WFMU: Techtonic with Mark Hurst: Playlist from February 11, 2019

Listener comments!
	6:01pm Beast of Boonton: Good evening Mark and all the Technoids
	6:01pm ultradamno: Hello Mark! Techystopians!
	6:02pm P-90: Aloha Mark. Been looking forward to hearing your take on a special favorite topic of mine.
	6:02pm listener james from westwood: Evening, Mark and all!
	6:02pm queems: hi mark & all
	6:02pm melinda: Hi all
	🤖 6:02pm Webhamster Henry: This is going to be a fun show, Technosaurs!
	🤖 6:03pm Webhamster Henry: It's a big, bright, beautiful tomorrow!
	6:03pm Fuzzy: Good!
	🤖 6:03pm Ken From Hyde Park: Greetings TeX.Rays!
	6:03pm listener james from westwood: Expecting a very William Gibson/"Gernsback Continuum" vibe tonight!
	🤖 6:03pm chresti: Hello Techtroniacs!
	🤖 6:04pm Webhamster Henry: Nice tribute, @Ken from Hyde Park.
	🤖 6:04pm Folsom: My neighbor had the motorcycle toy, pretty cool to spin up.
	6:04pm Dave in Vermont: I had that Evil Knievel toy.
	6:05pm Dave in Vermont: ...and that haircut
	6:06pm rob in charlotte: The Matt Novak of Paleofuture fame? Will you ask if he’s read Garrett Graf or Annie Jacobsen?
	6:06pm listener james from westwood: Going back decades, X-Ray would occasionally talk about what he called "the robot menace," and Techtonic has only proved him prophetic.
	6:06pm geezerette: R.I.P., X-Ray. The REAL ID Act is contemptible. Are you all aware of it?
	6:07pm TDK60: Hello.
	6:07pm rob in charlotte: What’s REAL ID geezerette?
	6:07pm Jeff Moore: All I know is that there aren't nearly enough shiny silver cigar-shaped rockets parked around here and there sitting on their fins ready to take off as soon as someone pulls in the also shiny silver metal ladder.
	6:07pm queems: i'll comment on it- GOOD
	6:08pm chris: that wind-up Evel Knievel toy was the bees knees
	6:08pm TDK60: I'll comment on the rumor that Amazon may not set up office in Queens. If true, good riddance.
	🤖 6:09pm Bas NL: Mark! All!
	6:09pm Megaroni: Greetings Techtonic, love your show!
	6:10pm geezerette: Search it,Rob. It's insane. Can't explain it briefly. It's like something out of Kafka.
	6:10pm listener james from westwood: '87–'91 at Boston College, you had to get permission from your major's department head to get a bc.edu email address. So ridix restrictive.
	🤖 6:10pm Webhamster Henry: You could get plenty of online email in the 80s, but not from the Intermet protocols, from AOL, Compuserve, FIDOnet, UUNews, etc.
	6:10pm Fuzzy: I had that Evel Knievel toy when I was a young lad in the 70's.
	6:11pm Sally: Ha, yes Mosaic!
	6:11pm northguineahills: I think my first email address was in 1989, in junior high, and only used to msg friends. by HS, I rarely used it. It wasn't until uni that I started using it for everything.
	6:11pm Tom: Yes geez, heard it live on the show yesterday. Too sad.
	6:12pm geezerette: Oh, sorry, Tom.
	🤖 6:13pm Webhamster Henry: Hey, we telnetted to a machine in Germany, and in the remote shell, telnetted back to the originating machine, and ran X-Eyes so mouse moves on our workstations would go to Germany, turn around and move the eyeballs on our own machine.
	6:13pm TDK60: I didn't really get into email and websites till round 1998.
	6:13pm Fuzzy: I jumped on the internet train in '92 with my very own dialup account at world.std.com. Pine, gopher etc. on my 486SX-25 -- those were the days!
	6:14pm geezerette: The Kool-Aide has worn off.
	6:14pm Sally: I telnetted/gophered/pined around '93. Yes, those were the days!
	6:14pm Linda Lee: darln, anything of value to the marketplace will be of value to the machinations of control! it had to be!
	6:14pm Jeff Moore: Trying to remember when I got my first Arpanet-style email address with an @-sign. Before that, it was always addresses with !-paths. I think I recall generally giving relative paths from hosts everyone knew how to get to like duke or ihnp4.
	🤖 6:14pm Webhamster Henry: If you wanted some better tasting Kool-Aid to drink, you would have read Mondo 2000.
	6:14pm ultradamno: Back to WebTV!
	6:16pm Linda Lee: isn't it 201 - KEN - WFMU?
	🤖 6:16pm Folsom: My first email was one of the bang addresses, sent an email to someone at another college
	6:16pm queems: 536 spells "ken"
	6:16pm TedfromOakland: apologies if this is a week or two late--here is an article about the OLD internet, and the transition to the current 'net, by Kate Wagner: thebaffler.com...
	6:16pm Fuzzy: WIRED was wired and not tired back then -- had a subscription.
	🤖 6:16pm Webhamster Henry: hey mark, 536 == "KEN"
	6:16pm geezerette: Webham, thanks for reference, will lookup latter. :)
	6:17pm geezerette: jeez...later...
	6:17pm Sally: @TedfromOakland, got "404 Page Not Found" error
	🤖 6:18pm Webhamster Henry: Other good period reading was good old 2600 Magazine (and WBAI radio show).
	6:18pm dale: this seems like an advanced crowd - did folks here favor the amiga over the apple?
	6:18pm TedfromOakland: sally, that is the title of the piece! but I'll check the link....
	6:19pm northguineahills: I remember in college reading Wired and The Wire at the same time at book stores/cafes and it would confuse those whom engaged me in conversation.
	6:19pm P-90: Amazon and other mega-technocorps need to start building their giant campuses in less-populous, economically stagnant states. They’ll get more for their money there , spread the economic development around where it’s needed, and generate migrations of educated, skilled employees from the big cities into states that could really use more “blue” voting districts that will tip those states more to the “blue “ side of “purple”. It will be great some day to eliminate the Electoral College, but in the maritime there’s more than one way to skin a cat...
	6:19pm Sally: @TedfromOakland, Oh ha...yes I didn't scroll down, thanks!
	🤖 6:20pm Bas NL: Important about a web page is it supplies information. I still make webpages, i still meet great new people, get quoted, my information is used, spawns new ideas.. and i can find similar pages, people, ideas. It's all still there. Just a little bit more noise these days. ;)
	6:20pm ultradamno: www.theonion.com...
	🤖 6:20pm Webhamster Henry: @dale I was an Amiga developer. www.echonyc.com...
	6:20pm Linda Lee: it's too bad Amazon pulls more from needy communities than they bring in. it's a wealth-suck. not the best thing for challenged communities.
	6:21pm Linda Lee: in fact, they bring in nothing much to start with.
	6:22pm queems: i'm terrified of robots
	6:22pm northguineahills: @P-90: You're full of brilliant ideas. (I prefer to cook all day).
	6:22pm Fredericks: I predicted we'd let our bodies go to hell and atrophy. I also expected our heads would grow larger.
	6:22pm geezerette: Linda Lee, agree. (Howdy!)
