Snacking Otaku - Betamax vs VHS

References and Further info

The Technology Connections YouTube channel has done a series of videos on the format, exploring both formats tapes and machines in detail.

Click here for playlist

Click here for video exploring each format's cassette design 

(and here for the details he forgot to mention in the above video)

Click here for Sony's own telling of the story of Betamax

Click here to visit Total Rewind - The Virtual Museum of Vintage VCRs

How Teletext Worked

The following post was originally made in 2015 to accompany what was originally called "informative strips," now called Snacking Otaku.

To prevent readers from over-analysing this, some of the names in this 
graphic are completely made up.

How many of you remember teletext systems? I suspect many Europeans do (They didn't take off in America).

For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, a teletext system was a means of transmitting computer-generated pages of information to a wide population though TVs with special decoders via the analogue TV picture signals. It was an analogue internet (without the hyper-links, gifs, jpegs, and video streams).
They were first developed in the early-1970s and became widely-available across the globe by the 1980s, particularly in Europe. These systems were known under many names, such as Ceefax and ORACLE in the UK, Antiope in France, Televideo in Italy, Austext in Australia, and (after the demise of ORACLE) .... Teletext.
As they were carried by the picture signals, different TV channels can carry different teletext services from one another, which was truly the case in the UK. The BBC carried Ceefax while the independent channels of ITV, Channel 4 and (later) 5 carried ORACLE (which later became Teletext).
These systems were used a lot (as much people use the web services today). My dad regularly used it during the 1990s and early-2000s to check sports results. I did my self as a teen to check cinema listings. Many people did at the same time for various reasons, from checking the weather forecast to noting down recipes.
These systems only really came to an end in the last decade or so, with the transition to digital TV broadcasting. Ceefax ended in October 2012 (at the same time the last analogue TV transmitter in the UK was shut down).

The reason for this post was not to be nostalgic about teletext (mostly). The reason for this post is to celebrate a personal piece of investigatory achievement - I had finally found/worked out how teletext worked.

I bet many of you who have used such services in the past wondered how they actually worked. How did these pages of information got into your TV and where did they come from (and why you had to wait about ten seconds for your desired page to appear on screen). But when it came to finding out how it worked, most of you found only sources like this one....

(taken form my collection of old reference books)

From Reader's Digest How Is It Done? (1992 edition, p219)

It doesn't tell you much, does it. And with this level of information in regular reference books, you'll imagine that you had to study electrical engineering journals to find out more detail. Fortunately, the internet has made this of an issue, and thanks to this it was in 2013 that I finally found out how teletext worked... and discovered how neat an idea teletext was. How they actually worked is very clever. But its hard to understand using text alone. It'll help if we had pictures. That is why the subject of my next "informative strip" is teletext.

The (what use to be called) "informative strip" can be accessed by clicking here

Snacking Otaku - Teletext

The following snack was originally made to accompany this post penned in 2015 that was only published now.

References and Further info

A lot of info came form this website, that I recommended seeing.

http://teletext.mb21.co.uk/

YouTube Channel Technology Connections has made a video about a related technology - Closed Captioning (and said in it about a future video about Teletext).

Closed Captioning: More Ingenious than You Know

There are a number of software online that allows you to create your own teletext pages. A list of some are here.

http://teletextart.co.uk/make-teletext-art

The one I used is edit.tf (I suggest seeing the tutorial video on the link above before you use it. Making teletext art is very fiddly. The final result (I admit) isn't that good, so I might change it in the future.

My August on eBay

It’s another month and time for another mandatory monthly post. A lot has happened to me in the past month. Apart from my first days as an amateur art teacher and my long list of home improvements (which mostly involve building bookcases I bought from B&Q and moving A LOT of books), the 5th August 2017 will be remembered as the day of a significant milestone in my life … the day I first bought something on eBay.

Friends and regular readers will know that I have a thing for technology. I am fascinated by human ingenuity in all its guises. Gadgets, buildings, magic tricks, cons, works of art, special effects, music, movies, you name it. If a human made it, I’m interested.

