| Re: Sound as Text Files? [message #72170 is a reply to message #72165] |
Mon, 16 April 2012 13:33   |
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Wayne Parham
Messages: 18786
Registered: January 2001
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Illuminati (33rd Degree) |
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That's kinda fun, in an uber-geeky way.
What they're saying is they took the sound generated by a 300 baud modem and recorded it. They sent a text file to a modem and recorded the sound that came out. It makes a buzzing sound, easy to decode by pretty much any old modem. You could still probably find a computer that would decode that signal - just dial into a computer that had a modem connected, play the sound into the mouthpiece of a phone and the computer will show that text file.
Another similar trick is to record what comes out of the cassette line of an old 1970s microcomputer. Do a "Save" of a text file out to cassette tape. Back in the 1970s, the early microcomputers often had cassette input/ouputs, so the user could store their programs and data. Simple and primitive, but inexpensive. The old Apple II, Atari, Commodore and Radio Shack computers had tape interfaces. All the early micros did.
Now another demonstration of uber-geekiness. That cracked.com article, in their #5 "Easter Egg", mistakenly credits Pink Floyd in their 1979 album, "The Wall" as being the first popular band to include a reversed message that was actually intended. That's not true. In 1975, Electric Light Orchestra put a backward message on their "Face the Music" album that says, "The music is reversible but time is not. Turn back, turn back, turn back".
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