	6:22pm dale: webhamster - way cool? i only knew a couple of folks with them and they used them for video/animation processing. that page you shared looks fascinating .
	6:22pm Revolution Rabbit Nov63: Ooo. 'The Monster Show' by David J. Skal territory...Dracula & Frankenstein & Kong in the worst years of the Depression early 1930s...Dracula is Magic, Frankie is Science - in a mythical East Europe &tc. ...
	6:23pm ultradamno: Sounds like someone's covering up for the killer robot.
	6:23pm Fuzzy: Metropolis (1927).
	6:24pm Linda Lee: howdy, geezerette!
	🤖 6:24pm Webhamster Henry: Is there any reason for Amazon Info workers - or any info workers or workers who read write, and talk, all day - to actually have an office?
	6:24pm TDK60: ..what were those movies?...
	🤖 6:25pm Webhamster Henry: @TDK60 Her and Ex-Machina.
	6:25pm Sally: @dale & @Webhamster Henry, I never used amigas, but checked out that article and was reminded how I loved using those early spectral analysis programs on early apple computers...I may have even used that RSG Sonogram Painting program.
	6:26pm Sally: I meant RGS
	6:26pm ultradamno: And Scarlett Johansson, who played the self-aware platfom in Her, went on to become a super-omniscient entity sucked into a computer (or something) in Lucy.
	6:26pm melinda: What I remember most about Her was the high-waisted woolen pants.
	6:26pm dale: linda lee - curtis sliwa was discussing amazon today. he believes, and it makes sense, that all the promised low level jobs would eventually be phased out for robots pulling boxes off the shelves. i believe his version over cuomo and deblasio's
	6:26pm geezerette: Advertising = propaganda.
	6:27pm Fuzzy: My first PC was the good old Commodore 64, back in '85 -- played a lot of Zork on that baby.
	🤖 6:28pm Webhamster Henry: @Sally almost nobody had spectral synthesis back then. RGS was Amiga only, but Metasynth was on the Mac. Other software was very academic (I had some on my NeXT), or one-off (like UPIC at IRCAM in Paris).
	6:28pm P-90: Does Sliwa still have a radio show?
	6:28pm Jeff Moore: @dale: a useful / usable computer was whatever would run Unix or later a proper Unix-like OS. So... mostly PDP-11s in the late '70s or early '80s, then Sun workstations, the occasional AT&T 3B1 68k-based "Unix PC" (in its time, the cheapest thing I could buy which managed demand-paged virtual memory well enough to run GNU Emacs)... then, by the '90s, Linux on commodity x86 hardware.
	6:28pm Linda Lee: @Webhamster Henry ~ not at all. what they need space for are the shipping warehouses ~ manned by slave labor under prison conditions. @dale ~ so that's what they'll need space for. not for the white collar stuff. why should they invest in office space when they can contract out? screw the white collar workers too!
	6:28pm geezerette: 'Disruption' is un-creative and parasitic.
	6:29pm dale: NeXT - great rand paul logo.
	6:29pm Fuzzy: High school daze: PDP-11/70 running RSTS/E FTW!
	🤖 6:30pm Webhamster Henry: @daleI still have a few NeXT pencils and stickers (but not my cube anymore).
	6:31pm dale: PAUL RAND....not that other guy!!!!
	6:31pm Jeff Moore: John DeVore: The visionaries of Silicon Valley preach a lot these days about “disruption,” which is a shiny word that means “building a new house while burning down the old house at the same time.” medium.com...
	6:31pm Sally: @Webhamster Henry, thanks for clarifying, my memory is spotty...I definitely used some spectral analysis programs for Mac in the '90s that generated spectrograms.
	🤖 6:31pm Ken From Hyde Park: Our high school had a TRS-80.
	6:31pm ultradamno: I still think the metal birds are a fad, dagnabbit!
	6:31pm geezerette: heh, Dale...:)
	6:32pm dale: nice collectible and memory henry.
	6:32pm geezerette: Jeff, yes!
	6:33pm Fuzzy: @Ken: mine too -- I forgot about that! Saving programs to cassette -- lol.
	🤖 6:33pm Webhamster Henry: My high school daze: Dartmouth Time Sharing System (Honeywell/GE 635) over leased phone lines. That was a connection to the original BASIC. Later: PDP/8e, PDP11/34, NORD 10 .. IBM mainframes, Amiga, old school Mac, Mac II etc. NeXT, SGI Indigo & Indy, New style Macs, Tadpole laptop, blah blah blah
	6:34pm P-90: H.G. Wells was the original visionary who deeply understood (and was deeply disturbed by) the ways that aircraft and other new technologies would make warfare a vastly more destructive and terrifying prospect.
	🤖 6:34pm Webhamster Henry: But to stay on topic - I had Ted Nelson's Computer Lib book, as well as some real Computer Graphics cutting edge books of the early 70s.
	6:35pm geezerette: Webham, so much blah blah blah, oceans of it.
	🤖 6:36pm Webhamster Henry: The flying Car is now like a quad copter.
	6:36pm geezerette: P-90, yep!
	6:36pm ultradamno: May the flying cars always be in the future, drunk drivers overhead is not what I need.
	6:36pm Fuzzy: I like the blah blah about the old school hardware -- reminds me of when I was young.
	🤖 6:37pm Webhamster Henry: I don't want to see a flying car infrastructure or ecosystem.
	6:37pm JakeGould: In “Star Trek” disruptors were painful weapons used by the Romulans.
	6:37pm dale: you should curate a museum show of the technology henry.
	6:37pm Linda Lee: Burroughs had it right. it's all about the management of reality-as-information. the gadgets are secondary!
	6:37pm Sally: The general recent focus on nostalgia in Western culture is due to fears of dystopian futures perhaps.
	🤖 6:37pm Webhamster Henry: @dale that was my apartment at one point.
	6:37pm Phil with the phone: @ultradamno they're going to be self driving don't worry about it
	6:38pm Sally: I thought we'd have Jetsons-type flying cars ha
	6:38pm MK_UKTR4: Neil Tyson will argue flying cars already exist (Joe Rogan podcast)
	6:38pm JakeGould: And in “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” the Genesis device could bring life to dead planets… Or be used as a weapon to wipe out life on a living planet and placing your own new matrix on top of that. Also, “Back to the Future” is a WASPs dream.
	6:38pm Linda Lee: note Jane Jetson was still a doggone housewife.
	6:39pm Sally: @Linda yeah forgot about that!
	🤖 6:39pm Webhamster Henry: I hate that every new tech that comes out basically has a press release that goes "Here's our new widget/process/battery! It can save soldier's lives!"
	6:40pm dale: doc used a 'mr. fusion' to get the energy via banana peels and other trash. is fusion as a power source no longer being pursued?
	6:40pm Linda Lee: as long as our lives are managed through distraction by gadgets, we'll always be stuck in someone else's past.
	6:40pm ultradamno: @Phil that could be worse if they still can't differentiate between buildings and sky.
