1 00:00:04,240 --> 00:00:07,240 Speaker 1: Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production of I Heart Radios 2 00:00:07,320 --> 00:00:14,400 Speaker 1: How Stuff Works. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 3 00:00:14,440 --> 00:00:17,439 Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with 4 00:00:17,480 --> 00:00:19,320 Speaker 1: How Stuff Works in iHeart Radio and a love of 5 00:00:19,360 --> 00:00:24,160 Speaker 1: all things tech and over on Twitter, I posted a 6 00:00:24,239 --> 00:00:27,360 Speaker 1: simple question not too long ago, which was, what are 7 00:00:27,400 --> 00:00:31,640 Speaker 1: some tech phrases or terms we still use even though 8 00:00:31,760 --> 00:00:34,920 Speaker 1: the tech that those words referred to is out of 9 00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:37,720 Speaker 1: date or maybe even obsolete. And I got a lot 10 00:00:37,720 --> 00:00:41,040 Speaker 1: of responses. So on today's episode, I'm going to go 11 00:00:41,120 --> 00:00:44,120 Speaker 1: through those phrases, where they came from and what they 12 00:00:44,120 --> 00:00:47,080 Speaker 1: refer to, and we'll all chuckle about how we as 13 00:00:47,159 --> 00:00:50,879 Speaker 1: humans are slow to change in our ways, which can 14 00:00:50,920 --> 00:00:53,080 Speaker 1: be a really bad thing in many ways, but I 15 00:00:53,120 --> 00:00:56,800 Speaker 1: think for most of these examples it's largely harmless or 16 00:00:57,000 --> 00:01:02,120 Speaker 1: even silly. And you're probably thinking, huh, Jonathan's really phoning 17 00:01:02,160 --> 00:01:06,000 Speaker 1: it in on this one, and you're right, because I'm 18 00:01:06,040 --> 00:01:09,840 Speaker 1: recording this on July three, two nineteen, and our office 19 00:01:09,959 --> 00:01:12,800 Speaker 1: is closed the rest of the week, and I still 20 00:01:12,800 --> 00:01:15,560 Speaker 1: have to record another episode after this one before I 21 00:01:15,600 --> 00:01:18,080 Speaker 1: can go home. So when I have to do five 22 00:01:18,160 --> 00:01:20,520 Speaker 1: days of work in three days get a bit desperate 23 00:01:20,560 --> 00:01:25,399 Speaker 1: for easy topics, al Z. Now, there are a lot 24 00:01:25,600 --> 00:01:28,200 Speaker 1: of phrases in terms will be going through on here, 25 00:01:29,040 --> 00:01:32,440 Speaker 1: so I've decided to group them according to subject matter. 26 00:01:32,800 --> 00:01:36,560 Speaker 1: So let's start off with phrases we still use regarding 27 00:01:36,800 --> 00:01:40,440 Speaker 1: phones and phone behavior. Now, first of all, some of 28 00:01:40,480 --> 00:01:44,720 Speaker 1: the phrases I'll say might be dying out simply because 29 00:01:44,760 --> 00:01:48,640 Speaker 1: millennials and and the younger generations don't tend to make 30 00:01:48,800 --> 00:01:51,760 Speaker 1: very many phone calls. Heck I don't either, and I'm 31 00:01:51,760 --> 00:01:54,720 Speaker 1: a gen xer, so a lot of us are spending 32 00:01:54,760 --> 00:01:57,440 Speaker 1: time on our phones. In fact, the average amount of 33 00:01:57,480 --> 00:02:00,440 Speaker 1: time spent on a phone in the United States is 34 00:02:00,480 --> 00:02:04,160 Speaker 1: a hundred seventy one minutes per day. That's just under 35 00:02:04,320 --> 00:02:07,440 Speaker 1: three hours of your day spent on your phone, not 36 00:02:07,480 --> 00:02:10,560 Speaker 1: all at once, obviously, but throughout the day. Brazilians, by 37 00:02:10,560 --> 00:02:13,160 Speaker 1: the way, spend even more time on their mobile devices. 38 00:02:13,520 --> 00:02:15,239 Speaker 1: So I don't want to give you guys the impression 39 00:02:15,280 --> 00:02:18,399 Speaker 1: that we Americans are the most addicted. But who boy, 40 00:02:18,480 --> 00:02:22,440 Speaker 1: we're up there anyway. We might not use some of 41 00:02:22,480 --> 00:02:27,040 Speaker 1: these phrases as much as old fogies do. By old fogies, 42 00:02:27,040 --> 00:02:29,919 Speaker 1: I also mean me there as we ride off into 43 00:02:29,960 --> 00:02:33,800 Speaker 1: the sunset. We might see these terms fade away, but 44 00:02:33,919 --> 00:02:37,240 Speaker 1: for the time being, let's talk about making an ending calls, 45 00:02:37,639 --> 00:02:42,639 Speaker 1: which brings us to the phrase dialing a number. Dialing 46 00:02:42,720 --> 00:02:46,880 Speaker 1: refers back to rotary phones, which featured an actual dial 47 00:02:46,960 --> 00:02:49,280 Speaker 1: on them. And yes, I know a lot of you 48 00:02:49,360 --> 00:02:52,480 Speaker 1: listeners out there are old enough to remember rotary phones, 49 00:02:52,880 --> 00:02:55,960 Speaker 1: but some of you might not be, and so this 50 00:02:56,080 --> 00:02:58,960 Speaker 1: episode is going to end up bridging some gaps. So 51 00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:02,160 Speaker 1: the earliest reference I could find of a rotary phone 52 00:03:02,320 --> 00:03:07,160 Speaker 1: in actual use dated to eighteen ninety two, but there 53 00:03:07,200 --> 00:03:09,760 Speaker 1: were a lot of inventors who filed for patents as 54 00:03:09,760 --> 00:03:13,840 Speaker 1: early as the mid eighteen seventies. Before the rotary phone, 55 00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:16,400 Speaker 1: you'd simply pick up a phone which would light up 56 00:03:16,400 --> 00:03:19,720 Speaker 1: a bulb on a phone operator's desk at a telephone exchange. 57 00:03:20,280 --> 00:03:22,320 Speaker 1: The operator would connect to your line and ask you 58 00:03:22,520 --> 00:03:25,520 Speaker 1: about whom you wished to call, and you would give 59 00:03:26,040 --> 00:03:30,120 Speaker 1: the call signal to the operator, who would then use 60 00:03:30,200 --> 00:03:33,720 Speaker 1: a patch cable to connect your line with the appropriate 61 00:03:33,760 --> 00:03:37,080 Speaker 1: phone line to complete the call. And coincidentally, one of 62 00:03:37,080 --> 00:03:39,880 Speaker 1: the other suggestions I got when I asked about outdated 63 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:43,920 Speaker 1: tech phrases was what happens if you ask an operator 64 00:03:43,960 --> 00:03:47,760 Speaker 1: to connect a call, though I don't know how frequently 65 00:03:47,800 --> 00:03:50,720 Speaker 1: that happens these days, but it was a suggestion I got. 66 00:03:51,040 --> 00:03:54,360 Speaker 1: But as you can imagine, this system of having a 67 00:03:54,440 --> 00:04:00,320 Speaker 1: human operator manually connect calls together wasn't terribly efficient, and 68 00:04:00,400 --> 00:04:03,520 Speaker 1: you could quickly overwhelm the telephone exchange once you've got 69 00:04:03,560 --> 00:04:05,520 Speaker 1: a good number of phones on the service, even if 70 00:04:05,520 --> 00:04:09,360 Speaker 1: you had multiple operators working at the exchange, eventually you 71 00:04:09,400 --> 00:04:13,480 Speaker 1: get to a size where it's not sustainable with that approach. 72 00:04:14,080 --> 00:04:16,960 Speaker 1: Rotary phones would remove the need to have an operator 73 00:04:17,040 --> 00:04:20,240 Speaker 1: make that patch connection. Once the system was upgraded to 74 00:04:20,320 --> 00:04:22,919 Speaker 1: allow for these types of phones, it wasn't like it 75 00:04:23,040 --> 00:04:26,440 Speaker 1: just magically worked. It all had to be upgraded together. 76 00:04:26,839 --> 00:04:29,679 Speaker 1: The dial had a disc that measured about three inches 77 00:04:29,720 --> 00:04:33,520 Speaker 1: across that's about seven point six centimeters, and the disc 78 00:04:33,600 --> 00:04:36,440 Speaker 1: had ten holes in it along the outer edge, And 79 00:04:36,480 --> 00:04:39,599 Speaker 1: there were several different numbering systems in place until it 80 00:04:39,680 --> 00:04:42,880 Speaker 1: was finally standardized so that the numbers under the dial 81 00:04:43,080 --> 00:04:46,080 Speaker 1: would go from one to nine with a zero at 82 00:04:46,120 --> 00:04:49,840 Speaker 1: the very end. Other systems would have the zero come first, 83 00:04:49,960 --> 00:04:53,120 Speaker 1: or the numbers were listed in descending order, but that 84 00:04:53,160 --> 00:04:56,360 Speaker 1: would mean that phones using one numbering system could only 85 00:04:56,360 --> 00:04:59,480 Speaker 1: work on a telephone exchange designed for that numbering system. 86 00:04:59,600 --> 00:05:03,000 Speaker 1: So as these telephone exchanges grew, As these systems grew, 87 00:05:03,520 --> 00:05:06,680 Speaker 1: there was a need for standardization because otherwise you couldn't 88 00:05:06,720 --> 00:05:11,880 Speaker 1: actually interconnect the systems. Because if I dial a one, 89 00:05:12,360 --> 00:05:16,240 Speaker 1: but it sends the same signal as a nine would 90 00:05:16,400 --> 00:05:19,400 Speaker 1: on a different system, then that other system is never 91 00:05:19,480 --> 00:05:22,440 Speaker 1: gonna know what number I'm calling. It's going to it's 92 00:05:22,440 --> 00:05:25,440 Speaker 1: going to interpret the wrong numbers as I dial the number. 