Photos from the 2007 Trenton Computer Festival

The photo above shows an Altair 680 sitting atop a vintage Zenith Data Systems machine. These were two of several vintage computers at the Mid-Atlantic Retro Computing Hobbyists (MARCH) booth this past weekend during the 32nd Annual Trenton Computer Festival, held at The College of New Jersey in Ewing, N.J.

Click here for more photos from the 2007 Trenton Computer Festival.

(NOTE: I’ll try to add captions and information about the photos at some point).

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Technology and the Arts featured in Lawrence Ledger

If you live near Lawrence Township, N.J., and have this week’s (April 26) issue of The Lawrence Ledger, you will find a story about the Technology and the Arts podcast at the top of page 3A, complete with a picture of your hosts.

We would like to thank Rosalie Ann LaGrutta for talking to us recently and writing the story.

Look for a link to the online version of the article when it becomes available Friday. (UPDATED, 4/29/07: Apparently, The Lawrence Ledger only puts the front-page stories on its Web site because the link for “Ledger News” takes you to what can best be described as a static page of local information…sorry about the lack of a link.)

Here is a list of locations where you can buy a copy of The Lawrence Ledger.

(The photo of the article was taken with a cell phone, so excuse the blurriness.)

Webcasters unite to save industry

Here is the latest on the battle to save Internet radio from Pandora’s Tim Westergren (from the Pandora blog)…

April 16, 2007

SAVENETRADIO… Please join us!

My deepest thanks to everyone who has been so supportive these past few weeks as we’ve confronted the stunning development with the internet radio royalty rates. It has been very heartening for all of us to experience such a groundswell of support from our listeners.

Today, in coordination with a fast growing consortium of webcasters big and small, commercial and non-commercial, we are launching a campaign to reverse this pending disaster.

I hope you’ll join us. To add your voice to this movement, please take a minute to sign the PETITION urging your representatives in congress to act at the new website Savenetradio.org.

And please share this petition link with friends: http://capwiz.com/saveinternetradio/issues/alert/?alertid=9631541

Our first goal is to demonstrate the magnitude of the injustice being committed here through the sheer volume of people it affects. We plan to rapidly follow this effort with the introduction of a bill in congress to protect ourselves once and for all from these predatory maneuvers.

The last couple weeks have made it quite clear to us that it’s going to take nothing short of a major public outcry to reverse the results of this concerted campaign by the RIAA to shutter internet radio.

As awareness of this ruling and its consequences are spreading through the musicians’ community, we are being joined daily by hundreds of artists and their organizations for whom internet radio has become such a promising new outlet.

Thanks again for your wonderful and on-going support. I hope you will become an active part of this effort.

Best regards,

Tim (Founder)

(T+A #9) Technology and the Arts: 4/18/2007

(T+A #9) Technology and the Arts: 4/18/2007

Technology and the Arts co-host John LeMasney provides a screencast tutorial on how to use the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP). Other topics include the Trenton Computer Festival, a technology-heavy production of “Doctor Faustus” at Western Michigan University, the 2007 FITC Design and Technology Festival in Toronto, and the deal will bring DRM-free songs from the EMI record label to Apple’s iTunes Store, as well as several interesting Web sites relevant to technology and the arts. Hosts: Brian Kelley, John LeMasney. File size: 14 MB. Time: 29 min., 10 sec.

Show Notes for Technology and the Arts Podcast #9

Technology and the Arts co-host John LeMasney provides a screencast tutorial on how to use the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP). Other topics include the Trenton Computer Festival, a technology-heavy production of “Doctor Faustus” at Western Michigan University, the 2007 FITC Design and Technology Festival in Toronto, and the deal will bring DRM-free songs from the EMI record label to Apple’s iTunes Store, as well as several interesting Web sites relevant to technology and the arts. Hosts: Brian Kelley, John LeMasney. File size: 14 MB. Time: 29 min., 10 sec.

• Subscribe to podcast via RSS feed
  
• Subscribe to podcast via iTunes

Featured Link

• GIMP Tutorial Screencast – Technology and the Arts co-host John LeMasney provides a screencast tutorial on how to use the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP). The audio from this tutorial is included in the podcast, but it is suggested you watch the screencast for best results.

