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Showing results for tags 'techmoan'.
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Submitted for your approval, a subtle torture device aimed at store staff, or "loungers" who spend more time than money in the shop.;) It's "Techmoan" again, showing off decrepit, er, "classic" electronics of the past, in this early (1960's?) tape cassette baclground music player from Rediffusion of Jersey. First appearing in 1957, this early "endless loop" tape player ran at 3.75 inches/second, resulting in frequent cassette changes at the business. Good news! The mighty "Techmoan Family Puppets" show up...in the middle of the video!? There's a "further developments" segment that runs after the main video, which would interest mainly tech geeks tracking the company, which started as a "wired speaker subscription radio program rebroadcaster" to non-electric-power homes in 1927 and faded out in the 1980's. It's definitely NOT your grand dad's 4- or 8-track tape player...
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Submitted for your approval, "Techmoan" the Human, takes on the dastardly AI of "Automated Chess"! Who will win this battle of brains and eerily moving Chess pieces? (Rod Serling is kibitzing for all the good it will do.)
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Submitted for your approval, yet another interesting way to distribute music. Step right up folks, see a marvel of the modern age: Music on a Chip! By cracky, what will the boffins think of next? "Techmoan" usually unearths old tech, but this features chips, not of the edible variety, but the many-contact-bearing silicon chip that plugs into a game port or equivalent. What kind of music, you ask? Something that c computer might come up with...if it was "bored" and sought attention for Humans. (As a added bonus, the controls are more like game controls!)
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"Techmoan" has Something Of Great Importance on his workbench. A recording of the July 20, 1969 Apollo 11 Moon landing audio+ rescued from a library's "clearing out the rubbish" campaign, along with a Space Age (1969) Philips 22 GF 303 portable record player, aka "Philips UFO." Both items might be found on eBay, though the record player is an "expensive collector's item." If you do find the recording, "play it like it's 1969" this Saturday to commemorate "One small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind." (Watch the "Capricorn One" video, instead, if you think "it was all done on a CIA movie set.";)
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Submitted for your approval, a 1984 executive-level landline telephone with much of the functionality found in a modern "Smartphone." Yes, it's another "rescued from obscurity" find by "Techmoan," who waxes ecstatically over the many buttons and functions on this all-in-one beast. It sorta works and, the company that owned this executoy is still in business! Continue exploring if you dare! (Sorry, no "Moan family" puppets again.;)
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Summer is headed for "the dog days" and "Techmoan" has a mixed bag of electronic toys. Here's a tale of a small amplifier, "Ball speakers," and a "flashing lights" equalizer. As you can tell from the "cover art," some electronic gadgets rub "Techmoan" the wrong way. (More to come.;) And, once again, no Puppets.
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With help from friends across the Interweb, "Techmoan" got detailed "tear down and repair" information, spare parts, and drive mechanisms to "bring dead tech back to life." No puppets this time, just details on how to clean off "rubber belt goo," demount "C-clamps," and how the repaired unit sounds today. Can you get all three decks to play at once? Will running two decks at the same time drain the battery pack? Just play the video and find out.;)
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The year is 1969, and Apollo 10 is in orbit around the Moon. What do Astronauts do for music 240,000 miles from Earth? They put a Compact cassette tape in a Sony TC-50 and play Pop music instead of listening to "the sounds of silence" as they enter "the dark side of the Moon." "Techmoan" imported this ancient piece of audio tech from Japan and did his best to restore it to "playing condition." Did he succeed? What does this "run-of-the-mill" tape recorder have to do with the Sony Walkman? Play the video for answers to these burning questions. Also, the "Moan family puppets" talk about "setting foot" hither and yon.;)
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Your eyes are working fine, mate! "Techmoan" has dug up, er, resurrected another fine example of 1980's Japanese tech for the mixtape maniac in you. It's a "full-featured-one-stop-got-everything-mini-boombox" that allows you to "play one and tape 2." Does it work? Of course not! The FM and AM radio bands can pick up a limited spectrum of "radio gaga," and it looks Sooo cute. The drive belts and clutches are in serious need of replacement, but getting to the gloopy mess that used to play the likes of Toto is a puzzle for the Almighty Techmoan Tinkerer. But, The Moan Family Puppets are back! With their "e;lectric underpants" and "I hate this" banter, YouTube fame awaits...