93 00:05:26,160 --> 00:05:28,520 Speaker 1: That's because dialing a number would actually cause a series 94 00:05:28,560 --> 00:05:32,440 Speaker 1: of pulses to go out over the exchange from the 95 00:05:32,440 --> 00:05:37,560 Speaker 1: original telephone. So each space on the dial was a 96 00:05:37,680 --> 00:05:40,680 Speaker 1: pulse or another pulse. So if you dial to one, 97 00:05:41,120 --> 00:05:43,640 Speaker 1: it would send one pulse out, if you dial to two, 98 00:05:43,720 --> 00:05:46,320 Speaker 1: then you would get two pulses, and if you dial 99 00:05:46,400 --> 00:05:49,599 Speaker 1: to zero, it would send out ten pulses to represent 100 00:05:49,880 --> 00:05:52,919 Speaker 1: that particular character. And you have to wait for that 101 00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:55,080 Speaker 1: dial to rotate all the way back into the starting 102 00:05:55,120 --> 00:05:58,400 Speaker 1: position before you could dial the next number. So I 103 00:05:58,480 --> 00:06:01,120 Speaker 1: can tell you from experience, you're really hated it if 104 00:06:01,160 --> 00:06:03,680 Speaker 1: the person you were calling had a lot of eights, nines, 105 00:06:03,760 --> 00:06:07,240 Speaker 1: and zeros in their phone number. After you dialed a 106 00:06:07,279 --> 00:06:09,760 Speaker 1: full telephone number, which for a local call in the 107 00:06:09,839 --> 00:06:13,240 Speaker 1: United States for a long time was seven digits, the 108 00:06:13,279 --> 00:06:17,440 Speaker 1: pulses would tell the system which lines to engage, in 109 00:06:17,480 --> 00:06:20,839 Speaker 1: other words, which telephone line corresponds with that telephone number. 110 00:06:21,400 --> 00:06:24,799 Speaker 1: The rotary phone saw wide adoption, and it became common 111 00:06:24,839 --> 00:06:28,640 Speaker 1: parlance to talk about dialing a phone number. Bell Telephone 112 00:06:28,680 --> 00:06:32,680 Speaker 1: would introduce the first commercial push button phone on November 113 00:06:33,720 --> 00:06:37,239 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty three, but we would keep using the word 114 00:06:37,480 --> 00:06:40,840 Speaker 1: dial even with push button phones. Now. Part of that 115 00:06:40,920 --> 00:06:43,960 Speaker 1: was because the rotary phones remained in service for a 116 00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:46,760 Speaker 1: really long time. It wasn't really until the nineteen eighties 117 00:06:46,760 --> 00:06:50,159 Speaker 1: that they started to truly fade away. Another part was 118 00:06:50,200 --> 00:06:53,320 Speaker 1: that customers were actually a little leery of switching to 119 00:06:53,440 --> 00:06:56,680 Speaker 1: push button phones. They used a totally different system called 120 00:06:56,720 --> 00:07:00,680 Speaker 1: touch tone dialing, even though there were no die else again, 121 00:07:00,720 --> 00:07:03,920 Speaker 1: but touch tone was how these operated as opposed to 122 00:07:03,960 --> 00:07:07,919 Speaker 1: the pulsing that the rotary phones used. By the nineteen eighties, 123 00:07:07,960 --> 00:07:10,000 Speaker 1: those rotary phones, like I said, we're largely phased out, 124 00:07:10,040 --> 00:07:12,160 Speaker 1: and in some some cases you actually had to opt 125 00:07:12,280 --> 00:07:15,960 Speaker 1: in for an added service to have rotary dialing supported 126 00:07:16,080 --> 00:07:19,200 Speaker 1: on your phone line. Oh and here's another fun one. 127 00:07:20,120 --> 00:07:22,480 Speaker 1: One person said, it's only sort of related to tech, 128 00:07:22,920 --> 00:07:25,520 Speaker 1: but she wondered why she still bothered to say hello 129 00:07:26,040 --> 00:07:28,760 Speaker 1: on the phone since with caller I D, she already 130 00:07:28,760 --> 00:07:31,400 Speaker 1: knows who is calling her. And this is an excellent 131 00:07:31,440 --> 00:07:34,520 Speaker 1: point as it does relate to tech from a social 132 00:07:34,640 --> 00:07:38,080 Speaker 1: and cultural point of view. And now we get to 133 00:07:38,080 --> 00:07:42,040 Speaker 1: talk about the origin of the word Hello. Isn't mean 134 00:07:42,120 --> 00:07:46,600 Speaker 1: you're looking for so the word hello is actually older 135 00:07:46,800 --> 00:07:49,960 Speaker 1: than telephones. But you frequently will hear that the word 136 00:07:50,040 --> 00:07:54,600 Speaker 1: was quote unquote invented, possibly by Thomas Edison for use 137 00:07:54,640 --> 00:07:59,200 Speaker 1: over the phone. Edison certainly popularized using it for the phone, 138 00:07:59,400 --> 00:08:02,160 Speaker 1: and she ange the meaning if you if you really 139 00:08:02,160 --> 00:08:05,000 Speaker 1: want to think about it. But the earliest written example, 140 00:08:05,120 --> 00:08:09,280 Speaker 1: the published example that the Oxford English Dictionary editors found, 141 00:08:09,640 --> 00:08:14,440 Speaker 1: dates from eighteen twenty seven. Alexander Graham Bell, whom we 142 00:08:14,520 --> 00:08:18,200 Speaker 1: often credit as the inventor of the telephone, wouldn't file 143 00:08:18,280 --> 00:08:21,840 Speaker 1: a patent for that invention until the eighteen seventies. But 144 00:08:21,960 --> 00:08:24,160 Speaker 1: even if you were to argue that the real inventor 145 00:08:24,280 --> 00:08:28,240 Speaker 1: was someone like Antonio Meucci, who many point to as 146 00:08:28,240 --> 00:08:30,720 Speaker 1: the first person to create what was essentially a telephone. 147 00:08:30,960 --> 00:08:33,600 Speaker 1: That still puts the earliest date for the telephone at 148 00:08:33,679 --> 00:08:37,640 Speaker 1: eighteen forty nine. That's still decades after that first published 149 00:08:37,720 --> 00:08:41,080 Speaker 1: instance of Hello that we know about. And now the 150 00:08:41,120 --> 00:08:46,320 Speaker 1: plot thickens because the word hello didn't initially indicate a greeting. 151 00:08:46,800 --> 00:08:49,600 Speaker 1: It was more like saying, take a look at this 152 00:08:49,679 --> 00:08:54,360 Speaker 1: thing here, earle as an hello, what's this now? In 153 00:08:54,440 --> 00:08:57,280 Speaker 1: that instance, which you could just imagine was spoken by 154 00:08:57,320 --> 00:09:00,439 Speaker 1: someone who was very, very English, the speaker is clearly 155 00:09:00,480 --> 00:09:05,680 Speaker 1: not greeting anyone. Rather, they are drawing focus towards something 156 00:09:05,720 --> 00:09:08,960 Speaker 1: in particular, and that was the use for Hello for 157 00:09:09,080 --> 00:09:11,760 Speaker 1: quite some time, just sort of a get a load 158 00:09:11,800 --> 00:09:15,640 Speaker 1: of this thing over here, Hello, this is curious. Now 159 00:09:15,640 --> 00:09:19,040 Speaker 1: skip ahead to Alexander Graham Bell, who might not have 160 00:09:19,160 --> 00:09:22,600 Speaker 1: strictly invented the technology of the telephone, but certainly was 161 00:09:22,640 --> 00:09:25,199 Speaker 1: able to realize it as a business and patent it. 162 00:09:25,960 --> 00:09:29,680 Speaker 1: He saw the challenge behind identifying someone on the other 163 00:09:29,800 --> 00:09:31,640 Speaker 1: end of the line, so if you got a call, 164 00:09:32,160 --> 00:09:33,840 Speaker 1: you had no way of knowing who it was that 165 00:09:33,880 --> 00:09:36,120 Speaker 1: was calling you. I mean, at first, there weren't that 166 00:09:36,200 --> 00:09:39,040 Speaker 1: many telephones, so the odds of you guessing who it 167 00:09:39,160 --> 00:09:41,440 Speaker 1: was that was calling you were actually pretty good. But 168 00:09:41,520 --> 00:09:44,760 Speaker 1: obviously that would change over time. So how do you 169 00:09:44,800 --> 00:09:47,960 Speaker 1: ask for the identity of the person who is calling you? 170 00:09:48,440 --> 00:09:52,080 Speaker 1: Presumably they know who you are because they called you, 171 00:09:52,559 --> 00:09:55,439 Speaker 1: but how do you know who they are? There's no caller. 172 00:09:55,520 --> 00:09:58,640 Speaker 1: I d well, you could ask who are you? Who 173 00:09:58,720 --> 00:10:02,120 Speaker 1: sent you? But then every phone call would be like 174 00:10:02,200 --> 00:10:06,559 Speaker 1: one of those Liam Neeson taken films. Alexander Graham Bell 175 00:10:06,880 --> 00:10:10,000 Speaker 1: thought a more civilized approach would be that you would 176 00:10:10,000 --> 00:10:13,680 Speaker 1: pick up the phone and you would say ahoy. That 177 00:10:13,760 --> 00:10:16,120 Speaker 1: was a tried and true method of hailing someone from 178 00:10:16,120 --> 00:10:20,360 Speaker 1: a distance, often used by sailors, as the old ahoy 179 00:10:20,520 --> 00:10:23,240 Speaker 1: there has been used, or ahoy there. Maybe if you 180 00:10:23,280 --> 00:10:26,640 Speaker 1: really want to get piratical with it, you could even 181 00:10:26,720 --> 00:10:30,640 Speaker 1: spice it up on the telephone a bit with ahoy hoy. Now. 182 00:10:31,040 --> 00:10:34,520 Speaker 1: Thomas Edison wasn't putting up with any of that. He 183 00:10:34,640 --> 00:10:38,600 Speaker 1: preferred the word hello, using that to mean I am 184 00:10:38,679 --> 00:10:41,679 Speaker 1: greeting you, and I would very much appreciate it if 185 00:10:41,679 --> 00:10:45,520 Speaker 1: you would identify yourself over the phone. That didn't please 186 00:10:45,559 --> 00:10:48,880 Speaker 1: Alexander Graham Bell. In fact, a T and T which 187 00:10:48,960 --> 00:10:53,440 Speaker 1: grew out of Bell's telephone company tried to suppress the 188 00:10:53,600 --> 00:10:56,480 Speaker 1: use of the word Hello on the telephone, stating that 189 00:10:56,559 --> 00:11:01,679 Speaker 1: the word itself was vulgar, but vulgarity one out and 190 00:11:01,840 --> 00:11:03,960 Speaker 1: A T and T decided to up the game where 191 00:11:04,040 --> 00:11:09,439 Speaker 1: vulgarity is concerned, eventually referring to the company's phone operators 192 00:11:09,720 --> 00:11:16,360 Speaker 1: as Hello girls. Yuck. Anyway, the whole purpose of Hello 193 00:11:16,800 --> 00:11:20,040 Speaker 1: wasn't just to greet someone, but to initiate the process 194 00:11:20,120 --> 00:11:23,360 Speaker 1: to find out who the hell they were, and so yes, 195 00:11:23,720 --> 00:11:26,760 Speaker 1: it doesn't make much sense for us to use it anymore. 