#notator

[ui-alcoholic]

One of the most defining 16bit computers was introduced in June 1985.

ATARI ST 520

DESIGN HISTORY & STRATEGY

The Atari ST series was born in a turbulent time: Atari had just been acquired by Jack Tramiel, founder of Commodore, after leaving that company. Tramiel pushed for a quick-to-market product to compete with the Apple Macintosh and Commodore Amiga.

Development time: Less than one year — an aggressive schedule for a 16-bit GUI-based machine.

Initial models: The Atari 520ST was the first to ship, showcased at CES in 1985.

Innovative design: All-in-one casing (mainboard + keyboard), like the Amiga 500, but with better modularity (external floppy drive, monitor, etc.).

Former C=64 developer Shiraz Shivji led the design team. He tells a story about the Atari ST/Commodore Amiga history (source) "It is very interesting that the Warner Atari difficulties were due to Tramiel’s Commodore. The Commodore 64 was much more successful (I would say wildly successful) compared to the Atari Computers such as the 800 and the 400. We were also taking away sales from the video games division, the Atari 2600. Jay Miner was at Atari in the old days and was involved in the design of their products. He left Atari to design the Amiga. Atari had funded some of this effort and had an option to buy the Amiga. When we took over Atari in July 1984, the first order of business was to decide what to do with this option. The problem was that the Amiga was not quite ready and would need a lot of money to acquire. We decided to pass on Amiga, but this put enormous pressure on our own development team. Commodore, on the other hand, did not have an internally developed 32-bit graphics-oriented machine and did not have the confidence to develop the machine internally. They ended up buying Amiga for between $25-$30 million and spent a further $20 million or so and yet came out with a product a little after Atari. The roles were reversed, the Atari ST has a Commodore pedigree, while the Amiga has an Atari pedigree!"

MIDI AND MUSIC PRODUCTION

The 520ST included built-in MIDI ports — a revolutionary move. At the time, most other computers needed expensive third-party MIDI interfaces.

Key Software:

Steinberg Cubase – became the industry standard for MIDI sequencing.

Notator – early version of what later evolved into Logic Pro.

Pro 24, Dr. T's, and Hollis Trackman – widely used for composing, sequencing, and syncing synthesizers.

Used by Artists:

Fatboy Slim composed with the ST well into the 2000s.

Jean-Michel Jarre, Vangelis, The Chemical Brothers, and Underworld used it in studio setups.

Many studios kept an Atari ST just for MIDI due to its tight timing and reliability.

SOFTWARE ECOSYSTEM

TOS/GEM: A fast and responsive GUI OS that was very usable on 512KB of RAM.

Productivity apps:

Calamus DTP – high-quality desktop publishing

NeoDesk – an improved desktop GUI

GFA Basic – a powerful programming environment

Graphics tools:

Degas Elite, NeoChrome – pixel art, animation

Spectrum 512 – used clever tricks to display 512 colors

While the Amiga had better graphics and sound, many games were first developed for the ST, then ported to Amiga. Key games:

Dungeon Master – first-person RPG with real-time mechanics

Carrier Command, Starglider, Blood Money, Rick Dangerous

Flight simulators, strategy, and adventure games flourished

CULTURAL IMPACT

In Europe (especially the UK, Germany, France, and Hungary):

The ST became a cornerstone of bedroom coding, Demoscene, and music production.

Local software houses and users created a vibrant community around the machine.

The Atari ST was used in schools, small studios, and households well into the early '90s.

In education: The ST's affordability and easy-to-use software made it a favorite in European schools and computer labs.

DECLINE & LEGACY

By the early 1990s, the ST line was losing ground to IBM-compatible PCs and faster Amigas.

Later models like the STE, TT030, and Falcon 030 tried to revitalize the line, with limited success.

Atari shifted toward consoles (like the Jaguar) and left the computer market.

Long-term legacy:

The Atari ST's MIDI legacy lives on — it helped standardize digital music production workflows.

Many musicians and retrocomputing fans still collect and use STs today.

A vibrant retro software/demo scene remains active, especially in Europe.

