LASERS! && Freemont Street LED array (was Re: Cray J932SE (was Re: Straight 8 up on Ebay just now))

[ethan at 757.org]

> Killer. I wish we were neighbors, Ethan. We'd be able to throw the most
> awesome block parties, I swear. I bet you are a musician, too.

I live in Virginia but go to a number of events every year. I dabble with 
music a little, have some synths and midi hardware (and of course an Atari 
ST setup, and a luggable Pentium 200 with a SB/GUS and Voyetra Sequencer!) 
Also dabble a little with saxophones but it's been a while!

> Okay, after talking about the recent roots of that hobby, and in an effort
> to keep this slightly on topic, do you know anything about the original
> animations used on Freemont street in Las Vegas? I was told that at one
> time it was run from an Amiga using Scala "and some other stuff". If you
> haven't seen it, it's a giant (uhm, like 4 city blocks) color LED array
> and a big sound system.

Hmm interesting! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scala_%28company%29  No 
mention of freemont street but their current market is digital signage. 
That would have been one of the earliest LED video screens ever!

I'm sure you know the thing about Garth/Dana Carvey? Him mentioning the 
Unix book in Waynes World was a nod to his brother, his brother founded 
NewTek the company behind the Amiga video toaster and the current NewTek 
Tricaster stuff?

Also, you can put together your own freemont-street-living-room at not 
totally insane prices now. I put together this LED video screen, it's a 
square meter of panels, the software screen scrapes Windows desktop sends 
it over gigabit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78RUIGVvQ5E


--
Ethan O'Toole