196 00:11:27,120 --> 00:11:30,000 Speaker 1: But then we also use hello outside the realm of 197 00:11:30,000 --> 00:11:32,960 Speaker 1: the phone call these days, so it's grown beyond its 198 00:11:33,000 --> 00:11:37,880 Speaker 1: initial purpose. Another Twitter followers suggested the phrase to ring 199 00:11:37,920 --> 00:11:40,840 Speaker 1: someone up, also meaning to call them on the phone. 200 00:11:41,040 --> 00:11:43,600 Speaker 1: And it's true that most folks don't have phones that 201 00:11:43,960 --> 00:11:47,840 Speaker 1: really ring anymore, though I guess we still call stuff 202 00:11:48,000 --> 00:11:51,680 Speaker 1: ring tones, even if that description isn't totally apt. But 203 00:11:51,800 --> 00:11:54,160 Speaker 1: let me tell you what answering the phone was like 204 00:11:54,280 --> 00:11:57,000 Speaker 1: in the old days. For you young uns out there, 205 00:11:57,600 --> 00:12:01,439 Speaker 1: way back when when you only have the telephone, maybe 206 00:12:01,520 --> 00:12:03,720 Speaker 1: you had an answering machine, but many of us didn't 207 00:12:04,040 --> 00:12:06,439 Speaker 1: have those. They were rare for a very long time. 208 00:12:06,480 --> 00:12:08,280 Speaker 1: I remember it was a big day when my family 209 00:12:08,320 --> 00:12:12,080 Speaker 1: got our first answering machine when I was a kid. Well, anyway, 210 00:12:12,120 --> 00:12:16,080 Speaker 1: back then, answering the phone was important. When someone called you, 211 00:12:16,080 --> 00:12:18,520 Speaker 1: you had no way of knowing who they were because 212 00:12:18,559 --> 00:12:21,480 Speaker 1: there was no color idea, there was no Star sixty nine. 213 00:12:21,520 --> 00:12:23,960 Speaker 1: There was no way of knowing who it was. So 214 00:12:24,000 --> 00:12:27,000 Speaker 1: if you missed a call, you missed it. It was gone. 215 00:12:27,720 --> 00:12:31,920 Speaker 1: And telephones had very loud rings, like their bells would 216 00:12:31,960 --> 00:12:34,240 Speaker 1: ring quite loudly so that you could hear it from 217 00:12:34,280 --> 00:12:37,400 Speaker 1: pretty much anywhere in the house, and calls were important. 218 00:12:37,440 --> 00:12:40,480 Speaker 1: It could be anything. It could be an old friend reconnecting. 219 00:12:41,080 --> 00:12:42,839 Speaker 1: It could be a message from work. It could be 220 00:12:42,880 --> 00:12:46,920 Speaker 1: an emergency. Maybe it's a wrong number. But once that 221 00:12:47,040 --> 00:12:49,920 Speaker 1: phone started ringing, you would rush to the phone to 222 00:12:49,920 --> 00:12:52,080 Speaker 1: pick it up and answer it for no other reason 223 00:12:52,160 --> 00:12:56,400 Speaker 1: than to stop the darn ringing noise. These days, I 224 00:12:56,440 --> 00:13:00,600 Speaker 1: answer maybe one out of every twenty calls I get, 225 00:13:00,920 --> 00:13:03,280 Speaker 1: since most calls I get tend to be marked as 226 00:13:03,360 --> 00:13:07,240 Speaker 1: spam or are from an unrecognized number that's popping up 227 00:13:07,240 --> 00:13:10,439 Speaker 1: on my smartphone, So I just swiped to decline the call, 228 00:13:10,760 --> 00:13:14,959 Speaker 1: and that brings me to the next phone topic. Ending 229 00:13:15,080 --> 00:13:18,760 Speaker 1: a phone call is called hanging up, and that also 230 00:13:18,840 --> 00:13:21,520 Speaker 1: dates to the time when people were using rotary or 231 00:13:21,640 --> 00:13:25,360 Speaker 1: push button phones, because those would sit in a cradle 232 00:13:25,480 --> 00:13:28,319 Speaker 1: when they weren't in use. The rotary phone sort of 233 00:13:28,520 --> 00:13:31,679 Speaker 1: acted like a pedestal with a little cradle that the 234 00:13:31,760 --> 00:13:35,360 Speaker 1: handset would rest in, and push buttons usually had a 235 00:13:35,400 --> 00:13:39,000 Speaker 1: cradle that could either sit flat, horizontally on a table 236 00:13:39,280 --> 00:13:41,640 Speaker 1: or be mounted vertically on a wall. There'd be a 237 00:13:41,679 --> 00:13:45,840 Speaker 1: switch on these cradles, and that switch would close the line, 238 00:13:46,360 --> 00:13:49,120 Speaker 1: ending a call and making your phone line available for 239 00:13:49,200 --> 00:13:52,520 Speaker 1: future calls to you. You physically have to hang the 240 00:13:52,559 --> 00:13:55,600 Speaker 1: phone on the cradle or place it in the cradle 241 00:13:55,679 --> 00:13:58,520 Speaker 1: for those push button models. And yeah, that phrase is 242 00:13:58,559 --> 00:14:01,319 Speaker 1: stuck around two for those of us who still talk 243 00:14:01,440 --> 00:14:04,040 Speaker 1: on the phone now and again, we have been known 244 00:14:04,080 --> 00:14:07,240 Speaker 1: to hang up on people even though you're not really 245 00:14:07,280 --> 00:14:12,240 Speaker 1: hanging anything on anything else for most of those situations. Okay, 246 00:14:12,920 --> 00:14:16,600 Speaker 1: we're done with phones. When we come back, I'll cover 247 00:14:16,679 --> 00:14:20,520 Speaker 1: a few other shenanigans, but first, let's take a quick break. 248 00:14:28,160 --> 00:14:30,640 Speaker 1: All right. Now that we're back, let's talk about the 249 00:14:30,680 --> 00:14:34,840 Speaker 1: world of the written word and correspondence, and we'll start 250 00:14:34,920 --> 00:14:38,680 Speaker 1: with the word writing itself. I had one Twitter followers 251 00:14:38,680 --> 00:14:42,440 Speaker 1: suggest I add in writing simply because all the writing 252 00:14:42,560 --> 00:14:46,120 Speaker 1: she does these days involves a keyboard. The actual physical 253 00:14:46,200 --> 00:14:49,400 Speaker 1: process of writing, in the sense of holding a pen 254 00:14:49,560 --> 00:14:52,520 Speaker 1: or pencil and writing on a piece of paper, has 255 00:14:52,560 --> 00:14:55,160 Speaker 1: all but disappeared for her, and I can dig it. 256 00:14:55,480 --> 00:14:58,920 Speaker 1: I rarely write anymore unless it's in a greeting card 257 00:14:58,960 --> 00:15:02,160 Speaker 1: of some sort. I do want to get into writing, 258 00:15:02,440 --> 00:15:06,480 Speaker 1: actually writing letters, like actually taking a pen and writing 259 00:15:06,480 --> 00:15:09,680 Speaker 1: it out, because I feel the mindfulness it inspires might 260 00:15:09,760 --> 00:15:12,720 Speaker 1: make the messages I create more special both for me 261 00:15:12,880 --> 00:15:15,840 Speaker 1: and the recipient. Or maybe no one will be able 262 00:15:15,880 --> 00:15:19,680 Speaker 1: to read it because my handwriting was already atrocious, and 263 00:15:19,720 --> 00:15:23,640 Speaker 1: on top of that now I'm out of practice. Alright, fine, 264 00:15:24,000 --> 00:15:28,560 Speaker 1: so we tend to use electronic devices to write stuff 265 00:15:28,760 --> 00:15:32,480 Speaker 1: these days. There are some other outdated phrases we tend 266 00:15:32,480 --> 00:15:35,960 Speaker 1: to rely upon in that world too, For example, the 267 00:15:36,000 --> 00:15:39,160 Speaker 1: good old copy and paste function that you'll find in 268 00:15:39,240 --> 00:15:44,440 Speaker 1: everything from word processing programs to smartphone user interfaces. That 269 00:15:44,600 --> 00:15:47,080 Speaker 1: term dates back to the days when people would do 270 00:15:47,280 --> 00:15:51,760 Speaker 1: manuscripts and page layouts with physical pieces of paper and 271 00:15:51,840 --> 00:15:55,840 Speaker 1: with words that have been cut out, phrases, pictures. The 272 00:15:55,920 --> 00:16:00,000 Speaker 1: process of making a manuscript or a layout was laborious. 273 00:16:00,880 --> 00:16:04,400 Speaker 1: Designers would have to determine how big a layout would 274 00:16:04,400 --> 00:16:07,240 Speaker 1: need to be. For example, so let's say you're in 275 00:16:07,320 --> 00:16:12,160 Speaker 1: charge of making a layout for a magazine advertisement. You've 276 00:16:12,200 --> 00:16:15,040 Speaker 1: got a full page ad in a magazine, and you 277 00:16:15,080 --> 00:16:18,480 Speaker 1: are a graphic designer and you're an ad executive type, 278 00:16:18,520 --> 00:16:21,560 Speaker 1: you know, a madman, kind of dude or a woman, 279 00:16:22,240 --> 00:16:25,680 Speaker 1: and you want to work this out. Well, first you 280 00:16:25,680 --> 00:16:27,960 Speaker 1: would get an oversight sheet of paper. It would be 281 00:16:28,040 --> 00:16:31,480 Speaker 1: larger than whatever you were planning on actually creating, but 282 00:16:31,560 --> 00:16:35,440 Speaker 1: that's the the canvas you would be using. And then 283 00:16:35,840 --> 00:16:39,320 Speaker 1: you would draw the borders of that piece of paper 284 00:16:39,360 --> 00:16:42,360 Speaker 1: to mark out how large the final piece of of 285 00:16:42,760 --> 00:16:45,880 Speaker 1: advertisement was going to be, because i'd be very important. 