Technology Connections(2015–)

Bell & The Invention of Artificial Sound

Alexander Graham Bell is famous for his invention of the telephone. In 1876, his device was the first ever to be able to reproduce sound. Before its invention, nothing existed capable of taking sound waves and replicating them. Bell's invention marks the beginning of our journey through time. This series, of which this video is the first, will be taking you step-by-step through the history of sound reproduction. We begin today with the Telephone.

Edison's Impression: Laying Sound into a Groove

Bell's invention, the telephone, was the first device capable of reproducing sound. But it couldn't record it. Thomas Edison's invention of the phonograph brought us the first device capable of capturing sound to be played back later. How did Edison figure this out? By combining one of his earlier ideas with the ideas in the telephone, Edison was able to bring a revolutionary product to market (well, sort of). This week, we're exploring how Edison thought up his device.

Emile Berliner's Fix: Flatten the Cylinder to a Disc

Thomas Edison's cylinder phonograph was fantastic, no doubt. Can you imagine what it would've been like to hear the first artificial sound? But Edison's mind for the accurate doomed his cylinder, because the cylinder as it turns out is a really stupid shape for this sort of a thing. Emile Berliner threw accuracy to the wind with his disc phonograph, assuming people would rather deal with an easier and cheaper phonograph than a more "scientifically correct" one. Boy was he right. We explore Berinler's idea of storing sound in a different way on a different shape in this episode of Technology Connections.

The Impossible Feat inside Your VCR

These days a VCR seems more quaint than anything else. But in fact, there's a device inside every VCR that solved what seemed to be an unsolvable problem. The video head drum is a fascinating solution to the complex problem of tape speed, and therefore I think it deserves to be remembered. Plus, the video head drum shares some motor technologies with modern hard disk drives. So there's that.

From Radio Waves to Electric Grooves: Electrical Sound Recording

Once we figured out how to amplify a signal with a vacuum tube, the possibilities became endless for the world of sound recording. In this video, we explore how the invention of radio improved the phonograph record by introducing electric recording technology.

Roller Coaster Safety: How to Manage Too Many Trains at Once

Roller coasters are pretty neat, I must say. But they rely on passive vehicles holding fragile humans while zooming around at high speeds. That can be a tough thing to manage safely, but it's not impossible. This video shows you a few ways it's done.

Laserdisc: An Introduction

Laserdisc seems to get a lot of retro cred these days. It gets featured as a technical oddity, but from today’s perspective, it might seem strange that it didn’t become the de-facto standard. Boasting many of the same features as the modern DVD, you would think it couldn’t possibly have received the cold reception it did. In this series of videos, we’ll find out why.

Thrift Store Hi-Fi: Some tips and tricks

These days, it seems everyone wants the latest and greatest equipment for the audio needs. But there's a lot of fantastic hardware you can find in thrift stores and enjoy today. I've found that with a little patience, you can find true high fidelity speakers from the best brands, and though they may need some TLC, I think the results are worth it.

Laserdisc's Failure: What Went Wrong

Laserdisc didn't have an easy start. In this video, we take a look at the first few years of Laserdisc's existence. Though many articles or videos talking about Laserdisc will blame the high cost of discs and the inability to record, those problems are only partially to blame.

Chevy Bolt EV: Winter Range and Performance (Chicago winter)

Nothing zaps the range of an EV quite like winter. But how bad is it? Join me on a few trips with a Chevy Bolt EV, and we'll find out.

Laserdisc: Features, Follies, & Evolution

While Laserdisc certainly wasn’t the most successful format, it was among the most interesting. This video explores the evolution and features of the format, with a wide variety of sample clips.

Faking It: The Obviously Dubbed Telephone Ring

If you lived in North America any time in the 20th century, you probably ran across one of these telephones. The Western Electric Model 500 and its subsequent variants were so ubiquitous that you almost couldn't go anywhere without seeing one, especially in the United States where it was standard equipment from the phone company. Even if you're not American, if you've seen any of our movies, you'll have seen this phone, too. A literal fixture of American life, this phone was inescapable. But its ubiquity also caused some filmmakers or TV show producers to get a little lazy. This video tells that story.

A Short Project Involving LEDs, a Fish Tank, and some Laziness

Have you ever needed to light your fish tank with Chinese LEDs? No? Well, here's how. I'm sure the information will be incredibly useful. In any case, maybe you'll learn about how to use these new-fangled diodes of light.

DVD: The Death Knell of Laserdisc

Well, it had a good run. Although Laserdisc could never really get off the ground, it had a reasonable showing in the high end video market. Intended as a mass market product, Laserdisc would never get there. But DVD... well that's a whole other story. In 7 or 8 years, DVD went from being introduced to being everywhere, and it is still selling pretty well in the face of streaming services such as Netflix. Just how long DVD can cling to life remains to be seen, but you can still stroll on into any big box store and pick up a DVD player and some movies to go with it. This video tells how DVD got started, and why it was able to succeed where Laserdisc failed.

