Jason Scott Talks His Way Out of It

The PAL Video Toolchain Episode: A Final Part, The Nature of PAL, PAL Videotapes, VHS, DVD-Recorder Time-Base Corrector, Finding The Process, Testing The Process, The FIrst of the Tapes, The Future, The Nature of Learning.

A contemplation on how I finally got PAL Video digitizing, after so long of wanting to do so. The first of the tapes are done, and I've got only a hundred to so to put that all into the done column.

The Homestar Runner Expert Episode: A Letter From a Teacher, A Student Researcher, Homestar Runner, Expertise For a Future Researcher, The Brothers Chaps, All I Know, A Virtuoso Voice, The Maintained Lack of Maintenance, Ruffle, The Future Doctor of Homestar.

Getting a letter from a teacher where a student wanted to know about Homestar Runner and I was tapped as the expert to be consulted, I took it seriously and now maybe I made a kid's day. I could think of worse outcomes.

The Homestar Runner Continues at https://homestarrunner.com/

The Misremembered Mall Episode: The Hudson Valley Explorer, The Running Commentary, An Amnesiac Tour Guide, The Story of IBM and Dutchess County, Tracts of Land, The Lifespan of a Mall, Dutchess Mall, Service Merchandise, The Atari Bug, Why Save Memories, Wrong Memories, A Single Hope.

The fact a TikTok account called The Hudson Valley Explorer went to the dead husk of a remaining portion of the Dutchess Valley Mall and tried to explain it away shouldn't have bothered me, but he was also 5 miles from my childhood home, so let's do this.

The Background Noise of Community Episode: Healing Music, Avoiding the Noise, Learning Audio With Jeremy, Making Works and Creations, Never Alone, Understanding Part of the Tapestry, Appreciating the Noise, Being a Good Neighbor.

Unexpected directions abound as I realize my neighbor is playing music loud enough to leak on the recording, and then realizing that being part of a community comes with a little noise. The lack of noise reduction in a couple places is intentional.

The Quick Summary of Archiving Episode: Getting Through E-Mail, A Phone Call or Nothing, The Role of Digitizing, Some Basic Metrics, The Continuum, The Approach, Metadata's Role, Getting It Wrong, Getting It Right, An Obsidian Obelisk, Space Station, Back to Work.

Getting an e-mail that I know of as one of my long-to-take-to-get-back-to e-mails, I switched to making the e-mail into a phone call, and gave a quick phone call about what archiving standards I approach are. It was a helpful exercise, so here we go again with the ideas.

The Reel to Reel Episode: Moving to a New Medium, Learning a New Old Medium, The Process More Than the Products, College Education, Razor Blades, Small Collections and Large Collections, Individual Recordings, TC-650, Testing and Refinement, The Harder Decisions, The Time Ahead.

I got my hands on a reel to reel recorder (which worked good enough for tests) and I just had to re-learn the whole aspects of reel to reel tape. It's going to be quite a joy to deal with all of them!

The Friars Club Annual Meeting Episode: Going Through Boxes, Turn Every Page, Listen to Every Tape, Annual Meeting, The Agenda, The Hope, COVID, Losing a Century, The Fast Closure, The Context of this Meeting, The Story Not Yet Told.

About a very interesting annual meeting held at the NY Friar's Club, for which a cassette was found and digitized.

The tape is here: https://archive.org/details/Annual_Meeting_2019-10-30

The Exquisite Book Episode: Getting a Package in the Mail, A Unique Subject, The Art and the Catalog of Memories, Why Do a Documentary, The Short and Long of a Subject, Companies Doing Listings and Images, The Expense and the Obscurity, Architecture and Life, Accuracy and Fact-Checking, The Waiting Moments of a Future Reading.

I was moving books around and realized I've really gravitated to books that are beautiful and about subject I lived through in my younger years. Companies like Microzeit Publishing, Boss Fight Books, and Bitmap Books are just a few (and I'm not doing...

The 15 Year Anniversary Episode: 15 Years at the Archive, Loving a Job, The Duties, The Remaining Seven, The Many Different Feelings, Mission, Future, Joy, Sadness, An Unhelpful Letter.

