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   Steve Bellovin (stevebellovin@mastodon.lawprofs.org)'s status on Monday, 26-Aug-2024 00:30:51 JST Steve Bellovin

   I spent some time yesterday listening to WCBS-AM, to get some last listening in before its demised. The programming was basically a retrospective look on the history of the station, going back to the 1930s. Sad to see it go—when I was living in North Carolina, I'd sometimes even listen to it at night. The range was almost 700 km, but it was a 50 kilowatt clear channel station, so it (often) worked.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 26-Aug-2024 00:30:43 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     @SteveBellovin
     I struggle to find a good analog in the digital present day for the magic of finding a distant radio signal, enticingly degraded, hovering at the edge of human perception.

     That experience is apparently a fleeting one in human history, just a brief century. I wonder what other similar experiences of the more distant past are completely unknown to us now?

   • Embed this notice
     IPmonger (ipmonger@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 26-Aug-2024 01:11:54 JST IPmonger

     in reply to

     • Paul Cantrell

     @inthehands @SteveBellovin I’m not expecting to experience this anymore, but in the early 1980s, I moved from Houston, Tx to McAllen, Tx. Not long after a Hurricane hit Galveston and moved up to Houston, bringing me live OTA broadcasting from Houston…. Similar thing happed in the summer of 1989, but I had just relocated back to Houston..

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 26-Aug-2024 01:33:09 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Matt Blaze

     @SteveBellovin @mattblaze
     If you want me to talk and never shut up, ask me about how a piano works! (The problem: finger pressure powers a hammer so it strikes strings, but the hammer must be free-pivoting (not coupled to finger) at the moment of the strike, and must then stop on the recoil without bouncing and not strike again until the finger releases from the key, at which point the hammer must be ready to strike again ASAP. No electricity allowed.)

   • Embed this notice
     Steve Bellovin (stevebellovin@mastodon.lawprofs.org)'s status on Monday, 26-Aug-2024 01:33:13 JST Steve Bellovin

     in reply to

     • Matt Blaze
     • Paul Cantrell

     @inthehands @mattblaze and I have talked about some complex mechanical things that we no longer do: railroad interlockings, lever voting machines, the cell door locks at Alcatraz, and doubtless many more I don’t know about. (Railroad interlockings make sure that signals and switch tracks only change state in a safe order. For example, a signal must be turned to STOP before a switch is lined against oncoming traffic.)

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     Cat Hicks (grimalkina@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 26-Aug-2024 01:51:15 JST Cat Hicks

     in reply to

     • Matt Blaze
     • Paul Cantrell

     @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

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 26-Aug-2024 01:51:15 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Matt Blaze
     • Cat Hicks

     @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

   • Embed this notice
     Cat Hicks (grimalkina@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 26-Aug-2024 02:00:20 JST Cat Hicks

     in reply to

     • Matt Blaze
     • Paul Cantrell

     @inthehands

     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 :)

     @SteveBellovin @mattblaze

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 26-Aug-2024 02:00:20 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Matt Blaze
     • Cat Hicks

     @grimalkina @SteveBellovin @mattblaze
     So much of (most of??) the history of music is people discovering magic inside constraints.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 26-Aug-2024 03:17:36 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • rk: could be an enum

     @rk
     “Any sufficiently advanced technology…”

   • Embed this notice
     rk: could be an enum (rk@mastodon.well.com)'s status on Monday, 26-Aug-2024 03:17:37 JST rk: could be an enum

     in reply to

     • Matt Blaze
     • Paul Cantrell

     @inthehands @SteveBellovin @mattblaze

     Magic, got it.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul_IPv6 (paul_ipv6@infosec.exchange)'s status on Monday, 26-Aug-2024 03:52:11 JST Paul_IPv6

     in reply to

     • Matt Blaze
     • Paul Cantrell

     @inthehands @SteveBellovin @mattblaze

     go for it! i find keyboard instrument mechanics fascinating. harpsicords are just crazy.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 26-Aug-2024 03:52:11 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Paul_IPv6

     @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!

   • Embed this notice
     Adam Shostack :donor: :rebelverified: (adamshostack@infosec.exchange)'s status on Monday, 26-Aug-2024 04:03:03 JST Adam Shostack :donor: :rebelverified:

     in reply to

     • Paul_IPv6
     • Paul Cantrell

     @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.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 26-Aug-2024 04:03:03 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Paul_IPv6
     • Adam Shostack :donor: :rebelverified:

     @adamshostack @paul_ipv6
     I used a general DDG video search. I’m sure something is out there somewhere. If you find it, lmk!

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 26-Aug-2024 06:43:57 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Matt Blaze
     • Paul_IPv6
     • Vick Forcella ™🌈🌳❄️☑️:verifi

     @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

   • Embed this notice
     Vick Forcella ™🌈🌳❄️☑️:verifi (vickforcella@mastodon.derg.nz)'s status on Monday, 26-Aug-2024 06:43:59 JST Vick Forcella ™🌈🌳❄️☑️:verifi

     in reply to

     • Matt Blaze
     • Paul_IPv6
     • Paul Cantrell

     @paul_ipv6 @SteveBellovin @inthehands @mattblaze How did the old people take pictures with their phones?

   • Embed this notice
     Paul_IPv6 (paul_ipv6@infosec.exchange)'s status on Monday, 26-Aug-2024 06:44:00 JST Paul_IPv6

     in reply to

     • Matt Blaze
     • Paul Cantrell

     @SteveBellovin @inthehands @mattblaze

     the old mechanical phone switches are amazing

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 26-Aug-2024 07:07:22 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Matt Blaze
     • Paul_IPv6
     • Vick Forcella ™🌈🌳❄️☑️:verifi

     @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…!

   • Embed this notice
     Paul_IPv6 (paul_ipv6@infosec.exchange)'s status on Monday, 26-Aug-2024 07:07:24 JST Paul_IPv6

     in reply to

     • Matt Blaze
     • Paul Cantrell
     • Vick Forcella ™🌈🌳❄️☑️:verifi

     @VickForcella @SteveBellovin @inthehands @mattblaze

     used the phone to call someone with a camera?

   • Embed this notice
     Matt Blaze (mattblaze@federate.social)'s status on Monday, 26-Aug-2024 07:07:24 JST Matt Blaze

     in reply to

     • Paul_IPv6
     • Paul Cantrell
     • Vick Forcella ™🌈🌳❄️☑️:verifi

     @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.

   • Embed this notice
     forrcaho (forrcaho@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 26-Aug-2024 07:29:14 JST forrcaho

     in reply to

     • Paul Cantrell

     @inthehands @SteveBellovin

     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