Sony's Clever but Flawed PlayStation Copy Protection--And How They Might Have Fixed It

The original PlayStation is a pretty neat thing. Using the CD as a storage medium was a smart move. But, Sony needed to add anti-piracy features to the disc to prevent miscreants from making bootleg copies of Crash Bandicoot. This video tells the story of how that works, why it wasn’t infallible, and also proposes a potentially impervious solution (24 years late, though).

The CD Player with a Robot Inside: Pioneer CLD-M301

Sometimes, a company in Japan decides they're gonna give it all they got, and the result is a wacky machine like this. Pioneer, the company that brought you pretty much everything to do with Laserdisc, designed this wonderful series of machines which are both single side Laserdisc players and 5 disc CD changers. Due to the limitations of the Laserdisc format, a rather robotic solution was needed to do the job.

These Are Not Pixels: Revisited

When I first made a video on analog color television, the thumbnail I created (and its explanation) caused nearly endless debate. I thought I'd try and clear this up a bit.

The Weird Typewriter-Computer Hybrid: Smith Corona PWP-3200

In this very chill and laid back video, we take a look at the Smith Corona PWP-3200, a word processing typewriter from the early 1990's. There were a number of products like this available, and while they are an interesting bit of technological history, they are really strange.

The LED Traffic Light and the Danger of "But Sometimes!"

Around the mid-2000’s, the LED traffic light began making its way onto the scene. Recent developments in LED technology meant that energy efficient replacements for the standard incandescent lamp were beginning to appear. Municipalities rejoiced with the energy savings they provided, but in cold climates they weren’t met with quite as warm a welcome. Not producing sufficient heat to melt snow on their lenses, some drivers became confused by ambiguous signals and caused fatal accidents. This video tells the tale of why this newfound “problem” generated harsh criticism to the new technology, and explains why this reaction is entirely dumb and regressive.

Macrovision: The Copy Protection in VHS

Did you ever try to copy one VHS tape to another and find that it just, well, didn’t work? Macrovision was the clever creation of what is now TiVo that managed to confuse a VCR without causing too much distress to a TV. In this video, we find out what it is, how to spot it, and how it works (with a healthy dose of speculation).

MUSE Hi-Vision Laserdisc: The Blu-ray of 1994

1080i in 1994. Wow. Really, perhaps as early as 1993, but it seems the first player was released in 1994. Anyway, what better way to end the saga on Laserdisc than by talking about MUSE Hi-Vision discs. And some other stuff, too!

Chevy Bolt EV Summer Range Test

Come with me as I take the Chevy Bolt EV through 183 miles of summertime driving. It was really hot out and most of the drive was spent at 70 miles per hour, but the car still did pretty well.

The High Pressure Sodium Light: Ubiquitous, effective, but good?

Ever wonder why street lights are orange? For such a fast-paced world technology-wise, it seems somewhat odd that we are still using such a strange color of light for outdoor lighting. Well it turns out it is still a pretty good light source, though with limited use and perhaps a not-so-obvious flaw.

The LED's Challenge to High Pressure Sodium

Now that we know why street lights are orange, let’s look at whether or not they should still be so. The answer isn’t as straightforward as it might seem. Although newer technology seems to surpass HPS in nearly all respects, there are still considerations to be made.

The Not-So-Secret Secret Elevators of the Haunted Mansion

Is this haunted room actually stretching? The answer may surprise you! (barf) The stretching rooms at the Haunted Mansion are perhaps my favorite piece of hidden engineering at the Disney Parks. While only the Anaheim and Paris versions function in the fashion described in this video, it is still a neat effect regardless of how it’s done.

The Most Common EV Charging Misconception

We need to talk about private home charging more than we do. 99% of our charging infrastructure already exists, and this is something that absolutely needs to be communicated and not enough people are doing. Here is my attempt. In short, no matter if it's a Chevy Volt, Bolt EV, Nissan Leaf, or any of Tesla's cars, you will most likely be charging it at home. It's the cheapest and easiest way to do it--creating your own charging infrastructure.

Betamovie: Sony's Terrible (But Ingenious) Camcorder

Oh man, did this not go well for Sony. Sometimes clever engineering can really backfire, as was the case for Betamovie. Let’s learn a bit about it.

The Senseless Ambiguity of North American Turn Signals

There are studies linked below that demonstrate a tangible safety benefit of amber turn signals. You might want to check them out. Though it might be small, the benefit is demonstrably there. This has always bugged me, and no one talks about it. Our automotive lighting regulations in North America are stupid when it comes to tail lights. This video is about what is stupid, why it’s stupid, and what we could do about it.

