Jason Scott Talks His Way Out of It

The Infocom Auction Episode Dec 16, 2024

A Large Collection, Stories in a Collection, Capturing Infocom, Financialization, Families and Friends and Grief, Using The Skills You Have, Settling With Your Choices. Someone tried to sell an awful lot of Infocom and Infocom-Related items on auction and is trying again, and I had some related thoughts about collecting, selling, and using opportunities.

The Contingency Episode Dec 13, 2024

No Tragedy Ahead, A Quick Exit, Expectations of Childhood, Stability and Home Base, Approaching the World, Valets and Storage Units, Where The Thinking Takes You, Fainting Spell, Possibilities and Paranoia, Talk Changes, Finding the Stability Regardless. A rumination on my constant contingency planning, ever-present, in everything.

The Bob Cooper Tapes Episode Dec 09, 2024

Setting Up Tapes, The Bob Cooper Collection, Bob Cooper Biography, Imaging 3/4 Tape, Fuzziness and History, A Lost Era of Television, Everything Falling Apart, Aiming for the Best, Fixing Without Perfection. I was sent a massive amount of boxes of Bob Cooper, who did Satellite Television related material for years, and who recorded many neat videos in doing so. Bob's site, still working: https://bobcooper.tv/

The Bob Cooper Collection at Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/bob-cooper

The New Office Excitement Episode Dec 06, 2024

Officially at the New Office, The Advantages, The Size, The Dimensions, Multiple Projects, Facing Your Own History, Trash and Treasure, Walking Down My Own World, Physical, Deep Storage, The Hope. A few thoughts about the new office, which is nearly 8 times larger, has every project and piece of myself in it, and will hopefully, although not guaranteed, help me finally kill my backlog.

The Dying Computer Museum Episode Dec 02, 2024

Hearing of the Living Computer Museum, Illegally Parking, Artifacts and Items, The Paul Allen Story (Short Version), A Conversation with Stephen Jones, The Grand Plan, Delchi's Consoles, The MADE, Cryosleep, Highest Bidders, The Billions, A Part of History, The Lessons Learned The Living Computer Museum is not returning and its contents will be auctioned. At least, the big ticket items. I'm not happy about this and neither is anyone else, but here we are. At least there's some glimmers in the darkness. Following my general credo of "Always Take Pictures", here's two Flickr galleries of Living Computers I took over some of my visits: https://www.flickr.com/photos/textfiles/albums/72157635312051527 https://www.flickr.com/photos/textfiles/albums/72157700864034805

The Legacy Speech Episode (Part 2 of 2) Nov 29, 2024

The Second Part, HOPE's Second New Year, Attendance, Location, Improvements, A Striking Walk Through Classrooms, The Legacy Speech, Friends, Lore, Legacy, Ed Piskor, Cheshire Catalyst, Kevin Mitnick, Sinitar, What We Leave Behind, The Extra Effort, A Summary. I had a wonderful time at HOPE 15 (2024) and consider it my home hacker conference now. I wore three suits and made many new friends, and I'm sure the recordings will be a joy to watch.

The New Office Episode Nov 25, 2024

Finding A New Space, Failure to Communicate, New Home, Aspects I Like, Enclosed Spaces, The Grand Plan, The Far-Reaching Intentions, One At A Time, Potential Helpers, The Finances, The Future. With the addition of a new office space, I intend to jettison into a new layer of what I do. Let's hope for the best.

The 300th Episode Nov 22, 2024

Hitting 300 of Anything, Humble Towel Beginnings, Possible Audience Rotation, What Drives The Tales, Finding Subjects, Broken Strings, Eagerness and Dread, An Invisible Audience, The Future. An episode celebrating 300 episodes of this podcast, with a specific bent to telling people how the audience is what matters - while I have what is now dozens and dozens of hours of talking about myself and the world, it needs listeners to be meaningful. As I mention in the episode, I considered ending things here at 300, but I'm still enjoying the process enough to keep going. Here's to more.

The Rack of Magazines Episode Nov 18, 2024

Procrastination By Sorting, Memories of Magazines, Computer Awareness, Obscurity and General Interest, Compute!, Creative Computing, Reader Service, The Gained Bricks of Foundation, The Waterfall of Text, A Prayer of Appreciation. Whenever I sow seeds of doubt something good has happened with the work I do, I just look at the magazine rack at the Internet Archive and love walking its stacks and collections. Here's some thoughts on that.

The Legacy Speech Episode (Part 1 of 2) Nov 15, 2024

Giving a Speech at HOPE, The Concept of Legacy, The Approach to Subjects, Ed Piskor, Cheshire Catalyst, Best and Worst Speech, Short Deadlines, Light Work, Where I Intend to Go, The Awaiting Deadlines, The Truest Legacy. I'm giving a speech at HOPE (Hackers on Planet Earth) this year, and I figured it might be fun to describe this situation before and after I do it. Here's the before.

The Robert A. Harris Episode Nov 11, 2024

Going To A Show, Meeting Robert Harris, Film Restoration, The Brittle Nature of Film, Film Is Dead All Hail Film, Meeting Mister Harris, Inspirations and Permissions, The Prickliness, Living Your Version of the Dream. I was lucky enough to meet Robert A. Harris, who is a film restorer par excellence and who I'd looked up to for decades. What a gift!

The Chaotic Office Episode Nov 08, 2024

Edging Into The Office, Stacks and Wires, Process and Teardown, A Version of a Version, Dreams of the Next Process. As I wind up the current office and move to another one, some contemplations on how messy it is right now.

Susan. Nov 04, 2024

Susan Lyn Sadofsky, 1948-2024

The SOFTWARELIBRARY_MC10 Episode Nov 01, 2024

Emulation, James Gerrie, Weak Specifications, The User Interface Wall, Press SCRL LCK and F2, The Tiny Pipe to the Shot Glass, Inspiration, Kind of Finished, The Relentless and Inspiring Curation.

