Category: retro tech

  • How I Became the Cassette King of Community Radio

    In the late 1990s, when I was in grad school at a major Midwestern state university, my assistantship was working in the Language Learning Lab, supervising the video facilities – delivering VCRs on carts and maintaining an aging and lightly-used production studio. There was also an audio lab that was managed by a full-time professional,…

  • The Digicam Revival – I Saw It Coming

    I saw this coming. Recently the New York Times reported that, “The Hottest Gen Z Gadget Is a 20-Year-Old Digital Camera.” One 18 year-old, “documented prom night with an Olympus FE–230, a 7.1-megapixel, silver digital camera made in 2007 and previously owned by his mother.” A 22 year-old, “returned to her mother’s digital camera, a Canon…

  • Why I Still Use My 8 Year-Old Sony NEX-5 Digital Camera

    Why I Still Use My 8 Year-Old Sony NEX-5 Digital Camera

    I love electronics and gadgets. This includes digital cameras. Do I get excited about the newest advances and models? Yes I do. At the same time I’m aware of how easy it is to get on the upgrade cycle treadmill. When the new 42 megapixel full-frame wonder hits the streets, it’s easy to start thinking…

  • trashcanland – screen caps from your 80s childhood

    Those of who enjoy the retro video curation of Network Awesome or the VHS mining of Everything Is Terrible, but don’t want to commit whole minutes to watching whole clips might like a tumblr I just stumbed on to, trashcanland, which strips minds the impacted VHS landscape to unearth the best 1/30 of the second.…

  • Behind Network Awesome – An interview with Jason Forrest

    As I mentioned the other day, Network Awesome creator Jason Forrest dropped me a nice “thank you” email after I wrote about finding and enjoying his video curation site and channel. I asked him for an interview to learn more about NA, and much to my luck, he agreed. So here is our email exchange…

  • Audio, Audiophiles and the Aesthetic Experience of Medium

    Back in December I bragged about predicting the onset of the cassette revival, and five months into 2010 it looks like that revival is in full swing. Articles about the renewed interest in the lowly compact cassette have appeared in as wide variety of sites as the Chicago Tribune, UK Guardian and Pitchfork. Much of…

  • mediageek called the cassette revival way before anyone

    I’m not generally one for tooting my own horn, but here at the end of 2009 it looks like I was a good two years ahead of the curve when I predicted the cassette revival waayyyy back in February of 20022007. I must admit that my prediction was a bit tongue-in-cheek, not so much because…

  • Cassettes Are a Weird Way to Distribute Music?

    My, oh my, where has the time gone. Sure, cassettes might be nearly obsolete and decidedly retro. But weird? Wired’s Epicenter blog recently compiled “10 Weird Ways to Distribute Music.” But, really, the list might be more accurately characterized as “10 Unique Ways,” rather than weird. Seems that some popular indie bands like Dirty Projectors…

  • Obsoletion Watch: Portable TVs

    Analog full-power TV got a bit of a stay of execution this month, with Congress voting to delay the digital TV transition until June 12. The passage of the stimulus bill should loosen up some more money to fund DTV converter boxes to help more households avoid the loss of TV service. However, Bohus of…

  • On Tonight’s Radio Show: The Value of Retro & Vintage Technology

    On tonight’s radioshow my guest with be Bohus Blahut, one of the bloggers behind the popular Retro Thing blog which tracks vintage gadgets and technology. It’s a site I’ve been reading for a couple of years not just because I have my own love for vintage tech, but because I think there’s value in holding…