Tamed Lightning (sllightly OT)

[J. Clarke]

Seanan McGuire has in the October Daye stories a political subdivision
of Faerie called "The County of Tamed Lightning", which, among other
things, melds magic and electronics to provide communication services
in Faerie.

I saw this and flashed on that for reasons which should be obvious.

Note that the performer (Xyla Foxlin) also made the violin and at
least one of the speakers. She played lightning violin as her
"talent" for Miss Cleveland. She won.

Also note--if you have not seen this sort of thing before, the
electric arcs are not just for show, they are generating the sound you
hear. In person they are _loud_.

If Seanan and Xyla don't know each other, they should.

[Jibini Kula Tumbili Kujisalimisha]

Post by J. Clarke
Seanan McGuire has in the October Daye stories a political
subdivision of Faerie called "The County of Tamed Lightning",
which, among other things, melds magic and electronics to
provide communication services in Faerie.
I saw this and flashed on that for reasons which should be
obvious.
http://youtu.be/nH-3TdWI-yI
Note that the performer (Xyla Foxlin) also made the violin and
at least one of the speakers. She played lightning violin as
her "talent" for Miss Cleveland. She won.
Also note--if you have not seen this sort of thing before, the
electric arcs are not just for show, they are generating the
sound you hear. In person they are _loud_.
If Seanan and Xyla don't know each other, they should.

The technology has been around for a while. It got popular a few
years ago when a popular act on America's Got Talent (using electric
guitars) used it.
--
Terry Austin

Proof that Alan Baker is a liar and a fool, and even stupider than
Lynn:
https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/sw-border-migration
(May 2019 total for people arrested for entering the United States
illegally is over 132,000 for just the southwest border.)

Vacation photos from Iceland:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/collection/QaXQkB

[Torbjorn Lindgren]

Post by Jibini Kula Tumbili Kujisalimisha

Post by J. Clarke
I saw this and flashed on that for reasons which should be
obvious.
http://youtu.be/nH-3TdWI-yI
Note that the performer (Xyla Foxlin) also made the violin and
at least one of the speakers. She played lightning violin as
her "talent" for Miss Cleveland. She won.
Also note--if you have not seen this sort of thing before, the
electric arcs are not just for show, they are generating the
sound you hear. In person they are _loud_.

Yup, the technical term is "plasma arc speaker", the arc generates
plasma that displace air, which IS sound.

These days you can buy ~$50 "bluetooth musical tesla coil" on
AliExpress though reviews suggest that the audio quality on them is
rather bad. There's even <$10 (including shipping) "build your own
from these components" kits, though at that price it's 3.5mm input
rather than Bluetooth.

I'm not surprised the audio quality is bad, I expect they just drive
them with audio but to get something recognizable it needs
considerable pre-processing, it's a very quirky speaker.

OTOH I expect that the pre-processing necessary is well within the
capabilities of a $5 Raspberry Pi Zero.

Post by Jibini Kula Tumbili Kujisalimisha

Post by J. Clarke
If Seanan and Xyla don't know each other, they should.

The technology has been around for a while. It got popular a few
years ago when a popular act on America's Got Talent (using electric
guitars) used it.

ArcAttack was likely the first band doing it in public, looks like the
first known public performance was in March 2006, with a few others
using their 2007 publication to build similar devices.

ArcAttack were also the ones in the 2010 season of America's Got
Talent, looks like they did three AGT performance (including the
audition) and Youtube confirms one of them did include a guitar, the
video didn't say which one it was but based on the date in the
description it should be the quarter-final 4 performance (which got
them to semi-final 1).

One could argue it's "just" a variant of "Plasma Speaker" and those
have been around since at least the 1950's. The lineage goes back to
William Duddell's "singing arc" which he demonstrated in... 1900.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ArcAttack
https://agt.fandom.com/wiki/ArcAttack
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singing_Tesla_coil

[Jibini Kula Tumbili Kujisalimisha]

Post by Torbjorn Lindgren

Post by Jibini Kula Tumbili Kujisalimisha

Post by J. Clarke
I saw this and flashed on that for reasons which should be
obvious.
http://youtu.be/nH-3TdWI-yI
Note that the performer (Xyla Foxlin) also made the violin and
at least one of the speakers. She played lightning violin as
her "talent" for Miss Cleveland. She won.
Also note--if you have not seen this sort of thing before, the
electric arcs are not just for show, they are generating the
sound you hear. In person they are _loud_.

