American researchers found a mechanical audio recording in France that was created before Edison's claim to inventing the phonograph. I wonder what the reserve price on eBay will be.

This blog post examines some techniques used to keep listeners from taping albums on wax.

Polaroid has announced plans to shutter it's remaining instant-film plants in March, after experiencing heavy losses against digital photography.

The Economist discusses the odd enduring power of the teletype.

This post at We Make Money Not Art discusses an art exhibition of cassette tapes.

I'm not sure tapes will re-emerge as a trend, but Paul has another great essay about old media.

Paul reminds readers that the Laserdisc format used analog encoding, despite its optical technology. I always wonder why the record labels don't introduce a similar sound format if they're so concerned about mp3 sharing.

The movie Zyzzyx Road grossed a total of thirty dollars in its six-day run at a Dallas movie theater.

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Archive of world's fair ephemera at The University of Maryland.

Variety eulogizes the venerable VHS cassette.

Brecht imagines utopian possibilities for radio in this 1932 essay. In my reading, this essay is often alluded to, but rarely cited. Props to jill/txt to tracking this down.

Washington Post photo essay showing DIY telephone booths constructed after Verizon ripped the payphones out of the Amish country. When I lived in Philadelphia, I saw plenty of Amish-looking folks talking on cell phones...

An older story that discusses how the VCR killed public screenings at UT-Austin.

To commemorate its 150th anniversary, the magazine has uploaded several articles about emerging technologies by famous writers, including Vannevar Bush's "As We May Think" and piece by Mark Twain about the telephone.

Interesting story about the NYPL reference desk.

"A textile woven from recycled audio cassette tape." It doesn't come cheap.

The ancient tax on long-distance calls has been repealed. It was first levvied to finance the Spanish-American War.

Kodak is end-of-lifing Kodachrome is Super8 and 16mm. They have already stopped production, and the last day for processing is August 1st 2006.

Dan Gillmor's thoughtful post on the sale of K-R and the unbundling of major papers like the San Jose Mercury-News and Philadelphia Inquirer.

oh my, a "USB Floppy Disk Striped RAID" now that's the kind of fault-tolerance I need.

Via Bruce Sterling, scroll down to see a map of the original RBOC operating regions. Who knew there was a Cincinnati Bell?

Virtual museum of calculator watches

UCSB library project to digitally preserve the content of old wax phonograph cylinders. r4d!

Company sells ancient cellphone models for collectors and compatibility

make your own ViewMaster slides!