Dr. von Byte's Blog

Trauko book and video

2009-07-22T19:32:00.000-07:00

Today while reading this article on La Tercera I found out a new chilean comic book is soon to be released. This book is a homeage to the now extinct Trauk0 magazine, that really blew my mind at the end of the eighties. Through this magazine I knew the works of european masters Moebius and Manara, and local stars like Felva, Yoyo, Karto, Lautaro, to name some of them.

Good thing is that through this article I knew that together with the book, there's a documentary about Trauk0 magazine in production. This video is authored by chilean cinema director Rodrigo Araya, who had the chance to interview, camcorder in hand, key people that worked on the magazine. In fact, you can see some teasers here, here and here.
This documentary is soon to be released, check his blog to see more updated info.

Links

http://edelect.latercera.cl/edicionelectronica/pdf/0,5901,,00.pdf?f=20090722&sup=1&pag=43&rel=1
http://rodrigoarayatacussis.blogspot.com/
http://www.onoff.cl/mo-det.php?ida=120&idcat=3

Photo credits

http://www.ergocomics.cl/imagenes/img/200005010344.jpg
http://www.tebeosfera.com/1/Documento/Articulo/Especial/Chile/trauko36.jpg
http://s3.amazonaws.com/lcp/francoyeliz/myfiles/200005010345.jpg

Computer World cover

2009-07-07T19:26:00.000-07:00

Listening to the Kraftwerk's excellent Computer World album (1981), comes to my mind the mandatory question: what computer is that on the album cover?

A little research unveils that in fact it is not a computer, just a dumb Hazeltine 1500 terminal...

Good thing is that while researching, I found this webpage that details the computers seen on Stereolab videoclips (Miss Modular comes to my mind), something I always wanted to know...

Amongst others, appear the same Hazeltine 1500 terminal seen on the Kraftwerk cover, the Apple ][e, and the Osborne 1.

Photo credits:
http://images.uulyrics.com/cover/k/kraftwerk/album-computer-world.jpg
http://www.pci-card.com/hazeltine.jpg

Links:
http://ask.metafilter.com/18539/Computer-World-cover
http://www.haun-online.de/stereolab/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_World
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazeltine_Corporation

Linn LM-1

2009-05-15T06:49:00.001-07:00

The LM-1 was the first drum machine that used samples of acoustic drums. It was manufactured by Linn Electronics Inc. at the beginning of the 80s.
The LM-1 was conceived by Roger Linn, a guitarist that was not satisfied with the sound of the rhythm machines of the time. Linn knew how to program using BASIC and assembly language, and that came pretty handy for the machine's developement.

The LM-1 features a 13-channel mixer, and 12 8-bit samples of real drum sounds: kick, snare, hi-hat, cabassa, tambourine, 2 toms, 2 congas, cowbell, clave, and handclap. On the other hand, it lacked of cymbal sounds, because of the high costs of long sounds at the time.

The successor of the LM-1 was the LinnDrum LM-2.
The first customers to buy the LM-1 were Peter Gabriel, Stevie Wonder and Fleetwood Mac.

Notable songs that featured the Linn LM-1:

'Dirty Laundry' by Don Henley
'Thriller' by Michael Jackson
'Maneater' by Hall & Oates
'I want to break free' by Queen
'1999' by Prince
'Oh Sheila' by Ready for the World
'Don't you want me' by Human League
'Part time lover' by Stevie Wonder

Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linn_LM-1
http://www.synthmuseum.com/linn/linlm101.html
http://www.rogerlinndesign.com/bragging/museum.shtml

Photo Credits:

http://mixonline.com/mag/Roger-Linn-1980.web.jpg
http://www.hollowsun.com/vintage/linn_lm1/lm1.jpg
http://www.synthmuseum.com/linn/linlm1ad.jpg

Videos:
'Maneater' by Hall & Oates
'I want to break free' by Queen
'Thriller' by Michael Jackson

Atari VCS postage stamp

2009-05-14T20:49:00.000-07:00

Several years ago I discovered US Postal Service released a postage stamp featuring a couple of kids playing Defender on a Atari VCS.
Since I've always been a postage stamp collector (lately on a minor scale, but always interested on stamps), and since I'm an Atari fan too, this was a perfect collector's item.
A couple of weeks ago, while doing a little research on Defender's creator, Eugene Jarvis, I discovered that the VCS stamp was part of a series named "Celebrate the Century".
With that information on hand, I bought on eBay the 1980's part of the "Celebrate the Century" series, and here's a picture of the stamp for you:

Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebrate_the_Century
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/29/Celebrate_Century_1980_2000.jpg

Animation Cel

2009-05-14T20:15:00.000-07:00

A "cel" is a transparent celluloid sheet where drawings are painted usually by hand. Several "cels" comprise an animated sequence, that is later photographed, developed, edited, added sound, and finally shown on TV or at cinemas as an animated serie or movie.
I found by accident that real production "cels" are sold on eBay. Here are some examples: one is from Gatchaman and the other one is from the Robotech animated series:

Both are for sale right now at eBay, "cels" go from US$20/US$30 to over US$500 (The Robotech one is for sale right now at US$250).
There's no doubt "animation cels" are real collector items, I wish I have one of those some time in the near future.

Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cel
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220413388128
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=380123095374

Kyle Cooper

2009-02-11T05:42:00.000-08:00

Kyle Cooper is the most praised designer of title sequences ("credits") of the last years. His work has often been compared with the works of Saul Bass.

Kyle started working on film title sequences by 1989 ("New York Stories", Woody Allen, 1989), and his most recognizable works are the title sequences for:

"Quiz Show", Robert Redford, 1994 (ending titles, uncredited).
"Brave Heart", Mel Gibson, 1995.
"Se7en", David Fincher, 1995.
"Twister", Jan de Bont, 1996.
"Mission: Impossible", Brian de Palma, 1996.
"The Island of Dr. Moreau", John Frankenheimer, 1996.
"Donnie Brasco", Mike Newell, 1997.
"Mimic", Guillermo del Toro, 1997.
"Flubber", Les Mayfield, 1997.
"Arlington Road", Mark Pellington, 1999.
"The Mummy", Stephen Sommers, 1999 (uncredited).
"Spider-Man", Sam Raimi, 2002.
"Dreamcatcher", Lawrence Kasdan, 2003.
"Spider-Man 2", Sam Raimi, 2004.
"Wimbledon", Richard Loncraine, 2004.
"Superman Returns", Bryan Singer, 2006.
"Spider-Man 3", Sam Raimi, 2007.

Kyle worked at R/Greenberg Associates, but left to create production company Imaginary Forces, and later left IF to create Prologue Films. Kyle at the time has directed only one movie feature, "New Port South" (2001), that was a box office flop.

The Marvel Comics "Flip book" logo featured at the beginnig of movies based on Marvel characters (Spider-man, Blade, X-Men, Fantastic Four...) was created by Kyle.

Some directors avoid working with Kyle, calling him "the guy who makes title sequences better than the movie."

Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyle_Cooper
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0178204/
http://www.imaginaryforces.com/
http://www.prologue.com/
http://wired.com/wired/archive/12.06/cooper.html
http://www.amazon.com/Kyle-Cooper-Monographics-Andrea-Codrington/dp/0300099517/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234358101&sr=1-1

Videos:

Marvel Logo Cinema
title sequence in Se7en
Great Opening Titles Part 2: Mimic
Kyle Cooper and Garrick Hamm: Part 1
Kyle Cooper and Garrick Hamm: Part 2

Photo Credits:

http://phongnguyen.net/photoBucket/kyleCooper.jpg
http://www.riverblue.com/hughes/behind/nps-hughes.jpg

Roland CompuRhythm CR-78

2009-01-19T18:16:00.000-08:00

The CompuRhythm CR-78 is a drum machine made by Roland in 1978. It features analog drum voices, and an Intel microprocessor for control purposes.

