In fact, if you were to listen to the media from that period you might come to believe that Steve Jobs was an unbelievable wizard who single handedly created home computers and Pixar movies, all the while inspiring folks to “think different”. It is true, Jobs stood for an amazing standard in entrepreneurial theory and practice. If he had entered God into it all, Apple and it’s purchasers could quickly garner cult status. The thing is, Jobs was not a developer, he was a designer. I don’t want to say he didn’t understand “under the hood” stuff, but it wasn’t his concern. “Make it do this, you know, for the kids.”

So, who is this Dennis Ritchie? He developed the C programming language and was a major proponent of the Unix operating system. After C came C++ and a whole league of similar languages. After Unix came Linux (which this website is running on). Ritchie defined a standard for high level programming languages, languages that make programming much more accessible. Without them there would be a lot less software in the world. A computer is practically useless without software.

…and now a bunch of related links that have cluttered my browser for months now…

Where were you when Apple II? – one of the last machines I think of (had one) when people mention 8bit due to it’s lackluster graphics and sound during it’s era

Foxconn – Jobs might have helped build Pixar, but Apple outsources labor to an abusive firm

The Oatmeal – Apple Products – great comic about Apple diehards and the lack of upgrade options

Serving at the Pleasure of the King – an argument about Apple’s app store not nurturing it’s developer community

On the Media Reaction . . . – industry experts from O’Reilly Radar discuss the adulation of Steve Jobs

Remembering Dennis Ritchie – much less controversy, much less articles about his passing :(

Kind of Bloop is an 8-bit tribute to Miles Davis’ most successful album. It was curated by Andy Baio who’s been blogging and posting links forevers at waxy.org, and is a cofounder of kickstarter. Baio did everything he could think of to make this a legitimate and lawful release. With the help of kickstarter, he raised the needed funds to pay the licensing fees for all tracks on said album. It turned out to be an awesome stroke of cross promotion; being covered by Time Magazine among others.

Kind of Bloop was released nearly a year ago. I listened to it a couple times, it’s fun; Shnabubula’s “All Blues” is all over the map. I do wish, however, that all the classic jazz lovers who abhor this conceptual tribute would give it a solid listen. I understand some folks can only tolerate acoustic music, but I wish they could also appreciate the skill, effort, and detail that make these ‘computerized’ renditions so organic, human, and unique. It’s all jazz — even when Hannibal, of the A*Team, is forming a plan.

So here’s the crap — the cover of the album has it’s own copyright holder, photographer Jay Maisel. He never gave consent and claims he never would have if asked. Even though Kind of Bloop’s cover is an 8bit translation, it apparently failed to diverge enough from the original. Maisel, with money and lawyers, managed to pin Baio for a mere $32,500. Maisel is an artisanal juggernaut, people pay him $5k for weekend workshops. Jay Maisel is the man.

Campbell’s Soup never sued Andy Warhol for making their cans look like vomit. I’m kind of worried about Campbell’s masculinity.

I’d like to make an analogy using a Mr. Show skit from the perspective of the legal world. The guy with the bloody ear is a younger generation of artist who flirts with mashups and chipmusic covers. The donut clerk is the court. The seated acquaintance is the elder established artist, the hipster from the 50′s bronze age of jazz.

Fair Use has always sounded like a trap to me. Yeah, you’re in the clear as long as you make no money. But what if you had something that went mad viral, containing copyrighted material, and it launches your artistic career? Can that copyright holder, with enough lawyer power, find a way to garnish your new professional wages? In most lawsuits, the court sides with the established juggernaut mother.

Please read Andy Baio’s account on the situation.

Download audio file (Primes-blaster.mp3)

After I donloaded that, I checked out the homepage where there was some news.  The latest update?  ”.:Lots More G1 Music Added!:.”  67 tracks 156mb 90min of Transformers original cartoon music.  The project seems to be mostly curated by a person that goes by Grimbot.  I can only imagine, and contemplated doing, that Grimbot watched endless episodes, cataloging the themes, and putting together chunks without voices or sound effects.  You do hear sound effects now and then, but I must commend this effort!  This is some great work by a true OCD warrior!  KUDOS!!

I tried to pick the three most memorable themes to share —

Download audio file (Factories-are-busy.mp3)

Download audio file (Plan.mp3)

Download audio file (Survival.mp3)

Man, this stuff is such a rush . . .

Although we know Vince DiCola did the score for the movie, the tv series’ music seems uncredited.  I would guess that Sunbow and Marvel opted for production music licenses as some of the music was shared with G.I. Joe (same production companies).  But it has got me thinking about other classic cartoon background scores I would like to have : He-Man and Thundercats.

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe had Shuki Levy and Haim Saban for composers.  Those are huge names for kid show music; think Inspector Gadget and Power Rangers.  But, besides the open and closing themes, mostly unavailable.

ThunderCats was scored by Bernard Hoffer and there is presently an online petition to have the soundtrack released on CD.  Warner Brothers offered a $14,000 price to find the original tapes on their archival shelves.  But, according to this forum thread, ‘[a] cue list Bernard sent Sonia along with the tracks’ suggests some civilians have copies.  There are a few tracks here but they are direct recordings from the show with voices and sounds and the quality isn’t good either.

TFcog is a great example of a classic fan site.  Except for the forum, it feels like 100% manually updated html with frames.  Does this put them under the radar or is TFG1 worth ignoring?  Damn, that new movie sucked.  =(

Tanuki refers to a wild Japanese dog that looks like a raccoon or badger.  They do definitely look less like a dog.   Which may be why they are thought of as mischievous, cunning, shape-shifting anthropomorphs in mythological lore.

Tanooki is a Nintendo of America translation first utilized in Super Mario Bros. 3, being a full-body extension to the more standard, simpler raccoon tail.  Where the raccoon tail can get Mario propelling forward through the air, the tanooki suit also allows Mario to transform into a statue which can be passed by enemies unharmed.

Simple enough.  It would be easy to conclude N of A changed the spelling for accessible pronunciation.  Though, reading it as standard translated text, it sounds tah-no-oh-key rather than tah-new-key.

And so, while that might be interesting to some, others could wonder why I’d bother nerding out like this.  There’s a simple explanation :

Somewhen in Japanese history their culture decided that this –

… a raccoon dog out on your wet porch is the equivalent of this –

A public phone kiosk with ginormous testicles between it’s feet for happy foreigners to molest.  It’s quite a scene!  The sake is for good luck.

Monstropedia says :

In Japanese folklore the Tanuki has great physical strength and supernatural powers. Like the kitsune (fox), it is a master of shapeshifting and disguise and is a mischievous creature taking all sorts of disguises to deceive or annoy travellers. It will perform various tricks to get such things as saké, food, or women to the point of turning itself into inanimate objects, such as the tea-kettle in the famous story of the Bunbukuchagama.

Is the scrotum pushing the tanuki up in the air or is this more like a flying sumoplex?

“Just another rainy day, walking along with the gang.  Oh!  Look out!  That bear is trying to eat our brief cases!”   “That’s not a bear, that’s a space station.”

Perfectly acceptable in public.  This is what Mario and Luigi were up to?  They dress up like furries, get smashed on sake, and then crush passerby’s with their inflatable testicles?  Fun for the whole family!

UPDATE :: I found a great source of dated prints.  ”In the mid-1840s, ukiyo-e master Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861) created a number of woodblock prints showing legendary tanuki (raccoon dogs) using their humorously large scrota in creative ways.”