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"Techmoan" is at it again! In search of a radio with numerous switches and readouts, there are very expensive Classic Sony radios. But our favorite tinkerer finds a "for parts. not working" Shortwave radio that might benefit from some cleaning... (Sorry, no "Moan family" puppets today.)
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To misquote a long-ago article from either Stereo Review or High Fidelity, "does your favorite LP sound like it was recorded at a pistol firing tournament?" If so, it's time to clean the "microdust" off your record. "Techmoan" tried a Gel, pressure washer, the kitchen sink, and "spray & rub" to clean a superfine- and regular-groove LP with...Oh, that's a "Spoiler," isn't it? Check it out for yourself, if your LP collection has gotten "too dirty for general audiences." Sorry, no puppets...again.
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Is your amplifier just a lock with one or two LEDs on it? Fear not, "Techmoan" to the rescue with all manner of VU meters to light up your audio life. From professional grade to "wow-that's-a-legal-drug-trip!' display. You too can have a sound and light show to accompany the audio tracks on your system, no matter how mundane.;)
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You are the swingin' owner of "Romp and Stomp" platform shoe store, and need to entertain the customers while keeping your sales staff from going bonkers over repeated Muzak background music. What is a "Go Go 80's" dude (Or dudette) to do? Place a call to AEI Music and your problems will be over, in four hour slices. "Techmoan" looks at how a less-than-C 120 Compact Cassette can play (somewhat) better than Muzak over a four hour span. Sorry, no puppets today, but a fascinating look at 4 track cassette playback head skulduggery and the proper use of Audacity with a Sony Walkman Professional. "Should any of your Impossible..." Oops, wrong tape!
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"Help me, Obi-Wan..." Oops, this isn't THAT advanced, just something to "mount on the wall high above curious fingers" to display the .GIF animation of your choice. (Doesn't it look just like "Techmoan's" intro spinner seen on his vlogs over the years?) This two-bladed LED display spins and projects "things that seem to hang in the air" for commercial display or Ye Olde conversation piece. This "affordable" (100 English pounds is affordable!?) device is a full color "Andy Warhol" movie-type display in your "Futurama" tech cave for that "World of 'Blade Runner" look.;)
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(Somewhat) Bright, sparkly things attract Crows, Ravens, and "Techmoan." Our seeker of Tech has a basket full of electronic audio signal displays, two current Chinese units and a no-longer-made professional unit. Run through a set of test audio cassettes, it's easy to pick out the slipshod from the ho-hum. But what's that sound? "Moan family" puppets! More to come...
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An unspooling Videocasette, fuzzy video on the TV, and another competitor in the home video market. Techmoan has unleashed the first of a two part look at JVC and Thorn-EMI's attempt to bring digital audio and video to the world. 1982 was supposed to be the year when VHD was going to march over Philips' Laser Disk system, but a little thing called the CD derailed the first part of the revolution. Would JVC and Thorn-EMI succeed where Philips and RCA hadn't? Read on and see how interactive video was going to change the world!
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Submitted for your approval, "Techmoan" tries to fix a "basket case/for parts" Pioneer slide-loading direct drive turntable. Warning! Machines were hurt, the shipper was incompetent, and the result is...a Photoshop fantasy. Psst! wanna try to do better and become a YouTube "repair video" star?