Some appreciation for someone being so dedicated to a machine (the Tandy MC 10) that they got it working at the Archive and are adding hundreds of new software titles to it across the days. We need this kind of energy, especially as computers age out.

The End of the Office Episode Oct 28, 2024

Saying No to the Renewal, Moving Into The Office, A Blank Canvas, Choices Made, The Thousands and Hundreds, The Separation of Home and Work, FInding Limits, Future Unknowns. A small meditation on the office I work in, as I choose not to renew the lease. I'd like to thank Kay Savetz and FAXZERO.COM for being a major supporter of it so that the real estate costs didn't crater my bank account.

The Galloping Ghost Episode Oct 25, 2024

An Uninteresting Square Building By The Road, $25, Far as the Eye Can See, Walking the Games, The Usual Experience, Endless Rooms, Experiencing Videogames Again, Memories of Internet Arcade, Broken, Real Arcades, The Joy of the New to Old. A memory of visiting the Galloping Ghost Arcade in Illinois, billing itself as the largest arcade, but at the very least, an absolutely insane amount of hundreds of unique games that you can all-you-can-play.

The Font and Lines Episode Oct 21, 2024

All-Sport, Megagym, Racquetball Camp, Benches, Numbers, Lines, Designs, Waves Not Blocks, Frog Design, Attachment, The Font.

A rumination on a font and some lines that had an effect on me.

I mention Frog Design, here's an example of the kind of pages out there:

https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-early-apple-prototypes-2014-6

The DX-Peditions Episode Oct 18, 2024

No Specific End, A Couple Boxes, Expeditions, Ham Radio, QSL Cards, The Tapes Arrive, Digitizing for a Week, Exotics, Blur, VHS Feel, Preservation.

A pleasant surprise as a pile of "DX-Peditions" showed up in the inbox. The resulting collection, done by me and Kay Savetz, is here:

https://archive.org/details/dx-peditions

The Sellout Episode Oct 14, 2024

What is Selling Out, This Podcast, The Facts of Working for Money, The Forks and Compromises, Thoughts and Concerns For Others' Journeys, Crossroads, Consistency, Your Own Conclusions. Some thoughts on what "Selling Out" means.

The Lost Media Episode Oct 11, 2024

Reminding Myself of a Lost Media Show, What is Lost Media, What is Lost, Turn-on, The Thrill of Finding, Endless Uploads, ZIPs inside ISOs, That Old Razzle-Dazzle, Campfire Stories. Never let it be said I won't talk about a show without telling you where to find it. The Lost Media videos I'm talking about are here on Youtube, scary music and all: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKM8YX6ZzGblS97Y2llFP-HsNKFvlqy7C And here's the "Lost Media" of TURN ON: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turn-On https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDpum0Jp7Gw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwRYpqTpCU4

The Horizon Talk Episode Oct 07, 2024

A Talk Accepted, Rare Appearances, The Gist of Software, The Accomplishments and the Achievements, What's Next, What's Coming, What Will We Do, The Challenges, The Possibilities, The Purpose of a Talk. About a talk I'll be giving this year, where it is rare that I'm doing any sort of talk that isn't just a (fun) advertisement for the Internet Archive. What's next with emulation and game preservation?

The Conspiracy VHS Episode Oct 04, 2024

A Double-Tape UFO Conspiracy, A Life of Forbidden Knowledge, The Assumption of Presentation, The Ease of Misdirection, A Momentary Pause, Handing to Next Generations. Plus: An Hour with Wayne Green. Some thoughts that ran through my mind while I was digitizing a UFO Conspiracy tape.

The GDC Expo Booth Game Episode Sep 30, 2024

Attending the Game Developers Conference, the Expo Floor, The Booths, The Floor, Pamphlet Game, Meeting Manifestos and Dreams, The Mag Chain. A discovery of a new way to approach a conference floor and make it into a game, which I enjoyed playing very much at the GDC Expo.

The Sockington Currency Episode Sep 27, 2024

An Invitation to a Scheme, Some Thoughts on Lemonade, Wash Trading, The Ultimate Plan, A Special Little Cat. Some charlatans tried to get me to enter into a scheme around the memory of Sockington. This is about to go very not-well for them, but I wanted to share my thoughts on it before going full firestorm. All Hail Sockington.

The Splash of Cold Water Episode (Part 4 of 4) Sep 24, 2024

Yet More AI, The Eye of the Storm, Little Computer People, Eliza, The Sims, SIGGRAPH, Imagination Overload, Analysis, Excitement, Empathy, Curious, Forever. A rumination of the echoes of revolution, told from one person's life. Part 4 of 4.

The Bright and Blinding Light Episode (Part 3 of 4) Sep 22, 2024

A Computer Lab, Browsers, Surfing, Electronic Zine, Endless Linking, What's New, Web MUD, Extensions and Add-Ons, CENTER Heresy, TEXTFILES.COM, Early Blog, Finger Servers, Growth and Complication, Lost Taste, Simplicity Underneath, Money Money, Walking Away, My Waiting Piano. A rumination of the echoes of revolution, told from one person's life. Part 3 of 4.

The Distant Glow Episode (Part 2 of 4) Sep 20, 2024

Before My Time, Meetings and Considerations, Terminus, Command Line, FTP and Gopher, UNIX Lingua Franca, MUDs, Endless Time, Waiting for Me, Ghost in the Present, Fragile and Permanent, Doomed to Disappear. A rumination of the echoes of revolution, told from one person's life. Part 2 of 4.

The Spark in the Darkness Episode (Part 1 of 4) Sep 18, 2024

Fishing, Night, Truck, Grandfather, Empty, Modem, Moments, Boards, Phones, Fear, Elation, Soul, Duality, Broken, DIscord, Heights, Memories, Places, Heart, Simple, Enjoyment. A rumination of the echoes of revolution, told from one person's life. Part 1 of 4.

