Live data from Hacker News

Radiohead album hides an app that only runs on an '80s computer

engadget.com

91–100 of 152 posts

Re: Radiohead album hides an app that only runs on an '80s computer

#91
post #2

I remember listening to OK Computer some years ago and I must have been studying or something or other and the track "Fitter Happier" came on. Those familiar know how it goes, the Stephen Hawking voice droning on about all these ideals worth pursuing ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HimvFbossU8 ). I sat back half listening that evening and this funny response came out in my head, where I responded to the monotone na…

Oddly enough, Thom Yorke insists the album wasn't about the tedium of the modern world, or the perils of advanced technology, but actually how much he hates traveling [1]

[1] http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/exclusive-thom-yo...

Re: Radiohead album hides an app that only runs on an '80s computer

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows called them programs (until recently), and Android & iOS call them apps, so it's likely that most people have only started hearing the term in the last 10 years.

Best i can tell, win32 binaries are still programs, UWP binaries are apps. All in all i can't shake the feel that apps are more "restrictive" in how they can be used...

So long as we all agree the term "applet" was asinine. :)

Re: Radiohead album hides an app that only runs on an '80s computer

#97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Atari's GEM/TOS also had applications, abbreviated as "app", in the mid-80s. I don't know where people got the idea that "app" is something recent, but I've started seeing people say it in a few places lately. It's not true at all, we definitely had apps in the 80s.

Windows called them programs (until recently), and Android & iOS call them apps, so it's likely that most people have only started hearing the term in the last 10 years.

I remember hearing the Windows control panel functions referred to as applets 20 years ago or so. Likewise, java programs embedded into a web page were also called applets.

Is applet but a diminution of application, or of app?

Re: Radiohead album hides an app that only runs on an '80s computer

#98
post #79
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You just answered a question I pondered earlier today as I watched the MacOS X demo I linked to above somewhere. And that is to the question if a native speaker would recognize the synthetic speech as unnatural. As the video progresses it lands on international languages such as Arabic and Chinese among other things. To my ear and my best memory of how those languages sound the synthetic versions came out pretty conv…

There's a short film on YouTube that explores that idea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt4Dfa4fOEY It's a very strange experience hearing it!

This is a video of Saara who is not a native speaker but who has an extraordinary ability to mimic accents.

https://youtu.be/ybcvlxivscw

Re: Radiohead album hides an app that only runs on an '80s computer

#99
post #52
post #16

Reminds me of the original Quake game on CD, which, if put into a normal CD player, would play through the NiN soundtrack.

Another older example: Out Run game for ZX Spectrum. You would load it from the A side of the tape and, when finished, you could play the game soundtrack on the B side while gaming. Double win: you get awesome music and you wouldn't need to rewind the tape!

That was an amazing soundtrack
Post reply on HN