This is why I’m kind of annoyed by some who believe the pyramids were built by aliens, and not fellow humans. Such thinking sells our species short, in the same way a lot of men claim the credit of work by women over the years. Maybe that’s why they are not many female conspiracy theorists and “flat-earthers.” Although I could be wrong about that, due to the stereotype (and a stereotype that is rarely bashed by the PC police, for some reason.).

Anyway, I find technology interesting. And not just the new stuff you find on sale
I find older technology more interesting, due to what people managed I to do with the limitations of their day. It’s not a surprise that high number of videos I watch on YouTube are of the subject of old devices and technology. I am a regular viewer of a number of channels that deal with this subject (Tech Moan, 8-bit Guy, Oddity Archive, Nostalgia Nerd, the teardown videos on the EEV Blog and Lazy Game Reviews, to name a few).

I find their videos easier to digest than dull technical text in old books, which makes researching for my computer book much easier (and fun).

For years (maybe since I discovered that book) I had always had the curious itch to take things apart to see inside them. I have always taken apart ballpoint pens because of this. Since then I have taken apart a few flashlights, two calculators, a radio cassette player, a VCR and (recently) my dad’s old PC from the mid-1990s.

For years I have developed ideas involving tinkering with such old devices, even using them in works of art. And in August 2017 the first step in those ideas becoming reality was made. On 5th August 2017, I bought my first piece of vintage technology on eBay… a typewriter.

(I actually bought an old Pentax SLR camera a while earlier through Amazon, but I call the typewriter purchase more significant because it was bought directly through eBay, starting the habit in bidding for other pieces of old technology. You be amazed at the price some people were selling stuff you might think be worth much more, especially as “job lots.”)

For a rough idea about the pricing of collectable things (and how things can change over time), watch this video from The 8-Bit Guy….

Are apple iBook laptops collector's items yet?

  - 8-Bit Guy (2015)

His last point is one reason for my “madness.” This stuff my not stay that cheap for long. What may have been dirty cheap years ago could now be fetching prices of over $100… or even more.

By the time of this publication I have amassed a small collection of devices from the late-20th century. This includes….

• A few cameras
• Two 1980s VCRs (which are surprisingly big!)
• A Super 8 movie projector (as seen above)
• A Psion II pocket organiser from 1986
• And a Mini Disc player.

For now, I’m going to stop using eBay for the time being, before I bankrupt myself and fill my home with old devices that have not much resale value to most people. My collect contains enough to satisfy my curiosity for a while.

So, why do it? Seeing pictures and videos of old things is one thing, but having examples I can play with is something else. Remember asking for an amazing toy you saw in a shop or on TV and asking your parents to get it for you and they say “no,” because it’s too expensive? Same thing here. And asides, how many can say they have in their procession a Betamax video recorder?

My Take on Backwards History (Part 3)

The world in 1950 is very different from the world for 50 years earlier. As knowledge of semiconductors is slowly eaten away by the microbe, computers have become so bulky that the 1970s saw the last “personal computers.” They were getting too big for personal use, limiting their use to companies and institutions. Mobile phones have ceased to exist as well, limiting the world’s telecommunications to cumbersome land-lines, which now relied more on cables in the ground instead of satellites. There is less plastic been used, thanks to successful eco-campaigns and diminishing fossil fuel reserves. The knowledge of jet engines is disappearing with the sight and sound of less jet planes in the sky. The people are noticing the change.

Politically, the world is different with Russia and the US in a “Cold War” between capitalism and militarized socialism. During this “Cold War” China (the one mighty economic power) rejected capitalism and followed the Russians. Much of East Asia followed suit, fed up with the fluctuating booms and busts of the 1990s. Afghanistan, during its liberation from Islamic Fundamentalism were invaded by the Russians in the 1980s. In Eastern Europe, east of Berlin, the Russians took over. Germany had become the cooking pot of potential war since 1989 and soon it will explode. In this climate, the populace took more interest in politics. In fact, the turn out of democratic elections and political rallies had increased during the “Cold War.”