	🤖 6:40pm Ken From Hyde Park: In one episode, George Jetson said his ancestors were farmers who were so poor they couldn't afford dirt. Made me laugh.
	6:41pm TDK60: No quadrophonic speakers on Mars.
	6:42pm JakeGould: @LindaLee: Silly externe point of view. Portable devices are great as far as I am concerned. What about demonizing books? Much better to read from scrolls managed by a few priests I guess.
	6:42pm carrots: I think the film Idiocracy has it right.
	6:42pm Linda Lee: i always figured George's ancestor was Fred Flinstone.
	6:42pm ultradamno: TechsRaySpexonics...RIP
	6:42pm dale: ken from hp - when you live in the sky dirt is a commodity.
	6:42pm Fuzzy: Idiocracy: You're Soaking In It!
	6:43pm Linda Lee: i made no judgement.
	6:44pm ultradamno: When cars first came into existence someone had to make up sidewalks.
	6:44pm Sally: I agree w/Linda...there have been studies that show addictive tendencies of users glued to devices that keep people from opening up to others and reading less books. Other studies have shown that reading less fiction reduces empathy. Sorry, I'm an educator ha
	🤖 6:45pm Webhamster Henry: There's a funny book WIRED LOVE about lovers who communicate by telegraph. archive.org...
	6:45pm P-90: The “flying car” now is a big ride-in drone. Everyone who discusses flying cars always immediately starts talking about crashes, collisions, and mayhem. The thinking is: “people are already such rotten drivers, imagine the carnage flying cars will bring. But really, once a “car” becomes a “flying car” it becomes an aircraft. And the uses of aircraft are, and always have been, regulated differently than cars. It won’t be something anyone with a license will just point where the want it to go and hit the gas pedal. It will be more or an automated, “self-driving” thing controlled by networks...
	6:45pm Linda Lee: any teenager knows technology isn't intrinsically positive or negative; it's all about the uses it's put to.
	6:45pm carrots: Know it All!!! he's the best!!
	6:45pm Sally: Yes, very true Linda
	6:46pm JakeGould: @Sally: All kinds of studies for anything and everything.
	6:46pm northguineahills: You should have seen the autocarriages before the steering wheel became standard..... (so many levers!)
	6:46pm mrdonutsu: If you were born in rural North Dakota like my mom was, you didn't have all those 1905 things until after 1945.
	6:47pm JakeGould: @P-90: “It won’t be something anyone with a license will just point where the want it to go and hit the gas pedal. It will be more or an automated, “self-driving” thing controlled by networks...” You realize what you are saying is just like what Mark was talking about when it comes to cars and chauffeurs?
	6:47pm Sally: @JakeGould disagree, find me a study that shows that reading more fiction leads to lack of empathy ;-)
	6:48pm Russ: Know It All just struck again #shutupweirdo
	6:49pm Fuzzy: Please Be Kind #fredrogers
	6:49pm JakeGould: @Sally: I hate reading and I am one of the most empathetic people I know. Also, why can’t I read on a phone? What is wrong with having a device that makes words more easily accessible?
	6:51pm Sally: @JakeGould, I understand what you're saying, and unfortunately there's a correlation between reading more on devices - with the tendency to read headlines instead of full article and to use social media - while reading less books, especially fiction.
	6:51pm Sally: *articles
	6:51pm Fuzzy: Mr. McLuhan, phone call, line 1...
	6:51pm listener 126464: can we just get a car lane for people who aren't on their phones?
	6:51pm Tome: 2 campell soup cans and s string my first ...
	6:52pm Fredericks: Love how Doug's phone broke up right on cue.
	6:53pm geezerette: Fuzzy, haha! :)
	6:53pm ultradamno: Why would anyone want to be content?
	🤖 6:53pm Webhamster Henry: Oh the technological creative world is still there , but yes, it's drowned by tweet reactions and internet shaming becasue : it pays more.
	🤖 6:53pm Ken From Hyde Park: Internet headline I saw today: "Google Maps' AR adds navigation hints to the real world" Yay?
	6:53pm JakeGould: @Sally: Many people cannot afford buying dead trees. Many people read fully books, listen to audio books and watch movies on personal devices. The idea we are “devolving” in that way its ridiculous. How about I say this: Log off of the comment board and enjoy the radio without the need to type? Is that bad?
	6:54pm Sally: We're Not Gonna Take It!
	🤖 6:54pm Webhamster Henry: Why be conTENT when you can be CONtent?
	6:54pm Sally: @JakeGould, it doesn't have to be either/or
	6:54pm cobradan: I love Philip K. Dick because all his novels are set in the 90s I like my science fiction to take place in the past.
	🤖 6:55pm chresti: I can never give up the washing machine, the one that's not "smart".
	6:55pm TDK60: ha ha, webhamster.
	6:55pm P-90: “Be content? What is this “content” you speak of, Earthman?”
	6:55pm Sally: @Ken huh?
	6:55pm Tome: you can switch the 2 cans and use say Heinz beans and read those labels too ...
	6:55pm Linda Lee: there's the goddamn binary again. nothing but a pain in the ass.
	6:56pm Russ: Oh, I meant it in a nice way! Did anyone recognize that as Know It All from SUW?
	6:56pm geezerette: Thanks again, Mark and all!
	6:56pm JakeGould: @Russ: Why does that mean anything?
	6:56pm Sally: Thanks for a great show!
	🤖 6:56pm Ken From Hyde Park: @Sally - www.engadget.com...
	6:57pm northguineahills: Thanks Mark and Matt!
	🤖 6:57pm Webhamster Henry: Time for my robot to cook dinner!
	🤖 6:57pm Folsom: man I hated them saying "jigawatts" vs "gigawatts"
	6:57pm queems: thanks mark!!
	6:57pm ultradamno: Who would regulate the flying skateboarders?
	6:58pm JakeGould: @ultradamno: Other dude bros, that’s who.
	🤖 6:58pm Webhamster Henry: Who would have printed that almanac in 2000?
	🤖 6:58pm chresti: Thanks, Mark! Haha Webhamster!
	6:58pm Fredericks: What is this? It hurts my stomach.
	6:59pm dale: it's a stars on 45 mashup!
	6:59pm Linda Lee: of what economic class are the skateboarders? there's your answer.
	6:59pm Tome: ,, always prefer 91.1 GCpS over 91.1 GHz .
	🤖 6:59pm Webhamster Henry: My kids love the 80s. 80s for them :: 50s for me.
	6:59pm listener james from westwood: Thanks, Mark! Wherever you go, there you are.
	7:01pm geezerette: archive.org... Mondo 2000 archives..
	7:01pm Linda Lee: thank God Top 40 wasn't the only thing happening in music in the 80s.
	7:01pm ultradamno: Thanks Mark
	🤖 7:02pm Webhamster Henry: @Geezerette enjoy yourself! Dirk And Sandy will set you straight and help you live forever!
	7:02pm geezerette: Thanks, Webham!!!
	🤖 7:06pm Bas NL: Thanks Mark & Matt!
	7:07pm Listener Robert: My friends Ralph & Kathy were friends of Durk & Sandy -- a.k.a. Skye & Natalee in their hippie days.