286 00:16:46,240 --> 00:16:49,200 Speaker 1: So you would use tools like a T square and 287 00:16:49,280 --> 00:16:53,080 Speaker 1: a quick square or speed square. Those are those little 288 00:16:53,440 --> 00:16:56,080 Speaker 1: right triangles that are made out a flat piece of 289 00:16:56,120 --> 00:17:00,120 Speaker 1: metal that you use too for drafting purposes, and you 290 00:17:00,120 --> 00:17:03,560 Speaker 1: would use those to carefully measure out and mark the 291 00:17:03,600 --> 00:17:09,040 Speaker 1: boundaries for your layout. Then to place copy or images 292 00:17:09,080 --> 00:17:13,480 Speaker 1: on the paper, you would physically paste those elements in 293 00:17:13,520 --> 00:17:18,000 Speaker 1: the right position on your little boundary. So typically you'd 294 00:17:18,040 --> 00:17:21,120 Speaker 1: use something like rubber cement, which would dry slowly enough 295 00:17:21,280 --> 00:17:24,360 Speaker 1: to let designers move elements around a bit without having 296 00:17:24,400 --> 00:17:27,119 Speaker 1: to scrap everything and start over if they decided they 297 00:17:27,119 --> 00:17:29,800 Speaker 1: didn't like the placement of an element. So you might 298 00:17:29,840 --> 00:17:32,840 Speaker 1: put a headline, for example, and you might think, no, 299 00:17:33,000 --> 00:17:35,520 Speaker 1: I want a little more white space between the top 300 00:17:35,560 --> 00:17:38,000 Speaker 1: of the page and the headline, so you would actually 301 00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:39,720 Speaker 1: be able to move it down a little bit before 302 00:17:39,760 --> 00:17:43,240 Speaker 1: that rubber cement would dry enough so that such a 303 00:17:43,280 --> 00:17:46,280 Speaker 1: thing would not be practical anymore. So in the old days, 304 00:17:46,600 --> 00:17:49,240 Speaker 1: you would physically have to make a copy of something 305 00:17:49,320 --> 00:17:52,280 Speaker 1: and you physically have to paste it on the paper 306 00:17:52,320 --> 00:17:55,600 Speaker 1: to create your layout. The manuscript process was similar, though 307 00:17:55,600 --> 00:17:58,240 Speaker 1: it would typically involve cutting words out of a page 308 00:17:58,359 --> 00:18:00,480 Speaker 1: and pasting them into a new one. You were laying 309 00:18:00,520 --> 00:18:03,600 Speaker 1: out a new page of manuscript, so you had cut 310 00:18:03,800 --> 00:18:07,359 Speaker 1: and copy and paste all in the physical world. You 311 00:18:07,400 --> 00:18:10,639 Speaker 1: were physically doing these actions. When did those make the 312 00:18:10,720 --> 00:18:13,439 Speaker 1: move over to the computer age. Well, that was in 313 00:18:13,480 --> 00:18:16,719 Speaker 1: the early to mid nineteen seventies and a couple of 314 00:18:16,720 --> 00:18:20,040 Speaker 1: guys named Larry Tesler and Tim Mott, both of whom 315 00:18:20,080 --> 00:18:24,200 Speaker 1: worked at Xerox's Park facility. That was that's xerox is 316 00:18:24,400 --> 00:18:27,879 Speaker 1: research and development facility, also known for creating or at 317 00:18:27,920 --> 00:18:31,359 Speaker 1: least popularizing things like the computer mouse. Anyway, they created 318 00:18:31,400 --> 00:18:35,640 Speaker 1: the first cut copy and paste functions for computers as 319 00:18:35,680 --> 00:18:39,760 Speaker 1: part of a document preparation system, which had the unfortunate 320 00:18:39,920 --> 00:18:42,840 Speaker 1: name gypsy. Now, I say unfortunate because that term is 321 00:18:42,880 --> 00:18:46,280 Speaker 1: considered by many to be a slur today. I doubt 322 00:18:46,400 --> 00:18:48,640 Speaker 1: those working on the system at the time had any 323 00:18:48,680 --> 00:18:51,760 Speaker 1: awareness of that. I would like to think that they 324 00:18:51,760 --> 00:18:55,560 Speaker 1: were just ignorant that that term could be offensive to people, 325 00:18:56,000 --> 00:18:59,720 Speaker 1: so they were just picking it, uh, for whatever other reason. 326 00:19:00,040 --> 00:19:02,240 Speaker 1: At least I'd like to think that, I honestly don't know. 327 00:19:03,080 --> 00:19:06,040 Speaker 1: The function proved to be quite useful and found its 328 00:19:06,040 --> 00:19:10,119 Speaker 1: way into word processing programs like word Star and word 329 00:19:10,200 --> 00:19:14,480 Speaker 1: Perfect and all of those kinds of word processing programs 330 00:19:14,520 --> 00:19:16,879 Speaker 1: in the nineteen seventies and beyond, and it's become a 331 00:19:16,960 --> 00:19:20,800 Speaker 1: key feature in numerous programs since. So we're all familiar 332 00:19:20,840 --> 00:19:23,800 Speaker 1: with copy and paste, even though now it's all digital. 333 00:19:23,800 --> 00:19:27,840 Speaker 1: We're not physically copying and pasting stuff anymore, at least 334 00:19:27,840 --> 00:19:31,480 Speaker 1: not most of us. Now, while we're talking about terms 335 00:19:31,480 --> 00:19:35,439 Speaker 1: related to writing, how about we talk about something that 336 00:19:35,520 --> 00:19:38,280 Speaker 1: a lot of people get persnickety over, and that's the 337 00:19:38,320 --> 00:19:42,720 Speaker 1: difference between typeface and fonts. Now, this is one that 338 00:19:42,800 --> 00:19:46,240 Speaker 1: drives some folks crazy because we typically use the words 339 00:19:46,320 --> 00:19:50,240 Speaker 1: interchangeably these days, but once upon a time, they meant 340 00:19:50,760 --> 00:19:54,960 Speaker 1: separate things, or at least, you know, things that that 341 00:19:55,119 --> 00:19:59,040 Speaker 1: had a definitive meaning, and we're not interchangeable. And the 342 00:19:59,040 --> 00:20:01,520 Speaker 1: pedantic folks out there who may have worked in a 343 00:20:01,560 --> 00:20:04,840 Speaker 1: printer's office might still get their proverbial danders up about it. 344 00:20:05,359 --> 00:20:08,119 Speaker 1: And I'm not being dismissive. I am a pedantic individual, 345 00:20:08,200 --> 00:20:11,560 Speaker 1: so goodness knows if I had that background, I would 346 00:20:11,560 --> 00:20:13,560 Speaker 1: be one of these people. I have to do a 347 00:20:13,560 --> 00:20:16,720 Speaker 1: full episode about the history of typography one day because 348 00:20:16,760 --> 00:20:19,920 Speaker 1: it is fascinating and it's a complicated story. But today 349 00:20:19,920 --> 00:20:22,760 Speaker 1: we're going to focus on type face versus fonts for 350 00:20:22,840 --> 00:20:25,920 Speaker 1: this part of the episode. So back in the very 351 00:20:26,040 --> 00:20:29,720 Speaker 1: old printing press days, to print on a piece of paper, 352 00:20:30,040 --> 00:20:32,720 Speaker 1: you first would have to arrange metal blocks on the 353 00:20:32,760 --> 00:20:36,760 Speaker 1: press with the letters set out in relief on one 354 00:20:36,880 --> 00:20:41,040 Speaker 1: face of the blocks. The type face each block was 355 00:20:41,080 --> 00:20:45,040 Speaker 1: a single letter in a particular style. Size and weight. 356 00:20:45,880 --> 00:20:49,199 Speaker 1: Weight refers to the thickness of the line, and the 357 00:20:49,240 --> 00:20:52,960 Speaker 1: weights could be bold, light, or medium. The side of 358 00:20:52,960 --> 00:20:54,720 Speaker 1: the metal block with the letter on it that was 359 00:20:54,760 --> 00:20:57,480 Speaker 1: the type face, and that face of the block would 360 00:20:57,480 --> 00:20:59,879 Speaker 1: be inked and then pressed onto a sheet of paper 361 00:20:59,880 --> 00:21:02,280 Speaker 1: to create the print. So really you would have a 362 00:21:02,320 --> 00:21:06,160 Speaker 1: whole series of these blocks with the type face out, 363 00:21:06,520 --> 00:21:09,280 Speaker 1: you'd think all of them, and you would then press 364 00:21:09,320 --> 00:21:11,879 Speaker 1: it against a sheet of paper to get a printed sheet. 365 00:21:12,600 --> 00:21:16,240 Speaker 1: So a typeface came to mean the style of this lettering. 366 00:21:16,800 --> 00:21:21,879 Speaker 1: So Garamond, Helvetica, Times New Roman, and Ariel are all 367 00:21:22,359 --> 00:21:26,200 Speaker 1: type faces. Those are all type faces, and the word 368 00:21:26,200 --> 00:21:30,720 Speaker 1: typeface really refers to that actual stylistic design of each 369 00:21:30,760 --> 00:21:35,320 Speaker 1: collection of characters. It's what makes Garamond look different from 370 00:21:35,320 --> 00:21:38,680 Speaker 1: Times New Roman, which looks different from Helvetica, etcetera, etcetera. 371 00:21:39,080 --> 00:21:42,639 Speaker 1: But that just denotes which stylistic family each set of 372 00:21:42,720 --> 00:21:46,439 Speaker 1: characters belongs to. You can also describe those characters by 373 00:21:46,520 --> 00:21:50,280 Speaker 1: how large each character is. We measure characters by units 374 00:21:50,320 --> 00:21:53,600 Speaker 1: called points. Now, I would love to tell you that 375 00:21:53,720 --> 00:21:57,000 Speaker 1: the unit we call a point has had a specific 376 00:21:57,080 --> 00:22:00,399 Speaker 1: value since the dawn of typography. I would love to 377 00:22:00,400 --> 00:22:03,479 Speaker 1: tell you that, but it would be a lie. The 378 00:22:03,560 --> 00:22:06,520 Speaker 1: value of a point has changed many times over the 379 00:22:06,600 --> 00:22:09,680 Speaker 1: centuries since the invention of the printing press, but today 380 00:22:09,840 --> 00:22:15,240 Speaker 1: the standard is essentially a point equals one seventy second 381 00:22:15,480 --> 00:22:20,200 Speaker 1: of an inch. That's point three five millimeters or so. 382 00:22:20,200 --> 00:22:23,240 Speaker 1: So does that mean a character at seventy two points 383 00:22:23,800 --> 00:22:28,480 Speaker 1: is a full inch tall? No, But that's because there's 384 00:22:28,520 --> 00:22:31,960 Speaker 1: an invisible square around each character. It's a little bit 385 00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:35,200 Speaker 1: above and a little bit below the tallest and lowest 386 00:22:35,280 --> 00:22:39,600 Speaker 1: points on a or the ascension and decension if you prefer, 387 00:22:40,240 --> 00:22:44,720 Speaker 1: of the upper case largest character. So the seventy two 388 00:22:44,720 --> 00:22:48,040 Speaker 1: points really refers to the size of this invisible square, 389 00:22:48,640 --> 00:22:51,560 Speaker 1: not the actual character that's printed. So if you were 390 00:22:51,600 --> 00:22:53,320 Speaker 1: to think of it as the old printing days, you 391 00:22:53,320 --> 00:22:56,359 Speaker 1: could say it's a larger block the actual physical block 392 00:22:56,480 --> 00:22:59,440 Speaker 1: that has that letter out in relief on the type face. 393 00:23:00,080 --> 00:23:02,639 Speaker 1: Your characters would have to have larger blocks. You couldn't 394 00:23:02,640 --> 00:23:08,000 Speaker 1: fit a huge t uppercase t on a tiny little block. 