[persistentrain]

SPOT THE SAMPLE

[garadinervi]

Giovanni Pintori, Schema frecce colore, (sketch), 1956 [Archivio privato Paolo Pintori. © Matteo Zarbo, Milano]

Exhibitions: Giovanni Pintori (1912-1999). Pubblicità come arte / Advertising as art, Curated by Chiara Gatti and Nicoletta Ossanna Cavadini, m.a.x. museo, Centro Culturale Chiasso, Chiasso, October 7, 2024 – February 16, 2025 (then March 2, 2025); MAN – Museo d'Arte di Nuoro, Nuoro, March 21 – June 15, 2025

Catalogue: Giovanni Pintori (1912-1999). Pubblicità come arte / Advertising as art, Edited by Chiara Gatti and Nicoletta Ossanna Cavadini, Texts by Chiara Gatti, Mario Piazza, Davide Cadeddu, Nicoletta Ossanna Cavadini, Luigi Sansone, Angela Madesani, Silvana Editoriale, Cinisello Balsamo (MI), 2024

[rosalilis-randomness]

Meme that my math teacher put on our lessons:

[tastierearranger]

Arranger Legacy | Generalmusic WX2, WX400, WX EXPANDER

Nella prima puntata di Arranger Legacy (era il 21 marzo 2022), avevamo esordito raccontandovi di GEM WS2 e del ruolo cruciale che quell’arranger aveva ricoperto nella diffusione degli strumenti con accompagnamenti fra i giovani tastieristi dell’epoca. Oggi, giunti al decimo episodio di questa rubrica corale che – come sapete – prevede l’uscita contemporanea di Riccardo Gerbi su SM Strumenti…

[iidamiidam]

Untitled #308

[businesstiramisu]

This person has a more expansive definition of plagiarism than me, and I think some of the translation problems likely are more of a problem in their specific domains. But the points about re-wording the sources to be less accurate and just incorrectly citing sources altogether (using them as references for things those sources don't even say!!) seem likely to affect Wikipedia in general. I've certainly notice plenty of poorly written, confusing sentences on Wikipedia just in my casual browsing.

And the "cascading errors" -- arising from multiple editors trying "improve" articles without checking the sources, thus making the Wikipedia article *more* incorrect -- seems like an intrinsic property of how wikipedia works.

[greenouillee]

Problem: Maths (& Physics) have too many cases where a symbol is used, confusingly, to mean multiple different things, leading to ambiguity and headaches. Sensible solution: Use a key or just simply clarify the meaning in context, so v here is velocity, or v here is an arbitrary vector, or v here is specifically final velocity, or v here is the harmonic function for the complex part of a complex function f(z) for the purposes of the Cauchy-Riemann & Laplacian equations, or v here is the potential V(x) differentiated with respect to time (yes i have seen this once, it was disgusting). My solution: add new characters. invent new scripts. steal syllabaries, acquire abjads, and abduct alphabets until we have enough squiggly lines to give literally everything its own unique symbol. This will help nobody and ruin everything. I will not rest until I am doing theoretical physics with these bad boys:

[Image ID: The 120 base Sitelen Pona of Toki Pona. They are simple, black and white, cartoonish, almost child-like drawings that act as logographic characters for the base words of the conlang Toki Pona. Each one has its corresponding name/word in Latin script beneath. End ID] Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

[juicybeetz]

So after staring at this thing for a half hour or so, here are at least the first few lines from the Marriage Agreement in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice:

By signing the contract (below?) the above party Lydia Deetz agrees to enter into an eternal, everlasting marriage of love. Lydia Deetz agrees to marry the irresistible Beetlejuice in a marriage a long time in the making and agrees to becoming the loving wife of Beetlejuice and satisfy all his needs. By signing this contract “I Lydia Deetz agree that I am of sound mind, Beetlejuice is the one I want, the one I have always wanted and needed. I love that man, and I cannot wait to finally marry him.” By signing this contract, Lydia Deetz agrees to declare her (something) love and affection for Beetlejuice and declare void any previous (something) between the two of them (and I can’t make out the rest of the sentence… not sure if it’s voiding previous marriages or voiding any negativity between the two of them). Lydia Deetz agrees to remain a committed wife of Beetlejuice in life, death and afterlife, and will remain by his side through every living and dead circumstance. This agreement shall be governed by and constructed in accordance with the laws of the afterlife.

I would try to decipher more but doing just that part above gave me a headache. 😵‍💫 The text is unfortunately very blurry and the film grain on top of it doesn’t help. There’s a part I really want to read about that talks about what would happen if any code violation would occur between either party, but, again, I am in pain just trying to decipher the first few lines. 😆

The only part of the movie where some of the text is easily readable (easier than in the church scene above, anyway) is when he signs Lydia‘s name on the agreement (see below). The only problem is that it’s just the right side of the agreement that’s visible. Sigh. Really wish that they released the whole document somewhere because it’s pretty cute and I bet there are more funny things in it.