Other links related to this episode:

• John talks about his upcoming Brookdale Computer Users Group talk on open source software.
• Trenton Computer Festival – Ewing, NJ – April 28 & 29, 2007
• Technology and the Arts may be featured in a future issue of The Lawrence Ledger.
• Brian discusses the Robert J. Novins Planetarium at Ocean County College in Toms River, New Jersey (USA), and the Save the Planetarium organization.
• John reads about the Perfect Bacon Butty.
• Mind Control Cults…the movie!
• Hackergotchi HowTo…using the GIMP. What is hackergotchi?
• Japanese emoticons
• LibriVox: How to Get 2,427 People to Podcast for a Common Cause
• Western Michigan University is staging a very interesting — and technology-heavy — production of “Doctor Faustus. Check out the behind-the-scenes video on the project site…or order tickets for this weekend.
• FITC Design and Technology Festival 2007 – According to the official press release, designers and developers working across many new media including web, mobile, games, motion graphics and art installations will unite at the Toronto Hilton hotel between April 22 and 24, 2007, for the FITC Design and Technology Festival, the largest event of its kind in Canada. The event allows the world’s new media experts to showcase their innovative techniques and dissect the newest technologies that help them accomplish their award-winning work. One thousand attendees from more than 15 countries come to the festival’s three streams: creative, technical and business. Delegates will learn cutting-edge techniques, technologies and business insight related to the new media industry – which in Canada generates more than $3 billion in revenues annually.
• EMI agrees to sell higher-quality, DRM-free tracks on Apple Inc.’s iTunes store for $1.29 a song. Read Apple’s press release.

(T+A #8) Technology and the Arts: 4/4/2007

(T+A #8) Technology and the Arts: 4/4/2007

Famed rock ‘n’ roll producer and engineer Eddie Kramer is the guest on the eighth installment of the Technology and the Arts podcast. Other topics include the Trenton Computer Festival, music collaboration site Kompoz.com, updates on the battle to save Internet radio and the March 22 Bum Rush the Charts project, and several interesting Web sites relevant to technology and the arts. Hosts: Brian Kelley, John LeMasney. File size: 14.8 MB. Time: 32 min., 10 sec.

Show Notes for Technology and the Arts Podcast #8

Famed rock ‘n’ roll producer and engineer Eddie Kramer is the guest on the eighth installment of the Technology and the Arts podcast. Other topics include the Trenton Computer Festival, music collaboration site Kompoz.com, updates on the battle to save Internet radio and the March 22 Bum Rush the Charts project, and several interesting Web sites relevant to technology and the arts. Hosts: Brian Kelley, John LeMasney. File size: 14.8 MB. Time: 32 min., 10 sec.

• Subscribe to podcast via RSS feed
  
• Subscribe to podcast via iTunes

Featured Link

• Eddie Kramer – The famed rock ‘n’ roll producer and engineer, who has worked with the likes of Jimi Hendrix, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles and Led Zeppelin, talked to us about his view of digital vs. analog recording technologies, the great photographs he took of the music legends with whom he has worked, and RIAA lawsuits…and more.

Other links related to this episode:

• John talks about his upcoming Brookdale Computer Users Group talk on open source software.
• Princeton Public Library’s Tuesday Tech Talks – John gave a presentation on his favorite 25 Firefox extensions as part of the Princeton (N.J.) Public Library’s Tuesday Tech Talk series on April 3.
• Trenton Computer Festival – Ewing, NJ – April 28 & 29, 2007
• John on Twitter and on Tumblr.
• Battlestar Galactica
• Doctor Who (official BBC site…or DW on SciFi.com)
• ColorJack: Sphere – Download the OSX Widget!
• dryponder: Draw Supergirl! – If you’re into the “different takes” thing, check out these fans’ different takes on drawing Supergirl (registered trademark of DC Comics).
• Kompoz.com – music collaboration for virtual bands and creative commons online music makers – Kompoz.com is an online workspace for musicians. Use it to compose new music with other artists around the world. Got an idea for a song? Record a track. Upload it. Then invite others to add drums, bass, vocals!
• FoWA: Things We’ve Learned – Joshua Schachter – An interesting set of notes from the Future of Web Apps conference; lots of attention to what’s been learned from del.icio.us.
• Hack Attack: Build your own DVR – Lifehacker – “Whether you’re using your current PC, repurposing an old one, or going all out on a dedicated DVR to put under your TV, you can get so much more out of your own DVR than you could ever get out of a TiVo.”
• Helvetica – “Helvetica” is a film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface, which is celebrating its 50th birthday this year, as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives.
• TARDIS MAME Console – Simon Jansen, who runs the New Zealand-based Star Wars ASCIIMation Web site, came up with a project that is definitely aimed at someone who is skilled at building things, has decent technical skills and has PLENTY OF TIME ON HIS OR HER HANDS. Simon has posted instructions on how to build a Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator inside a TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimensions In Space), which is the time-travel machine shaped like a blue London police call box from the 1960s belonging to the show’s titular character, known simply as The Doctor.
• Bum Rush the Charts Recap – Check out how Black Lab’s “Mine Again” performed on the iTunes charts from the March 22 “Bum Rush the Charts” project we discussed in our last podcast.
• Save Internet Radio Update – “There has been an enormous groundswell of opposition” to the recent royalty rate hikes for webcasters announced recently by the Copyright Royalty Board, writes Pandora founder Tim Westergren on the Pandora Blog. Check out his post for links for additional resources.