The Transcription and Summarization Episode May 30, 2024

The Transcription and Summarization Episode: LLMs, Modems, Magic, Technology, Infinite Toys, Change, Promises, Reality, Tascam, Amiga, Manuals, Summarization, Weird But Tireless, Always a Revolution. Some quick thoughts on the world of LLMs as they start entering my life (and many others) from the point of view of a half century of technology.

The UMATIC Gems Episode May 22, 2024

The UMATIC Gems Episode: A Small Hot Room, The Mechanisms, The Robots, 40-50 Years, Sony and From Another World, Tensions and Read Heads, Tapes and Decay, The Lifespan, The Future, The Joy of Saving, The Potentials and Possibilities, Mark Pines. A rumination on the UMATIC tape decks in my office, which are large, loud and hot.

The Bad Review Episode May 16, 2024

The Bad Review Episode: 2 Stars Out of 5, Bad Cinematography and No Effort, The Timeline of the BBS Documentary, Choices Made, Experiences Lived, 10 to 15 Minutes, A Crew of One, The Unknown End, The Results, GET LAMP, Your Project's Future.

A rumination on a 2/5 review I got in 2017 on Amazon for the BBS Documentary. Believe me, I'm quite sure the BBS Documentary is quite fine, but it was nice to remember how weird and unknown the project started out as.

The Appreciation For Spaces Episode May 09, 2024

The Appreciation For Spaces Episode: A Moment of Recognition, A Time of Containment, The Best Separation, Thanks to Sponsorship and Gifts, The Rooms I've Travelled, A Consistency of Inconsistency, A Moment For You. Perhaps a well-needed acknowledgement of the time of the moment where I have a lovely office to do my work and get things done. Thanks, by the way, to FAXZERO.COM who throw money each month so I can stream from the office without sweating rent as much.

The Industrial Spaces Episode May 03, 2024

The Industrial Spaces Episode: Hurricane Electric, Ikea Paramus, Customers and Hybrid Customers, Beach Chairs, 19-Inch Racks, Content Delivery Networks, Approaches to Space and Cost, New York Conveyor Basements, Payments in Pain. And Mangoes. A rumination on a few industrial spaces I recently spent time in, as well as a greater and perhaps too-late respect for the costs of poor environments.

The Teraleak Episode Apr 28, 2024

The CLIVE Episode Apr 22, 2024

The CLIVE Episode: Introduction To The CLIVE, Our High School Parents, Not Just a Salesman, Where Are They Sitting, Working With The CLIVE, Lessons and Learning, The Other End of Layoffs, Reading the Room, Thanks To The CLIVE, A Final Domain Gift. Memories and thoughts about THE CLIVE, the father of one of my high school friends, who was the best salesman I ever met.

The Voice Quality Episode Apr 17, 2024

The Voice Quality Episode: A Very Bad Idea, Public Speaking, My Thoughts on Audience, The Unspoken Guarantee, Sickness and Health, Voice and Articulation, The Roads Not Taken, Finding Your Voice. Some ruminations on my speaking voice, and qualities and issues related to it.

The Learning Process Episode Apr 12, 2024

The Learning Process Episode: My Extreme Oscillation in Learning, Why I Learned The Way I Did, BBSes and Textfiles, Where This Worked, Fastest Temp, The Non-Threat of Failure, The Narrative, What Has Changed. A rumination on my personal learning process and where it has gotten better (or not) and why I think that it all worked out, ultimately.

The Japanese Spaces Episode Apr 07, 2024

The Time Bandits Episode Apr 01, 2024

The Time Bandits Episode: The Dutchess Mall, Movies 4, Suburbia Boring/Excellence, Chaotic Universe, Surpreme Being, Great Evil, Foundations, Portals of BBSes, Robbery of Textfiles, Before It's All Ruined. A short meditation on one of my favorite films, Time Bandits (1981) before a remake arrives. I have many movies that I enjoy, but this is a movie that formed a big part of my worldview when I saw it for the first time as an 11 year old.

The Constant Contact Episode Mar 26, 2024

The Constant Contact Episode: Why People Write In, Repeats, Questions, Meaning, Culture, Context, Contact, Response, Arms Open Wide. Just some thoughts on how many times I find myself brought into conversations where anyone mentions anything about materials that might need a home. It's probably impossible to filter and tune awareness of when I should be brought in, but I thought I'd try.

The Modern Medicine Episode Mar 20, 2024

The Modern Medicine Episode: Feeling Unwell, Emergency Drive, Portable X-Ray, The App, The Doctors, The Information, The Sense of Well-Being In Mystery, Four Figures. A small visit to the emergency room reminds me how much more amazing medical experiences can be now, even if they cost you.

The Atari Font Episode Mar 15, 2024

The Atari Font Episode: Atari Microcomputers, Dark Rooms, Curtains and Shades, Customizing Fonts, Creating Games, Unfulfilled Goals, Unfinished Plans, Rescue from Darkness, The Real Reason for Atari Fonts, A River of Nostalgia and Memory. Some thoughts on my love of Atari and specifically, why I thought escape came in the form of Atari Customized Fonts. If you suddenly feel you need truetype versions of Atari Fonts, here's a great selection of them: https://github.com/a8bit/EightBit-Atari-Fonts

The Nostalgic Web Episode Mar 10, 2024

The Nostalgic Web Episode: Ingestion Thoughts, Early Web, Something Lost, Wandering Through Memories, The Early Web, The Lost Form, Expensive and Exclusive, BBS Versus Web, Reality, Mirroring Ourselves, An Evolution.

A rumination on the early Web and what that even means to me, looking back, along with the folly of trying to put myself in the mindset of the way things worked back then. As a bonus, a recognition of just how exclusive it all was. To me, the two peaks of the early web will be SUCK and CAMWORLD. You can see them (sort of) at the Wayback machine here: https://web.archive.org/web/20000302182418/http://www.suck.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20000905161549/http://www.camworld.com/ You probably have your own.

