you usually didn't get much notice before you were hit by a storm. I do remember going diving in the Keys and looking out at the storms and seeing a water spout not all that far off shore. Right before we went out in it naturally.
Duels:Ok Jeff so I watched the episode you mentioned and I totally get what you mean. It feels like it could SO happen. Thoroughly enjoying the series, very thought provoking.
Thoroughly enjoying the series, very thought provoking.
Glad you're enjoying the series. That's the thing that ultimately makes all of them so thought provoking and unsettling, you can easily see these things happening, in fact a lot of what you see is already happening just not to that extent. We are already seeing ransomware attacks, usually they encrypt your drive and won't decrypt it unless you pay, it's just a hop and a skip to what Black Mirror presented. Ugh. But it pays to start thinking about these things before they happen I believe.
Duels, I was astounded by how cruel the guy's lover was to get pregnant and then block him! You're right, Hamm was amazing in it, so slick and so amoral.
The 4th season one "Playtest" is intense, makes "The Matrix" look like a Disney cartoon. In fact, it's very, very much in the vein of most of P.K.***'s work.(you know, it's really annoying that the nanny filter here won't let you mention Philip K. D ick in a sentence!)
I think "White Christmas" could counteract a whole years worth of saccharin Christmas movies. I usually watch the Black Adder Christmas Special to counteract my wife's non-stop Xmas movie watching before the holiday, now I have something else to act as an antidote.
Jeff:I usually watch the Black Adder Christmas Special to counteract my wife's non-stop Xmas movie watching before the holiday, now I have something else to act as an antidote.
Jeff:Duels, I was astounded by how cruel the guy's lover was to get pregnant and then block him! You're right, Hamm was amazing in it, so slick and so amoral. The 4th season one "Playtest" is intense, makes "The Matrix" look like a Disney cartoon. In fact, it's very, very much in the vein of most of P.K.***'s work.(you know, it's really annoying that the nanny filter here won't let you mention Philip K. D ick in a sentence!) I think "White Christmas" could counteract a whole years worth of saccharin Christmas movies. I usually watch the Black Adder Christmas Special to counteract my wife's non-stop Xmas movie watching before the holiday, now I have something else to act as an antidote. Jeff Beovirus victim, it's gotten to be too much to list!
Really glad to hear you're enjoying it Duels! You've hit on what makes it so fascinating and also unsettling, a lot of what the show deals with could happen right now. Especially the online blackmail, apparently ransom=ware is common now, where a virus encrypts all the data on your hard drive and unless you cough up money the perpetrators won't give you the password to unencrypt.
You're right, we are about at the shallow, self image obsession that would produce a society obsessed with how others evaluate you. That was Ron Howard's daughter by the way.
I'm about halfway through the seasons of "Burn Notice." I still like it, but it's a tad repetitive in that the basic plot never changes. Still, it makes a nice thing to watch after too many Black Mirror type shows.
I finally got around to watching the last Mocking Jay movie, Hunger Games part four, can't recall the title right now. Did a reasonable job of what the book presented, but that is one series that it gets harder to do justice to the books as the movies went on, the last book lends itself to a movie less than the first. One nice thing about the movie vs. the book is not as much time was devoted to Catniss having nervous breakdowns and emotional hissy fits. Still, all four films were worthwhile.
Can't recall if I posted this, but I rewatched a very old ('64) movie "Robinson Crusoe On Mars." It really is a good movie, especially for its time. Kind of a similar start to "The Martian" in that an astronaut gets stranded on Mars and has to figure out how to survive. Science is not as accurate as today, as back then they thought Mars was different than it is a bit, and the whole finding a Man Friday is a tad out there, but all in all a fascinating and enjoyable movie. The astronaut and his partner eject out of their ship after they run out of fuel avoiding a meteor, the captain dies, but the remaining astronaut lives. The scenes where he looks up at the ship as it orbits overhead but is unable to control it and bring it down are poignant. So many supplies, so close, but so out of reach.
How do you like "The Crown?" I see its on Netflix now, will probably get around to looking at it soon.
Jeff:How do you like "The Crown?" I see its on Netflix now, will probably get around to looking at it soon. Jeff Beovirus victim, it's gotten to be too much to list!
Jeff, I watched the first few episodes of "Black Mirror" season 1, the first show is so different - not like other shows at all. The second episode was ok and the third i didn't like, but im going to continue on. It's good they are all so different.
