Oh pshaw, on Thu 06 Dec 2007 08:07:17p, Little Malice meant to say...

> One time on Usenet, Wayne Boatwright > said:
>> Oh pshaw, on Thu 06 Dec 2007 07:06:28p, Arri London meant to say...
>>
>> > Sorry Wayne lost the thread when the browser had a brain-freeze.
>> >
>> > The 'Guardian' site needs an RSS feed to work properly.
>> >
>> > Try these sites:
>> >
>> > http://www.akihabaranews.com/en/news...ts+the+robots+
>> > of+ the+future!+Video+and+Photos+Hi-Res.html
>> >
>> > http://robot.watch.impress.co.jp/cda...07/23/570.html (site
>> > is in Japanese but pics are OK)
>> >
>> > www.toyota.co.jp/en/news/04/0311.html
>> >
>> > Yes computers cannot cook, but maybe they can. The chips in those
>> > robots and the sushi machine could easily be considered computers I
>> > suppose.
>> >
>> > Anyway who said I could cook LOL!
>> >
>>
>> Thanks, Ari, that's fascinating! FWIW, there were mechanically
>> operated instruments that used punched rolls or cards that were capable
>> of amazing musical feats in the 19th and early 20th centuries. No
>> electronic logic involved of course, but still amazing it it's day.
>
> As a kid (late 60's) I knew an elderly lady in the neighborhood who
> had a player piano that used punched rolls. I always found it utterly
> fascinating.
>
>> BTW, *I* think you can cook. :-)
>
> I hope so, I've been taking his advice for years... ;-)
>

When I was in 9th grade, a church near us was replacing all of its old
pianos and they were free to anyone who could haul them away. I went with
a friend to look a them and discovered that one of them was a player piano
that had not been gutted. My dad had a friend who hauled it to our house
in his truck. It needed extensive restoration inside, so I took it on as a
summer project.

It turned out to be not only a player piano, but a "reproducing piano",
which was more complicated and filled with more features. I won't go into
detail here, but if you're interested, you can read about them at this
site: http://www.pianola.com/rpiano.htm.

Anyway, I spent all summer restoring the tubing, recanvassing the pneumatic
valves, etc., and had one hell of a good time working on it and playing
with it and on it. Later sold it for several thousand dollars, as
reproducing pianos were far more valuable than regular player pianos. Now
I wish I had kept it. :-(

--
Wayne Boatwright

Date: Thursday, December 6th,2007

*******************************************
Countdown 'til Christmas
2wks 2dys 2hrs 15mins
*******************************************
Know thyself? If I knew myself, I
would run away. (Goethe)
*******************************************