Steam Punk

I may have the wrong term, but if conjecture about pushing
1800's technology beyond what it did is Steam Punk, then it is
fascinating speculation. The Difference Engine was the most
popular novel of this type. Many technologies we think to be 20th century are
really 19th:

Fax images

In the 1860's, France was transmitting drawn images on a national
network- Marseilles to Paris was one line. I think the UK also experimented.

Sound Recordings

In the 1860's American inventors transcribed sound to paper disk.
I think there was difficulty doing playback. Allegedly, Lincoln was recorded;
the disk may be misfiled in the Whitehouse.

Camera Images

Although the first accepted photograph images date
from late 1820's, painters used the camera obscura from the 1400's to trace then paint
images. Vermeer is the most studied on this topic.
An authentic story could be written from the 1860's using all of the above.

Colour & Visually Impaired

Unlike the CBC,

the BBC has text versions of their pages.

---

Notably, it is also possible to change screen & text colour on BBC
text pages.

Few web pages recognize that some of us use text only browsers.
Many do however, have text versions for the visually impaired.

Although I enjoy the BBC's colour selection option, I am not sure how that
choice would help visually impaired.

---

Bold, italics, or underlined might be recognized by some speech
recognition programmes as emphasis clues.

Although I am sure it has not happened, it might be useful to use colour
to indicate tone or mood. Might blue indicate
depression, red, a form of
anger, yellow fear,
and purple pomposity?

Dogs & cats of course would not be able to read pages so marked.

Literacy in Blogs

---

Literacy through Blogs

To the extent that we are using text only in our blogs, we are
encouraging the virtues of text literacy. Perhaps this includes abilities
to deal with the abstract, reflection on cause- effect relationships, and
the importance of symbols. Granted, "texting" can lead to a different
kind of printed langualge that debases these advantages. But blogs are
not "texting".

When we replace text with audio or video, we still attend to literacy, but
change to modality.

---

Does the addition of font changes, or font
colour, change the content of the text in printed form? How might
these two changes be shown in auditory readings?

---

---

It could be argued that intentional limitation of text possibilities
compels greater creativity in communication. On the other hand, there is
nothing wrong with form being more important than content.

---

This was composed on, & posted from a

Commodore
64

Appropriate Technology:
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~ap721/main1.html

Random or Disorganized?

Literacy through Blogs

To the extent that we are using text only in our blogs, we are
encouraging the virtues of text literacy. Perhaps this includes abilities
to deal with the abstract, reflection on cause- effect relationships, and
the importance of symbols. Granted, "texting" can lead to a different
kind of printed langualge that debases these advantages. But blogs are
not "texting".

When we replace text with audio or video, we still attend to literacy, but
change to modality.

---

Does the addition of font changes, or font
colour, change the content of the text in printed form? How might
these two changes be shown in auditory readings?

---

It could be argued that intentional limitation of text possibilities
compels greater creativity in communication. On the other hand, there is
nothing wrong with form being more important than content.

---

This was composed on, & posted from a

Commodore
64

Appropriate Technology:
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~ap721/main1.html

HTML with Commodore 64

Commodore 64 Viewable HTML

Technology used to create this blog select

size=1>
Commodore 64
64k total ram
including i/o, sound
video, basic
& 37k for programming
runs off ac or car battery

Swiftlink cartridge
a rs-232 interface
between C= & pc
cpu or modems

size=1>
Novaterm 9.6/10 comm programmes
allowing z-modem, ftp
telnet, 80 column screen
& off line reading

BBU/REU 2 cart combination
allowing 2 meg
of non-volatile
web captured
storage

None of the above will look different on a pc or Mac from the
appearance on a C=64
The PC

The Commodore 64
& The Mac
all display this html in the same way.

This might lead to a discussion of which meaning of powerful we
wished to use.

My Search for a Better Sound

My stereo set up is late 80's analogue: Pioneer receiver
, large full range Infinity speakers in front, 2 Philips fulls in rear,
fed by factory modified Apex 600 dvd player & stereo vcr.
I have resisted moving to 5.1 digital partly because I'm
not sure I would appreciate sound quality improvements.
A little used dvd "blue book"? feature is the ability to
pass 24/96 quality sound using analogue outs. I have nearly a dozen dvd's that use this
feature from Classics, Chesky, & Aix Records. Although all the dvd's deliver subjectively good
sound, I am not sure whether this is because of a carefully done recording/pressing.
I find the special repressings of 20bitK2 jazz disks to
be equally impressive. Verve re-issued very high quality classic jazz disks.
I did an a/b test at a local high end sound store with
two versions of the Herb Ellis "Seven Come Eleven"- one a cd, the other a 24/96 dvd.
Neither I not the salesman could discern a difference in sound between
these two disks. A caveat might be that this was a repressing.
Aix Records does what amounts to direct to disk original recordings
& adds many vidoe enhancements. I'm still searching.

What Happened to Active Stereo & Surround?

In the 1950's, speakers' voices were located Left & right
depending on screen location. In Star Trek (TNG), doors slid open to the
right or left speaker depending on which side the character
entered from. Northern Exposure's surround allowed separate table conversations
to occur in the bar while the main characters talked from
the front speakers.
Most current television & movies use stereo & surround for a fuller
sound, but rarely to show location. Rear speakers are for sound effects & music only. Stereo is not used for location of sound sources.
While a few archival cd's artificially locate instruments
in one speaker, & the vocalist in another, most do not currently use stereo for accurate source location.

I imagine there are dvd's of 50's musicals for example,
that use stereo for dialogue. I remember my then teenage
son being excited by "Thriller" locating different instruments in
different speakers.
Are there cd's or dvd's that still reflect location by
stereo & surround?

On Line With a Commodore 64

This is typed with a Commodore 64 directly connected
to the Net. I wonder if our computer equipment is more powerful
than our needs require. If my C=64 can connect to
the Net & leave both a web page & a blog, then
any "dumb terminal" should have the same ability.
I compose all my hardcopy with the same computer connected to my
Epson 740 inkjet. What advantages would the latest
computer give me in this requirement?
If this capability were provided for third world
populations, education & productivity might be
improved.
If every student in the developed world were
given the equivalent of a C=64, education would change
at a very low cost.
We do not need what we are buying in many cases.
And we are throwing out "obsolete" computers
that aren't.