Techtonic with Mark Hurst: Playlist from February 11, 2019

View Mark Hurst's profile

Conversations with creators and thinkers who are charting the way forward in a tech-saturated society. In our shift to a digital future, we need alternatives to Big Tech. Homepage: techtonic.fm

Also available as an MP3 podcast. More info at our Podcast Central page.

<-- Previous playlist | Back to Techtonic with Mark Hurst playlists | Next playlist -->

Upcoming events:

Mon. Nov 25th, 6pm - 7pm: Technology we're thankful for (More info...)
Amidst all the headlines about predatory tech companies and misbehaving billionaires, we're taking a moment to remember that some tech is actually good. Drawing on listener submissions, Mark will discuss the tools, gadgets, and systemsthat people are genuinely thankful for.
Mon. Dec 23rd, 6pm - 7pm: Don Fleming guest hosts Techtonic

February 11, 2019: Matt Novak, editor of Paleofuture, on past visions of the future

Listen to this show: Pop-up listen Pop-up player!

Above, M.C. Escher-inspired album covers, spotted at the Escher NYC exhibit

This week: Matt Novak, editor of Paleofuture, on past visions of the future

Links:

• Paleofuture homepage

• On Twitter: @paleofuture

- - -

PODCAST: Subscribe to the Techtonic podcast

Artist	Track	Album	Label	Approx. start time
Matt Novak, editor of Paleofuture, talks about past visions of the future.
Tomaš Dvořák	Game Boy Tune "Game Boy Tune" by "Tomaš Dvořák"	Machinarium Soundtrack	No label
	Mark's intro "Mark's intro"
	Interview with Matt Novak "Interview with Matt Novak"			0:12:27 (Pop-up)
	Your calls 201-536-9368 (201-KEN-WFMU)			0:35:25 (Pop-up)
ElectroSound	Back To The 80's "Back To The 80's" by "ElectroSound"	No album	No label	0:52:38 (Pop-up)

RSS feeds for Techtonic with Mark Hurst: Playlists feed | MP3 archives feed

| E-mail Mark Hurst | Other WFMU Playlists | All artists played by Techtonic with Mark Hurst |