395 00:23:08,040 --> 00:23:10,480 Speaker 1: You would have to have a bigger one anyway. That's 396 00:23:10,480 --> 00:23:13,400 Speaker 1: why we described those characters in terms of points, such 397 00:23:13,400 --> 00:23:17,280 Speaker 1: as twelve point Times New Roman. So each type face 398 00:23:17,480 --> 00:23:20,399 Speaker 1: would have its own huge collection of blocks with each 399 00:23:20,520 --> 00:23:23,679 Speaker 1: of the sizes and each of the weights in the 400 00:23:23,720 --> 00:23:29,080 Speaker 1: printing house. So these these weights and sizes were the fonts. 401 00:23:29,920 --> 00:23:31,960 Speaker 1: So let's say you're printing a page in Times New 402 00:23:32,080 --> 00:23:35,720 Speaker 1: Roman at twelve point size with a medium weight. The 403 00:23:35,760 --> 00:23:39,360 Speaker 1: type faces Times New Roman. The font is Times New 404 00:23:39,440 --> 00:23:42,760 Speaker 1: Roman at twelve point size and medium weight. So you 405 00:23:42,800 --> 00:23:47,600 Speaker 1: could argue that fonts are really specific instances of type faces. 406 00:23:47,640 --> 00:23:49,720 Speaker 1: But if you were to switch that up, maybe you 407 00:23:49,800 --> 00:23:54,720 Speaker 1: have a section that's italicized or at fourteen point or 408 00:23:54,800 --> 00:23:57,280 Speaker 1: at a heavy weight, but it's still Times New Roman, 409 00:23:57,760 --> 00:23:59,720 Speaker 1: then you would still have to change out the font 410 00:24:00,040 --> 00:24:02,680 Speaker 1: for that section. It would still be Times New Roman 411 00:24:02,800 --> 00:24:05,160 Speaker 1: all the way through the document, but now you're dealing 412 00:24:05,160 --> 00:24:08,200 Speaker 1: with a different font from the twelve point medium weight 413 00:24:08,280 --> 00:24:11,200 Speaker 1: font you used earlier. So you could have a page 414 00:24:11,280 --> 00:24:13,800 Speaker 1: with multiple fonts on it, but they're all the same 415 00:24:13,920 --> 00:24:16,600 Speaker 1: type face. You would have Times New Roman from top 416 00:24:16,640 --> 00:24:19,560 Speaker 1: to bottom, but the different sizes and the different weights 417 00:24:19,840 --> 00:24:24,080 Speaker 1: would denote specific fonts of that Times New Roman. Now 418 00:24:24,440 --> 00:24:28,040 Speaker 1: enter the era of desktop publishing, when any goof is 419 00:24:28,480 --> 00:24:31,720 Speaker 1: such as yours truly can create a virtual page in 420 00:24:31,760 --> 00:24:34,359 Speaker 1: the digital realm and then send it whisking off to 421 00:24:34,400 --> 00:24:39,480 Speaker 1: a printer. At this stage, fonts aren't physical blocks. Fonts 422 00:24:39,480 --> 00:24:42,800 Speaker 1: are really files that could scale to whatever requirement you 423 00:24:42,880 --> 00:24:46,720 Speaker 1: happen to have. So the Times New Roman font can 424 00:24:46,760 --> 00:24:49,439 Speaker 1: scale to whatever point size I need or wait, for 425 00:24:49,480 --> 00:24:53,359 Speaker 1: that matter, I'm technically choosing a font because I'm choosing 426 00:24:53,359 --> 00:24:57,600 Speaker 1: a specific instance of this type face style. But now 427 00:24:57,640 --> 00:25:00,439 Speaker 1: we typically use the word font to refer to type 428 00:25:00,440 --> 00:25:03,480 Speaker 1: face in general. We say the Times New Roman font 429 00:25:03,920 --> 00:25:06,880 Speaker 1: as opposed to the Times New Roman type face at 430 00:25:06,920 --> 00:25:11,959 Speaker 1: twelve point medium weight font. And while this is technically 431 00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:14,760 Speaker 1: incorrect to refer to them both as a font from 432 00:25:14,760 --> 00:25:19,280 Speaker 1: a typographical standpoint, anyway, the fluidity of language doesn't really 433 00:25:19,280 --> 00:25:22,399 Speaker 1: give a crap about that, because language means what people 434 00:25:22,440 --> 00:25:26,040 Speaker 1: say it means, and meanings change over time. This is 435 00:25:26,080 --> 00:25:29,000 Speaker 1: something I've had to come to terms with myself, because, 436 00:25:29,520 --> 00:25:32,800 Speaker 1: as anyone close to me can tell you, Pedantic might 437 00:25:32,880 --> 00:25:36,520 Speaker 1: as well be my middle name. But it's not because 438 00:25:36,520 --> 00:25:41,080 Speaker 1: I'm pedantic, but I'm not Jonathan Pedantic Strickland. Before I 439 00:25:41,080 --> 00:25:43,159 Speaker 1: get away from the written word, let's talk about c 440 00:25:43,440 --> 00:25:46,880 Speaker 1: C as into CC someone in an email the letter 441 00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:49,800 Speaker 1: C and the letter C. You probably know that c 442 00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:53,280 Speaker 1: C stands for carbon copy. And I'm sure more than 443 00:25:53,320 --> 00:25:55,960 Speaker 1: a few of you out there have created carbon copies, 444 00:25:56,040 --> 00:25:58,439 Speaker 1: actual real ones. But for the rest of us, what 445 00:25:58,600 --> 00:26:01,880 Speaker 1: the heck is a carbon copy? All right? So let's 446 00:26:02,040 --> 00:26:05,760 Speaker 1: turn the clocks back to the turn of the nineteenth century. 447 00:26:05,960 --> 00:26:09,680 Speaker 1: The early eight hundreds, A couple of different people, such 448 00:26:09,680 --> 00:26:14,000 Speaker 1: as Pellegreen not Toury in Italy and Ralph Wedgewood in England, 449 00:26:14,400 --> 00:26:18,000 Speaker 1: invented what we would call carbon paper. Both Torry and 450 00:26:18,040 --> 00:26:20,399 Speaker 1: Wedgwood were trying to create a way for blind people 451 00:26:20,440 --> 00:26:24,119 Speaker 1: to more easily right. Torrey was working on an early 452 00:26:24,240 --> 00:26:28,160 Speaker 1: typewriter device, and his carbon paper invention would be used 453 00:26:28,200 --> 00:26:31,520 Speaker 1: sort of like a typewriter ribbon. Wedgewood created what he 454 00:26:31,560 --> 00:26:37,280 Speaker 1: called a stylographic manifold writer. The carbon paper, or carbonated paper, 455 00:26:37,320 --> 00:26:40,560 Speaker 1: as Wedgewood called it, was paper that had been soaked 456 00:26:40,640 --> 00:26:44,280 Speaker 1: in pigment and oil and then allowed to dry. To 457 00:26:44,440 --> 00:26:46,639 Speaker 1: use the paper, you would make a little bit of 458 00:26:46,640 --> 00:26:49,760 Speaker 1: a sandwich. On the bottom layer would be a fresh 459 00:26:49,840 --> 00:26:53,480 Speaker 1: piece of clean paper. Then you would lay a piece 460 00:26:53,480 --> 00:26:56,840 Speaker 1: of carbon paper on top of that. Then on top 461 00:26:56,880 --> 00:26:59,720 Speaker 1: of the carbon paper, you would lay a transparent sheet 462 00:26:59,760 --> 00:27:03,360 Speaker 1: of paper, something that was thin but fairly strong. With 463 00:27:03,400 --> 00:27:07,080 Speaker 1: Wedgewood's device, you'd use a stylus. They had no ink 464 00:27:07,240 --> 00:27:10,840 Speaker 1: or graphit or anything. Essentially just a pointed stick, you know, 465 00:27:10,880 --> 00:27:14,640 Speaker 1: there's no inked tip or anything like that. You would 466 00:27:14,680 --> 00:27:17,639 Speaker 1: put pressure on the top sheet as you would go 467 00:27:17,720 --> 00:27:20,639 Speaker 1: through the motions of writing. The ink on the middle 468 00:27:20,720 --> 00:27:24,840 Speaker 1: layer would actually transfer to the back of the translucent 469 00:27:25,040 --> 00:27:28,879 Speaker 1: sheet and also on top of the clean sheet underneath, 470 00:27:29,119 --> 00:27:32,600 Speaker 1: so you would get sort of a negative on the 471 00:27:32,600 --> 00:27:36,160 Speaker 1: top sheet. But since the paper was translucent, you could 472 00:27:36,320 --> 00:27:39,280 Speaker 1: read the ink through the paper and you would get 473 00:27:39,720 --> 00:27:45,520 Speaker 1: a just a regular copy on the sheet underneath. The 474 00:27:45,640 --> 00:27:47,960 Speaker 1: ink on the paper in the middle layer would transfer, 475 00:27:48,520 --> 00:27:52,199 Speaker 1: and it made it really easy to make copies. So 476 00:27:52,280 --> 00:27:56,000 Speaker 1: Wedgewood's manifold writer had these metal wires that were meant 477 00:27:56,040 --> 00:27:58,640 Speaker 1: to help guide blind people as they wrote across the page. 478 00:27:58,720 --> 00:28:01,200 Speaker 1: But later people began to adopt this method to make 479 00:28:01,320 --> 00:28:06,520 Speaker 1: copies of documents, seeing its application beyond a writing tool 480 00:28:06,760 --> 00:28:11,000 Speaker 1: for people who had visual impairment. Thomas Jefferson was known 481 00:28:11,040 --> 00:28:14,119 Speaker 1: to have used such an approach to make copies of 482 00:28:14,119 --> 00:28:17,800 Speaker 1: some of his works, but the adoption wasn't exactly lightning fast. 483 00:28:18,080 --> 00:28:20,800 Speaker 1: For one thing, the mixture of oil and pigment was 484 00:28:20,840 --> 00:28:25,920 Speaker 1: said to be a bit odoriferous. It stunk like the blazes, 485 00:28:25,960 --> 00:28:28,680 Speaker 1: in other words. So it wasn't until the eighteen seventies, 486 00:28:28,680 --> 00:28:31,600 Speaker 1: when people began to introduce typewriter inc. That was less 487 00:28:31,640 --> 00:28:34,760 Speaker 1: offensive to the old factory system, that we started seeing 488 00:28:34,760 --> 00:28:38,040 Speaker 1: a more widespread use of carbon paper for making copies. 489 00:28:38,760 --> 00:28:41,120 Speaker 1: And it was a quick, portable and easy way to 490 00:28:41,240 --> 00:28:44,440 Speaker 1: produce a copy, much faster than going to a printing house. 