Available percussion voices:

Bass Drum, Snare Drum, Rim Shot, Hi-hat, Cymbal, Maracas, Claves, Cow Bell, High Bongo, Low Bongo, Low Conga, Metal Beat, Tambourine, Guiro

Available rhythm patterns:

Rock 1 A/B, Rock 2 A/B, Rock 3 A/B, Rock 4 A/B, Rock 5 A/B, Rock 6 A/B, Disco 1 A/B, Disco 2 A/B, Bossanova A/B, Samba A/B, Mambo, Chacha, Beguine, Rhumba, Waltz A/B, Shuffle A/B, Slow Rock A/B, Swig A/B, Fox Trot, Tango

This piece of hardware has a very distinctive sound, and was heavily used by new wave bands in the 80's. Some songs that used the CR-78 are:

'Bombers' (live) / 'On Broadway' (live) / 'Remember I was vapour' (live) by Gary Numan
'La vie en rose' by Grace Jones
'In the air tonight' by Phill Collins
'Heart of glass' by Blondie
'Enola Gay' by OMD
'I can't go for that (No can do)' by Hall and Oates

Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_CR-78
http://www.synthmuseum.com/roland/rolcr6801ad.jpg

Photo Credits:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/157/427825016_ebde6ccc40.jpg?v=0
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/113/293990888_d9b1220f27.jpg?v=0

Videos:
Roland CompuRhythm CR-78 Demo
Phil Collins demonstrates Roland CR-78 drum machine
Blondie - Heart Of Glass
Daryl Hall and John Oates - I Can't Go For That
Phil Collins - In The Air Tonight

Fairlight CMI

2008-12-30T03:55:00.000-08:00

The "Computer Musical Instrument" was the first polyphonic, digital sampling synthesizer, designed in 1979 by Fairlight founders Peter Vogel and Kim Ryrie, in Australia.

It was heavily used by 80's musicians such as Trevor Horn (and a number of ZTT's artists like Art of Noise and Frankie Goes to Hollywood), Herbie Hancock, Duran Duran's Nick Rhodes, Bill Sharpe, Stevie Wonder, Peter Gabriel, Jean Michel Jarre and Alan Parsons, amongst others.

The CMI featured two Motorola 6800 8-bit microprocessors, and a modified version of the Motorola MDOS operating system, called QDOS.

In 1983 MIDI was added to the CMI. Apart from the keyboard, a light pen was used on a green monochrome CRT for interfacing (this CMI feature can be seen on Duran Duran's 1984 video for The Reflex). Later models dropped the light pen in favor of a graphics tablet.

Sadly, Fairlight couldn't keep up with the high costs of CMI's production (built by hand with top-of-the-line components), so they went bankrupt, and the last CMIs where sold as word processors...

Notable albums that used the CMI in its production are:

Magnetic Fields, Jean Michel Jarre, 1981.
Peter Gabriel, Peter Gabriel, 1982.
Future Shock, Herbie Hancock, 1983.
The Unforgettable Fire, U2, 1984.
Songs from the Big Chair, Tears for Fears, 1985.
How to be a...Zillionaire!, ABC, 1985.
Planet Rock: The Album, Afrika Bambaataa & The Soulsonic Force, 1986.
Hysteria, Def Leppard, 1987.
Automatic, Bill Sharpe + Gary Numan, 1989

Notable videoclips that feature images of a CMI are:

The Reflex, Duran Duran, 1984.
Change Your Mind, Bill Sharpe + Gary Numan, 1985.
Miami Vice theme song, Jan Hammer, 1985.
Sequencer, Al Di Meola, 1983.
Hanging on a Heart Attack, Device, 1986.

Facts:
* Tony Wilson said that producer Martin Hannet quit Factory Records after the label put money on the Haçienda instead of buying him a CMI.
* Lots of reverbs were used on Art of Noise's Into Battle to mask the CMI's initial low sampling fidelity.
* The orchestral stabs heard on Afrika Bambaataa's Planet Rock where made using a rented CMI.

Photo Credits:

http://www.anerd.com/fairlight/krpv2.jpg
http://ghservices.com/gregh/fairligh/images/thumb/fairlight_cmi_ii_flash.jpg
http://ghservices.com/gregh/fairligh/page_1.gif
http://www.corestore.org/FairlightCMI-3.JPG

Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairlight_CMI
http://ghservices.com/gregh/fairligh/
http://www.fairlight.free.fr/

Videos:
Fairlight CMI on "This Week" ABC TV
Bob Moog Fairlight Intro
Al Di Meola - Sequencer

About MAME datfiles

2008-12-23T07:33:00.000-08:00

Auditing and rom management utilities are useful tools, complimentary to your favorite emulator. Since emulators are always under developement (looking for the 'perfect emulation'), changes are always present. These changes are reflected the roms they use too: rom file renaming and new available roms dumps for old games come from time to time. Here's where rom managers come to the scene.