Listener comments!
	6:01pm Beast of Boonton: Good evening Mark and all the Technoids
	6:01pm ultradamno: Hello Mark! Techystopians!
	6:02pm P-90: Aloha Mark. Been looking forward to hearing your take on a special favorite topic of mine.
	6:02pm listener james from westwood: Evening, Mark and all!
	6:02pm queems: hi mark & all
	6:02pm melinda: Hi all
	🤖 6:02pm Webhamster Henry: This is going to be a fun show, Technosaurs!
	🤖 6:03pm Webhamster Henry: It's a big, bright, beautiful tomorrow!
	6:03pm Fuzzy: Good!
	🤖 6:03pm Ken From Hyde Park: Greetings TeX.Rays!
	6:03pm listener james from westwood: Expecting a very William Gibson/"Gernsback Continuum" vibe tonight!
	🤖 6:03pm chresti: Hello Techtroniacs!
	🤖 6:04pm Webhamster Henry: Nice tribute, @Ken from Hyde Park.
	🤖 6:04pm Folsom: My neighbor had the motorcycle toy, pretty cool to spin up.
	6:04pm Dave in Vermont: I had that Evil Knievel toy.
	6:05pm Dave in Vermont: ...and that haircut
	6:06pm rob in charlotte: The Matt Novak of Paleofuture fame? Will you ask if he’s read Garrett Graf or Annie Jacobsen?
	6:06pm listener james from westwood: Going back decades, X-Ray would occasionally talk about what he called "the robot menace," and Techtonic has only proved him prophetic.
	6:06pm geezerette: R.I.P., X-Ray. The REAL ID Act is contemptible. Are you all aware of it?
	6:07pm TDK60: Hello.
	6:07pm rob in charlotte: What’s REAL ID geezerette?
	6:07pm Jeff Moore: All I know is that there aren't nearly enough shiny silver cigar-shaped rockets parked around here and there sitting on their fins ready to take off as soon as someone pulls in the also shiny silver metal ladder.
	6:07pm queems: i'll comment on it- GOOD
	6:08pm chris: that wind-up Evel Knievel toy was the bees knees
	6:08pm TDK60: I'll comment on the rumor that Amazon may not set up office in Queens. If true, good riddance.
	🤖 6:09pm Bas NL: Mark! All!
	6:09pm Megaroni: Greetings Techtonic, love your show!
	6:10pm geezerette: Search it,Rob. It's insane. Can't explain it briefly. It's like something out of Kafka.
	6:10pm listener james from westwood: '87–'91 at Boston College, you had to get permission from your major's department head to get a bc.edu email address. So ridix restrictive.
	🤖 6:10pm Webhamster Henry: You could get plenty of online email in the 80s, but not from the Intermet protocols, from AOL, Compuserve, FIDOnet, UUNews, etc.
	6:10pm Fuzzy: I had that Evel Knievel toy when I was a young lad in the 70's.
	6:11pm Sally: Ha, yes Mosaic!
	6:11pm northguineahills: I think my first email address was in 1989, in junior high, and only used to msg friends. by HS, I rarely used it. It wasn't until uni that I started using it for everything.
	6:11pm Tom: Yes geez, heard it live on the show yesterday. Too sad.
	6:12pm geezerette: Oh, sorry, Tom.
	🤖 6:13pm Webhamster Henry: Hey, we telnetted to a machine in Germany, and in the remote shell, telnetted back to the originating machine, and ran X-Eyes so mouse moves on our workstations would go to Germany, turn around and move the eyeballs on our own machine.
	6:13pm TDK60: I didn't really get into email and websites till round 1998.
	6:13pm Fuzzy: I jumped on the internet train in '92 with my very own dialup account at world.std.com. Pine, gopher etc. on my 486SX-25 -- those were the days!
	6:14pm geezerette: The Kool-Aide has worn off.
	6:14pm Sally: I telnetted/gophered/pined around '93. Yes, those were the days!
	6:14pm Linda Lee: darln, anything of value to the marketplace will be of value to the machinations of control! it had to be!
	6:14pm Jeff Moore: Trying to remember when I got my first Arpanet-style email address with an @-sign. Before that, it was always addresses with !-paths. I think I recall generally giving relative paths from hosts everyone knew how to get to like duke or ihnp4.
	🤖 6:14pm Webhamster Henry: If you wanted some better tasting Kool-Aid to drink, you would have read Mondo 2000.
	6:14pm ultradamno: Back to WebTV!
	6:16pm Linda Lee: isn't it 201 - KEN - WFMU?
	🤖 6:16pm Folsom: My first email was one of the bang addresses, sent an email to someone at another college
	6:16pm queems: 536 spells "ken"
	6:16pm TedfromOakland: apologies if this is a week or two late--here is an article about the OLD internet, and the transition to the current 'net, by Kate Wagner: thebaffler.com...
	6:16pm Fuzzy: WIRED was wired and not tired back then -- had a subscription.
	🤖 6:16pm Webhamster Henry: hey mark, 536 == "KEN"
	6:16pm geezerette: Webham, thanks for reference, will lookup latter. :)
	6:17pm geezerette: jeez...later...
	6:17pm Sally: @TedfromOakland, got "404 Page Not Found" error
	🤖 6:18pm Webhamster Henry: Other good period reading was good old 2600 Magazine (and WBAI radio show).
	6:18pm dale: this seems like an advanced crowd - did folks here favor the amiga over the apple?
	6:18pm TedfromOakland: sally, that is the title of the piece! but I'll check the link....
	6:19pm northguineahills: I remember in college reading Wired and The Wire at the same time at book stores/cafes and it would confuse those whom engaged me in conversation.
