Robots Playing Synths Way Back in 1984
November 3, 2009 by Rico Mossesgeld
Filed under Robots
1984 was an eventful year for geekdom. That was when Apple released the Macintosh, people breathed a collective sigh of relief over George Orwell’s predictions failing to pass, and The Terminator debuted, bringing the concept of machines taking over mankind to contemporary mainstream consciousness.
1984 was also the year when Japan’s Waseda University developed the WABOT-2, an “intelligent humanoid keyboard player”. As SynthGear reports:
When it was made, it was considered the ‘most advanced robot of its time’ – it could speak Japanese, and it could play a song on a synthesizer, using both hands and feet, while reading the sheet music …read more
RIAA’s Proof That Digital Downloads are Killing the Music Industry
August 3, 2009 by Rico Mossesgeld
Filed under Audio, Ramblings of a Gadget Geek
The New York Times recently came with an infograph charting different kinds of media and the sales they’ve enjoyed. Here’s a breakdown of each medium and their respective peak years and sales for those respective years:
Medium
Peak Year
Sales (in Billion $)
8-Track
1978
3.1
Cassette
1988
6.1
LP/EP
1978
8.1
CD
1999
16.4
Download Album
2008
0.6
Download Single
2008
1
The first impression that the graph leaves is that digital downloads are killing the music industry, as relatively lackluster sales are hurting the machinery needed to get our favorite tunes out.
To be fair though, it’s not clear if that was the RIAA or the NYT’s intent. It’s worth noting the chart paints a clear trend: the sales of older …read more