491 00:28:44,760 --> 00:28:48,800 Speaker 1: And you could conceivably produce more than one copy if 492 00:28:48,840 --> 00:28:52,800 Speaker 1: you're using enough pressure to sandwich multiple layers together. So 493 00:28:53,160 --> 00:28:57,479 Speaker 1: you have transparent paper, you have carbon paper, you've got 494 00:28:57,520 --> 00:29:00,360 Speaker 1: a solid piece of paper. You've got maybe a another 495 00:29:00,960 --> 00:29:03,840 Speaker 1: barrier there, another piece of carbon paper, another solid piece 496 00:29:03,880 --> 00:29:07,200 Speaker 1: of paper, etcetera. If you did enough pressure, you could 497 00:29:07,240 --> 00:29:10,080 Speaker 1: make multiple copies, but you would run the risk of 498 00:29:10,120 --> 00:29:14,640 Speaker 1: having lower copies be extremely light and faded and possibly 499 00:29:14,960 --> 00:29:17,840 Speaker 1: tearing through the top page because you're using so much pressure. 500 00:29:18,120 --> 00:29:20,640 Speaker 1: So it wasn't exactly a reliable way to make lots 501 00:29:20,640 --> 00:29:23,880 Speaker 1: of different copies at once. Carbon copies were used and 502 00:29:23,920 --> 00:29:26,800 Speaker 1: in some cases still are used for lots of stuff, 503 00:29:27,160 --> 00:29:31,080 Speaker 1: like taking credit card transactions quickly before the digital transaction 504 00:29:31,160 --> 00:29:34,960 Speaker 1: process days, you'd have that that machine where you'd lay 505 00:29:35,040 --> 00:29:38,959 Speaker 1: the the card down, you have some carbon paper on it, 506 00:29:39,480 --> 00:29:43,760 Speaker 1: you run this, uh, this roller across really quickly and 507 00:29:43,840 --> 00:29:47,640 Speaker 1: it ends up capturing the credit card information through this 508 00:29:47,720 --> 00:29:51,960 Speaker 1: carbon copy process. But you might have seen it also 509 00:29:52,040 --> 00:29:54,560 Speaker 1: from someone taking orders at a restaurant or in any 510 00:29:54,600 --> 00:29:57,040 Speaker 1: other number of applications. And it became a way to 511 00:29:57,080 --> 00:29:58,880 Speaker 1: produce a copy of a letter if you wanted to 512 00:29:58,920 --> 00:30:01,320 Speaker 1: send it to more than one person. And so the 513 00:30:01,440 --> 00:30:04,400 Speaker 1: term transferred over to the desktop publishing world in the 514 00:30:04,400 --> 00:30:07,960 Speaker 1: form of c C. While no carbon or carbonated paper 515 00:30:08,360 --> 00:30:11,600 Speaker 1: is used in that process, everybody already knew that it 516 00:30:11,680 --> 00:30:14,200 Speaker 1: meant the letter was being sent out and it was 517 00:30:14,280 --> 00:30:17,720 Speaker 1: going to people besides just the primary recipient. It was 518 00:30:17,720 --> 00:30:20,080 Speaker 1: going to other people as well, and so we still 519 00:30:20,200 --> 00:30:23,240 Speaker 1: use that phrase today. Now, when we come back, I'll 520 00:30:23,240 --> 00:30:25,840 Speaker 1: switch over to the world of entertainment, which also relies 521 00:30:25,840 --> 00:30:29,440 Speaker 1: heavily on some antiquated terminology. But before we do that, 522 00:30:29,520 --> 00:30:40,840 Speaker 1: let's take another quick break. All right, Let's pop on 523 00:30:41,040 --> 00:30:44,800 Speaker 1: over to television for a second. One of the derogatory 524 00:30:44,880 --> 00:30:48,960 Speaker 1: phrases to describe television, and more importantly, the content available 525 00:30:49,000 --> 00:30:53,000 Speaker 1: to watch on television is the boob tube. Now, in 526 00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:56,160 Speaker 1: this case, boob is meant to be a gullible person 527 00:30:56,400 --> 00:30:58,720 Speaker 1: or someone who is the brunt of a joke or 528 00:30:58,760 --> 00:31:02,240 Speaker 1: just a goofus in other words. But tube, well, that 529 00:31:02,280 --> 00:31:06,000 Speaker 1: comes from the old cathode ray tube style of television, 530 00:31:06,120 --> 00:31:09,360 Speaker 1: the big bulky TVs of yesteryear. Some of you may 531 00:31:09,400 --> 00:31:12,960 Speaker 1: have one. I certainly do have one that's sitting in 532 00:31:13,400 --> 00:31:16,000 Speaker 1: on a shelf in a garage. I need to actually 533 00:31:16,080 --> 00:31:18,040 Speaker 1: find a place where I can recycle it. But I've 534 00:31:18,040 --> 00:31:21,840 Speaker 1: talked a lot about CRT technology a few times. Here's 535 00:31:21,880 --> 00:31:26,640 Speaker 1: just a quick summary. Older televisions have a cathode ray 536 00:31:26,720 --> 00:31:29,640 Speaker 1: tube inside them, which looks a bit like a super 537 00:31:29,680 --> 00:31:34,040 Speaker 1: weird lightbulb. The cathode ray tube generates a stream of electrons, 538 00:31:34,320 --> 00:31:36,760 Speaker 1: and it does this by using electricity to heat up 539 00:31:36,800 --> 00:31:40,600 Speaker 1: a filament inside a vacuum tube, and the heat transfers 540 00:31:40,680 --> 00:31:44,720 Speaker 1: enough energy to electrons in that filament to have them 541 00:31:44,720 --> 00:31:47,760 Speaker 1: break free of their atomic orbits and fly out in 542 00:31:47,840 --> 00:31:50,760 Speaker 1: a stream. Those electron stream through what is called an 543 00:31:50,760 --> 00:31:54,280 Speaker 1: electron gun. And are shot towards the back side of 544 00:31:54,320 --> 00:31:57,840 Speaker 1: the television screen, which has a coding of phosphor. Foster's 545 00:31:57,840 --> 00:32:00,920 Speaker 1: an organic material that gives off light after being struck 546 00:32:00,960 --> 00:32:05,720 Speaker 1: by electrons. So the old televisions literally had tubes inside 547 00:32:05,720 --> 00:32:10,800 Speaker 1: of them. Now these days, that's not how modern television's work. 548 00:32:11,160 --> 00:32:13,520 Speaker 1: They might be L C D, L E ED or 549 00:32:13,520 --> 00:32:17,240 Speaker 1: maybe even a plasma based screen or an O led screen. 550 00:32:17,400 --> 00:32:20,440 Speaker 1: But calling the television the tube is still something that 551 00:32:20,480 --> 00:32:24,640 Speaker 1: occasionally happens, even though no tubes are involved. It's like 552 00:32:24,680 --> 00:32:27,480 Speaker 1: the Internet being a series of tubes that was never 553 00:32:27,600 --> 00:32:30,600 Speaker 1: right anyway. Now, pop over the film for a second. 554 00:32:31,640 --> 00:32:35,120 Speaker 1: So first of all, the word film is already nearly obsolete. 555 00:32:35,520 --> 00:32:39,000 Speaker 1: Now film is not completely done. There are some directors 556 00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:42,800 Speaker 1: who still insist on working with film. Quentin Tarantino is 557 00:32:42,840 --> 00:32:45,840 Speaker 1: one of those directors. He views film as in the 558 00:32:45,880 --> 00:32:50,080 Speaker 1: physical medium of film with reverence. The film is made 559 00:32:50,080 --> 00:32:53,040 Speaker 1: of plastic, as a plastic strip essentially coated with a 560 00:32:53,080 --> 00:32:57,400 Speaker 1: federal reactive chemical that could preserve images after that has 561 00:32:57,400 --> 00:33:01,200 Speaker 1: been exposed to light, and classic film is exposed at 562 00:33:01,200 --> 00:33:05,080 Speaker 1: a rate of twenty four frames or photographs if you like, 563 00:33:05,520 --> 00:33:08,760 Speaker 1: per second. So when we played that back at the 564 00:33:08,800 --> 00:33:11,640 Speaker 1: same speed of twenty four frames per second and a projector. 565 00:33:12,200 --> 00:33:15,479 Speaker 1: Then it creates the illusion of motion, even though if 566 00:33:15,480 --> 00:33:17,760 Speaker 1: you were to take the film out of the projector 567 00:33:17,800 --> 00:33:21,080 Speaker 1: and look at it as a scene by scene sort 568 00:33:21,080 --> 00:33:23,520 Speaker 1: of thing, you would just see a series of photographs, 569 00:33:23,560 --> 00:33:26,600 Speaker 1: one after the other. But of course, these days, most 570 00:33:26,640 --> 00:33:30,080 Speaker 1: movies are shot using digital cameras, which record not to 571 00:33:30,160 --> 00:33:34,440 Speaker 1: film but to digital files, digital video files that live 572 00:33:34,600 --> 00:33:38,760 Speaker 1: quote unquote on hard drives. Digital video gives filmmakers a 573 00:33:38,760 --> 00:33:42,080 Speaker 1: lot more access to the footage they shoot. It's easy 574 00:33:42,200 --> 00:33:45,480 Speaker 1: to review a shot even right after you've completed it, 575 00:33:45,520 --> 00:33:47,719 Speaker 1: so it gives directors more options. They can see if 576 00:33:47,760 --> 00:33:51,000 Speaker 1: they really captured what they wanted in a scene. And 577 00:33:51,080 --> 00:33:53,360 Speaker 1: you're not limited by the physical amount of film you 578 00:33:53,440 --> 00:33:56,520 Speaker 1: have available on hand. Like in the old days. Film 579 00:33:56,640 --> 00:33:59,080 Speaker 1: is a limited resource. You only have so much of 580 00:33:59,080 --> 00:34:01,040 Speaker 1: it on hand on an a given day, and it 581 00:34:01,040 --> 00:34:04,720 Speaker 1: gets expensive. And once you shoot on film, that's it. 582 00:34:04,920 --> 00:34:08,480 Speaker 1: You can't delete it and then shoot something else on it. 583 00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:11,760 Speaker 1: You have to live with whatever it was you shot. 584 00:34:11,960 --> 00:34:14,719 Speaker 1: You're stuck with it. That's why we call it footage. 