Yup, the technical term is "plasma arc speaker", the arc
generates plasma that displace air, which IS sound.
These days you can buy ~$50 "bluetooth musical tesla coil" on
AliExpress though reviews suggest that the audio quality on them
is rather bad. There's even <$10 (including shipping) "build
your own from these components" kits, though at that price it's
3.5mm input rather than Bluetooth.
I'm not surprised the audio quality is bad, I expect they just
drive them with audio but to get something recognizable it needs
considerable pre-processing, it's a very quirky speaker.
OTOH I expect that the pre-processing necessary is well within
the capabilities of a $5 Raspberry Pi Zero.

Post by Jibini Kula Tumbili Kujisalimisha

Post by J. Clarke
If Seanan and Xyla don't know each other, they should.

The technology has been around for a while. It got popular a few
years ago when a popular act on America's Got Talent (using
electric guitars) used it.

ArcAttack was likely the first band doing it in public, looks
like the first known public performance was in March 2006, with
a few others using their 2007 publication to build similar
devices.
ArcAttack were also the ones in the 2010 season of America's Got
Talent, looks like they did three AGT performance (including the
audition) and Youtube confirms one of them did include a guitar,
the video didn't say which one it was but based on the date in
the description it should be the quarter-final 4 performance
(which got them to semi-final 1).

It was a pretty popular act that year. The competition was stuff,
but any act that gets on TV is a winner.
--
Terry Austin

Proof that Alan Baker is a liar and a fool, and even stupider than
Lynn:
https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/sw-border-migration
(May 2019 total for people arrested for entering the United States
illegally is over 132,000 for just the southwest border.)

Vacation photos from Iceland:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/collection/QaXQkB

[J. Clarke]

On Tue, 10 Aug 2021 22:51:06 -0000 (UTC), Torbjorn Lindgren

Post by Torbjorn Lindgren

Post by Jibini Kula Tumbili Kujisalimisha

Post by J. Clarke
I saw this and flashed on that for reasons which should be
obvious.
http://youtu.be/nH-3TdWI-yI
Note that the performer (Xyla Foxlin) also made the violin and
at least one of the speakers. She played lightning violin as
her "talent" for Miss Cleveland. She won.
Also note--if you have not seen this sort of thing before, the
electric arcs are not just for show, they are generating the
sound you hear. In person they are _loud_.

Yup, the technical term is "plasma arc speaker", the arc generates
plasma that displace air, which IS sound.
These days you can buy ~$50 "bluetooth musical tesla coil" on
AliExpress though reviews suggest that the audio quality on them is
rather bad. There's even <$10 (including shipping) "build your own
from these components" kits, though at that price it's 3.5mm input
rather than Bluetooth.
I'm not surprised the audio quality is bad, I expect they just drive
them with audio but to get something recognizable it needs
considerable pre-processing, it's a very quirky speaker.
OTOH I expect that the pre-processing necessary is well within the
capabilities of a $5 Raspberry Pi Zero.

Post by Jibini Kula Tumbili Kujisalimisha

Post by J. Clarke
If Seanan and Xyla don't know each other, they should.

The technology has been around for a while. It got popular a few
years ago when a popular act on America's Got Talent (using electric
guitars) used it.

ArcAttack was likely the first band doing it in public, looks like the
first known public performance was in March 2006, with a few others
using their 2007 publication to build similar devices.
ArcAttack were also the ones in the 2010 season of America's Got
Talent, looks like they did three AGT performance (including the
audition) and Youtube confirms one of them did include a guitar, the
video didn't say which one it was but based on the date in the
description it should be the quarter-final 4 performance (which got
them to semi-final 1).
One could argue it's "just" a variant of "Plasma Speaker" and those
have been around since at least the 1950's. The lineage goes back to
William Duddell's "singing arc" which he demonstrated in... 1900.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ArcAttack
https://agt.fandom.com/wiki/ArcAttack
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singing_Tesla_coil

I think it's one of those deals where you can have high fidelity or
volume but not both. The Tesla speakers aren't really
modulated--they're driven by an interrupter, so it's on or off, and
each cycle of the sound is literally a separate lightning strike.

