Thursday, February 28. 2008
From back in the days when programmers used hammer and nails
After attending Fosdem, Linda and I had a few days to spend in Brussels. On Tuesday, we went to the musical instrument museum. This was a really good experience, as they have 5 floors packed with instruments from every age and every corner of the globe, along with wireless headsets that lets you listen to music played by each.
The one thing that I found really intriguing was some of the old "self playing" instruments such as this organ.
This is in essence an early computer, capable of processing many instructions at once from a stored program. The mechanical complexity of it just boggles the mind. And a closer look at the actual "code" shoes just how painstaking a job programming it must have been.
I wonder if it was possible to buy additional "programs" once you had purchased the organ.... If nothing else, this shows that musical software has a long tradition, that we here at Amarok HQ are proud to be a part of!
And just to throw in a bit of Amarok related content. Today I have been hard at work fixing many ( most? ) of the crashes we experienced while demoing Amarok this weekend, so hopefully the upcoming demos at Cebit and OpenExpo will run a lot smoother!
The one thing that I found really intriguing was some of the old "self playing" instruments such as this organ.
This is in essence an early computer, capable of processing many instructions at once from a stored program. The mechanical complexity of it just boggles the mind. And a closer look at the actual "code" shoes just how painstaking a job programming it must have been.
I wonder if it was possible to buy additional "programs" once you had purchased the organ.... If nothing else, this shows that musical software has a long tradition, that we here at Amarok HQ are proud to be a part of!
And just to throw in a bit of Amarok related content. Today I have been hard at work fixing many ( most? ) of the crashes we experienced while demoing Amarok this weekend, so hopefully the upcoming demos at Cebit and OpenExpo will run a lot smoother!
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Wooah!
The Musical Instruments Museum is one of my favorite in Brussels. It's really exciting to see the most strange instruments. (About programming and instruments: I own a Modular Analog Synthesizer, which is a little bit 'programmable' with all those patches).
Cheers!
Thomas Peter
The Musical Instruments Museum is one of my favorite in Brussels. It's really exciting to see the most strange instruments. (About programming and instruments: I own a Modular Analog Synthesizer, which is a little bit 'programmable' with all those patches).
Cheers!
Thomas Peter
Buying new programs depended on who made your unit, some makers (which were often one man shops) allowed you to buy extra drums and change them out. The size of the drums meant that few people (who were generally making a living begging on the streets) had extra drums.
When you got tired of the music the general practice was to have the drum re-done, which meant removing all the wires and putting new ones in. It wouldn't be a bad idea to send the whole instrument in at the same time for maintenance at the same time. Since these instruments were often used on the streets, and were made relatively cheaply, most did not last long.
In many cases the maker retained ownership of the instrument, and just rented it out by the day.
It is a fascinating topic. I've read a few books about it, and would like to read more. Even better would be to own one myself, but few survive.
When you got tired of the music the general practice was to have the drum re-done, which meant removing all the wires and putting new ones in. It wouldn't be a bad idea to send the whole instrument in at the same time for maintenance at the same time. Since these instruments were often used on the streets, and were made relatively cheaply, most did not last long.
In many cases the maker retained ownership of the instrument, and just rented it out by the day.
It is a fascinating topic. I've read a few books about it, and would like to read more. Even better would be to own one myself, but few survive.
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