Sunday, April 26, 2009

Before iTunes, This is How Computers Could Play Music

from apartmenttherapy.com/unplugged:
042309_tf_bohemianrhapvid.jpgWe spotted this YouTube video from user bd594 embedded on Geekologie and instantly fell in love. You see, this guy has far too much time on his hands and has composed Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody using an orchestra of out-of-date technology. Come on inside to hear what an Atari 800XL on keyboards, Texas Instruments TI-99/4a on lead guitar and an HP ScanJet 3C on lead vocals sound like...

The nerd brilliant artist who created this masterpiece has this to say:
This is dedicated to all fans of Queen and hey let's not forget about Mike Myers and Dana Carvey of Wayne's World. No effects or sampling was used. What you see is what you hear (does that even make sense?) Atari 800XL was used for the lead piano/organ sound Texas Instruments TI-99/4a as lead guitar 8 Inch Floppy Disk as Bass 3.5 inch Harddrive [sic] as the gong HP ScanJet 3C was used for all vocals. Please note I had to record the HP scanner 4 seperate [sic] times for each voice. I tried to buy 4 HP scanners but for some reason sellers on E-Bay expect you to pay $80-$100, I got mine for $30. I keep hearing parts of the song are out of tune. Keep in mind the scanner and floppy drive are not musical instruments. These are mechanical devices whose motors tend to drift and can cause some notes to be out of tune.

Sunday, April 05, 2009

my dog has OCD


(as if all dogs don't)

Ever since my sister brought her dog to stay with us while she and hubby travelled around the northeast in preparation for her starting Vet school (about 10 years ago?), and her dog ate the end of my dog's rawhide bone off (her dog's 10-20 lbs bigger than my 10 lb dog), my dog has protected this rawhide bone. She has to bring it to bed with her, and after dinner she has to have it on the couch with her during TV time.

WELL . . . yesterday my husband brought home new rawhide bones. Seems our dog had tried chewing on this petrified rawhide bone and didn't seem to like it. Either it tasted bad (but whenever has that stopped a dog from eating something?!) or she felt bad about chewing on what we've dubbed her "most prized possession". So he was thinking she might like a new bone to chew on.

She is so traumatized.

Now she has TWO bones to protect!! She won't even come out on the porch (which she loves) because she needs to protect these two bones. She actually went back to bed this morning so she could be with the two bones. So I brought the two bones out to the family room and put the new one with her on a chair. I'm thinking about phasing out the old one (but at this point even WE are used to it being around).

What to do, what to do . . .

Thursday, April 02, 2009

Convert PowerPoint Presentations to Video at authorStream [Sharing]

from lifehacker.com

authorstream_cropped2.jpgWant to share a presentation with friends, co-workers, or the web at large without worrying about who does or doesn't have PowerPoint installed? authorStream, a free presentation sharing site, offers the same kind of embed-anywhere utility as previously-posted SlideShare, but also provides options to download presentations as MP4 video files, putting slideshows with or without audio one step away from YouTube, iPods, DVDs, or whatever format comes in handy. To work as video, presentations must have either recorded narration or rehearsed timings added in PowerPoint, which the Digital Inspiration blog explains in detail at the via link below.
AuthorStream [via Digital Inspiration]