OCT 2010 newsletter

This is the time of year in Australia when in seems to me winter and summer are battling it out, and summer eventually wins. It certainly seems to have been the case lately.

As I write this I am working through changes to my main Aureola web site. The changes you will eventually see may not seem significant in themselves, mostly a lot of housekeeping in the background. Though some changes will make way for future development. One of those changes is very much in the pipeline. And although it has been some time in coming I believe will be worth the wait.

Paul Perry

Television, my how it has changed

For much of the period since the beginning of television in Australia in the mid 1950s change has generally meant nothing more than new shows and changes in those who run and own the stations.

More recently though the pace of technological change has taken on the appearance of a souped up bulldozer. By now you would have heard something about changes to the way television is to be broadcast and with it you may have heard something about it being high definition. Though whether you understood all that was said is possibly another matter.

By the time we mange to sort this in our heads the next big wave of change will be upon us. Before long television as we have known it till now will be almost a distant memory. Much less over the airwaves, more like over your very fast Internet connection. Already the scene is hoting up with Telstra in Australia for one announcing plans to extend it's present 7 channel service with new technology. This along with expansion from other big name providers such as Apple, Google and Tivo.

When multi channel cable television services were first introduced overseas it was said that Australia would never be able to afford it because of our vast distances and small population. Now with the coming very fast national broadband network all that and much more will come to pass.

Computer Bugs

Programming bugs born by infected portable storage devices or the Internet may be thought of as a modern phenomena, even considering the ruckus surrounding the famous Y2K problem, when it was predicted the computer world would grind to a halt because of systems unable to handle the date change at the beginning of 2000.

Although bugs such as these became a problem more so with the easier communication of the Internet often the vulnerability of computer software and hardware has been just as much at fault. In even earlier times it was more likely to be a mechanical problem since automated electronic systems often used mechanical components. In my own early days in the industrial electronics industry automatic control systems heavily used small relays.

One of the very earliest computers built by Harvard and IBM in 1944 used electronics as well as relays, and mechanical parts driven from a 50 foot long rotating shaft powered by a 5 HP electric motor. Which brings us here to the finding of the first computer bug, a dead moth whose wings were preventing the reading of holes in a paper tape machine.

Some Significant Sound Recording Dates

1877 Thomas Alva Edison, first recoverable sound recording on a strip of tinfoil wrapped around a cylinder.
1887 Elmile Berliner granted patent for a flat disc gramophone.
1913 First talking movie demonstrated by Edison using a cylinder linked to a film projector.
1927 The Jazz Singer, first commercial talking picture.
1933 Magnetic recording on steel wire.
1936 First magnetic tape recording.
1963 Philips introduces the Compact Cassette tape format.
1975 Digital tape recording begins to take hold in professional studios.
1981 Philips demonstrates the Compact Disc.
1995 First "solid state" electronic only sound recorder released.
1997 DVD video discs introduced.

Humour

In the same vain as last months quote.

Inside every every older person is a younger person wondering, "what the heck happened".

Which reminds me of another ...there are three types of people in the world, those who make things happen, those who follow what happens and those who wonder what happened!

Please feel free to contact me with any questions and comments on this newsletter and suggestions of what you would like me to cover in future issues.