	6:19pm P-90: Amazon and other mega-technocorps need to start building their giant campuses in less-populous, economically stagnant states. They’ll get more for their money there , spread the economic development around where it’s needed, and generate migrations of educated, skilled employees from the big cities into states that could really use more “blue” voting districts that will tip those states more to the “blue “ side of “purple”. It will be great some day to eliminate the Electoral College, but in the maritime there’s more than one way to skin a cat...
	6:19pm Sally: @TedfromOakland, Oh ha...yes I didn't scroll down, thanks!
	🤖 6:20pm Bas NL: Important about a web page is it supplies information. I still make webpages, i still meet great new people, get quoted, my information is used, spawns new ideas.. and i can find similar pages, people, ideas. It's all still there. Just a little bit more noise these days. ;)
	6:20pm ultradamno: www.theonion.com...
	🤖 6:20pm Webhamster Henry: @dale I was an Amiga developer. www.echonyc.com...
	6:20pm Linda Lee: it's too bad Amazon pulls more from needy communities than they bring in. it's a wealth-suck. not the best thing for challenged communities.
	6:21pm Linda Lee: in fact, they bring in nothing much to start with.
	6:22pm queems: i'm terrified of robots
	6:22pm northguineahills: @P-90: You're full of brilliant ideas. (I prefer to cook all day).
	6:22pm Fredericks: I predicted we'd let our bodies go to hell and atrophy. I also expected our heads would grow larger.
	6:22pm geezerette: Linda Lee, agree. (Howdy!)
	6:22pm dale: webhamster - way cool? i only knew a couple of folks with them and they used them for video/animation processing. that page you shared looks fascinating .
	6:22pm Revolution Rabbit Nov63: Ooo. 'The Monster Show' by David J. Skal territory...Dracula & Frankenstein & Kong in the worst years of the Depression early 1930s...Dracula is Magic, Frankie is Science - in a mythical East Europe &tc. ...
	6:23pm ultradamno: Sounds like someone's covering up for the killer robot.
	6:23pm Fuzzy: Metropolis (1927).
	6:24pm Linda Lee: howdy, geezerette!
	🤖 6:24pm Webhamster Henry: Is there any reason for Amazon Info workers - or any info workers or workers who read write, and talk, all day - to actually have an office?
	6:24pm TDK60: ..what were those movies?...
	🤖 6:25pm Webhamster Henry: @TDK60 Her and Ex-Machina.
	6:25pm Sally: @dale & @Webhamster Henry, I never used amigas, but checked out that article and was reminded how I loved using those early spectral analysis programs on early apple computers...I may have even used that RSG Sonogram Painting program.
	6:26pm Sally: I meant RGS
	6:26pm ultradamno: And Scarlett Johansson, who played the self-aware platfom in Her, went on to become a super-omniscient entity sucked into a computer (or something) in Lucy.
	6:26pm melinda: What I remember most about Her was the high-waisted woolen pants.
	6:26pm dale: linda lee - curtis sliwa was discussing amazon today. he believes, and it makes sense, that all the promised low level jobs would eventually be phased out for robots pulling boxes off the shelves. i believe his version over cuomo and deblasio's
	6:26pm geezerette: Advertising = propaganda.
	6:27pm Fuzzy: My first PC was the good old Commodore 64, back in '85 -- played a lot of Zork on that baby.
	🤖 6:28pm Webhamster Henry: @Sally almost nobody had spectral synthesis back then. RGS was Amiga only, but Metasynth was on the Mac. Other software was very academic (I had some on my NeXT), or one-off (like UPIC at IRCAM in Paris).
	6:28pm P-90: Does Sliwa still have a radio show?
	6:28pm Jeff Moore: @dale: a useful / usable computer was whatever would run Unix or later a proper Unix-like OS. So... mostly PDP-11s in the late '70s or early '80s, then Sun workstations, the occasional AT&T 3B1 68k-based "Unix PC" (in its time, the cheapest thing I could buy which managed demand-paged virtual memory well enough to run GNU Emacs)... then, by the '90s, Linux on commodity x86 hardware.
	6:28pm Linda Lee: @Webhamster Henry ~ not at all. what they need space for are the shipping warehouses ~ manned by slave labor under prison conditions. @dale ~ so that's what they'll need space for. not for the white collar stuff. why should they invest in office space when they can contract out? screw the white collar workers too!
	6:28pm geezerette: 'Disruption' is un-creative and parasitic.
	6:29pm dale: NeXT - great rand paul logo.
	6:29pm Fuzzy: High school daze: PDP-11/70 running RSTS/E FTW!
	🤖 6:30pm Webhamster Henry: @daleI still have a few NeXT pencils and stickers (but not my cube anymore).
	6:31pm dale: PAUL RAND....not that other guy!!!!
	6:31pm Jeff Moore: John DeVore: The visionaries of Silicon Valley preach a lot these days about “disruption,” which is a shiny word that means “building a new house while burning down the old house at the same time.” medium.com...
	6:31pm Sally: @Webhamster Henry, thanks for clarifying, my memory is spotty...I definitely used some spectral analysis programs for Mac in the '90s that generated spectrograms.