I started watching "Victoria" last night, the first 2 episodes.
Aussie Michael:I tell a lie! In fact last. Iggy I watched the third episode of season 1 (it was the second I didn't like) and I thought it was in fact the best episode of television I have ever watched The show nosedive was amazing, thought provoking and a real jab at how lovely under neath the surface modern life can be chasing unobtainable goals / lifestyle. I even stayed up way past my bed time haha. Each episode is different.
Aussie Michael:I tell a lie! In fact last night I watched the third episode of season 1 (it was the second I didn't like) and I thought it was in fact the best episode of television I have ever watched The show nosedive was amazing, thought provoking and a real jab at how lonely under neath the surface modern life can be chasing unobtainable goals / lifestyle. I even stayed up way past my bed time haha. Each episode is different.
elephant:First 15 minutes looked authentic. So early days but good prospects. BeoNut since '75
I definitely have to check out "The Crown" then, even though it's been a while since we were colonials here.
Michael, glad you're enjoying Black Mirror. To me the most thought provoking series in a long, long time. As you say, each episode is very different in focus but all show us what could be happening either tomorrow or in a few years if we screw up and let it happen. The show "Shut Up And Dance" is horrible, but completely believable. But one of them in the new season actually has a happy ending! Shocking, I know.
Duels, you're right to note that it's not the best for binge watching, at least to me. My wife says it's too dark to take more than one a night, and we both agree that it's best to let one settle in and roll around your mind before doing another, as they are thought provoking, and it takes a while to fully "get" them I think. As you think about them further sometimes things become clear that you didn't realize at first I think.
Jeff:I definitely have to check out "The Crown" then, even though it's been a while since we were colonials here.
Duels: Jeff: I definitely have to check out "The Crown" then, even though it's been a while since we were colonials here. Ah Jeff, you're still colonials to us.
Jeff: I definitely have to check out "The Crown" then, even though it's been a while since we were colonials here.
Ah Jeff, you're still colonials to us.
Ha!
if you are too young then you may not get this lamp....
we tend to forget there is more to design than designing.
Mark:if you are too young then you may not get this lamp.... we tend to forget there is more to design than designing.
elephant: Mark: if you are too young then you may not get this lamp.... we tend to forget there is more to design than designing. Thanks for the memories
Mark: if you are too young then you may not get this lamp.... we tend to forget there is more to design than designing.
Thanks for the memories
If, too young you are, this lamp, get you will not...
I need to check out Outlander, we saw the 1st season before we dumped cable and liked it. Ditto for Westworld, I hear very good things about it.
On Netflix I just started watching the first season (10 episodes) of "Colony," a USA Network show. It takes place almost a year after an alien invasion with humanity isolated in walled colonies under control of governments made up of collaborators, sort of an alien Vichy France. What truly impresses me is that this could easily have become a show of stereotypical 2 dimensional good and bad guys, but even the worst of the collaborators are depicted as real people, with conflicting histories and reasons and emotions, an intelligent portrayal of people rather than caricatures. Haven't seen the aliens as yet, only the drones they send out from the walls to enforce curfew and support the human enforcers. No idea why they are here, what the want, etc. The collaborator/government area is called the Green Zone as in Iraq, collaborators are raiding and stockpiling artwork as in Nazi occupied Europe, they managed to study and implement about all the kinds of things that happened historically in such occupations.
I was quite surprised it is this well done.
I will have to look for "The Jinx" and see where I can watch it streaming here.
Lately I'm still enjoying the Three Amigos (Clarkson, Hammond, and May) on "The Grand Tour" on Amazon. Still funny and outrageous.
And I've started watching "Versailles" which is about Louis XIV during the days of the construction of the palace at Versailles. Very well done costume drama, kind of "The Tudors" set in France, and allegedly the most expensive French TV show ever produced. The actor who plays Louis is the same one who played Athelstan, the Catholic priest, in Vikings. Excellent series.
Jeff:And I've started watching "Versailles" which is about Louis XIV during the days of the construction of the palace at Versailles. Very well done costume drama, kind of "The Tudors" set in France, and allegedly the most expensive French TV show ever produced. The actor who plays Louis is the same one who played Athelstan, the Catholic priest, in Vikings. Excellent series.