585 00:34:14,760 --> 00:34:17,480 Speaker 1: It actually refers to the physical amount of film that 586 00:34:17,560 --> 00:34:21,279 Speaker 1: you've exposed to light during a film shoot. So how 587 00:34:21,280 --> 00:34:24,279 Speaker 1: many film feet of film did you shoot? How many 588 00:34:24,360 --> 00:34:27,000 Speaker 1: feet of film do you have left? If you're running out, 589 00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:29,080 Speaker 1: you got to go out and buy more, which adds 590 00:34:29,120 --> 00:34:32,320 Speaker 1: more to the production costs of a movie. Digital video 591 00:34:32,640 --> 00:34:34,440 Speaker 1: remove a lot of those barriers, so you wouldn't have 592 00:34:34,520 --> 00:34:38,280 Speaker 1: to worry about running up the production costs simply because 593 00:34:38,280 --> 00:34:41,799 Speaker 1: you want another take, because you weren't eating through more 594 00:34:41,920 --> 00:34:45,359 Speaker 1: physical film. For a while, there was a risk that 595 00:34:45,400 --> 00:34:48,920 Speaker 1: the move to digital cinema would actually kill the actual 596 00:34:49,120 --> 00:34:53,600 Speaker 1: film industry entirely, as in the physical medium of film, 597 00:34:53,640 --> 00:34:56,960 Speaker 1: because there wouldn't be enough demand for that physical stuff 598 00:34:57,200 --> 00:35:01,960 Speaker 1: to keep the businesses involved in producing and processing film afloat. 599 00:35:02,480 --> 00:35:05,719 Speaker 1: And ever since the studio days of the movie industry, 600 00:35:06,280 --> 00:35:10,200 Speaker 1: those businesses had to be separate because the US government said, 601 00:35:10,239 --> 00:35:12,720 Speaker 1: you can't have a movie studio that owns the entire 602 00:35:12,760 --> 00:35:16,799 Speaker 1: process from beginning to end. That's anti competitive. But in 603 00:35:16,880 --> 00:35:21,640 Speaker 1: two thousand fifteen, Kodak secured agreements with several film studios 604 00:35:21,880 --> 00:35:25,840 Speaker 1: to stay in business in that industry. Each studio promised 605 00:35:25,840 --> 00:35:29,839 Speaker 1: to order an undisclosed amount of film at minimum for 606 00:35:29,880 --> 00:35:33,240 Speaker 1: several years and many prominent movies in the recent past 607 00:35:33,480 --> 00:35:35,759 Speaker 1: were in fact shot on film. It's not like it's 608 00:35:35,840 --> 00:35:39,520 Speaker 1: unheard of. Kodak, by the way, is essentially the only 609 00:35:39,560 --> 00:35:43,799 Speaker 1: game intenseiltown as far as film goes, because Fujifilm got 610 00:35:43,840 --> 00:35:48,200 Speaker 1: out of that business way back in. There are other 611 00:35:48,320 --> 00:35:51,440 Speaker 1: film related phrases and terms in the movie making business 612 00:35:51,480 --> 00:35:54,680 Speaker 1: that have stuck around, even for productions that use digital 613 00:35:54,800 --> 00:35:58,279 Speaker 1: video and not film cameras. For example, the phrase role 614 00:35:58,400 --> 00:36:02,280 Speaker 1: camera to describe a camera actively recording. It's still pretty common, 615 00:36:02,560 --> 00:36:05,600 Speaker 1: even though that originally referred to rolling film, and again 616 00:36:05,640 --> 00:36:09,440 Speaker 1: because the film represented money. Hearing a director's assistant call 617 00:36:09,480 --> 00:36:13,239 Speaker 1: out roll camera meant shut the heck up and let 618 00:36:13,239 --> 00:36:15,360 Speaker 1: the cast and crew do their thing, because any wasted 619 00:36:15,400 --> 00:36:18,560 Speaker 1: film was money down the drain. There's also roll sound, 620 00:36:18,640 --> 00:36:21,640 Speaker 1: which technically you would say before you would say roll camera. 621 00:36:22,160 --> 00:36:24,399 Speaker 1: It's a similar concept, except it's a signal to the 622 00:36:24,440 --> 00:36:27,920 Speaker 1: production sound mixer to start the sound recording equipment, and 623 00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:30,760 Speaker 1: both the camera operator and the sound mixer would respond 624 00:36:30,840 --> 00:36:34,760 Speaker 1: with speed, indicating that they are recording at the appropriate speed, 625 00:36:35,120 --> 00:36:39,719 Speaker 1: which also is a largely antiquated notion these days. On 626 00:36:39,760 --> 00:36:42,960 Speaker 1: the editing side, of filmmaking, you have the term splicing, 627 00:36:43,360 --> 00:36:47,520 Speaker 1: the definition for splices to unite. Usually it would refer 628 00:36:47,560 --> 00:36:51,319 Speaker 1: to something like splicing two ropes together by interweaving them. 629 00:36:51,360 --> 00:36:54,480 Speaker 1: So with film, traditionally, splicing would refer to taking two 630 00:36:54,520 --> 00:36:58,879 Speaker 1: different physical pieces of film and joining them together using 631 00:36:58,880 --> 00:37:02,800 Speaker 1: a splicer. Of that they become a sequence. You're essentially 632 00:37:02,800 --> 00:37:06,080 Speaker 1: gluing two pieces of film together. So imagine you're shooting 633 00:37:06,080 --> 00:37:09,759 Speaker 1: a conversation between two characters and you decide to do 634 00:37:09,880 --> 00:37:12,560 Speaker 1: three different camera angles for this scene. You've got a 635 00:37:12,600 --> 00:37:16,040 Speaker 1: wide shot has both characters in it. Then you do 636 00:37:16,080 --> 00:37:18,480 Speaker 1: a couple of over the shoulder shots so that you're 637 00:37:18,520 --> 00:37:22,759 Speaker 1: looking at both of the characters head on, with them 638 00:37:22,800 --> 00:37:26,200 Speaker 1: looking off as if they're looking at their scene partner. 639 00:37:26,600 --> 00:37:30,040 Speaker 1: So you've shot all three of these separately, because setting 640 00:37:30,080 --> 00:37:31,960 Speaker 1: up all three cameras to shoot them all at once 641 00:37:32,200 --> 00:37:35,080 Speaker 1: rarely works. You usually can't get the camera angles for it. 642 00:37:35,600 --> 00:37:37,799 Speaker 1: And you've set up each shot so it looks just right, 643 00:37:38,080 --> 00:37:40,160 Speaker 1: and in the editing room you want to take that 644 00:37:40,239 --> 00:37:42,400 Speaker 1: footage and you want to combine it to make a 645 00:37:42,440 --> 00:37:47,320 Speaker 1: compelling scene so that the conversation is actually interesting and dramatic. 646 00:37:47,880 --> 00:37:51,120 Speaker 1: You do that by physically cutting links of film and 647 00:37:51,239 --> 00:37:54,680 Speaker 1: using the splicer to join them together into a finished sequence. 648 00:37:55,200 --> 00:37:57,680 Speaker 1: Now with digital movies, you don't have to do all 649 00:37:57,719 --> 00:38:00,799 Speaker 1: that physical stuff, but the concept is still valid. So 650 00:38:00,960 --> 00:38:04,040 Speaker 1: now you can digitally splice together clips to get the 651 00:38:04,040 --> 00:38:07,120 Speaker 1: same effect you would with physical film. The term splicing 652 00:38:07,160 --> 00:38:10,320 Speaker 1: has also sometimes been used to describe a process that's 653 00:38:10,520 --> 00:38:15,520 Speaker 1: more appropriately called compositing. This is a different notion. It's 654 00:38:15,520 --> 00:38:18,799 Speaker 1: when you take images or visuals from separate sources and 655 00:38:18,880 --> 00:38:21,680 Speaker 1: you combine them together to make a new image. So 656 00:38:21,920 --> 00:38:25,319 Speaker 1: a very common example would be shooting actors against a 657 00:38:25,320 --> 00:38:29,080 Speaker 1: green screen, and then you would chromakey in a different 658 00:38:29,120 --> 00:38:33,040 Speaker 1: background behind them in the finished shot. Some people refer 659 00:38:33,120 --> 00:38:35,440 Speaker 1: to that process as splicing, referring to the fact that 660 00:38:35,440 --> 00:38:38,080 Speaker 1: you're actually combining these different elements together into a new, 661 00:38:38,200 --> 00:38:42,000 Speaker 1: unified hole, though again compositing is really the more appropriate 662 00:38:42,120 --> 00:38:45,960 Speaker 1: phrase for that. Now let's pop on over to audio entertainment. 663 00:38:46,360 --> 00:38:50,440 Speaker 1: A few people suggested I mentioned records or albums, but 664 00:38:50,520 --> 00:38:53,480 Speaker 1: I do so with a few caveats. First, the vinyl 665 00:38:53,560 --> 00:38:56,240 Speaker 1: record album has made a little bit of a comeback 666 00:38:56,320 --> 00:38:59,920 Speaker 1: in recent years, so it's not quite as antiquated as 667 00:39:00,040 --> 00:39:03,840 Speaker 1: it once was when it first went out of fashion. Second, 668 00:39:03,840 --> 00:39:06,759 Speaker 1: I think the word record, which many associate with a 669 00:39:06,800 --> 00:39:10,520 Speaker 1: physical vinyl disc like a forty five or thirty three 670 00:39:10,560 --> 00:39:13,200 Speaker 1: long playing album, the kind of thing you would put 671 00:39:13,200 --> 00:39:15,280 Speaker 1: on a turntable. You think of that as a record, 672 00:39:15,400 --> 00:39:17,799 Speaker 1: but I think it could easily refer to any recording, 673 00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:20,680 Speaker 1: as in it's a record of what has happened. But 674 00:39:20,800 --> 00:39:23,920 Speaker 1: let's talk about albums. Where did that name come from? Well, 675 00:39:23,960 --> 00:39:25,520 Speaker 1: I talked about this a little bit when I did 676 00:39:25,520 --> 00:39:29,160 Speaker 1: my series on turntables. But the word album comes from 677 00:39:29,200 --> 00:39:32,920 Speaker 1: the old days of seventy eight RPM records. These were 678 00:39:32,920 --> 00:39:36,800 Speaker 1: typically made of stuff like shellac back in the old days, 679 00:39:36,960 --> 00:39:40,840 Speaker 1: and they predated the vinyl era. The RPM means revolutions 680 00:39:40,840 --> 00:39:43,760 Speaker 1: per minute, so one of these discs would actually rotate 681 00:39:44,160 --> 00:39:48,800 Speaker 1: seventy eight times every sixty seconds, as assuming it's running 682 00:39:48,840 --> 00:39:51,920 Speaker 1: at the right speed on a turntable. And these discs 683 00:39:51,960 --> 00:39:54,480 Speaker 1: would come in a couple of different sizes. They usually 684 00:39:54,640 --> 00:39:57,600 Speaker 1: ranged between ten inches which is about twenty five centimeters 685 00:39:57,840 --> 00:40:01,160 Speaker 1: to twelve inches or thirty centimeters, and they could only 686 00:40:01,200 --> 00:40:04,839 Speaker 1: hold a few minutes of audio on each side. Now, 687 00:40:04,880 --> 00:40:08,600 Speaker 1: because of that limited capacity to record a longer piece 688 00:40:08,719 --> 00:40:13,440 Speaker 1: of music or audio would require several discs. Music publishers 689 00:40:13,440 --> 00:40:17,799 Speaker 1: would sell these collections in large bound books, with each 690 00:40:17,880 --> 00:40:21,160 Speaker 1: disc in slipped into a page of these books, and 691 00:40:21,200 --> 00:40:24,120 Speaker 1: they looked kind of like an old fashioned photo album. 