On 12 Sep 2010, at 19:55, [email protected] wrote:
What really sucks is not what I paid for the tubes, but that they are sitting in my garage waiting for a use.
To quote Mr Frank Vincent Zappa this is, as I see it, 'the crux of the biscuit'. A tube is not worth the name unless its doing something. Agreed? You know I'm right and Michail is too.
Having sat here, finally getting a 16 digit panaplex-style alphanumeric display working (I should add here a huge thank you to Nicko for a fantastic lunch courtesy of the awesome Minnie and the expert use of the equipment in Nicko's shack) it is, ultimately, a decision about what information should be displayed on such devices that will surprise and delight the viewer.
Lying awake at night, as one does, one thinks of random phrase generators and developments of the random, humanised, approximate clock idea. I know I can take the lazy way out, show the time, accurate to one tenth of a millifart and add the exact temperature in Honolulu, but does it sustain our interest? Probably not, because like all humans, we are pretty clever sausages and get bored extremely quickly. The 'So what' factor sets in within a millif... no I used that metaphor already.
So what is to be done? We have these 'Oh so saucy and rare tubes'. What shall we do with them? Personally I think I know that doing something unpredictable is the key to sustaining delight in the viewer. To quote Todd Rundgren 'You want the obvious - you'll get the obvious'. Yes most of us tend to like what we know, it's reassuring, but ultimately how deadly boring.
I sweated blood to get my 16 digit alphanumeric display ticking over nicely, but still none of my fevered ideas for showing stuff want to make me get up and program it, like it means something worthwhile.
So what would be a suitable project for either Michail's exorbitant stash of lingering bottles or my pathetic attempt to light up 16 characters in neon in a meaningful way?
Get those brains working please, I know you can, John S -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/neonixie-l?hl=en-GB.