	🤖 6:31pm Ken From Hyde Park: Our high school had a TRS-80.
	6:31pm ultradamno: I still think the metal birds are a fad, dagnabbit!
	6:31pm geezerette: heh, Dale...:)
	6:32pm dale: nice collectible and memory henry.
	6:32pm geezerette: Jeff, yes!
	6:33pm Fuzzy: @Ken: mine too -- I forgot about that! Saving programs to cassette -- lol.
	🤖 6:33pm Webhamster Henry: My high school daze: Dartmouth Time Sharing System (Honeywell/GE 635) over leased phone lines. That was a connection to the original BASIC. Later: PDP/8e, PDP11/34, NORD 10 .. IBM mainframes, Amiga, old school Mac, Mac II etc. NeXT, SGI Indigo & Indy, New style Macs, Tadpole laptop, blah blah blah
	6:34pm P-90: H.G. Wells was the original visionary who deeply understood (and was deeply disturbed by) the ways that aircraft and other new technologies would make warfare a vastly more destructive and terrifying prospect.
	🤖 6:34pm Webhamster Henry: But to stay on topic - I had Ted Nelson's Computer Lib book, as well as some real Computer Graphics cutting edge books of the early 70s.
	6:35pm geezerette: Webham, so much blah blah blah, oceans of it.
	🤖 6:36pm Webhamster Henry: The flying Car is now like a quad copter.
	6:36pm geezerette: P-90, yep!
	6:36pm ultradamno: May the flying cars always be in the future, drunk drivers overhead is not what I need.
	6:36pm Fuzzy: I like the blah blah about the old school hardware -- reminds me of when I was young.
	🤖 6:37pm Webhamster Henry: I don't want to see a flying car infrastructure or ecosystem.
	6:37pm JakeGould: In “Star Trek” disruptors were painful weapons used by the Romulans.
	6:37pm dale: you should curate a museum show of the technology henry.
	6:37pm Linda Lee: Burroughs had it right. it's all about the management of reality-as-information. the gadgets are secondary!
	6:37pm Sally: The general recent focus on nostalgia in Western culture is due to fears of dystopian futures perhaps.
	🤖 6:37pm Webhamster Henry: @dale that was my apartment at one point.
	6:37pm Phil with the phone: @ultradamno they're going to be self driving don't worry about it
	6:38pm Sally: I thought we'd have Jetsons-type flying cars ha
	6:38pm MK_UKTR4: Neil Tyson will argue flying cars already exist (Joe Rogan podcast)
	6:38pm JakeGould: And in “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” the Genesis device could bring life to dead planets… Or be used as a weapon to wipe out life on a living planet and placing your own new matrix on top of that. Also, “Back to the Future” is a WASPs dream.
	6:38pm Linda Lee: note Jane Jetson was still a doggone housewife.
	6:39pm Sally: @Linda yeah forgot about that!
	🤖 6:39pm Webhamster Henry: I hate that every new tech that comes out basically has a press release that goes "Here's our new widget/process/battery! It can save soldier's lives!"
	6:40pm dale: doc used a 'mr. fusion' to get the energy via banana peels and other trash. is fusion as a power source no longer being pursued?
	6:40pm Linda Lee: as long as our lives are managed through distraction by gadgets, we'll always be stuck in someone else's past.
	6:40pm ultradamno: @Phil that could be worse if they still can't differentiate between buildings and sky.
	🤖 6:40pm Ken From Hyde Park: In one episode, George Jetson said his ancestors were farmers who were so poor they couldn't afford dirt. Made me laugh.
	6:41pm TDK60: No quadrophonic speakers on Mars.
	6:42pm JakeGould: @LindaLee: Silly externe point of view. Portable devices are great as far as I am concerned. What about demonizing books? Much better to read from scrolls managed by a few priests I guess.
	6:42pm carrots: I think the film Idiocracy has it right.
	6:42pm Linda Lee: i always figured George's ancestor was Fred Flinstone.
	6:42pm ultradamno: TechsRaySpexonics...RIP
	6:42pm dale: ken from hp - when you live in the sky dirt is a commodity.
	6:42pm Fuzzy: Idiocracy: You're Soaking In It!
	6:43pm Linda Lee: i made no judgement.
	6:44pm ultradamno: When cars first came into existence someone had to make up sidewalks.
	6:44pm Sally: I agree w/Linda...there have been studies that show addictive tendencies of users glued to devices that keep people from opening up to others and reading less books. Other studies have shown that reading less fiction reduces empathy. Sorry, I'm an educator ha
	🤖 6:45pm Webhamster Henry: There's a funny book WIRED LOVE about lovers who communicate by telegraph. archive.org...
	6:45pm P-90: The “flying car” now is a big ride-in drone. Everyone who discusses flying cars always immediately starts talking about crashes, collisions, and mayhem. The thinking is: “people are already such rotten drivers, imagine the carnage flying cars will bring. But really, once a “car” becomes a “flying car” it becomes an aircraft. And the uses of aircraft are, and always have been, regulated differently than cars. It won’t be something anyone with a license will just point where the want it to go and hit the gas pedal. It will be more or an automated, “self-driving” thing controlled by networks...