The Deep Image Analysis Episode Mar 05, 2024

The Deep Image Analysis Episode: The Fun Toy, The Advancements, Apple II Crack Screens, Transcriptions, A Held Out Hand, The Dark Cloud, A Lifetime of Scanning, The Advantages, The Wishful Thinking, A Critical Thinking Requirement. Thoughts on deep image analysis, which I've been experimenting with and which has been producing amazing results, but is anything amazing anymore without concerns following soon behind?

The Hacking Museum Episode Feb 29, 2024

The Hacking Museum Episode: Friends Bringing Up A Museum, What Is a Museum, What Is Hacking, How Do You Start, The Fundamentals, The Extras, Before You Hire a Staff, Hacking Stories and Lore, Mobile or Static, The Possible Real Hacking Museum. Some pals of mine were talking with me about a hacking museum, and this was something that I was supposed to write a big document about, like an assessment, but maybe a podcast episode is all it needs to be.

The Eyeball Difficulties Episode Feb 25, 2024

The Eyeball Difficulties Episode: A Ring of Light, An Emergency Ophthalmologist, Posterior Vitreous Detachment, Eyeball Tubes, an Unfortunate Curtain, Into the Laser With Remaining Eye, Pancakes, Equilibrium, Next Steps, The Things Seen, A Community of Eyeballs, A Vision for Gratefulness. This episode discusses medical conditions with an eye. If that's not your thing, then be aware that as of this writing, my eyeball is currently stabilized and find. (Skip ahead to other "Eye" episodes to see if something changed.)I've learned more about eyes in a week than a whole lifetime before that. Eyes are amazing.

The Media Burnout Episode Feb 21, 2024

The Power Wash Simulator Episode Feb 16, 2024

The Power Wash Simulator Episode: Not Just Battle Royale, Power Wash Simulator, Plot and Intrigue, The Basic Idea, Angle of Attack, Parts Within Parts, The Urge to Clean and Make Things Better, A Messy Childhood, A Small Defined Zen Joy. Power Wash Simulator is a game/adventure where you have a power washer and everything needs cleaning. Either you're hooked or you're running away, but either way I thought I'd mention why I'm playing it to the end.

The Manuals, Manuals, Manuals! Episode Feb 13, 2024

The Manuals, Manuals, Manuals! Episode: Heading Out To Deal With Manuals Plus, The Manuals Plus Saga, The Latest Part, The Digital Manuals, Aesthetic And Information, My Great Manual Sorting Screwup, Brands and Flibberjibbits, The Future Holds. Plus: The Facade of Brands. Lots of thoughts about two parallel projects: The Manuals Plus Loadout, now about to get a lovely upgrade, and the Manuals Collection at Internet Archive, which is getting an upgrade of its own.

The Cheshire Catalyst Episode Feb 10, 2024

The Cheshire Catalyst Episode: The Brightest Smile, A Long History, TAP Magazine, 2600 Magazine, HOPE Conferences, A Late Start, No Sleep, Close to the Edge, 3-2-1, Space Hobo, A Chance To Remember. Some thoughts about Cheshire Catalyst, a hacker who had a lovely history and who is gone, leaving behind memories and smiles.

The Configuration Episode Oct 23, 2023

The Configuration Episode: Two Configuration Aspects, The Rotating Bulletin Board System, Arcade Fidonet, Power-Switch-Rotation, What Was I Thinking, Happy Life / Lack of Strife, USENET Groups and Configuration, Works Or No Works, Cancelmoose, ROFLCon Panel, I Call Upon My Brain.

I noticed I've been getting heavy the last few episodes, so here's a geek waterfall of the ups and downs of configuration, from my teens and twenties. My memories of the ROFLCon Panel: http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/2565

The Digital Faith Episode Oct 16, 2023

The Digital Faith Episode: Obsession and Storage, To-Dos in a Dining Room, The Path from Analog to Digital, The Fight for Perfection, The Battles and Triumphs, Chapter and Verse, Passages to The Light, Losing a Taste for Conflict, The Fan Mail. Some ruminations of how digitization is digitization and what matters is we get the bits. Jason Scott Talks His Way Out Of It is supported by Patreon subscribers. You can check out episodes before anyone else and help me with various bills and debts as they arise by joining up at https://patreon.com/textfiles.

The Mister Jangles Option Episode Oct 09, 2023

The Mister Jangles Option Episode.

In which your ol' pal Mister Jangles throws you a possible lifeline.

The Data Dirigibles Episode Oct 02, 2023

The Data Dirigibles Episode: Prehistoric TEXTFILES.COM, The Cry of the Leech, TEXTFILES.COM Comes to Pass, Downloading Archives, Downloading More Archives, Kilo Mega Giga Tera, TEXTFILES TIME CAPSULE, What Persists, The Unpretty But Surviving Clump, Slash Internetarchive, Slash Internet, Software Capsules, Ace and I Ride High An episode about my idea that the future is just massive balls of data, floating airships of content that float slowly through our virtual sky. Let's see if I'm right. Meanwhile, come browse the capsules at: https://archive.org/details/softwarecapsules Jason Scott Talks His Way Out Of It is supported by Patreon subscribers. You can check out episodes before anyone else and help me with various bills and debts as they arise by joining up at https://patreon.com/textfiles.

The ScanTailor Dance Episode Sep 25, 2023

The ScanTailor Dance Episode: A Small Project That Is Huge, The Endless Pages, Crop and Rotate, The Search for an Application, Best and Abandoned (and Best and Worst), The Experience of ScanTailor Advanced, The Missing Mentor, Before Applications, The Dance of Software Destiny. I have learned way too much about ScanTailor in a few days, and I thought I'd share how it felt before my brain tells me it's not good to revisit dark passages of memory and I forget. Jason Scott Talks His Way Out Of It is supported by Patreon subscribers. You can check out episodes before anyone else and help me with various bills and debts as they arise by joining up at https://patreon.com/textfiles.

