Johnny's humorous and informative artsy tech blog.

Today in Geek History: Pac-Man ate his first pac-dot in 1980 when Namco released the game to Japan.

At @MakerFaire, I found the #Droid I was looking for… (at Maker Faire Bay Area 2013)

“Something is technically wrong.”

This little tweetbot replaced the infamous” Fail Whale.”

@GooglePlay Music “All Access”

UNLIMITED MUSIC MADE EASY:

Google Play makes it easy to discover, play, store and share the music you love on Android and the web.

With Google Play Music All Access, you can enjoy unlimited listening to millions of songs, create custom radio and skip as much as you want. Start your trial by June 30 and you’ll pay only $7.99 a month.

All Access
$9.99 $7.99/month
Sign up before 6/30
Enjoy unlimited listening to millions of songs

Create personalized radio from any song or artist

Listen to radio with unlimited skips

Get smart recommendations based on your tastes

Store up to 20,000 of your own songs in your locker

Access your music anywhere without syncing

Experience music without ads

Buy new music on Google Play (18M+ songs)

TRY IT FREE FOR 30 DAYS
Standard
Locker and Store -Free

Store up to 20,000 of your own songs in your locker

Access your music anywhere without syncing

Experience music without ads

Buy new music on Google Play (18M+ songs)

All Access Features

Enjoy unlimited music

There’s a world of music ready for you to discover. Listen to any song, album or artist on Google Play, whenever you want. It’s easier than ever to find new favorites. Explore millions of songs by genre, including charts, new releases, staff picks and smart recommendations based on your tastes. Add any album to your library, with a click or a touch, and listen online or offline.

Custom radio with unlimited skips

Create a new station based on any artist, album or song. Explore the full list of songs in your station, skip ahead, see what’s next, re-order the songs any way you like and create stations using newly discovered songs. Add these new songs to a playlist, give them a “thumbs up” or share with friends. You can even enjoy stations that blend the best of your music library and ours.

Standard and All Access Features

Store your collection, free

Bring up to 20,000 songs from your computer to Google Play for free with Music Manager. It’s a simple desktop application that scans your iTunes® library or any music folder on your computer and matches your collection with what’s on Google Play, instantly adding the matched tracks to your music library. If you have music that’s not available on Google Play, Music Manager will upload it too. Once you’ve added your collection, you can listen instantly on Android and the web.

Hello music, goodbye sync

Google Play keeps your music library updated automatically across devices. When you buy a new album on your phone, it’s ready for listening on your tablet. When you upload a song from your computer, it’s there on your phone. Whether you find new music on Google Play or add it from your existing library, it’s available across all your devices. You’ll never have to plug in a cable to transfer music again.

Listen online or offline

When you add new music to your Google Play music library, it’s instantly available for listening on Android and the web. And if you’re going to be offline, say on a long flight or a subway commute, you can choose music to store on your device with the Google Play Music app.

Share what you love

Don’t keep good music to yourself. Share a free play of the songs and albums you’ve purchased on Google Play with your friends on Google+. They can share their purchases with you too. Forget the name of that song shared with you last week? No problem, you can find all of the music shared with you in your ‘Shared with me’ auto playlist.

“REDRAY”

4K FOR ALL:

REDRAY® is the first 4K Cinema Player to bring ultra high-definition content to your home, business or local theater using internet file based distribution. Capable of playing HD, 3D or 4K media, REDRAY utilizes a 1TB internal drive to store all of your content. Advanced networking and low data rates let you distribute content via FTP transfer or solid-state media. REDRAY makes playback of 4K content as simple as HD – but at 4 times the image quality.

ATTENTION TO DETAIL:

Nothing compares to the ultra high-definition of 4K content and REDRAY brings that immersive visual experience directly to you. More picture information means more detail and 4K resolution brings you closer to your content than ever before. REDRAY provides the clearest image – and choice – for anyone looking for big picture and superior quality.

BYTE SIZE FILES:

Advanced RED codec technology generates feature length 4K files small enough to fit on a USB flash drive. With a compressed data rate under 2.5MB/s, you can deliver your 4K content worldwide via OTT media networks at remarkably low cost and high efficiency. Secure encryption is also available to protect your media from unauthorized viewing or duplication. For the first time, distributing 4K content is as simple as HD.

RED IS THE NEW BLU:

Whether working with 4K RED camera files or HD, REDRAY delivers all of your content in its absolute purest form. While commonly-used distribution systems such as Blu-ray® encode HD content with limited 8-bit 4:2:0 color precision, REDRAY supports 12-bit 4:2:2 precision at 4K resolution – taking the big screen viewing experience to an exciting new level with only a fraction of the storage requirements.

NO COMPROMISE 3D:

There is nothing like a true 4K 3D experience and REDRAY delivers with playback of 3D media at up to 60 fps per eye in 4K. Whether in a home theater or at the office, REDRAY’s flexible HDMI 1.4 connectors let you leverage the latest 3D and 4K LCD flat panel and projection display technologies.