One cause of the increased interest in current affairs was the collapse of television. With the microbe eating away the knowledge of technicians, the 1990s saw the transition from digital to analogue technology. This change dramatically reduced the number of TV channels, limiting to less than 10 to even people with satellite or cable. As knowledge of video recording decreased in the 20^th century, they were less repeats and more live programmes. By 1950, there was little to watch, with little recorded programmes from the past that could be played through telecine and further reduced number of channels (with some territories having just one channel), which were all now in monochrome. Programme makers were desperate, with TV schedules full of variety acts taken from the booming music halls and theatres. This forced more people away from their screens and doing other things for their leisure time, such as model building. As a result, the audiences were getting smaller and this had a knock-on effect in advertising. With decreasing funds from advertising, most commercial TV stations switched off. Only, government-backed stations remained until the technicians finally forgot how to operate the equipment. The 1920s would see the last TV broadcasts, done only by amateurs in the hope of reviving it in the future. 

The collapse of digital media (as well as television) was a mixed blessing for politics. Although its distracting powers had decreased, it was becoming easier for governments to control the media. As a result, there was a boom in propaganda worldwide from the 1960s onwards.

So everything was set for an explosion in conflict. They were smaller conflicts, such as Vietnam and Korea, but it was nothing compared what was about to start after 1950.

It began in China in 1949, when the population rebelled against their government after years of famine and cultural persecution. This lead to a Civil War in 1946. With China been an ally with Russia, the US decided to drop the world’s last nuclear weapons on China. But a calculation error (according to some sources) forced the bomber crew to drop their load on Japan instead. Japan had experienced a decreasing economy since the 1970s. By 1950, it was only the US needing supplies for the Korean War that kept them afloat. But when that war ended, Japan was a shadow of its former self and under the control by the Americans. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki drive the Japanese to banish the Americans and go to war with them. With Japan to deal with, the US was slightly detracted when; months later Germany erupted into a revolution to unite its two separated halves. A World War Had begun.

Meanwhile, during the “Cold War” the nations of Africa, South and Central America, who were caught up in the “war” decided to end their unstable mix of democratic and dictatorial governments with more stable rule from European nations. It wasn’t a smooth transition, with rebellions and coups and all that. But by the 1930s, most nations were under the rule of a small number of countries. Now their fate depended on these countries. 

My Take on Backwards History (Part 2)

When the mental clock of the human race began to tick backwards things were just as they were before the change. But, slowly behind the scenes, something was happening to the internet. Connections began to be lost more often, and the rate was increasing year upon year. It was becoming very annoying, more annoying than pop-up ads. Soon the problem got worse. People lost data, because they put all their fate on the cloud. IT engineers couldn't explain it, but a number of hackers found out the truth and tried to publish it online. But by then, the mid-2000s, the loss of data and connections was so frustrating in some places, people there stopped using the internet altogether. Slowly, the people of the world were removing their electronic umbilical cords of information reverting back to a pre-internet world. A few (mostly hackers and geeks) remain faithful to their main fix in life by 1983.

During that time, as cloud computing became impossible; computers became larger and thicker to include more internal storage function. With more space needed for larger hard drives a few sacrifices had to be made, such as built-in webcams. Mobile phones gave up been computers and became just… phones (with optional text messaging). The cause of the devolution of information technology was caused by the mass of data that was collected during the years the clocks run forward. As information technology “dumbed down” there was a mad rush to rescue that data before they became inaccessible. This resulted in a huge demand for physical media (CDs, floppies, tapes, etc). This was particularly true for large files, such as movies and music. With diminishing bandwidth, what was left of the interment was becoming a former shadow of itself, mostly made up of text, forums and low-resolution gif graphics. It seemed that the record and movie industry had finally licked piracy (they only now sell bootleg copies in market stalls or in pubs).