The Monotony Episode Sep 18, 2023

The Monotony Episode: My Boring Day, The Crushing of Monotony, How I've Always Adored Repetition, Engagement and Disengagement, Long-Form Information, Temporary Domain Expert, Advice on Handling Monotony, A Web of Friends. Plus: THE ANALYTICS. Some thoughts about handling long form repetition, considering that's all I've been doing since forever and onward forever still. Jason Scott Talks His Way Out Of It is supported by Patreon subscribers. You can check out episodes before anyone else and help me with various bills and debts as they arise by joining up at https://patreon.com/textfiles.

The Arcade Documentary Arcade Interview Episode Sep 11, 2023

The Arcade Documentary Arcade Interview Episode: Getting Down to Union Bridge, Eric and Stephanie, Zach, ARCADEDOCUMENTARY.COM, Being The Dream Interview, Always The Last, A Closing Moment. Thoughts as I do an interview for the Arcade Documentary being done by Zach Weddington, "Arcade Dreams" (also called "Arcadia" in some places), which I gave my domain to: https://arcadedocumentary.com

Eric and Stephanie run SAVE POINT in Union Bridge. Here's the address: https://savepointmd.square.site/ Jason Scott Talks His Way Out Of It is supported by Patreon subscribers. You can check out episodes before anyone else and help me with various bills and debts as they arise by joining up at https://patreon.com/textfiles.

The Last (?) Computer Shopper Episode Sep 04, 2023

The Last (?) Computer Shopper Episode: Drawing The Line, Ups and Downs, My Hot Glue Enemy, Stresses and Delights, BBS List Highlights, The Ever Forever Scanning.

Some last big mentions of the Computer Shopper scanning project, because otherwise this becomes a series of episodes about Computer Shopper and that's not very enjoyable for anyone. The Computer Shoppers are growing here: https://archive.org/details/computer_shopper I expect to do 2 a week. (Maybe more but it's really a tough process.) I've got a lot of support in the background, so thanks to everyone doing that. Jason Scott Talks His Way Out Of It is supported by Patreon subscribers. You can check out episodes before anyone else and help me with various bills and debts as they arise by joining up at https://patreon.com/textfiles.

The Video Content Episode Aug 28, 2023

The Video Content Episode: What Is Even On Video; Commerical Tapes, Recordings of Individuals and Events, Television, The Meaning, Loss Versus Lossless, 40-Year Delay on a Dream, The True Nature of Television, The Hope of Doing It Right. A meditation of what video content ends up being, now that I'm several thousand tapes in. Here's hoping I can do a few thousand more! Jason Scott Talks His Way Out Of It is supported by Patreon subscribers. You can check out episodes before anyone else and help me with various bills and debts as they arise by joining up at https://patreon.com/textfiles.

The Amusement Part Defunctland Episode Aug 21, 2023

The Amusement Park Defunctland Episode: Listening to too much Defunctland, Lessons Learned from the Amusement Park Historians, The Unique Situations of Roller Coasters, The Common Threads, The Lessons and Inspirations. A bit of a love letter to Kevin Perjurer's Defunctland series, a youtube series which brings together, especially as time goes on, a really deep and rich overview of very well-researched stories of rides and amusement parks. https://www.youtube.com/@Defunctland Two that represent my favorites: Walt's Epcot: (Citizen Kane Parody of EPCOT's Story): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKYEXjMlKKQ Live From the Space Stage (Amazing Documentary on a Space Band): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0rDLvg-Lfs&t=130s Jason Scott Talks His Way Out Of It is supported by Patreon subscribers. You can check out episodes before anyone else and help me with various bills and debts as they arise by joining up at https://patreon.com/textfiles.

The Long Drive Hard Drive Episode Aug 14, 2023

The Long Drive Hard Drive Episode: A Common E-mail, An Offer of DVDs, A 800 Mile Drive, The Wawa, Fugue State and Explainer Videos, There and Back Again, The Process.

Someone offered me an attic of DVDs. I said yes. And then I drove 800 miles to get them. Here's what that's like.

Jason Scott Talks His Way Out Of It is supported by Patreon subscribers. You can check out episodes before anyone else and help me with various bills and debts as they arise by joining up at https://patreon.com/textfiles.

The Aboveground Episode Aug 07, 2023

The Aboveground Episode: What the Aboveground Means, The Cloak and Cosplay, The Risks Without Risks, Hacker Conferences, The Tech Industry, The Hidden Cost of Underground. Some thoughts on a concept I've been mulling about, regarding "The Aboveground", a cosplay version of being underground used by certain groups, usually for some gain, to bring the delusion of lawlessness and lack of limits, when in fact needing and depending on those limits to succeed. I also made a blog post: The Great Aboveground Empire.

The Computer Shopper Aesthetics Episode Jul 24, 2023

The Computer Shopper Aesthetics Episode: Last Thoughts On the Project, Every Major Step, Considerations of Contrast, Size and Intimidation, Impossible Perfection, Resting Easy. One last set of consideration about all the aspects of the Computer Shopper Scanning Project before I do whatever it is I'm doing 200 times. Finished issues will be here: https://archive.org/details/computer_shopper

This podcast is supported by Patreon and other sources. Supporting the podcast helps with Jason's medical debt and various bills. The Patreon is at https://patreon.com/textfiles and can get your name into the episodes.

