Before Wikipedia and YouTube

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I’ve been sharing old photos from the early days of radio station KBOA. I worked there in the 70s and my dad before me. I’ve been updating content on the website I created about the early days (1947-1957) of the station. KBOA830.com was my first shot at a website, back in 1997 and didn’t get much attention after the initial setup because it focused on that ten year period.

While updating this week, I kept find relevant stuff on Wikipedia and YouTube and couldn’t figure out how I’d missed this stuff when creating the site. Then I realized Wikipedia didn’t come online until 2001 and YouTube in 2005. And I found other sites with great material about performers and on-air talent at KBOA.

What is Reality?

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“Emergence theory is a new physics model currently being developed by a Los Angeles based team of scientists. Emergence theory intricately – yet simply – weaves together quantum mechanics, general and special relativity, the standard model and other mainstream physics theories into a complete, fundamental picture of a discretized, self-actualizing universe.”

“Physics allows the possibility that all the energy of the universe can be converted into a single, conscious system that itself is a network of conscious systems. Given enough time, what can happen will eventually happen. By this axiom, universal emergent consciousness has emerged via self-organization somewhere ahead of us in 4D spacetime. And because it is possible, it is inevitable. In fact, according to the evidence of retro-causality time loops, that inevitable future is co-creating us right now just as we are co-creating it.”

Wealthy LA convicts can upgrade to nicer jail

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Wealthy LA convicts can spend extra to serve their time in fancy jails

If some California inmates are not happy with their jail conditions, those who have money to spare can pay for an upgrade. Two counties in Southern California have at least 26 such “pay-to-stay” jails, a joint collaboration between The Los Angeles Times and The Marshall Project found.

Starting at $25 and going up to $251 a night, the program allows certain inmates to move into a “less intimidating environment,” as one jail in Santa Ana advertises on its website. The conditions differ from an eight-person dorm to one cell with two beds, a television, a phone and a separate refrigerator. The average inmate stayed in one of the rooms for 18 days, the Los Angeles Times and The Marshall Project reported.

Southern California’s “pay-to-stay” jail system, which brought in up to $7 million between 2011 and 2015, started in the 1980s as a way to fight overcrowding in the region’s jails.

What does a successful transition to a digital government look like?

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Well, it looks like Estonia. In the 20 minute interview above, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, former President of Estonia talks about how that country made the transition from Soviet satellite to one — if not THE — most tech savvy countries on the planet. They are sooo far ahead of the US.

At one point in the interview he makes reference to the “borderless world” in which we live. Build all the walls you want, double the TSA goons… but we’re all connected now and more so every day. Put the cap on the toothpaste. Since I first heard the sweet screech of a modem, my sense of place and geography has been fading. I’ve never thought of myself as a “Missourian” and “American exceptionalism” has always seemed like something a shirtless Packers fan would scream at the other team.

Corny as it sounds, I’ve long felt like a citizen of the world. Even though I haven’t seen most of it. So to hear how countries like Estonia and Finland are using technology to better serve their citizens feels like a win for “our team.” Listen to the interview for a glimpse of what can be.

One other point: the person doing the interview (if he even said his name I missed it) was excellent. Short, concise questions. Allowed Ilves time to answer, without interruption.

Augmented audio future?

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These are the kinds of possibilities that moved me to buy AirPods.

“Maybe I’d hear updates about store hours or be able to identify places by looking in their direction. Or a museum audio tour could be triggered by your proximity to an exhibit. Maybe I’d get a smartly-tuned audio assistant that sounded like it was perched over my shoulder, perfectly blended to sound like it was in my world versus being delivered via headphones. Or, a universal translator. That’s exactly what the Waverly Labs’ Pilot is promising: the ability to hear a speaker of Spanish, French or Italian in English (or vice versa) in near real-time.”

Voice-to-text note using Siri via AirPods

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I created a note on my iPhone using Siri and voice-to-text. (In a noisy coffee shop). Music is great on the AirPods but my primary reason for the purchase was to see if/how AirPods could change the way I interacted with the iPhone. Using Siri (far from perfect) to read messages and email; create and send messages and email; schedule reminders; etc. Without removing the phone from my pocket. [Video runs 20 sec]

Recording phone audio with ScreenFlow

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During my working years I always had ready access to good recording equipment. This came in most handy when recording interviews by phone. Good telephone hybrids are expensive but make a big difference in quality.

