Etsy-User CentennialMerchant verkauft in alte VHS-Tapes gebaute externe Festplatten. Die Dinger erscheinen mir mit ihren 320GB und über 100 Dollar zwar etwas zu teuer, wenn man bedenkt, dass man die Dinger supereinfach selber bauen könnte, aber die Idee ist dennoch großartig. Und eine Terabyte-Platte könnte sogar in europäische VHS-Boxen passen, müsste man mal ausprobieren.
External Hard Drive at CentennialMerchant’s Shop (via Mister Honk)
Heiko hat auf Nerdism is Sexy einen wunderbaren Post zu alten deutschen VHS-Covern mit Trash-Perlen aus den Siebzigern. Man beachte das Cover unten rechts: „Keiner hat das Pferd geküsst“. WTF?!
Die Seite The real CMV begann irgendwann vor einigen Jahren damit, die Cover des originalen Videolabels CMV Audiovision zu präsentieren. Mittlerweile ist die Seite zu einer wahren Galerieflut geworden, auf der man die teils grenzgenialen Cover alter deutscher VHS-Labels bewundern kann. Von Arcade Video über Geiselgasteig, ITT Contrast bis zu VPS sind viele damalige bekannte und große Namen vorhanden. Da kann man sich teilweise totklicken und -scrollen und bekommt von Minute zu Minute größere Augen. Was sich da für geniale Dinge tummeln, bekannte und vollkommen unbekannte B- und C-Klopper, Exploitation- und Horrorklassiker und ab und an auch große Filmtitel, die das ganze dann noch mal toppen.
Eine großartige Zeitreise in die güldene Videozeit, die aber manchmal auch etwas NSFW ausfallen kann, da auch teilweise die damalige Zeit des “Erwachsenenfilms” ebenfalls vorkommt. Trotzdem großartige Sache, die in unregelmäßigen Abständen aktualisiert wird.
The now dead VHS tape gets remixed as a 4 port USB hub thanks to a clever maker who even decided to use the incoming power line from the USB port to create this glowing blue backlight. So next time you are thinking of dumping your old tapes, think again and turn them into something your friends will envy.
This video player from Ion allows you to easily convert your old VHS recordings into digital files. Simply put in a tape, press play and leave the rest to the USB-friendly machine.
Have any old VHS tapes lying around? Really? What the hell is wrong with you? That stuff should have been tossed ages ago. Anyway, since you have one, it might be a good idea to repurpose it into something useful—like a USB hub.
Total Rewind is a virtual museum of vintage VCRs. Dude behind the museum explains why on Earth he collects old video machines: “At first people thought I was crazy; these old machines were treated as junk – worse than that, an embarassment, an expensive mistake made by your parents. But, as these memories faded, gradually they began to seem like artifacts from a lost era, and with the current fashion for 70’s retro style, it seems much more reasonable to see them as collectibles.”
SpOns „Eines Tages“ hat einen schönen Artikel zum ollen VHS online:
Die VHS-Bänder waren bis zu 430 Meter lang (bei 300 Minuten Spielzeit) und wurden nach jedem Benutzen qualitativ schlechter. Die Standard-Kassette hatte 180 Minuten Laufzeit, was für zwei Filme schon sehr knapp bemessen war. Und es gab sie zum Markteintritt des Systems ausschließlich im Fachhandel und nicht, wie heute, als Ramschware im Supermarkt. Sie kosteten etwa vierzig Mark pro Stück, und in der Videothek musste man zwei Mark Strafe bezahlen, wenn man den Film nicht zurückgespult abgab.
Den Link zu den Trash-VHS-Covern haben sie übrigens von mir, gern geschehen!
The Pipettes – Instructional Dance Video
1000 Albums
Welcome to our special project in which the Guardian’s music team – after much debate, some of it bitter – suggest albums that you should listen to before you shuffle off your mortal coil. What it’s not is the best 1000 albums of all time. Instead, it’s a cross-genre, cross-era look at some great music. (via)
Nine Inch Nails Open Source Remixes
After months of deliberation of nearly 200 fan submitted remixes, “The Limitless Potential” open source remix collection is finally available. This 21 track collection of the very best Nine Inch Nails remixes can be downloaded absolutely free from Painful Convictions.
Gene Simmons: “Seid Ihr auf Crack?”
Das Radiohead ihr neues Album “In Rainbows” zu einem frei wählbaren Preis zum Download anbieten, stößt nicht überall auf Gegenliebe. Während Courtney Love sich auf ihrer MySpace-Seite auf recht lustige Weise irgendwie auf die Seite Radioheads schlägt (Übersetzung hier), reiht sich Gene Simmons (richtig, die Stimme, der Bass und die Zunge der Rock-Veteranen KISS) in die Reihe der Kritiker ein. Nachdem Liam Gallagher bereits etwas von “nur über meine Leiche” sagte und Lily Allen die Aktion von Radiohead “arrogant” findet, so nimmt Simmons weniger freundliche Worte in den Mund.