It’s the 37th birthday of the classic @Atari game, Breakout. I’d you type “Atari Breakout” into Google image search, you can play the 1970s game inside your favorite browser of choice.

Breakout is an arcade game developed by Atari, Inc and introduced in April 1976. It was conceptualized by Nolan Bushnell and Steve Bristow, and influenced by the 1972 arcade game Pong, also by Atari. The game was ported to video game consoles and upgraded to video games such as Super Breakout. In addition, Breakout was the basis and inspiration for books, video games, film, and the Apple II personal computer.

In the game, a layer of bricks lines the top third of the screen. A ball travels across the screen, bouncing off the top and side walls of the screen. When a brick is hit, the ball bounces away and the brick is destroyed. The player loses a turn when the ball touches the bottom of the screen. To prevent this from happening, the player has a movable paddle to bounce the ball upward, keeping it in play.

The arcade cabinet uses a black and white monitor. However, the monitor has strips of colored cellophane placed over it so that the bricks appear to be in color.

If Columbus was sailing today,he’d use @iOS6Maps…

Walkman is a @Sony brand tradename originally used for portable audio cassette players, and now used to market Sony’s portable audio and video players as well as a line of former Sony Ericsson mobile phones. The original Walkman introduced a change in music listening habits by allowing people to carry music with them and listen to music through lightweight headphones.

The prototype was built in 1978 by audio-division engineer Nobutoshi Kihara for Sony co-chairman Akio Morita, who wanted to be able to listen to operas during his frequent trans-Pacific plane trips. The original Walkman was marketed in 1979 as the Walkman in Japan and, from 1980, the Soundabout in many other countries including the US, Freestyle in Sweden and the Stowaway in the UK. Advertising, despite all the foreign languages, still attracted thousands of buyers in the US specifically. Morita hated the name “Walkman” and asked that it be changed, but relented after being told by junior executives that a promotion campaign had already begun using the brand name and that it would be too expensive to change.

The names “Walkman”, “Pressman”, “Watchman”, “Scoopman”, “Discman”, and “Talkman” are trademarks of Sony, and have been applied to a wide range of portable entertainment devices manufactured by the company. The name “Walkman” was based on its precursor, the Pressman tape recorder. An initial prototype of the Walkman was in fact made by replacing the recording circuit and speaker from the Pressman with a stereo amplifier. Sony continues to use the “Walkman” brand name for most of their portable audio devices, after the “Discman” name for CD players was dropped in the late 1990s.

In March 2007, Sony extended the brand by launching its first all-digital, flash-based video Walkman, the A800 series, where A stands for “All in one, Advanced, and Attractive”.

@James_Speaker EMB1000 installed in a #wine barrel looks like @BottleRockNapa logo.

Energy Multiplied Bandpass Subwoofer:

(1) 10” Internal Active Driver and (1) 10” Passive Radiator. Sealed MDF enclosure. 1000 Watt Hybrid Amplifier. Black or Platinum Trim. Black Cloth Grille. Y connector included.

@James_Speaker QXC820R:

8” 2-Way Full Range Ceiling Speaker
(1) 8” (203mm) Aluminum Cone Woofer
(4) .75” (19mm) Aluminum Dome Tweeters. The new QXC820R in-ceiling loudspeaker features a sleek modern appearance with a borderless aluminum grille that protrudes less than 3/16” (5mm) from the wall. James all new quad tweeter array, incorporating four .75” (19mm) aluminum dome tweeters in a 22.5° offset array for wide dispersion, high power handling and low distortion promises to deliver audiophile-quality where it counts.

Combined with a 8” (203mm) high output aluminum woofer, the QXC820R has an impressive 93dB sensitivity with bass down to below 60Hz. A multi-element network blends the highs and lows into a smooth and wide response.

The sealed cabinet design features all aircraft aluminum construction for strength, sonic performance and suitability for outdoor/marine applications. A stainless steel grille provides protection to the components yet has a subdued visual effect, designed to be as unobtrusive as possible. (at James loudspeaker)

“Amy, technology isn’t intrinsically good or evil it’s how it’s used. Like the death ray.”-Professor Hubert Farnsworth, Futurama

There are only 10 types of people in the world: Those who understand binary, and those who don’t.

@James_Speaker Model M1000 Subwoofer DSP Amplifier:

The Model M1000 Subwoofer Amplifer features a state-of-the-art class D output stage capable of 1000W+ into 4 ohms. A full feature and configurable DSP front end allows the M1000 to be optimized for any James subwoofer. - 1000WRMS @4ohms

The LP (Long Play), or 33 1/3 RPM microgroove vinyl records, is a format for phonograph (gramophone) records, an analog sound storage medium.

Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry. Apart from relatively minor refinements and the important later edition of stereophonic sound capability, it has remained the standard format for vinyl “albums.”