[sgtpeppers]

That was... wonderful... to just hear it done for real, after... what? Four years of thinking about it? Wondering whether it would work, wondering if I'd written bits too fast, or too slow, or... to actually sort of... hear it done by real, professional people and the singers. It's... there isn't a word for it, actually.

Standing Stone, by Paul McCartney

Royal Albert Hall Performance (x)

Making Of Documentary (x)

Standing Stone is a 74 minute long classical piece of music, which Paul worked on for four years. It premiered at the Royal Albert Hall on 14 October 1997 with the London Symphony Orchestra and London Symphony Chorus, conducted by Lawrence Foster.

After his success with his first classical piece, The Liverpool Oratorio, Paul was commissioned to create some music to celebrate EMI's centenary. He came up with the idea of exploring "the way a Celtic man might have wondered about the origins of life and the mystery of human existence" and tied this in the with standing stones which to him symbolised something mystical and long lasting.

Photos by Linda McCartney, included on the album.

Paul wrote a poem to assist in getting the story he was trying to convey straight in his head, and it was printed in the booklet of the album. However, Paul wanted the music to work without the listener necessarily knowing the story, for the music to speak for itself, and so wanted to create a piece that "relies entirely on colours and effects drawn from orchestral and choral forces".

He also created two paintings to go alongside it:

I really recommend watching the documentary, Paul is absolutely delightful throughout the whole thing. It's the first time he'd used a computer and software to help him compose and he seems so excited to talk about it (and he has a Wallace & Gromit mouse mat!).

What's also interesting is how the rest of the team spoke about him. They all make a point that this was Paul's creation, and although David Matthews, John Harle, and Richard Rodney Bennet were brought in to assist with the composition, they all talk about Paul's talent, hard work, and the freshness of approach he brought. (The words 'benevolent dictator' may get used at some point, but they also speak of his kindness and generosity.)

It amazes me that someone with no formal music training could make a leap for pop/rock to classical. Composing for an entire 80 piece orchestra and 120 member choir is a completely different skillset to writing a song for the radio (and I'm not saying that's a lesser thing to be able to do, just different). The fact Paul was not only willing to take on the challenge and push himself, but created something so magical speaks to the sheer creative force that he is.

[mathhombre]

XKCD Guide to Notation

Somehow had never seen this.

[taeillustration]

Blink Gone

[unnonexistence]

95% of math brainteasers that go viral are just bad notation and it drives me up the wall

[garadinervi]

Frank Stella, Untitled, (synthetic polymer paint and pencil on paper), [1968] [MoMA, New York, NY. © Estate of Frank Stella / ARS, New York]

[alex51324]

Murderbot ep. 4, immediate thoughts:

The person who worked out that Strife in the Galaxy had to be a Star Wars expy sure called it.

I hope we all get now that they were playing up the PresAux team's hippie-dippy-ness in order to help viewers new to the franchise relate to MB's surprise when they suddenly turned badass.

I like that the show gave the rest of the team more to do in the showdown with enemy SecUnit.

For one thing, it sets us up for MB to form an attachment to the whole team rather than Mensah specifically, & i do feel like, in a television show, that would come across to many viewers like we're being primed to anticipate a romantic payoff.

I guess the "leadership shakeup" in the episode summary refers to the "reveal" that Mensah is the planetary leader? I feel like that was pretty obviously not new information for the characters, but maybe the person whose job it was to write the summary wasn't paying much attention.

The cold open in the SecUnit factory was interesting; it was a neat way to deliver some exposition about SecUnits, and drop in a little foreshadowing about the indenture contracts, in a way that also has a little something new for people who have already read the books.

At this point in the books, the next thing we get is SecUnit waking up and piecing together what happened since it shot itself, but I am predicting now that we'll get at least one episode, maybe two, of the other characters doing stuff while MurderBot is offline for repairs. Possibly with a Murderbot dream sequence in there somewhere.

Also, unrelated to the episode, but now that I've typed "SecUnit" a few dozen times over the last several days, I have a new theory that Martha Wells decided to add ComfortUnits to the worldbuilding after making the "SexUnit" typo one too many times.

[zylphiacrowley]

and I'm in love with you too.