The History of Pixar
Pixar, a company that revolutionized the feature film industry, had an obscure origin. A group of researchers from the most elite research institutions in the US eventually gathered at a former diploma mill and later defected to Lucasfilm. Their division was purchased by Steve Jobs and became Pixar, which created Toy Story and is now owned by Disney.
Mathematical (and Physical) Curiosities on Futurama
Math Art: Forms of Symmetry
Symmetry attracts us. Studies comparing people’s reactions to different faces have shown, for example, that they find highly symmetrical faces more attractive than less symmetrical faces. The symmetry of faces is simple and bilateral, but other three-dimensional objects can be symmetric in complex ways, leading to different kinds of beauty.
Bathsheba Grossman, a sculptor in Santa Cruz, California, mines subtle forms of symmetry for inspiration. Her results are swirling and proportional. They may be simple or complex, but they always come together into a precise, intriguingly symmetrical pattern.
Dante’s Inferno Stop Motion Animation
Do Canonical Web Designs Exist?
“Milton Glaser’s Dylan poster. Paul Rand’s IBM logo. Paula Scher’s Public Theater posters. Massimo Vignelli’s New York subway map. Kyle Cooper’s Seven opening titles. These are only a few landmark projects of our profession. Design solutions that, in their consistent use as exemplary cases of execution, concept and process, don’t even need to be shown anymore and that, for better or worse, (almost) everyone acknowledges as being seminal works that reflect the goals that graphic design strives for: A visual solution that not only enables, but also transcends, the message to become memorable in the eyes and minds of viewers. Whether these projects are indeed as amazing, relevant and enviable as we have built them up to be is cause for a separate discussion but it’s safe to say that, as far as designs recognized around the profession, there are a certain few that invariably make the list, usually without question. Myself, I could list projects in every category from logos, to annual reports, to magazine covers, to packaging, to typefaces, to opening titles that could be considered landmark projects… But when it comes to web sites, I can’t think of a single www that could be comparable — in gravitas, praise, or memorability — as any of the few projects I just mentioned. Could this be?”
Armin then goes and mentions the obvious answer: Google. But this is not an acceptable answer for him, because…wait for it…the logo sucks.
Mattia Biagis Teerkunst
Biagi’s TAR Collection transforms the familiar into the surreal. Each object is immersed in a special mixture of tar that Biagi has formulated in his studio. Every object reacts in a different way, thus he developed a special technique to immerse them in tar, creating various layers but maintaining the original shape.
23AndMe Will Decode Your DNA for $1,000. Welcome to the Age of Genomics
This winter marks the birth of a new industry: Companies will take a sample of your DNA, scan it, and tell you about your genetic future, as well as your ancestral past. A much-anticipated Silicon Valley startup called 23andMe offers a thorough tour of your genealogy, tracing your DNA back through the eons.
This new industry draws on science that is just beginning to emerge. Genomics is in its earliest days: The Human Genome Project, the landmark effort to sequence the DNA of our species, was completed in 2003, and the research built on that milestone is only now being published. The fact that any consumer with $1,000 can now capitalize on this project is a rare case of groundbreaking science overlapping with an eager marketplace.
Das Zeitalter der genetischen Aufklärung
Auch in der Genforschung kommen die Entwicklungen rasant. Noch ist es erst ein paar Jahre her, dass erstmals das Genom von Menschen ganz sequenziert worden ist – mit enormen Kosten. Es war die Stunde von Craig Venter, der das mit Steuergeldern gemächlich arbeitende Humangenomprojekt mit seinem Unternehmen und einer neuen Methode, dem Schrottschussverfahren, vor sich her getrieben hat. Plötzlich ging alles schnell. “Speed matters” war der Slogan Venters, der mittlerweile an der Entwicklung neuer Lebensformen arbeitet.
Project Daedalus
Project Daedalus was one of the first detailed design studies of an interstellar spacecraft. Conducted between 1973 and 1978 by a group of a dozen scientists and engineers belonging to the British Interplanetary Society, led by Alan Bond, it demonstrated that rapid, unmanned travel to the stars is a practical possibility.
The Mind of Leonardo
The Mind of Leonardo offers its visitors a different point of view, inviting them to explore the Genius’ very mode of thinking and his unitary conception of knowledge as the effort to assimilate, through bold theoretical syntheses and inventive experiments, the laws that govern all of the wondrous operations of man and nature.
Meta-analysis uncovers no real link between violence and gaming
“It is not hard to ‘link’ video game playing with violent acts if one wishes to do so, as one video game playing prevalence study indicated that 98.7 percent of adolescents play video games to some degree,” he writes, “However, is it possible that a behavior with such a high base rate (i.e., video game playing) is useful in explaining a behavior with a very low base rate (i.e., school shootings)? Put another way, can an almost universal behavior truly predict a rare behavior?”
The World’s First Video Cassette Recorder from 1972
Philips released the N1500 in 1972. This video cassette recorder was fairly large and used half-inch tapes, mounted on co-axial reels. Maximum recording time was a respectable 60 minutes. Its relatively high price tag ($1,249.52) ultimately led to its demise — replaced by the N1502 in 1975, which featured a digital timer.