A rumination on my decade and a half at the Internet Archive. What a great time it has been, and continues to be.

The Archivebossing Too Close To The Sun Episode: Winning an Auction, Bidding, It's Just $50, OK Maybe It Is Not $50, Passing the Hat, Having Support, What's On The Tin, Re-Learning a Lesson.

I won an auction! But at what cost? Sadly, I know exactly what cost.

The Interface Construction Set Episode: Pinball Construction Set, Bill Budge's Talents, The Experience of a Construction Set, Interfaces at the Archive, The Variety of Interfaces, An Interface Construction Set, Finding The Gaps, Showing Variety, Nothing Autonomous, Bad Actors, A Parade of Interfaces, Wishing You Well.

In which I indicate a fun idea of an Interface Construction Set, a program to let people make and share interfaces and help them get tested out and improved.

The Ode to 25 Boxes Episode.

A rather odd and unusual poem, dedicated to a particularly large shipment of digitized items leaving the office this week.

The Elvis Restoration Episode: Paying a Little Extra for IMAX, The Full IMAX, EPIC: Elvis Presley In Concert, Restoration, Elvis As A Performer, Total Control, 50 Years of Cartoon, Finding a New Experience, The Handler of Stories Not Yet Told.

A rumination on the new Elvis movie EPIC: Elvis Presley in Concert, which contains many well-restored filmed performances and minutes with Elvis that have mostly never been seen anymore. An inspiration to film and general archivists everywhere. Was glad to see it in IMAX, but also glad to see how good the tools are to bring 60 year old...

The Temperature Episode: A Somewhat Cold Office, The Loss of Environment, The Context Factor, An Overheated Box, an Underheated Room, Keeping Warm, The Compression of Experience, Tracking the Temperatures, A Beam of Sunlight.

A meditation on the often forgotten experience of how things we use that are digital live in a context and condition, such as temperature, that we'll never know was the case.

The Feed Scanners Episode: A Launch of Scans, 2500 Pages, The Process of Feed Scanning, Digital to Analog to Digital, Pages to Go, The Ease, Paper Clips and Tape, Thanks to Supporters.

I hauled out one of the feed scanners and I've done 2,500 pages in one day, and I have thoughts.

Considering the frustrations of other mediums, this one is pretty simple: A lot of pages I scan seem to be skewed! Not the paper read, but the print on them. Somehow, however, I'll survive.

The Fidonet Consideration Episode: Fidonet, A Network, A Dream, Growth, Meaning, Alternate Networks, Burnout, Forever.

A meditation on the power of Fidonet and how, even to the best of my abilities, the full story still needs proper telling.

The DNA New Year Episode: A Tape Playing, VHS Tapes, Dance Not Art, Spencer Coppins, The Events, Recording for Posterity, The VHS Medium, A Bridge to the Past and to Today, Seize the Tape.

I was handed a pile of VHS tapes from the 1980s of DNA Lounge, and got to see a lot of people from that time play on my screen while I did my other work in the present day. The collection is from Spencer Coppins, who my research has verified was a Real One.

The Interface Faith Episode: Appreciating Good Times, Walking the Stacks, The Missing Piece, A Little History Lesson, File Directories, Designers, Redesign, Help Is Not Arriving, A Wonderful API, The Many Types of Users, A Call to the World, A Faith of Interface.

Pointing out, while a little under the weather, that the Internet Archive has a one size fits all interface, that doesn't quite fit all, and all the pieces of make different skins and experiences are right there. Go for it!

The Crowdsource and Volunteer Episode: Experiments in Crowdsourcing, The Internet Archive Deluge, TEXTFILES.COM Alone, Character, The Lessons of Volunteering.

As I do more experiments with having crowds of people sort items at the archive, and as I work with individuals from random walks of line in this, I am reminded of the lessons I've learned about volunteer work from the last twenty-five years. In summary: Don't mistreat volunteers, ever. (Plus a few other details.)