	6:45pm Linda Lee: any teenager knows technology isn't intrinsically positive or negative; it's all about the uses it's put to.
	6:45pm carrots: Know it All!!! he's the best!!
	6:45pm Sally: Yes, very true Linda
	6:46pm JakeGould: @Sally: All kinds of studies for anything and everything.
	6:46pm northguineahills: You should have seen the autocarriages before the steering wheel became standard..... (so many levers!)
	6:46pm mrdonutsu: If you were born in rural North Dakota like my mom was, you didn't have all those 1905 things until after 1945.
	6:47pm JakeGould: @P-90: “It won’t be something anyone with a license will just point where the want it to go and hit the gas pedal. It will be more or an automated, “self-driving” thing controlled by networks...” You realize what you are saying is just like what Mark was talking about when it comes to cars and chauffeurs?
	6:47pm Sally: @JakeGould disagree, find me a study that shows that reading more fiction leads to lack of empathy ;-)
	6:48pm Russ: Know It All just struck again #shutupweirdo
	6:49pm Fuzzy: Please Be Kind #fredrogers
	6:49pm JakeGould: @Sally: I hate reading and I am one of the most empathetic people I know. Also, why can’t I read on a phone? What is wrong with having a device that makes words more easily accessible?
	6:51pm Sally: @JakeGould, I understand what you're saying, and unfortunately there's a correlation between reading more on devices - with the tendency to read headlines instead of full article and to use social media - while reading less books, especially fiction.
	6:51pm Sally: *articles
	6:51pm Fuzzy: Mr. McLuhan, phone call, line 1...
	6:51pm listener 126464: can we just get a car lane for people who aren't on their phones?
	6:51pm Tome: 2 campell soup cans and s string my first ...
	6:52pm Fredericks: Love how Doug's phone broke up right on cue.
	6:53pm geezerette: Fuzzy, haha! :)
	6:53pm ultradamno: Why would anyone want to be content?
	🤖 6:53pm Webhamster Henry: Oh the technological creative world is still there , but yes, it's drowned by tweet reactions and internet shaming becasue : it pays more.
	🤖 6:53pm Ken From Hyde Park: Internet headline I saw today: "Google Maps' AR adds navigation hints to the real world" Yay?
	6:53pm JakeGould: @Sally: Many people cannot afford buying dead trees. Many people read fully books, listen to audio books and watch movies on personal devices. The idea we are “devolving” in that way its ridiculous. How about I say this: Log off of the comment board and enjoy the radio without the need to type? Is that bad?
	6:54pm Sally: We're Not Gonna Take It!
	🤖 6:54pm Webhamster Henry: Why be conTENT when you can be CONtent?
	6:54pm Sally: @JakeGould, it doesn't have to be either/or
	6:54pm cobradan: I love Philip K. Dick because all his novels are set in the 90s I like my science fiction to take place in the past.
	🤖 6:55pm chresti: I can never give up the washing machine, the one that's not "smart".
	6:55pm TDK60: ha ha, webhamster.
	6:55pm P-90: “Be content? What is this “content” you speak of, Earthman?”
	6:55pm Sally: @Ken huh?
	6:55pm Tome: you can switch the 2 cans and use say Heinz beans and read those labels too ...
	6:55pm Linda Lee: there's the goddamn binary again. nothing but a pain in the ass.
	6:56pm Russ: Oh, I meant it in a nice way! Did anyone recognize that as Know It All from SUW?
	6:56pm geezerette: Thanks again, Mark and all!
	6:56pm JakeGould: @Russ: Why does that mean anything?
	6:56pm Sally: Thanks for a great show!
	🤖 6:56pm Ken From Hyde Park: @Sally - www.engadget.com...
	6:57pm northguineahills: Thanks Mark and Matt!
	🤖 6:57pm Webhamster Henry: Time for my robot to cook dinner!
	🤖 6:57pm Folsom: man I hated them saying "jigawatts" vs "gigawatts"
	6:57pm queems: thanks mark!!
	6:57pm ultradamno: Who would regulate the flying skateboarders?
	6:58pm JakeGould: @ultradamno: Other dude bros, that’s who.
	🤖 6:58pm Webhamster Henry: Who would have printed that almanac in 2000?
	🤖 6:58pm chresti: Thanks, Mark! Haha Webhamster!
	6:58pm Fredericks: What is this? It hurts my stomach.
	6:59pm dale: it's a stars on 45 mashup!
	6:59pm Linda Lee: of what economic class are the skateboarders? there's your answer.
	6:59pm Tome: ,, always prefer 91.1 GCpS over 91.1 GHz .
	🤖 6:59pm Webhamster Henry: My kids love the 80s. 80s for them :: 50s for me.
	6:59pm listener james from westwood: Thanks, Mark! Wherever you go, there you are.
	7:01pm geezerette: archive.org... Mondo 2000 archives..
	7:01pm Linda Lee: thank God Top 40 wasn't the only thing happening in music in the 80s.
	7:01pm ultradamno: Thanks Mark
	🤖 7:02pm Webhamster Henry: @Geezerette enjoy yourself! Dirk And Sandy will set you straight and help you live forever!
	7:02pm geezerette: Thanks, Webham!!!
	🤖 7:06pm Bas NL: Thanks Mark & Matt!
	7:07pm Listener Robert: My friends Ralph & Kathy were friends of Durk & Sandy -- a.k.a. Skye & Natalee in their hippie days.

Techtonic with Mark Hurst: Playlist from February 11, 2019

Upcoming events:

Listener comments!

(C) 2024 WFMU. Generated by KenzoDB, written 2000-2024 by Ken Garson