Has anyone heard of this new technology where a laser reads the grooves in records and transfers the audio to digital?

That’s actually an old technology…and was even developed using a non-laser optical reader back in the 1940’s. In 1941 RCA Victor produced a limited number of “Magic Brain” Phonographs that used something called a “Jewel Light Scanner” to read the grooves on records, and it could read both sides without flipping them over.

Apparently only about 100 of these were actually produced before WW2 reduced record consumption (Japan had acquired the lac production centers used for making old lacquer records and vinyl was important in the war effort). And most of THOSE phonographs went down to the ocean floor in a U-Boat torpedo attack.

Interesting to think what might have occurred if these were actually more widely produced, and the demand for higher quality light readers had started a “laser revolution” 20 years before it actually was widely developed.

[BTW the symbol for this turntable was actually adopted by KDVS-FM ~my non-commercial radio station ~as “Mr. Turntablehead in the 1980’s…he’s “the founding saint of turntablists and alternative radio DJ’s”]

thread jack -

what i learned at the pillow fight:

last night’s pillowfight (which would have been much bigger had the county not threatened arrest at the original location).

1. if you go to a pillow fight wearing any part of your office drag, the young people will call you a “businessman” and will gang up on you and beat the shit out of you. i had ditched my jacket and my tie, but still i was a “businessman” (which i’m not – i’m merely a downtrodden salaryman) and had to be gang attacked.

2. if you go to a pillow fight with any gray hair on your head, the young people will call you “old guy” and will yell, “get the old guy!” and they will gang up on you and beat the shit out of you with their pillows.

3. if you are a teenage boy wearing a banana costume, an eleven year old girl will yell, “get the banana!” and will lead the charge of late teenagers and early twenty-somethings and they will beat the shit out of you with their pillows.

4. i am probably too old for any more mass pillow fights, but this was fun.

first rule about pillow fights: don’t talk about pillow fights.

You’ve got to see John Mayer do a take off on this. HI-larious!

Links, man, links! Give us a link to it!

finifinito @ 123

Damn straight the Iraq vets are getting screwed. My buddy took a hit from a 80mm mortar round blast, blew him threw a bunker door as he was running for cover in Ramadi in Nov 03. He just recently found out the Army lied and doctored his medical records to hide the fact he had shrapnel in his back and leg that was left in there by Army docs.

When they discharged him they fucked with him on his medical discharge so they wouldnt have to pay through the nose. He now has to fight with them all over again about his wounded vets benefits. He gets surgery on his back this Monday from the county run hospital where we live. Thanks GWB.

I just hate the way these fucks have the “public” fooled into believing we are supporting the troops. Have you seen that bullshit with Romney when he was asked if any of his sons were in the military? I don’t think we’ve even begun to see the shit until these guys figure out they were suckered. Of course, just like the Nam, it’ll get laid off on the left. Mark my words.

Damn straight the Iraq vets are getting screwed. My buddy took a hit from a 80mm mortar round blast, blew him threw a bunker door as he was running for cover in Ramadi in Nov 03. He just recently found out the Army lied and doctored his medical records to hide the fact he had shrapnel in his back and leg that was left in there by Army docs.

When they discharged him they fucked with him on his medical discharge so they wouldnt have to pay through the nose. He now has to fight with them all over again about his wounded vets benefits. He gets surgery on his back this Monday from the county run hospital where we live. Thanks GWB.

I just hate the way these fusks have the “public” fooled into believing we are supporting the troops. Have you seen that bullshit with Romney when he was asked if any of his sons were in the military? I don’t think we’ve even begun to see the shit until these guys figure out they were suckered. Of course, just like the Nam, it’ll get laid off on the left. Mark my words.

When they discharged him they fucked with him on his medical discharge so they wouldnt have to pay through the nose. He now has to fight with them all over again about his wounded vets benefits. He gets surgery on his back this Monday from the county run hospital where we live. Thanks GWB.