25 years ago today the ZX Spectrum was released and many people’s destinies were written in silicon. It was the first computer that I had regular access to (after my uncle had bought it, didn’t know what to do with it, and promptly passed it on to my brother and I).
The power of those 48k was astonishing. Games makers packed in dozens of hours of gameplay, graphics, and music. When I started university we were ‘taught’ about computers. The ‘teacher’ (I use the word very loosely because it was clear that the instructor believed that all computers were evil, possessed, and of course utterly irrelevant to art) was demonstrating the scanner:
‘This page is blank white,’ she said ‘so it only takes up 22k.’ 22k? 22k! I remember when you could fit whole games into 22k, and now all you can do is tell a screen that the whole page is white? Have we completely forgotten how to code efficiently already? Then again, this was ten years ago, so it’s probably 3MB to have a white screen now…
Tonight I shall be drinking a toast to Sir Clive Sinclair and the computer that changed my world.
I’m in the planning stages of a novel at the moment. Whether it’ll ever become a reality is another question, but I’m putting a lot of groundwork in to make sure that I feel confident later down the line. Anyway…
I was looking to character names and found a good site for explaining the meaning of names, but I was really tickled by the random name generator. Almost every suggestion sounds incredibly cool and interesting. I bet that people could overcome writer’s block just by picking a random name then working out what kind of person would have it. Fantastic fun, and a great mental agility game to play when you’ve got a spare moment.
Who is Nicostratus Terrius? Or Wakefield Layton?
Coming to the Burning Man 2007: OrbSwarm (also known as SWARM).
SWARM is a funded large scale kinetic art project for Burning Man 2007. It consists of a number of rolling spherical vehicles, actuated by a non-rolling interior with a counterweight. With GPS guidance and computer control, the spheres can execute motions evocative of animals and dancers.
Huge ball things dancing in patterns across the desert, guided by GPS? Damn, I hope I can afford to go, just to see that!
Also sounding very fun is Burninator X:
The Burninator X is a very large scale fire installation currently under construction, for installation at Burning Man 2007. It will be a 2-dimensional set of flame towers arranged in a cross, in an area of approx. 1/2 million square feet. It will produce 2-D patterns and sequences of flame, visible for miles.
On a slightly more environmentally friendly note, Apocalypse Stagecoach is ‘bicycle powered stagecoach theatre’ who will be performing ‘Puppet Shows For The End Of The World’. That’s my kind of entertainment… And it’s nice that it’s not completely destroying the environment while it’s doing it.
Eclectic interesting links and articles collected by a painter, teacher, writer, and ex-PhD student
