Incomplete change

Yesterday I talked about the pushback I received from some older listeners who (apparently) wanted nothing to do with the Internet. One of them came around (some) when I explained I wasn't talking about computers, but about the WTJU website that could be accessed by either a smartphone or a tablet -- no PC necessary.

Which got me thinking. It's easy for me to think of people who seldom venture online as a minority of irrelevant dinosaurs -- but are they really?

24.9 percent of all American adults have no land line in their home
-- which means that 75.1 percent still do.

35 percent of all Americans own a smartphone
 -- which means that 65 percent don't

19 percent of all American adults own a tablet
-- which means that 81 percent don't.

All of these figures tend to skew young. Half of the wireless-only homes are those of 20-somethings, for example. So if I were to go to a Starbucks, then there's a good chance the majority of folks I would run into would have smartphones, tablets, and probably no land line.

And these technologies are trending. So if we were to revisit these figures a year from now, the percentages would be higher.

But for now, the old technologies (and old technology users) are reluctantly giving up their hold. Which tells me I need to keep those new technology on-air plugs short and sweet.

The 1-Bit Symphony -- more than 2-bit music

Visual artist and composer Tristan Perich has combined two separate musical concepts: the original performance, and the physical recording. When one purchases a CD (remember those?), it's a copy of a performance recorded weeks, months, often years before.

Not so with Perich's latest release. His 1-Bit Symphony comes in a standard CD case. But inside are some very simple electronics that perform the composition when activated. So every time you listen to the work, you're hearing -- not a recording -- but a live performance.

The symphony gets its name from the electronically generated square waveform. Its such a simple waveform that it can be represented by a single bit of digital information (and remember: a bit is a bit of a byte). Yet Perich does quite a lot with this primal audio building block, creating complex sound structures that are indeed symphonic.

The following video gives you a brief overview of the work, as the presenter hits the fast-forward button to skip through the various movements. When you hear the work as intended, though, you'll hear the themes slowly develop as they would in a Philip Glass or Steve Reich composition.



Will 1-bit music become its own school of composition? Perhaps not.

But Perich has created a valid form of musical expression that's uniquely his own. And that's a remarkable feat, indeed.

Object Lesson #1 - Lionel's 752E and technology

Any object can be a historic artifact. It can tell you the technological level of the culture it was created in, the values of that culture, how the object was used, and something about the person who owned it.

Knowing my interest in such things, Ken recently brought in a toy train his father-in-law had purchased back in 1934. Here’s what that object has to say.

The toy train in question is Lionel’s 752E Union Pacific passenger set. It was modeled after a new streamlined train of the same name debuted by the Union Pacific.

Level of technology

When the Lionel made the Union Pacific streamliner in 1934, they used the most common materials for mechanical toys: metal.

The body is stamped sheet metal with a die-cast underbody and nose. Pretty much the only non-metal parts are the windows, which are celluloid (clear plastic hadn't been perfected yet), and the tiny colored headlamps. The lettering was all hand-stamped.

There's more to the technology story, though. The train’s illuminated interior is provided by miniature glass light bulbs -- (now we'd use LEDs). Power comes from an AC outlet and sent over the three rail track. The train draws power from the center rail through a sliding pickup shoe. Pretty sophisticated electronics for the time, and still basically the way electric toy trains work today.

What's different is the transformer. This particular set didn't come with one -- you had to buy it separately. The one in the box featured a sliding dial, along with a Lionel rheostat. At the time, toy train transformers were basically a series of posts with contacts on the top of the transformer box. You slid the dial from one post to the next to complete the circuit. Each post provided a different amount of constant power.

If you tried running a toy train with it, the effect was pretty much like driving by either jamming on the brake or the gas pedal – no in between. In order to have a continuous increase from low to high power, you set the level of current from the transformer, and then fed it through the rheostat and then to the track.

Very crude by today’s standards, but state-of-the-art in 1934!

Part 2: Lionel's 752E and Cultural Values
Part 3: Lionel's 752E and Its Function
Part 4: Lionel's 752E and Its Owner

Zeppelin Dreams

Stephane Rousson failed on his attempt to cross the English Channel this weekend. In a zeppelin. Powered by himself.

The issue was the wind, not the design of the craft. I have to admit I have a soft spot in my head for lighter-than-air craft, especially zeppelins. While the story's interesting in and of itself, it caught my attention because the design looked a little familiar.

Here's the Zeppy, Rousson's pedal-powered airship.

And here's Jule Verne's pedal-powered airship, as depicted in the 1958 Czech film, "The Fabulous World of Jules Verne."

Hats off to Rousson and his team, for bringing to life days of futures past.

- Ralph

Day 106 of the WJMA Web Watch.