692 00:40:24,200 --> 00:40:28,000 Speaker 1: There's another antiquated phrase for you. So you might purchase 693 00:40:28,120 --> 00:40:31,160 Speaker 1: a single performance of a classical music piece that would 694 00:40:31,160 --> 00:40:33,919 Speaker 1: span multiple discs, and thus you'd have to buy a 695 00:40:33,960 --> 00:40:38,560 Speaker 1: record album of that performance. Later on, when vinyl became 696 00:40:38,600 --> 00:40:42,400 Speaker 1: a practical alternative, and after micro grooves made it possible 697 00:40:42,440 --> 00:40:45,640 Speaker 1: to record more audio on a single side of a disc, 698 00:40:46,120 --> 00:40:49,600 Speaker 1: the word album stuck, and it was meant to describe 699 00:40:49,640 --> 00:40:54,960 Speaker 1: a collection of related music, like an artist's album of music. 700 00:40:55,160 --> 00:40:58,600 Speaker 1: It's several songs that are all related in some way, 701 00:40:59,440 --> 00:41:03,080 Speaker 1: or maybe it was thematically related. But there was no 702 00:41:03,160 --> 00:41:06,520 Speaker 1: physical album anymore. We just used the word to describe 703 00:41:06,560 --> 00:41:10,080 Speaker 1: a collection of songs or pieces, and we still use 704 00:41:10,160 --> 00:41:13,160 Speaker 1: that word today even to describe collections of digital music 705 00:41:13,200 --> 00:41:16,640 Speaker 1: files to get by an artist's new album, even though 706 00:41:16,680 --> 00:41:18,440 Speaker 1: it may just be a bunch of MP three's or 707 00:41:18,520 --> 00:41:21,759 Speaker 1: some other music file, or really, I guess I should 708 00:41:21,800 --> 00:41:24,719 Speaker 1: say compression file. Now. I know a lot of people 709 00:41:24,760 --> 00:41:28,160 Speaker 1: who still use the term mix tape to refer to 710 00:41:28,239 --> 00:41:30,920 Speaker 1: music playlists. And in the good old days, and I'm 711 00:41:30,960 --> 00:41:33,720 Speaker 1: being a bit facetious here, you would take a blank 712 00:41:33,800 --> 00:41:37,120 Speaker 1: audio cassette tape that is a medium for audio storage 713 00:41:37,200 --> 00:41:40,160 Speaker 1: that relied on a plastic film codd with a magnetic material, 714 00:41:40,600 --> 00:41:43,480 Speaker 1: and then you would transfer songs over to that mixtape. 715 00:41:44,000 --> 00:41:46,000 Speaker 1: Giving someone a mix tape was often seen as a 716 00:41:46,000 --> 00:41:49,080 Speaker 1: big power move as far as friendship is concerned. It's 717 00:41:49,080 --> 00:41:51,600 Speaker 1: saying I think I know what you're gonna dig, and 718 00:41:51,640 --> 00:41:53,960 Speaker 1: I curated this group of songs for you, and I 719 00:41:54,000 --> 00:41:56,879 Speaker 1: put them in this specific order, and that's the order 720 00:41:56,880 --> 00:41:59,040 Speaker 1: you would have to listen to the songs in because 721 00:41:59,040 --> 00:42:02,040 Speaker 1: they were all recorded onto a physical length of tape. 722 00:42:02,480 --> 00:42:05,520 Speaker 1: You could fast forward or rewind, but there was no 723 00:42:05,560 --> 00:42:08,720 Speaker 1: guarantee you would stop at the right spot to skip 724 00:42:08,760 --> 00:42:11,880 Speaker 1: over a song or go back to the very beginning 725 00:42:11,920 --> 00:42:13,759 Speaker 1: of a specific song, unless it was the very first 726 00:42:13,760 --> 00:42:16,640 Speaker 1: one on the tape. It's much easier today when you 727 00:42:16,680 --> 00:42:19,800 Speaker 1: can create a digital playlist on one of any number 728 00:42:19,920 --> 00:42:22,960 Speaker 1: of apps or services out there, and it's very easy 729 00:42:23,000 --> 00:42:25,080 Speaker 1: to share those with as many people as you like. 730 00:42:25,440 --> 00:42:27,520 Speaker 1: Although a lot of those services will allow people to 731 00:42:27,640 --> 00:42:30,319 Speaker 1: rearrange playlists, so maybe they won't have the experience you 732 00:42:30,360 --> 00:42:33,200 Speaker 1: intended for them to have. But yeah, some folks still 733 00:42:33,239 --> 00:42:35,319 Speaker 1: call it a mix tape, and I think stuff like 734 00:42:35,360 --> 00:42:39,000 Speaker 1: Guardians of the Galaxy really brought that back a little bit. 735 00:42:39,719 --> 00:42:43,000 Speaker 1: If anyone were actually giving a physical mixtape now, I 736 00:42:43,000 --> 00:42:45,719 Speaker 1: would be thrilled right up until the point where I 737 00:42:45,800 --> 00:42:48,080 Speaker 1: realized I had to go out and buy a tape 738 00:42:48,080 --> 00:42:50,840 Speaker 1: player because I don't have one anymore, and if I 739 00:42:50,880 --> 00:42:52,279 Speaker 1: wanted to listen to it, I would have to go 740 00:42:52,280 --> 00:42:55,640 Speaker 1: out and buy one. Oh and related to that is 741 00:42:55,680 --> 00:42:59,800 Speaker 1: the concept of rewinding, which literally just meant to rewind 742 00:42:59,840 --> 00:43:03,400 Speaker 1: the tape in an audio or video cassette, either so 743 00:43:03,440 --> 00:43:05,239 Speaker 1: that you could go back to the beginning of the 744 00:43:05,280 --> 00:43:07,600 Speaker 1: recorded media, or just to run it back a little 745 00:43:07,600 --> 00:43:10,680 Speaker 1: bit so you could experience a specific moment. Again, we 746 00:43:10,719 --> 00:43:13,799 Speaker 1: still use the word rewinding to describe this process, but 747 00:43:13,880 --> 00:43:18,359 Speaker 1: you're no longer actually winding anything around anything else. You're 748 00:43:18,400 --> 00:43:21,239 Speaker 1: just going back to an earlier moment in a timeline hack. 749 00:43:21,320 --> 00:43:24,239 Speaker 1: Lots of people still use the word taping to mean recording, 750 00:43:24,480 --> 00:43:26,960 Speaker 1: as in, did you watch Game of Thrones last night? No, 751 00:43:27,280 --> 00:43:29,839 Speaker 1: but I taped it, so I'll watch it soon. No 752 00:43:29,880 --> 00:43:33,520 Speaker 1: one really tapes anything anymore, or at the very least 753 00:43:33,560 --> 00:43:37,120 Speaker 1: very few people tape anything anymore. The companies that once 754 00:43:37,160 --> 00:43:40,359 Speaker 1: made VCRs all got out of that industry years ago. 755 00:43:40,680 --> 00:43:43,279 Speaker 1: So if you do still have a VCR a working one, 756 00:43:44,000 --> 00:43:46,440 Speaker 1: use it gently because it's not likely that you're going 757 00:43:46,480 --> 00:43:48,920 Speaker 1: to find a replacement out there if something goes wrong. 758 00:43:49,360 --> 00:43:52,239 Speaker 1: But most of us just record something, or rather we 759 00:43:52,400 --> 00:43:56,239 Speaker 1: copy it digitally, and no tape is actually involved. And 760 00:43:56,239 --> 00:43:59,279 Speaker 1: there are many other examples I could have included in 761 00:43:59,360 --> 00:44:02,040 Speaker 1: this episode. You guys really responded with a lot of 762 00:44:02,040 --> 00:44:04,399 Speaker 1: fun ones. But it's time for me to head out 763 00:44:04,760 --> 00:44:09,320 Speaker 1: and start my holiday after a record one more episode, 764 00:44:09,520 --> 00:44:11,719 Speaker 1: so I promise the next episode is going to be 765 00:44:11,800 --> 00:44:14,200 Speaker 1: more substantial, because I've got the notes ready to go. 766 00:44:14,840 --> 00:44:17,200 Speaker 1: To be honest, this episode involved a lot more research 767 00:44:17,280 --> 00:44:19,720 Speaker 1: than I had originally intended because it covered a fairly 768 00:44:19,760 --> 00:44:22,359 Speaker 1: wide range of topics, but it seemed like a good 769 00:44:22,360 --> 00:44:25,200 Speaker 1: idea at the time. If any of you have any 770 00:44:25,239 --> 00:44:28,320 Speaker 1: suggestions for future episodes of tech Stuff, send me a 771 00:44:28,480 --> 00:44:31,640 Speaker 1: message the email addresses tech Stuff at how stuff works 772 00:44:31,719 --> 00:44:34,600 Speaker 1: dot com, or draw me a line on Facebook or Twitter. 773 00:44:34,640 --> 00:44:37,759 Speaker 1: The handle, there is text stuff h s W. Head 774 00:44:37,800 --> 00:44:41,680 Speaker 1: on over to tech stuff podcast dot com for our 775 00:44:41,719 --> 00:44:44,160 Speaker 1: website that has an archive of all of our past episodes. 776 00:44:44,320 --> 00:44:47,279 Speaker 1: You'll also find a link to our online store, where 777 00:44:47,320 --> 00:44:49,799 Speaker 1: every purchase you make goes to help the show and 778 00:44:49,840 --> 00:44:52,440 Speaker 1: we greatly appreciate it, and I will talk to you 779 00:44:52,480 --> 00:45:00,400 Speaker 1: again really soon. Text Stuff is a action of I 780 00:45:00,480 --> 00:45:03,480 Speaker 1: heart Radio's How stuff Works. For more podcasts from I 781 00:45:03,560 --> 00:45:07,160 Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 782 00:45:07,280 --> 00:45:09,280 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.