The Mark Pines Auction II Episode: Mark Pines, The Second Surprise Auction, The Life of a Reseller, Bidding from Korea, The Contents of the Second Set, An Unexpected Subset, More Mark to Come.

About the previously unknown second set of Mark Pines materials that was bid on, and what it means for the Mark Pines collection.

https://archive.org/details/markpines?sort=-publicdate always has the new Mark Pines stuff.

The Stacks of Catalogs Episode: A New Round of Sorting Catalogs, The Miracle of the Catalog, Desktop Publishing, Forgotten Labor, The Rise of the Instant Change, The Guided and Adored Catalog Scanning, Treasure.

Another rumination in just how much I love old catalogs, on the occasion of sorting the 40,000+ catalogs collection at the Internet Archive.

https://archive.org/details/catalogs

The DMZ Episode: Visiting the DMZ in Korea, A Bus Ride With a Passport Count, Burgers, Grenades, Bridge, Mines, Observation, Denial of Visitation, A Very Deep Tunnel, The Spectacle and the History. Plus: Not Forgetting.

Some notes while visiting a war zone, albeit one with a relatively small amount of action by the day.

The Medical Tourism Episode: Signing Up for a Medical Vacation, The Hospital, A Robe and a Keycard, Dozens of Rooms, Minutes and Seconds, Expertise and Experience, A Room of Sleeping People, The Shutoff Switch, The Results, The Chance at One Person Convinced.

How I went to South Korea and did a little medical tourism. I don't think there's anything to offend or bother the squeamish in it, but I did get a colonoscopy at one point. To make clear, nothing major was found, I just need to take care of myself and see doctors in the future.<...

Before getting on a plane, I sometimes wonder if I'm leaving the ground with my life in order. Let's find out.

The Aadam Jacobs Episode: A Six Hour Round Trip, A Documentary, Aadam Jacobs, Collections and Curation, Professional Recordings, Melomaniac, A Special Power Outlet, Club Owners and Bands, The Internet Archive Collection, The Live Music Archive, The Results of a Life, No Crash.

About Mellomaniac, a documentary featuring Aadam Jacobs.

The documentary is actually available online:
https://vimeo.com/866218283

And the archive of tapes is growing here:
https://archive.org/details/aadamjacobs

The Pile of Badges Episode: A Soft Crash, Gathering, Badges of All Sorts of Shapes and Materials, Attending Conferences, A Late Start, Some Early Predecessors, Keeping the Badges and Keys, Looking Down the Range of Forever, A Mass of Moments, A Life Lived.

Contemplating my many dozens, possibly hundreds, of conference badges now hanging on my wall.

The Scarecrow Video Episode: Visiting Seattle, Walking into Scarecrow Video, My Own Mind, The Shelves, The Subjects, The Uniqueness, A Short History, The Scarecrow Video of Internet Archive, Bang, Disgust-o-Meter, Harvard Square Basements, Textfiles and Materials, The Inevitable Jumble.

My experience visiting Seattle's legendary Scarecrow video: https://scarecrowvideo.org/

The Halo Championship Episode: Heading to the Championship, Missing Out, The Layout of the Championship, Missing Out Again, Not Missing Out, Lineups, AARP, Competition, Amazing Staff, The Results, Shotgun.

Some experiences from when Kyle and I went to the Halo Championship to finally compete against people half our age and surprising things that happened. Well, perhaps not that surprising.

The Final March of the Floppies Episode: A Visit with John Morris, The Applesauce, The Imaging of Floppies, An Office Becomes a Battlefield, The Forever Trickle, Images and Analytics, The Final Boss of the Floppies.

A celebration of what may turn out to be one of the most definite major projects in the big-office era of my work - taking down the thousands of floppy disks people have sent me over the years.

The Mirrorball Episode: A Very Intense Machine, The Birth of Mirrorball, What Mirrors Are, Online Culture, Demoscene, The Ebb and Flow of Interest, A Lifetime of Mirrors, The Harvesters of Data, The Mantle of Honor, A Lottery Win, Holding To The Future.