Rom managers help you to audit your roms, deleting unnecesary roms, warning about duplicate dump, missing dumps, bad CRCs, etc.

The way a rom manager is aware of the list of supported games (and roms, samples, artwork, etc. used by every game) is by means of a DATFILE.

An emulator should be able to generate a DATfile containing all the details of every game the emulator supports. If the emulator is not able to generate this file, then the author should provide a companion datfile together with the emulator.

Up to version 0.83, information on all the details of every emulated game by MAME was displayed by using the 'listinfo' parameter:

C:\mame\mame -listinfo

Here's a sample of the output generated:

With the advent of XML, MAME started using a new parameter, "listxml". Since version 0.84, this parameter formatted the output using the XML format:

C:\mame\mame -listxml

Here's a sample of the output generated:

In the case of the MAME emulator, datfiles are created redirecting the output information generated by the emulator itself, to a text file.

For MAME versions up to 0.83, use:

C:\mame\mame -listinfo>mame.dat

For MAME versions since 0.84, use:

C:\mame\mame -listxml>mame.dat

Rom managers must be aware of the differences between datfiles created using -listinfo and the ones created using -listxml. For instance, ClrMamePro uses different profile atributes for this.
There are some datfiles repositories over the net, here are some of them:

But now you are able to generate your own MAME datfiles ;-)

What? Me worry?

2008-11-18T18:43:00.000-08:00

I've been always amazed by the shocking similarity between MAD Magazines's icon Alfred E. Neuman and the current President of Banco Central de Chile, José de Gregorio.

In fact the Neuman's catch phrase 'What, me worry?' fits de Gregorio's current situation, since chilean economy at the moment looks more or less stable in the middle of the world economic crisis. de Gregorio hasn't lost his weight and hair the way the secretary of the US Treasury, Henry Paulson, had the last month...

Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_E._Neuman
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/José_de_Gregorio
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_M._Paulson,_Jr.

Photo credits:

http://cockingasnook.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/what-me-worry-715603.jpg
http://static.latercera.cl/200808/124510_244.jpg
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2007/11/22/2004029977.jpg

Montage credits:

M.E.

Fun with dates

2008-11-10T06:22:00.000-08:00

On Oracle databases, dates are stored using 7 bytes that keep information regarding date and time, including:

Century
Year
Month
Day
Hour
Minutes
Seconds

So when querying dates, TO_CHAR plus the proper date format must be used. For instance:

SQL> select to_char(sysdate, 'dd/mm/yyyy') from dual;

TO_CHAR(SY
----------
10/11/2008

SYSDATE is an internal PL/SQL function that returns the current date and time, it returns a DATE type value. 'dd/mm/yyyy' is a valid date format. 'dd' means 2 digits for the day number, '/' means the date part separator (other value could be '-', for instance), 'mm' means 2 digits for the month number (starting with 1 for January), and 'yyyy' means 4 digits for the year number.

Date formats can be used to take parts of the date. For instance, if you are only interested on the current month number, you use:

SQL> select to_char(sysdate, 'mm') from dual;

TO
--
11

One interesting example of date conversions is how to get the month name out of a date. The first approach (the 'beginners' approach) is here:

SQL> select DECODE (TO_CHAR (SYSDATE, 'mm'),
2 '01', 'January',
3 '02', 'February',
4 '03', 'March',
5 '04', 'April',
6 '05', 'May',
7 '06', 'June',
8 '07', 'July',
9 '08', 'August',
10 '09', 'September',
11 '10', 'October',
12 '11', 'November',
13 '12', 'December')
14 from dual;

DECODE(TO
---------
November

There's a better way to do this, and that's using TO_CHAR together with the "MONTH" date format. This format returns the month name. Here's a better approach:

SQL> select TO_CHAR (SYSDATE, 'Month') from dual;

TO_CHAR(S
---------
November

Moreover, you can use the optional "PARAMNLS" TO_CHAR parameter to get the month name in other languages. For instance, the month name in spanish:

SQL> select TO_CHAR (SYSDATE, 'Month', 'NLS_DATE_LANGUAGE = ''SPANISH''') from
dual;

TO_CHAR(SY
----------
Noviembre

8AM

2008-11-05T06:28:00.001-08:00

"Eight o'clock in the morning" is a short story by Ray Nelson published in 1963.
Pretty interesting reading, it resembles the "V" 80's TV series.
I recommend reading this short story, that influenced John Carpenter to such extent that he made a movie based on it ("They Live", 1988, John Carpenter).

