Nerd Arts

Most folks out there familiar with home video recording think that it all started with the emergence of the VHS and Betamax home video formats in the mid-1970s (and the format war that broke out between the two shortly after, a war being unfortunately repeated nowadays between HD-DVD & Blu-Ray discs).  But there was an era of video recording devices predating VHS & Beta, dating from shortly after the introduction of the very first videotape format (the 2″ Quadraplex format, aka 2″ Quad, introduced in 1956 by Ampex, and becoming the de facto videotape format for television networks and stations worldwide, but not for the home due to the format’s recorders being very costly, complex, and large, hence only the TV broadcast industry embracing it), to Betamax & VHS’s debuts of 1975 and 1977 respectively.

Some of the recorders from this era, like the 1967-vintage Panasonic NV-204 pictured above, usually were small enough to be practically used in any environment outside of a television control room, but their still high cost (but much less than the incumbent 2″ Quad) meant that they still weren’t ready for the home user just yet.  But they were still attractively priced for the industrial/institutional customer, i.e. schools, hospitals, businesses, etc.  However,  the popularity of these recorders was hampered by the fact that there was no standard format for them.  Most of these early non-professional industrial-market video tape recorders (VTRs), like the NV-204 pictured above also, did not use an industry-standard format, relying on proprietary formats usually specific to the make and model of VTR, and as a result, recordings made on one make and model of VTR could only be played back on the exact same make & model of VTR.

This was all to change in 1969, when the Electronics Industries Association of Japan, or EIAJ, called up a meeting with all the companies making industrial-market VTRs to have them all sit down and design and decide on an industry-standard format, which would ensure all recordings made on one manufacturer’s VTR could play back on another from a different manufacturer.  Hence, the EIAJ format was born.  It used  7″-diameter open-reels of 1/2″-wide videotape, and originally recorded black and white video (later VTRs using the EIAJ format in the early 1970s would offer color video as well).

The EIAJ format made non-professional industrial video standardized, and as a result, more affordable and attractive to purchase.  Many schools, businesses, and some of the first cable access TV channels debuting in the early 70’s made heavy use of EIAJ.  It would pave the way for the VTR industry to invade the home just a few short years later.

There are two very good and very informative web sites featuring these post-2″ quad and pre-VHS & Beta machines in all their retro glory, Labguy’s World (where I got the image above), and Quadruplex Park, which focuses more on professional broadcast machines (such as 2″ quad), but also focuses on the VTRs in mention here.

Brand new christmas compliation of mashed up songs for your pleasure. Created by DJ BC and his crew.

LINK.

Also Check out Santastic II: Clausome , Santastic: Holiday Boots For Your Stockings, Santastic III in 3-D!

For those of who don’t know Tay Zonday cruise over to his wikipedia page and find out. The main reason why I think he’s important is because he is one of the first youtube celebrities to get major sponsoring for a Dr Pepper commercial. Another example of how the mainstream media is desperately trying to catch up and grasp a presence on the web. In this case, I think they are quite sucessful as the video produced doesn’t seem like a commercial (even though it is very high quality). They definitely had some good consultants working on this one.

Well I’ve finally jumped into the madness of which is selling paintings on etsy. I have been making paintings of the internet, videogames, and television for the last 10 years. I guess it was about time to just put them all up for sale and see what happens.

Click Here to check out my Etsy Store

Click Here to see my blog of my paintings

Hey all.  I’m happy to announce a new project I have started. From this day on, you can suggest ideas for me to paint.  I will then post the paintings on my painting blog with a link back to your online profiles.  Submitting ideas couldn’t be easier. Just click HERE , and fill out the necesarry fields. Let’s see what our readers can come up with!:) Above is a painting of Darth Vader Panhandling that was submitted as an idea for a painting a few days ago.

I’ve had to install wordpress a few times now and I always seem to forget some step. So this last time I decided to just write down every step so I could easily do it in the future.  Maybe it will be helpful to others who are installing Wordpress for the first time.

1. Go to namecheap. (or where you have your domains registered)

2. “transfer DNS to webhost”

3. Type in dns address

4. go to cp.webair.com (or where you have your hosting)

5. log in

6. AddWebsite/Ip

7. type in the website you want to add

8. hit next a few times

9. click home

10. click MySQL Manager

11. Add database

12. put in info for database name and stuff

13. open filezilla  (or whatever program you use to do FTP stuff)

14. double click website you’re adding WP to

15. drag wordpress folder to website folder

16. make sure all the new wp folders are in the root directory

17. make wp-config file (this doesn’t come with wordpress)

18. in the wordpress folder you’ve got a file called wp-config-sample.php

19. open it with vim (or whatever text editor you use)

20. input your database name/username/password/host info

21. save

22. in Filezilla drag the new wp-config-sample.php file into the root directory

23. after it is transfered. Rename it to be wp-config.php

24. In your browser go to http://yourwebsite.com/wp-config.php

25. follow the directions provided.

Poof you’ve now got a wordpress install off of your own hosting:) Now start surfing for new themes.

Great weekly podcast of micro tune.  For the cyrillic deficient, just click the little play button:)

Link

My latest pro Ron Paul video which investigates the relationship between the internet community, the mainstream media, and political posteuring. Digg it up if you like:)
http://digg.com/videos/educational/Best_Pro_Ron_Paul_Video_I_ve_EVER_seen

A former geek of the week Goto80 has just released a new cd that will most likely up the ante in terms of his creative output.  from goto80s website “11 tracks, 3 videos and super karaoke part - the new Goto80 album is out now on Pingipung! This is the best thing I’ve made so far so go get it at Pingipung, A-Musik, Warpmart or you can buy the mp3:s at Klicktrack. Cover art by Ekta and Habib and digital design by Entter.“