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Submitted for your approval: Moan Family Puppets! Seriously, "Tenchmoan" has dug up a little-known battle in Europe between Philips and Grundig over tape cassettes in the early 1960's. Would the musicians (Grundig, Telefunken, Deutsch Grammophon) prevail in the markerplace over The Dictator (Philips)? In addition, the puppets are back! A YouTube copyright strike has been brought against "the old geezer." How will the sometime YouTube video maker fare against the Mighty YouTube Monster? Tune in for details.;)
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Submitted for your approval, electronic appliances for "the little people." A box arrives in the mail which is smaller than usual, in it are three "must have" items for half-sized people: a radio/cassette players, a phonograph, and a vintage TV. As you activate these items, you find the room you're in getting bigger as you grow smaller: next stop, "The Twilight Zone"! "Techmoan" has discovered a triple threat to your (rapidly diminishing) spare time from Showa electronics, in the form of toys/novelties that can make your Smart Phone less productive and a radio/tape player for short-attention-span folk. Beware, fun ahead!;)
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Submitted for your approval, a companion for your Smart Watch. I found this bit of Tech unnecessary, but if you have one of those not-quite-Dick-Tracy-Radio/TV wristwatches, this LED status display watch band is Hipster Cool. Excuse me, Techmoan's enthusiasm for this thing escapes me, so I'm off to YouTube in search of Something Completely Different before I fall asleep.
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"Techmoan" is just full of surprises. Submitted for your approval, a 2019 MiniDisc recording! Yes, it's time for another "blast from the past," the magneto/optical recording system that I saw locked up in a glass case and priced at "Apple Macintosh" levels in the 1990s. (I plodded along with compact cassettes until CD-Rs came along with MP3s and iPods just over the horizon.) This "video short" makes me want to look into this technology out of curiousity, since blank MiniDiscs and new recorders can still be found in Japan. So, Captain Ahab, is it time to "hunt for Moby Dick"?;)
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Digital Radio was announced...then disappeared in the U.S. Out here in the North Pacific, analog AM and FM radio continues to pollute, er broadcast what ever Corporate Radio deems important. (I can't remember the last time I tuned in a radio station. The last power outage? That's it!) Presented for your approval, "Techmoan" went shopping for an up-to-date Radio/CD player combo, and found a fork in the road. You will find out something/more than you ever wanted to know about Digital Audio Broadcasting in the UK. Long story short, the (somewhat) pricey Radio/CD player combo was a hit. (Sorry, no puppets.)
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It's 1978, and a band you've been following for years is going to do a video concert on TV. How do you make a recording from the 20 inch Sears Silvertone TV? Get out one of the cheap microphones the kids have been using to record audio letters, park it in front of the TV speaker and keep everyone away/silent as one-time-on-TV-only Creedence Clearwater Revival plays "Fortunate Son"? Take apart the TV and plug alligator clips to the TV speaker leads? J C Penney had an elegant solution via it's MCS line of audio/video components, where all you needed was an ordinary patch cord to record off TV. What's that you say? "Record the show on the brand new Panasonic VCR?" By cracky, that's a splendid idea! Breaking News! The "Moan Family" puppets are BACK!
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"Techmoan" sees the light! It's the end of the CFL-and-tripod-light-stands at the Techmoan video cave, and the beginning of the LED age. For those "Oxford=Scientific-film-wannabes," here's how Great Britain's obsolete tech boffin examines sticky rubber belts and smoking/burning "Mission Impossible" (TV) props. I've often wondered what kind of a rat's nest is needed to show the innards of, say, an off brand Boom Box, and here it is in living LED light. Now do a video of grandpa's old Edison cylinder phonograph playing John Philip Sousa and The U.S. Marine Band doing "The Liberty Bell.";)
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Good morning, the ubiquitous YouTube videographer, "Techmoan" has struck again! Using his spider skills across the Internet, the British man of gadgetry has unearthed another real world tape recorder that "Mr. Briggs" and "Mr. Phelps" used for "Impossible Missions Force" briefings. The arch explainer has threatened YouTube users with insomnia, featuring this latest tale of defunct Japanese tech. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to glean information to bring this amateur thespian accolades enough for yet another "IMF Tech" segment on YouTube. Good luck, Fishies. Should any members of your SongFacts team by caught or killed, The Secretary will take an early coffee break, put everyone on "Hold," and say: "What, Me Worry?" while displaying monumental indifference.