The Atari Hotel Episode Jul 21, 2023

The Atari Hotel Episode: The Atari Hotel, Bought and Bought and Bought and Bought, The Concept Drawings, The Drawn-Out Death of Atari, Livery, Hotels, Entropy, Concepts, A Breath of a Seed, The Real Atari Hotel. As of this writing, the Atari Hotels are still being advertised at https://atarihotels.com/ I took photos of my trip through the TWA hotel and the album is here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/textfiles/albums/72177720307661452 Photos of the sketched-out Atari Arcade concepts can be seen here: https://arcadeblogger.com/2016/02/13/atari-arcade-concept-art-a-glimpe-of-the-future/

The Tiger King Episode Jul 17, 2023

The Tiger King Episode: Finally Watching Tiger King, Spoiler Alert, An Overview of the Three Seasons, Big Cats and Shady Deals, The Spectacle and the Madness, What Kind of Documentary, B-Roll, Too Funny to Fail. An overview of the documentary series "The Tiger King", which has three seasons (eight episodes, five episodes, three episodes) and what it feels like to me, watching it from the point of view of someone who cares about documentaries.

The Logistics Episode Jul 14, 2023

The Logistics Episode: The First Computer Shopper, The Hidden Logistics, The Simplest Part, Hot Glue, Orientation, Wayward Pages, Boxes and Checks, Gaming Alexandria, A Future Stack, The Logistics of Empathy. A recognition of how very little of scanning is scanning, and how hard everything but the scanning is, and how if Logistics does its job, you never once think about it. Thanks to Gaming Alexandria for being part of this project.

The Mike Berlyn Episode Jul 10, 2023

The Mike Berlyn Episode: Mike Berlyn, Memories of Mike, The Greatest Love Story, GET LAMP's Shaky Start, Final Approval. Plus: The Archives. On the loss of Mike Berlyn, some links: The Infocom Documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXNLWy7rwH4 Mike's Interview Page for GET LAMP: http://www.getlamp.com/cast/20060225berlyn/index.html Mike and Muffy Berlyn Archive: https://archives.museumofplay.org/repositories/3/resources/219

The TEXTFILES.COM Machine Good Times Episode Jul 07, 2023

The TEXTFILES.COM Machine Good Times Episode: A Moment of Reflection, A Previous Moment of Darkness, The Quarter Century of Hosting, A Shifting Window, The Role TEXTFILES.COM Has Played, ARCHIVE.ORG vs. TEXTFILES.COM, a Heartfelt Thank You. Recognition of how the TEXTFILES.COM replacement machine is working so well, and an additional recognition of the context of a hosted machine existing so many years across time in one of the most shaky mediums imaginable.

The Unusual Look Back Episode Jul 03, 2023

The Unusual Look Back Episode: Suburban Horse, Warehouse of Broken Dreams, Pennsylvania Pinball, A Mythical Warehouse, Tomb of Arcade, Compuserve Documents, The Nature of Hope, An Infinite Relay Race. A knockaround set of thoughts about things that were only weird when I look back at them. The photos I took of the pile of vintage equipment and software before I was ejected from the facility is here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/textfiles/albums/72157632915159115

The Computer Shopper Episode Jun 30, 2023

The Computer Shopper Episode: A Small Billing Situation, Computer Shopper's Unique Place, The Listings and the Ads, A Happy Life, The Decline and Loss, A Reminder and an Opportunity, Coming Together, Debinding, The First and the Last Scan. A little bit about the comes-out-of-nowhere Computer Shopper scanning project now underway, where I'll be digitizing thousands of pages and materials across the next months out of a multi-hundreds eBay purchase.

The Strike Manual Episode Jun 26, 2023

The Strike Manual Episode: The Mother of All Manuals. The Assignment. How Many Broom Strokes. Friends of Friends. The Honored Transcription. After-School Activities. Two Weeks Later. A Moment to Make Things Right. A tale told out of school of the best typing assignment I never completed.

The Momentary Fall And Empire of Paper Episode Jun 23, 2023

The Momentary Fall And Empire of Paper Episode: A Sudden End For a Phone, Bits of Paper, The Units of Communication, Unexpected Archives, The Wonder of That Which Remains, Digitization and Gatekeeping, Glory and Wonder, A Catalyst or a Threat, The Joys of Every Day. A small reverie on the aspects of digitization and how wonderous it was that things worked out like they did in the 20th century for the digitization by the 21st. Plus: A Eulogy for the phone I've had all through this podcast, who held up very well, considering.

The Cassette Digitizer Episode Jun 19, 2023

The Cassette Digitizer Episode: Building a Tascam 122 Mk III, The Era of Cassettes, Previous Attempts, Why Cassettes Are Important, My Audio Era Before the Video One, Where The Process Is, The Future Paths, The Joy Of The Cassette Pile. I am finally moving on to digitizing audio cassettes at high quality! Here's some of my thoughts on that. One of the main destinations will be this collection: https://archive.org/details/cassettetaperecordings

The Space Rogue Episode Jun 16, 2023

The Space Rogue Episode: A Respectful Trip, A Book Reading, The Works BBS, A Ferret in Massachusetts, Gatherings to Gatherings, The L0pht, Seedlings to Guarding, The Digital Lifeline, The Story of the L0pht and of Space Rogue, Why The Book is Needed, A Joyful Noise, A Family's Witness.

My pal Space Rogue wrote a book called SPACE ROGUE: HOW THE HACKERS KNOWN AS L0PHT CHANGED THE WORLD. It talks about his time as part of that group, of the @stake era, and most importantly, his path in life. It's a great Hacker Memoir and I hope we see many more. His book site (and his personal site as well) is at https://www.spacerogue.net/wordpress/

The Endless Procrastination Episode Jun 12, 2023

The Endless Procrastination Episode: An Illusion of Productivity, The Oldest E-mail, an Exponential Graph. Fast vs. Slow, Easy vs. Hard. Not as Hard as it Seems, the Stress, the Process, Techniques and Cheat Codes. Two Simple Tools. Plus: Good Financial News. A rumination on my procrastination issues and what I try to do to mitigate them.