“Bum Rush the Charts” recap

Well, if you were on the Technology and the Arts blog March 22, you saw a post about the “Bum Rush the Charts” project.

The primary goal of BRTC was to boost an indie band, which is also considered “podsafe” (i.e., allows its music to be played freely in podcasts with attribution), to the No. 1 spot on the iTunes Store’s top downloads chart, if just for one day, to show the true power of the blogs and podcasts that have been promoting BRTC. Another objective of BRTC was to demonstrate that music artists no longer need the clout of a major record label to attain success.

The band chosen for BRTC was Black Lab, a group that had been booted from two major record labels and then had to fight to get its own music back from those labels. The song selected for the BRTC project was Black Lab’s “Mine Again.”

So…how did BRTC and Black Lab fare?

Well, “Mine Again” has not made it to No. 1 on iTunes’ top download chart…yet. However, according to the Bum Rush the Charts blog, “Mine Again” did reach as high as No. 11 on the iTunes Rock chart and No. 99 on the iTunes Top 100 list, as of March 24. Keep in mind, though, that Black Lab is an unsigned/podsafe band…and it managed to break into the iTunes Top 100 chart and nearly into the top 10 on iTunes’ Rock chart solely on the strength of an idea generated by one blog/podcast.

It is when you look at the results from an international perspective that you get a feel for the power of so-called “new media.” For instance, in the Netherlands, “Mine Again” reached No. 15 on the iTunes Top 100 chart and as high as No. 2 on the iTunes Rock chart. The song reached as high as No. 10 on the Canadian iTunes Rock chart and peaked at No. 53 on the Top 100 chart.

As far as I am concerned, that makes Bum Rush the Charts a huge success.

Here is what BRTC’s Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff had to say about the results…

…If you were to look at all of the other bands on the charts at the same time, Black Lab was the ONLY UNSIGNED BAND.

Just getting onto the charts is pretty huge. Note that there are record companies out there that can’t do what we did on the 24th.

Was there movement on the charts that wasn’t apparent because they only updated 3x in 24 hours? Possibly. Was there an Apple conspiracy to shut down the charts on Bum Rush day? I really doubt it. Were the iTunes servers probably swamped because of the release of Apple TV and an update to the iTunes software? That would be my guess.

Did traditional media take notice? Washington Post, BBC, San Jose Mercury, Billboard, Spin, CBC, Businessweek and others. Raise your hand if you’ve ever heard of any of these.

Was it a success? You tell me. The whole experiment was set up to show that podcasting and new media is a social movement that has a pretty far reach across the globe. Bum Rush got a lot of people inside and outside of new media talking, shed more light on podcasting and helped get some exposure for an unsigned band and helped them tell their story about how they were mistreated by a major record label.

And in the end, even though we may not know the final sales report for 30 days, I’d wager that we raised thousands of dollars for the scholarship fund. Some kid who couldn’t afford college before will get to go this fall because of the podcasting and blogging commuities. I don’t know about you, but that makes me feel pretty good.

Honestly, 100 percent the credit belongs to you, the podcasters, podcast listeners, bloggers and blog readers who took part in Bum Rush the Charts.

Imagine what we could have done if we had made it a whole Bum Rush week instead of a day?

Christopher Penn of the Student Loan Network’s Financial Aid Podcast had these initial reflections on Bum Rush the Charts…

…Now, after reading this, you’re probably thinking, wow, Chris, you must have thought Bum Rush the Charts was a complete failure, a complete disaster. Not so, not so at all. In fact, I think for an effort like this, it was a fantastic success. Consider this. How much does a record label spend to get a new single on the charts in one country? How much would it cost to launch a worldwide campaign to do the same? New media may not have achieved as much reach as I would have liked, but there’s no question that the campaign “moved the needle” and achieved very impressive results across the world.

More importantly, the campaign raised some money. While I’ve said before that you can’t shop your way to a better world, this was clearly a case of piggybacking for a greater good. Mark Nemcoff and Mike Yusi were going to run with Bum Rush the Charts (they are the founders) no matter what, and the fact that they were generous enough to let me piggyback on their event to raise some money for college scholarships speaks volumes to their characters. Even if only one person bought the track, that’d be 45 cents that someone wouldn’t need to take out of their own pockets to pay for college, and for that, whoever we draw for the scholarship will owe a debt of gratitude to Mark and Mike.

Finally, look at the incredible amount of press about the event despite an effective budget of $800 (for two press releases) plus the time and labor of those involved. Worldwide top 100 charts in Rock? Worldwide top 100 charts overall in select countries? For $800 plus labor? You can’t beat that return on investment. No, Bum Rush the Charts was a great first experiment to test the reach of new media, and with the lessons learned from our first collective efforts, it’s only going to get better from here on out.

Thank you to everyone who joined in.

TEDTalks: Jeff Han

TEDTalks: Jeff Han

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