Since retiring, I’ve used various tools for this task. I’ve mentioned Call Recorder for FaceTime which works well if both ends are using Mac gear. Years ago I tried Audio Hijack but found that glitchy. Probably a user issue.

Yesterday I tried a different setup. I made the call via Google Hangout and recorded the audio with ScreenFlow. I use ScreenFlow to record screencasts but found I could simply turn off the camera and capture the audio. I was pleasantly surprised with the result. ScreenFlow captured the audio in two channels so it was easy to tweak the audio for each. There might be better ways to skin this cat but this is the best combination of easy and quality that I’ve found.

Apple AirPods

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I was going to wait a few days before sharing any thoughts on my new Bluetooth headphones but I’ve been so impressed by the initial experience I’m going to share a few first impressions.

  • I thought the regular Apple earbuds sounded fine but the audio quality of the AirPods is noticeably better. A lot better, IMO. Maybe a 25% improvement?
  • Lots of folks complain about how earbuds and the new AirPods feel in their ears. Never a problem for me. I kept them in for an hour two last night and they were so comfortable I forgot they were in. I felt no movement when shaking my head vigorously or jumping up and down. I have no concern about them falling out. I have no doubt I’ll be wearing (?) these more than the wired earbuds.
  • On that point, I was surprised by a new sense of freedom from the wire. (Like I said, this is my first experience with Bluetooth phones) Not having that little wire against my cheeks or snagging on a shirt button changes the experience far more than I would have expected. In a way that I can’t explain, the music feels like it’s in my head, instead of in my ears.
  • Phone calls – Barb says I’m much easier to understand on a call (compared to just talking on the iPhone). I think this might be the result of ambient noise filters built into the system.
  • Voice-to-text works great, even when speaking in lower-than-normal speaking level.

Still trying stuff (Siri commands/inquiries, etc) but these are keepers. Will it fundamentally change how I interact with the technology? To be determined.

Who is the twirler?

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The following is an excerpt from the Wikipedia entry for the film A Face in the Crowd, a 1957 film starring Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal and Walter Matthau, directed by Elia Kazan.

“Most of the film’s interiors were shot in New York at the Biograph Studios in the Bronx. The most involved location shoot was in Piggott, Arkansas (the fair and baton-twirling competition scenes). Five thousand extras were sought, to be fed and paid $1 hourly for a mid-August day’s work. Sixty baton twirlers were rounded up from NE Arkansas and SE Missouri, and musicians from six different high school bands were assembled. Remick reported spending two weeks in Piggott living with teen twirler Amanda Robinson and her family, working on her twirling and local accent. Some of her baton twirling scenes used a double. At the Piggott location shoot some 380 dogs were assembled from Missouri and Arkansas for the scene following Rhodes’ first mass-action call on his audience: to take their dogs to the home of a local sheriff who was running for higher office – Rhodes opining that people should first find out if a candidate is worthy of the office of ‘dog catcher’.”

I was nine years old in 1957 and not much interested the movies. But it sounds like the location shooting in Piggott was a pretty big deal. I struggled to identify the twirler and finally concluded it was Sandra Wirth, even though she isn’t listed in the cast on iMDB. Now I’m wondering if it might be Amanda Robinson.

UPDATE January 17, 2021: Thanks to John Carpenter for some much needed research on this photo.

“That photo, taken mid-August 1956 in Piggott, is indeed “Miss Florida 1955” and actress Sandra “Sandy” Wirth. She is also noted on the AFI page for “A Face In The Crowd.”

“Hollywood Reporter news items add the following actors to the cast: Sandra Wirth, Lloyd Bergen, Jay Sidney, Eva Vaughn, John McGovern, Kitty Dolan, Sandee Preston, Gus Thorner, Beverly Boatwright, Jane Baier and Gloria Mosolino.”

“I also looked up Amanda Robinson. There’s a brief article (New York Daily News – Thursday, September 20, 1956) on her and the two other local girls who made it into the film, and were even flown to New York to film a few scenes. All of them (despite the fuzzy photo) are brunettes:”

Here for a Twirl in the Movies. Three baton-carrying, 16-year-old Southern belles arriving at LaGuardia Field yesterday are (I. to r.), Suzanne Ballard, Amanda Robinson and Bunny McCollum. The gals, all from Piggott, Ark., will be in town for two weeks during the filming of new movie. They will play the parts of drum majorettes in the picture.