The Warm Spaces Episode Jun 09, 2023

The Warm Spaces Episode: The Endless Font of the BBS Documentary, Skills Learned, Spaces Found. A Bowling Alley in Kansas. A Starring Role. Kids Hanging Out, My Very Own Rocky Horror, Plastic and Fabric and Wood. Some thoughts on how I loved being in warm spaces, and how many different rooms, including the one I stream in, try to live up to that. Jim Willing's Interview shots show his now-since-closed-and-opened and multi-owners since bowling alley: https://archive.org/details/20040128-bbs-willing

The Code Grenade Episode Jun 05, 2023

The Code Grenade Episode: A Lost Summer, A Grey Machine, Zork II, A 13 Year Old Engineer, Modules and Rooms and Graph Paper, The Grenade That Finished Me, A Testimony to Long-Lost Data. When I was very young, I tried to make an Infocom-level Adventure Game. It did not go very well at all.

The Bodged Calculators Episode Jun 02, 2023

The Bodged Calculators Episode: A Short Conversation, A Machine Lives, Exactly One Person, The Needlessly Complicated Environment, No FAQ, Hacks and Scripts, The Wonder and the Joy, An Apology to the Future. Reflecting the fact that there's really only me for adding new machine emulators to the Internet Archive, in this case, The Calculator Drawer, adding emulated calculators at https://archive.org/details/calculatordrawer - go forth and multiply.

The Ramifications Episode May 29, 2023

The Ramifications Episode.

A lot of speculation and consideration of the ramifications of algorithmic intensity and synthetic media from someone who has been thinking about the Blorb for a very long time. Listened best without headphones.

The BIG CHUNGUS Episode May 26, 2023

The BIG CHUNGUS Episode: A Lucky Smart Situation, The Rise of BIG CHUNGUS, 8 Terabytes, Distributions, The Culture of Twitch Videos, A Ride Down The Line, Packs and ROMs, Television and Dumps, A Secret Clubhouse, A Half a Petabyte, The Chungus Among Us, The Closed Future And The Bridgers, A Warm Thermos.

Ruminations of BIG CHUNGUS, my ongoing weird project. Nothing stops the Chungus.

The Storage Reckoning Episode May 22, 2023

The Storage Reckoning Episode: Putting Off Forever, Final Consolidations, The Big Sort, An Unpassable Box, The Nature of Contents and Archives, The Plans and Possibilities, Where It All Goes, The Lack of Guilt, Advice and Concerns, The Empty Future. Thoughts on finally consolidating down to a single storage unit again, and how maybe, I might finally have a to-do list that will actually shrink instead of grow. Recorded using a temporary method while travelling. Listening on speakers instead of headphones suggested.

The Laptop Loss Episode May 19, 2023

The Laptop Loss Episode: A Eulogy For a Laptop, Largest and Smallest, A Gift From Above, A Quirkly Little Partner, Memories of the PC Convertible, Suspicious Activity, Presentations and Podiums, Signs of Aging, A Secret Of Hard Drives, The Next Generation. A eulogy for a laptop, brave travel companion, editor of my podcasts, now clearly gone and awaiting one last salvage. Noted in this episode is that I recorded this month's episodes using a different method and setup as I am travelling. Most notably is the lack of a pop screen, which, combined with my proximity to the microphone, makes this slightly tough on headphones. Patreon's scheduling means I can't spend time on surgery to really fix this up syllable by syllable, but I will probably do a bit of work before this goes into the "regular" podcast feed. I'd back on the proper setup for the next month and onwards.

The Remedial College Episode May 15, 2023

The Remedial College Episode: A Chance to Reboot, Not Quite Rebooted, A Lot of Effort, Boston or Bust, 4.25 Years, Remedial College, 20 Candidates, Roommate Switch, Sketch, Three Teachers, A Couple Suspicious Moments, The Results, The 19 Plus One, A Final Improvement.

A rapidly fading memory of the really odd way I finally got into college.

The Near Miss Episode May 12, 2023

The Near Miss Episode: A Moment of Glass, The Ever-Returning Concern, Ramificiations, Networks of Interlocking Dependency, Divestment, Discouragement. A Near Miss With a Car, Consolidation, Hopefulness.

Some musings on a very weird phobia (or coping mechanism) I have with regards to near miss tragedy, in this case, some rather unexpected glass.

The Documentary Urge Episode May 08, 2023

The Documentary Urge Episode: A Fleeting Moment of Weakness, The Three That Made It, The Reasons for a Documentary, The Untold Efforts, The Unattempted Documentary, A Round of Considerations Along a Technical Level, The People Doing What I'd Do, The Things Only I Can Do. A continued reminder about why I stopped making documentaries and why I'm not going to start doing them again.

The VCR Mechanism Episode May 05, 2023

The VCR Mechanism Episode: A Tangential Query, New Old Stock, The Mechanism, The Next Level of Reading, A Bit More Consideration of the Applesauce, An HD Read of a VHS Tape, The Fuzzy Future, One-Off Equipment, VHS-Decode, A Dream In the Days of Reality.

Until the day comes.... my dreams continue.

Applesauce: https://applesaucefdc.com/

Acronova Nimbie: https://disc.acronova.com/product/auto-blu-ray-duplicator-publisher-ripper-nimbie-usb-nb21/9/review.html

VHS Decode: https://github.com/oyvindln/vhs-decode

The Interesting Collections Episode Dec 30, 2022

The Interesting Collections Episode: Occult Periodicals, Johnson Catalog, Kirkland's Manual Labor, Input Television, The Reality of a Sore Throat and Debt.

Some interesting collections I've stumbled over the last few months. And a little bit about pushing yourself towards commitments. https://archive.org/details/iapsop

https://archive.org/details/iapsop_curio_catalogs

https://archive.org/details/marionstokesinput

https://archive.org/details/a2600-kirklands-manual-labor

https://archive.org/details/snes-kirklands-manual-labor

https://archive.org/details/ps2-kirklands-manual-labor

The Genesis Cartridges Episode Dec 26, 2022

The Genesis Cartridges Episode: Walking the Stacks, Growing the Pile, The Victory and Choice of the Console Living Room, The Second Christmas Morning, The Advantages of Consoles, Many Distractions and Greener Pastures, Returning to the Scene, The Next Sets of Repairs, Dreamcast Probably Never, Consoles Forever.

