Comments on: Scanner Plays Beethoven's Ode to Joy

By: Rob P.

Rob P. — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 23:37:04 +0000

In the era of 8-bit computing, there was a hack for the Commodore 1541 disc drive that would vibrate the read/write head in varied frequencies to play the song "Daisy". It was aptly called "Drive Music" and was notorious for destroying or misaligning drives after only one play.

Here is a link to a video of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gnMgmlKi_o

By: stanley

stanley — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:29:30 +0000

My previous post may not make it through because of this response: "Oops, something in your comment triggered the blog engine to request a moderation. Don't worry - someone will take a look at it manually soon! There's no need to re-submit the comment." Here's a paraphrase: Horsetwaddle. Arsewash. Flydung. Of all the ridiculous things flying around the web this is the closest to matching Chriss Angel and Derren Brown that I've seen in its breathtaking (and correct) assumption of stupidity by its audience. Congratulations to all.

By: manik

manik — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:29:33 +0000

Man, seekshelter and I were on the same page.

I don't really know whether the Tesla Coil was 6' or 8' tall.

By: CKS2996

CKS2996 — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 23:36:05 +0000

That is done by the controller IC in the scanner, invoked by a secret button combination.

By: manik

manik — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 21:59:40 +0000

Let's not forget Man or Astroman, the band most famous for the Mystery Science Theater 3000 "love song". They recorded a song "a simple text file" on their album Spectrum of Infinite Scale. They played it by, well, printing a simple text file through a dot matrix printer that they lugged around many live events. I could not find a decent vid or MP3 to share. Thier shows were fun, the grand finale was normally a couple blasts of lightning from their 6' Tesla Coil that looked amazingly like this "http://www.mgvolt.com/tesla_coil/tesla-coil-sparks5.jpg"

By: seekshelter

seekshelter — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 21:55:28 +0000

yet another neatorama post that reminds me of the band Man or Astroman... maybe not a household name, but nowhere near being an unknown band... they have to have one of the few things that you can't find on the internet... they would actually mic up a dot matrix printer to have it play live... mix that with their 8 foot tall tesla coil and you had yourself an awesome live show...

By: Jeff Greco

Jeff Greco — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 03:44:53 +0000

This is even more amazing: Radiohead's "Nude" performed by old computer parts. http://www.vimeo.com/1109226

By: Larry Sheldon

Larry Sheldon — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 03:35:42 +0000

[Tried to log in--something is broken]

How technology has progressed.

Down stairs some where I have a program deck that will make a 1403 printer play "She'll be comin' around the mountain".

By: Blaze

Blaze — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 02:38:44 +0000

This is why I love this site! One silly little video leads to me learning about easter eggs and google translated into Klingon! Man do I have a lot of time on my hands!

By: otterly

otterly — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 01:58:49 +0000

I love that scanner. I wish all of the ugly and mundane things around here did something charming like that. Now is it supposed to play music or is it just expressing itself?

By: CheeseDuck

CheeseDuck — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 00:20:19 +0000

Eh? I want to know how it does that.