A little bit about the Mirrorball, at http://mirrorball.textfiles.com.

No particular indication in the episode, but wow! 350 Episodes!

The Excessive Air Filtration Episode: Why Am I Like This, Air Filtration, The Old and the Plastic, Environments, Buying an Air Filter, Going Hardcore, Features and Facts, Health and Home, 50 Degrees, A Soon Forgotten Appliance.

About the excessive air filter I got for the office. This is not an endorsement or a paid promotion - it's just a ridiculous thing to have gotten and having to turn it down from "Storm King" setting to "Off" to be able to record an episode reminded me this little bit of intensity was in the area.

The Upstairs Downstairs Episode: Watching Gosford Park, The Simplicity, Upstairs Downstairs, Process, Exactitude, Logistics, The Archive's Stacks, Users, Servitude, Class, A Pleasant Movie Theater.

A rumination on finally seeing Gosford Park (2001) and being fascinated at the arrangement of the kitchen, and, reaching out a bit, comparing it to the arrangements of the Archive.

The Sorting Stacks Episode: Light After Shadow, Facing Down The Stacks, The Nature of Chaos, Order From Chaos, A Lifetime of Sorting, Millions of Choices, Oddity And Insanity, The Joy Of 50 Percent, Amy.

With the settlement of Internet Archive's last major public lawsuit, a chance to burst out into the fields of Valhalla and appreciate the great stuff I get to do with an incalculable island of data.

https://hiphopradioarchive.org/ was mentioned; I always love that effort.

The Video Files Episode: Hard Drives Locked, Thousands of Hours of Video, Television, Audio Versus Video, The Missing Dates, The Usefulness of Video, The Sheer Disk Space, The Future of Analytics, The Unknown.

About how the thousands of hours, soon to become tens of thousands of hours, of television will find a home at the Internet Archive and maybe, with some luck, the future.

The HOPE Seminar Episode: Attending Hackers on Planet Earth, A HOPE Workshop Building, Presenting a Class, The Process of Interviews, The Goals, The Process, How I Apparently Teach, Thoughts of Preparations Beyond, A Different Kind of Hope.

I decided to do a workshop/class on interviewing at the HOPE Conference in NYC this year. I've not taught a class before in any way - now I know what kind of teacher I am.

The Decay and Entropy Episode: A General Store, A Long Bike Ride, The Accident, The Changes in the Neighborhood, Decay, Buildings, Malls, Arcade, Personal Times, Formation of Memories, The End of it All.

A rumination on a general store that once operated at my childhood home for over 100 years before it came to an end, and what that trend means generally.

The Yard of Hard Drives Episode: Throwing Hands with Backlogs, The Literal Yard, Drives Cast Out, The Grind of Pain, Survivorship Bias, The Success and the Failure, The Arcane Nature of Repair, The Realization of Entropy, The River Styx.

I find myself staring down many, many hard drives left in the yard, and try to find value and rescue in what I can get. It's going fine! But it's noisy.

The Game Company Employment Episode: That Time I Worked for Psygnosis, The US Outpost, Temp Job, The Small and Tiny Firm, Deliveries and 800 Numbers, What People Did, The Temptations of Valor, The Wonders That Were Real, An Expanse of Time, The Dreams Yet To Live.

A small rumination of my time working for Psygnosis putting some realistic boundaries on what I did while I was there, in reference to people sometimes overplaying their hands as to proximity to greatness.

The Sinistar at Extremes Episode: Synamax and Sinistar, Source Code, Experiments, Sinistar Research, Sinistar Upgrade, California Extreme, A Panel of Legends, An Excellent Evening, Drinks and Chats, The True Meaning, Our Vanishing Opportunity.

To watch Synamax's excellent documentary on Sinistar:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCuoUSDBVac

The Seagull Painting Episode: A Very Large Painting, a Suburban Life, a Gargantuan Campus, Divorce and Time, Aunts and Couches, Smaller Than I Remember, The Painting for Money, Customers, An Office Wall, a Regret of No Better Memory.

An episode about a very large painting that lives in my office, and the story (and life) behind it.