[Quadibloc]

Post by Torbjorn Lindgren
I'm not surprised the audio quality is bad, I expect they just drive
them with audio but to get something recognizable it needs
considerable pre-processing, it's a very quirky speaker.

Of course, though, the audio quality requirements for a *musical instrument*
are _vastly_ different from those for a *record player*. It's only the _latter_
that has to produce a linear replica of the input with vanishingly low
distortion.

John Savard

[Jonathan]

Post by J. Clarke
Seanan McGuire has in the October Daye stories a political subdivision
of Faerie called "The County of Tamed Lightning", which, among other
things, melds magic and electronics to provide communication services
in Faerie.
I saw this and flashed on that for reasons which should be obvious.
http://youtu.be/nH-3TdWI-yI
Note that the performer (Xyla Foxlin) also made the violin and at
least one of the speakers. She played lightning violin as her
"talent" for Miss Cleveland. She won.
Also note--if you have not seen this sort of thing before, the
electric arcs are not just for show, they are generating the sound you
hear. In person they are _loud_.
If Seanan and Xyla don't know each other, they should.

I've always loved this pic of Tesla casually sitting there
reading a book next to his machine like he's the
God of lightning. Talk about a show off~

Proving that voltage isn't everything, amperage is.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/854081800/tesla-in-his-laboratory-photo-print?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=tesla+art&ref=sr_gallery-1-7&frs=1

[Robert Carnegie]

Post by Jonathan

Post by J. Clarke
Seanan McGuire has in the October Daye stories a political subdivision
of Faerie called "The County of Tamed Lightning", which, among other
things, melds magic and electronics to provide communication services
in Faerie.
I saw this and flashed on that for reasons which should be obvious.
http://youtu.be/nH-3TdWI-yI
Note that the performer (Xyla Foxlin) also made the violin and at
least one of the speakers. She played lightning violin as her
"talent" for Miss Cleveland. She won.
Also note--if you have not seen this sort of thing before, the
electric arcs are not just for show, they are generating the sound you
hear. In person they are _loud_.
If Seanan and Xyla don't know each other, they should.

I've always loved this pic of Tesla casually sitting there
reading a book next to his machine like he's the
God of lightning. Talk about a show off~
Proving that voltage isn't everything, amperage is.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/854081800/tesla-in-his-laboratory-photo-print?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=tesla+art&ref=sr_gallery-1-7&frs=1

Well, note "Description": the picture is faked. The arcs
are real, and Mr Tesla was sitting there, but not at the
same time: it's a "double exposure" on one film.

[Ninapenda Jibini]

Post by Robert Carnegie

Post by Jonathan

Post by J. Clarke
Seanan McGuire has in the October Daye stories a political
subdivision of Faerie called "The County of Tamed Lightning",
which, among other things, melds magic and electronics to
provide communication services in Faerie.
I saw this and flashed on that for reasons which should be
obvious.
http://youtu.be/nH-3TdWI-yI
Note that the performer (Xyla Foxlin) also made the violin
and at least one of the speakers. She played lightning violin
as her "talent" for Miss Cleveland. She won.
Also note--if you have not seen this sort of thing before,
the electric arcs are not just for show, they are generating
the sound you hear. In person they are _loud_.
If Seanan and Xyla don't know each other, they should.

I've always loved this pic of Tesla casually sitting there
reading a book next to his machine like he's the
God of lightning. Talk about a show off~
Proving that voltage isn't everything, amperage is.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/854081800/tesla-in-his-laboratory-p
hoto-print?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_typ
e=gallery&ga_search_query=tesla+art&ref=sr_gallery-1-7&frs=1

Well, note "Description": the picture is faked. The arcs
are real, and Mr Tesla was sitting there, but not at the
same time: it's a "double exposure" on one film.

He did, however, consider running high voltage (as high as a
million volts) though his body to be theraputic. (At insaenly high
frequences, because the higher the frequency, the more the
electricity is confined to the outermost edges of the conductor.)
--
Terry Austin

Proof that Alan Baker is a liar and a fool, and even stupider than
Lynn:
https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/sw-border-migration


"Terry Austin: like the polio vaccine, only with more asshole."
-- David Bilek

Jesus forgives sinners, not criminals.