Some bored engineer at HiTechSys has converted one of their high-end VTR controllers into a completely operational Victorian-styled device.  Probably because it was NTSC which was replaced by ATSC a.k.a. HDTV, now 4K soon to be 8K. STOP THE MADNESS. All I want is to be able to watch the VHS pre-enhanced Star Wars on my SD 13-inch analog TV.  They gave the guy who did it an award and then showcased it at the NAB trade show.

Not bad.  Really pretty good, and I even like the telegraph.  But green phosphor CRT’s instead of LCD’s would have impressed me more.  And vacuum tubes instead of integrated circuits would have really impressed me.

Via: DVICE

There’s a SteamPunk group within the Suicide Girls website.  To be clear, SG is an NSFW adult site, generally erotic and nude but not pornographic. SG membership is not free, but the SteamPunk group is a nice carrot to justify the cost.  The group is fairly active posting interesting images and a decent amount of threads discussing various SteamPunk topics.  SG in general is very social and participates in charities and community activities including (but not limited to) Suicide Girls Must Die and Suicide Girls Pinups for Soldiers.

Warning: SG has boobs and cha-chas everywhere.  Use of SG without the oversight of your significant other could cause serious injury or death.

For those of you that don’t know what SG is:

“SuicideGirls is a website that features softcore pin-up-style photos and text profiles of goth, punk and indie-styled young women (although styles reminiscent of the 1940s and ’50s pin-up models are also incorporated) who themselves are known as the “Suicide Girls”. The site also functions as an online community with member profiles and message boards, and features interviews with major figures in both popular and alternative culture. Access to most of the site requires a paid membership.”  SuicideGirls. (2010, March 26). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 22:48, March 28, 2010

Here’s an example of some of the eye candy I picked off of the group:

Allow me to introduce you to Doctor Phineas Waldolf Steel.  On the surface, Doctor Steel appears to be a humble mad scientist bent on world domination.  However, upon scratching that surface, what lies underneath reveals his true genius.  Though sufficiently and somewhat clinically described in Wikipedia and other media sources, the only way to truly understand Doctor Steel is to let him speak for himself, and you really should listen to him.

I’m in…  However, despite my clear and obvious motivations, I would like to continue discussing what makes Doctor Steel such an interesting individual.

The SteamCon II SteamPunk Convention is scheduled for November 19th – 21st, 2010.  They’ve just announced a new website (much of it still under development), which is very nicely done.

The 1st SteamCon was a huge success.  I had sent Omega7Red’s own infamous Captain Jamison Dao of the HRMAS Prometheus to the SteamCon event.  However, he failed to report back.  Apparently, he was killed in a duel, most violently.  (hit the more to read on)

I’m open to allowing someone “special” to blog with me.  And by “special”, I don’t mean that you’re the Marine who rode the short-tank…

• Spend thousands of man-hours tearing your hair out looking for SteamPunk or other cool material to blog about.
• Enjoy vast disappointment as you realize you can’t make squat with Google AdSense.
• One-Up that Dr. Warthan idiot genius by showing us your superior intellect.
• Impress people of any gender or non-gender identity and get laid and/or respect.
• Freely use foul language, such as [expletive deleted] and [expletive deleted].
• Get even with that Geekologie bastard writer who didn’t want you on his team.
• Freely express yourself (freedom of expression subject to censorship).
• Get a BS title, such as Doctor, Professor, Mistress, or whatever toats your goat.
• Have a real hobby that contributes to the community so that you can finally stop playing World of Warcraft.

Since I mentioned AdSense.  The bone I will throw is this:  As the blogger, you can put your own ads into your own posts you can swallow sadness and work for no incentive; and as an added bonus, I’ll throw in an ad box for you on the side-bar.  I already have a thing in that works with AdSense for multiple contributors, and I can accommodate other stuff as well.

Interested?  Figure out how to send a message to me, because that’s the entry exam…

As an IT professional, this is just the funniest thing ever.  Best of all, it’s all true… Yeah, it’s a little old-school, but still completely relevant.

Fantastic video on the progression of information technology.  Example: It is estimated that a week’s worth of the New Your Times contains more information than a person was likely to come across in a lifetime in the 18th century.  Example: It is estimated that 4 exabytes (4.0×10^19) of unique information will be generated this year [the year this post was made], which is more than the previous 5,000 years.

OMG, this is so funny.  I love these College Humor guys, and this parody of Billy Joel’s “We didn’t start the fire” masterfully captures the modern internet.  Also, I saw Billy Joel’s video debut on MTV back when they played videos.  For anyone over 30, this should be a scary wake-up call.

I remember a world populated with Commodore 64s, VCRs the size of microwave ovens, microwave ovens the size of dog houses, cassette tapes coming in as 8-tracks went out, and you could smoke anywhere (bus, airplane, library, work, you name it).  I’m an IT professional, and the modern Internet is a very scary place.  The future is cloud computing, wireless video and power and everything else, throw-away data centers, and vertical farming.  Whoa, I need to live a life of solitude in my airship as it floats along the air currents high above civilization; kind of like that world in BioShock, but up in the sky…