Some work on Genesis Cartridges continues, bringing the total up to 18,000 emulated at the Archive, so I thought I'd bring up how I got into this situation in the first place.

The Whispering Episode Dec 23, 2022

The Whispering Episode: A Potential New Toy, Learning of Whisper on a Drive, Throwing the Book and a Nightclub at Whisper, The Aspects of Whisper, The Idea of Unadvocated Material, A Job Nobody Wants, A Massive Success, Kalev Leetaru, Extensive Versus Immediately, Experiment Results, Scary Both Ways, Forging Ahead, Mission Critical, The Road Ahead. Some thoughts on the transcription program Whisper, which works too well or not at all depending on the weather but which is going to, in some ways, revolutionize both the work I'm doing and the work others do.

I mention Kalev Letaru and his website is at https://www.kalevleetaru.com/

The DiscMaster Episode Dec 19, 2022

The DiscMaster Episode: From Nowhere to Everywhere One Saturday, A Rare Surprise, The Rise of Discmaster, Press and Announcement, Success Stories, The Powers of Searching, The Two Processes, Why DiscMaster Changes Everything, Taking the Brunt, A Bouncer Outside a Nightclub, The Users Not Quite Here, Do It Again Please.

An episode about discmaster.textfiles.com, a new search engine created by a developer that completely upends our entire relationship to the software on the Internet Archive.

http://discmaster.textfiles.com.

The Two Decisions Episode Dec 16, 2022

The Two Decisions Episode: Lagarith Becomes FFMV1, Large-Scale Digitization, A Future Job Opening, A Sizeable Backlog, The Big Plan, We All Get The Point, An Advisory Future.

A musing about two big Decisions made, one about tape and one about life. We'll see how they both do.

The Unstuck in Time Episode Dec 12, 2022

The Unstuck In Time Episode: Men in Black 3, Griffin, Timelines, Out of Timelines, Inspiration, Gathering of Voices Silenced, Digital and Analog, Lessons Learned, Hope. Plus: Mundane Headlines. Some ruminations on a supporting role character in Men in Black 3 and what it means about my memories and purposes with the flow of time.

The Fanzine Back Throw Episode Dec 09, 2022

The Fanzine Back Throw Episode: A Long Trip, A Special Collection, Slash Fiction Fanzines, The Coordinators, Calling in Lodrina, 1550 Pounds, Hardcore Lifting, 33 Boxes, The Next Steps, The Event Horizon, Back Damage, Next Steps, Hired Hands and Hotels.

In which I do what may finally be the last large-scale lifting in which I play any part except coordinating. And also, putting my doctors through their paces! I don't have a link for the Fanzines at this point, but they look great. As soon as they can be put up, they will.

Watch Your Back!

The Atlantic Festival Episode Dec 05, 2022

The Atlantic Festival Episode: A Very Long Drive, A Quid Pro Quo, Getting Back on the Horse, The Real Staff, Late Arrival, Rehearsals and Clarifications, Booties, A Short Relief, Out The Door, Respect, Twitter Spaces, Money and Time, A Turning Away, An Appreciation.

About my presentation and appearance at Atlantic Festival 2022 and how it all happened. My short presentation is on Youtube here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=j9YQUo3dUvg

The Stress Management Episode Dec 02, 2022

The Stress Management Episode: Recognizing Stress, How Fast Things Change, Mitigating Responsibility, My Air Travel Issue, Your Place in Time, Rarity And Prototype, A Track From and Into Fog. A hopefully-helpful essay on stress, and how to do your best to avoid the pressure when faced with it. I'm answering the question because it comes up a lot. If you have other questions you want me to answer in this fashion, hit me up.

The Luna City Memory Episode Nov 28, 2022

The Luna City Memory Episode: Vintage Quarters, The Vector Dream, The Rise of Luna City, The Family Days and Personal Visits, The True Artistry of Luna City, The Downfall, The Power of Luna City's Memory.

I've discussed Luna City and Vector Dream before, but I wanted to touch on how important it stands, even as a memory, to so many people and how inspiring it is to have been this effective at its intentions, looking back across years. Much love to Peter Hirschberg.

The Longest Nap Episode Nov 24, 2022

The Longest Nap Episode: Arriving for Thanksgiving, The Nap, A Sleeping Beast, Why Was I So Tired, A Balance at Work But Also Overbalanced, Pushing So Hard, The Riptide. Also: A Stood-Up Date. Have you ever had a nap so epic you remember it 20 years later? Or make a podcast episode about the philosophy behind it?

The Transient Hardware Episode Nov 21, 2022

The Transient Hardware Episode: A Prayer, A Realization, The First Openings, A Deeper and Deeper Misunderstanding, Two Technical Friends, Occasional Upgrades, A Different Person, Each Machine, And Now, A Finished Task. A rumination on me and my relationship to computers, especially hardware, as a break from tackling a short-lived card installation program. (I finished recording, went back, and it was all working properly.) Sometimes, you really do just need a break.

The HOPE Transplant Episode Nov 18, 2022

The HOPE Transplant Episode: Going to HOPE 2022, A Sketch History of 2600 and HOPE, Hacker Cons, Podium Drink, Hotel Pennsylvania, St. John's, A Good Experience, My Only Hacker Con, The Foundation. Some thoughts on attending HOPE 2022 in St. John's University in Queens NY and how happy I am they're keeping the events going. There was a presentation I gave and I'll link to the talk when it comes up.

The Rock Tapes Episode Nov 14, 2022

The Rock Tapes Episode: A Link To An Auction, The Results of the Victory, Digitizing VHS Tapes, Bootleg Culture, Not a Phone in Sight, The Purpose of a Bootleg, The Easy Process, The Endless Music Ahead. You can enjoy the Diamondhead collection here as it grows:

https://archive.org/details/diamondheadtapes

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