With one of their main sources of income gone organized crime and terrorism fell since the US began dismantling the internet. The Islamic fundamentalists could now only preach through official channels, such as radio, TV, print or (the most censor-free means) public gatherings. Unfortunately, after years of racial profiling because of their words (and actions) of hatred towards the West, the crowds they were getting wanted to beat them up. After a large attack on the US in 2001, the people of the muslin world decided that these who were tarnishing their religion’s reputation in the world must die. With help from the US and few other western powers, the people of the Middle East rooted out troublesome preachers of hate in a large violent war, which eventually ended with the establishing of a pro-western leader in Iran in 1979.

With no internet, it was now harder to sell products outside a person’s country, meaning a slump in global trade. Only large corporations could sell products across borders without trouble. This state of affairs (fuelled by angry former online retailers) causes a worldwide desire for countries to restrict foreign imports. Not only this gave foreign goods an air of wonder (due to their fewer number and price), it also boosted native manufacturing. People were buying more locally-made stuff. By 1967, for example, 97% of all cars in the US were natively built. Globalization was reversing. In 1955, as a symbol of the end of globalization, the last large container ship was scrapped.

Meanwhile (with diminishing trade outside their borders) China and America’s economies stalled and began to reverse, slowly decreasing. With industry requiring less and less power, China began demolishing a coal-fired power station every week. America did the same (but in a much slower rate). Wages began to decrease and the cost of goods increased. By 1970 a TV costs as much as a small car. The rising prices causes many people to return to repairing broken or worn out things instead of just throwing it away and buying a new thing. People were beginning to become more self-efficient and some turn to farming. But, to the many who were use to rising living standards (and wages) it was unthinkable situation. This causes massive riots and protests in all industrial nations. China witnesses a large one in 1989. The UK in 1984, 1979, and 1973.

In Russia, things got so bad during the 1990s that a more militaristic leadership was instated in 1991. With the call for invading Eastern Europe to stimulate economic growth, Russia built up a stockpile of weapons (mostly taken secondhand from unstable African nations). This move stimulate the US to stockpile weapons for a possible war against Russia. In 1989, the invasion happened… without bloodshed (except in Romania). The Americans (and other Western powers) stopped them in the middle of Germany. It was a stalemate. A stalemate that will last for 40 years, with each side working out how to break it. The solution both choose was nuclear weapons. If one can’t have the other no one can have it. During those 40 years, scientists worked on their nation’s nuclear program for better defense systems. But it was in these programs that people started to notice something happening to their brightest people… they were slowly losing their knowledge. With no microscope or imaging technology able to detect the microbe that was causing it, people couldn’t explain what was happening. But whatever it was, its effects were devastating. By 1950, humankind had lost the ability to manipulate genes, create human offspring outside the womb, build and fire rockets into space and how to solve a Rubik’s cube. What was going on? The very religious say it was God’s punishment for humans rebuilding the Tower of Babel, and their congregations accepted it.

With the loss of relatively recent knowledge, a lot of people die of now incurable problems and many secret initiatives by governments to encourage more breeding and to kill off the elderly to reduce the burden on pension systems, such as legalizing smoking in public places and introducing known hazardous substances in consumer products, such as lead-based paint pigments and mercury. By 1959, the human population collapsed from 7billion in 2011 to just 3billion. But, on the up side, there was less pollution and more housing and empty land available. And (with radical governments in the 1960s and 50s demolishing highways and airports, and investing more in railways and public transport) the world was a quieter place to live in. What could possibly happen next?

END OF PART 2

Part 3

Book Intervention Project - 20th Century Design

I just got an idea for an book intervention project. You may remember (if you had read my previous posts) that a few years ago for university I was asked to "intervene" (vandalize) a book of my own choosing - Inventions That Changed The World.
Today, I just got the idea for my sequel - 20th Century Design by Catherine McDermott from 1998 (1999 reprint) commissioned by the Design Museum, London.

Like the previous book, I scanned every single page of it before hand to make a digital copy for future use. The last one had to have pages glued together as their was no time to do something to them, as the project had a deadline. This one hasn't, so I plan to do something to every page. I already got plans for its many pages so stayed tuned for more.