I was doing a little research on subliminal advertising, and that made me remember the movie, that led me to this cool short story.

Links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Nelson
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Academy/9412/8oclock.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Live
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subliminal_advertising
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_TV_Series

Taito SJ rom swap: success! Part II

2008-11-04T06:11:00.001-08:00

Last friday I burned the Jungle Hunt romset on 19 eproms (It takes 20, but 19 was all I had at the time). I bought some EPROMS on Ebay a month ago, but I still haven't received them (Damn local Customs, they take years to process my shipments!).
Plugged the 19 eproms on my bootleg Elevator Action and the game launches! No sound though, probably because of the missing eprom.

Taito SJ games that won't run using this method are:

* Alpine Ski (protected).
* Bio Attack (Game launches, but resets after losing a life)
* Elevator Action (Requires security board).
* Front Line (Requires security board).
* Wild Western (Requires different layer PROM).

Next step, do the same thing with Jungle King, and later with Space Cruiser.
And of course, post all info gathered while playing with this board.

Taito SJ rom swap: success!

2008-10-28T07:34:00.000-07:00

Last night, I burned the Water Ski romset on 13 eproms. Took my bootleg Elevator Action board, took away the eproms, and put the new Water Ski eproms on the board.

Guess what...it works! Now I have a Water Ski working on my bootleg Elevator Action board.

More details on the way...

Everything's Connected (Pt. II)

2008-10-21T08:01:00.000-07:00

By the middle of the 90's, in the middle of a tv zapping, I was hooked with a scene of a movie that featured a spaceship exploding in the air, with a terrific score on the background. I waited for the ending credits, and after a little research, I discovered the movie excerpt I saw was the ending of Godfrey Reggio's 1982 movie Koyaanisqatsi, and the background music was made by a guy named Phillip Glass.

By the end of the 90's I was hooked on Aphex Twin music, and on Chris Cunningham videoclips. I had access to several AFX albums, and I caught my ear on some piano-only tracks, those were pretty interesting, and very different to the rest of the album. One of those tracks I liked the most was "Icct Hedral", and some time later I discovered that track was orchestrated by Phillip Glass himself...

(Left, Glass. Right, James).

By the same time I was hooked on Aphex Twin, I had the chance to see on TV some excerpts of a very interesting documentary named "Baraka". After researching I discovered it was directed by Ron Fricke, who was the cinematographer of...Koyaanisqatsi.

Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphex_Twin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillip_Glass
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godfrey_Reggio
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koyaanisqatsi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baraka_(film)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Fricke

Photo Credit:

http://www.aphextwin.nu/learn/98136033774967.shtml

Everything's Connected

2008-10-20T11:39:00.000-07:00

By 1984, maybe a couple of years before, I got my hands on the "Views" book by Roger Dean, terric art and drawings. Very inspiring. To this day, I recognise drawings made by Dean on 70's album cover art, it's really one-of-a-kind.
By 1984-85 I had the chance to listen to Jelly Bean Benitez's "The Mexican". I was immediately caught by the breaks and beats. I love that song.
Recently I made an internet reserch on "The Mexican", and I discovered that it was not a JB song. It was a song by a 70's english band named "Babe Ruth", and that JB re-made the song, and hired original vocalist Janita Haan to re-sing the song. The song appeared on the BR's "First Base" album, that featured, to my surprise, cover art by Roger Dean...
Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babe_Ruth_(band)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Dean_(artist)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jellybean_Benitez

EPROMs Vpp

2008-10-17T18:34:00.000-07:00

Here are the Vpp for various EPROMs I was able to burn using my "Dual Power Willem Universal EPROM Programmer" sold by MCUMall.com:

1.- Hitachi HN462732G

Vpp = 25V

2.- FUJITSU MBM2732A

Vpp = 21V

3.- Intel D2732A

Vpp = 21V

4.- NEC D2732D

Vpp = 21V

5.- Toshiba TMM2732D

Vpp = 25V

More on the way.

Creacion del blog del Dr. von Byte

2007-03-28T09:09:00.001-07:00

Hoy se ha creado el blog del Dr. von Byte.