Sound By Numbers: The Rise of Digital Sound

These days, listening to music on the analog formats of old has seen a massive resurgence. Whether it’s cassettes or vinyl, it seems analog is in and mp3’s are out. But digital sound is pretty freaking neat! This video discusses how it works and is the launching point for this, the final videos on sound reproduction.

Nyquist-Shannon; The Backbone of Digital Sound

Let’s talk a bit more about digital sound. Thanks to a mathematical theorem, we know that a bandlimited signal can perfectly be represented by a series of discrete samples that occur at twice the rate of the frequency of the bandlimit. OK, that’s hard to explain in a little descroption blurb, so the video is probably your best bet.

The GFCI/RCD: A Simple but Life-Saving Protector

These devices are a common sight in homes and businesses around the US and around the world. But what are they for? Why do we need them? This video explores the life-saving potential of the GFCI (known alias: RCD) and explains how they work.

The Compact Disc: An Introduction

The Compact Disc. Just, like, radical man. Lasers making the music? What will the technology wizards think of next? In this video we take a first look at the compact disc and its underlying encoding. Soon we’ll be looking more into CD players and their laser pickup systems, so be sure to subscribe if you haven’t already!

Dissecting the CD Player: How to Turn Shiny Plastic into Music

Did you ever want to know a little more about the nuts and bolts inside a CD player? No? Well I’m afraid you’ll have to pick another video because that’s exactly what this one is! In it, I start with a taken-apart Magnavox CDB 260, and we examine what all the parts do, how they fit together, and how they work together to turn pits and lands on a plastic disc into your favorite electrosynthamagnetic musical sounds.

LED Printers: The Common Printing Tech You Haven't Heard Of

If you’re among the 85%* of people who don’t know what an LED printer is, then prepare to have your mind mildly blown as I tell you about the common printer tech that may in fact by lurking in your home or office, but which you’ve been mistakenly referring to as a laser printer. *gasp*

An Oscilloscope Bonus: 20+ Minutes of Poking Around a CD player

This video is a supplement to the latest "real" video from this channel. There was a lot of interesting stuff here that got cut, so if this is the sort of thing you like--sit back and relax as you watch this loosely edited, not-at-all planned video.

CDs: More to Talk About (Sony vs. Philips)

Well, it’s time to answer that question that’s been burning in your minds. There’s lots of good stuff down here, so please to expand it to see!

TC Projects: Lead-Acid Battery Backup

Sometimes life throws curveballs. But rather than just get hit in the face, why not do something about them? This video is a mishmash of a project, some insight on Lead-Acid Battery technology, inverters, and applications. A bit different you might say from TC’s normal stuff, but what’s life without a little variety? *There are definitely different ways to charge lead-acid batteries, with different strategies optimized for different results. However, for general 12V applications, a large battery and a slow-ish charger for a car battery will be an A-OK combo.

CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, Books of Red, Blue, Purple, Beige, Orange, Scarlet...

The time has come. What was once just a replacement for big black frisbees of sprially wavey soundy sounds has matured into a versatile, ubiquitous data storage solution. Would you look at that, progress on a disc! But that wasn’t all; many colors of books were published (neato, wouldn’t ya say?) and the disc went from a-thing-you-buy-with-stuff-on-it to a disc that you can put your VERY OWN stuff on it! Radical! And here’s some of that story.

The Ubiquitous Sound That You May Have Never Noticed

Ya know, I just love learning about the everyday things in our world that are meant to make life a little more accessible to those with disabilities. This video is about a small (but nearly universal) thing that elevators do to make life just a bit easier for the blind and visually impaired.

LightScribe: HP's Clever Twist on the CD Burner

I remember when LightScribe was first marketed, and let me tell you I thought it was *the* *coolest* *thing* to ever happen. Burning labels with lasers? No way! Well, it worked amazingly well. LightScribe wasn’t without its flaws, though, and in this video we’ll discuss a bit of its history, how it worked, and why it wasn’t a runaway success.

LED Experiments: Making Holiday Lights Less Garish

How could I forget about the hmm-hmm light experiments? And/or; holy hard drives it’s already Decemberween? My how the year has passed in a flash. Just like these lights! HA! Yeah, so here’s the thing--I owed you this video. And honestly, the results were great! I have some more work to do (assuming no one listens to my plea toward the end) but now I know that what I want is at least vaguely possible.

Closed Captioning: More Ingenious than You Know

Over the years I’ve found that there are plenty of people who use captions, not just those who need them. But did you know that it took until the 1970’s for anyone to think of putting captions on TV? I can sort of understand that, since captions might be annoying if you don’t want them, but closed captioning would save the day and provide access to all, but only when needed.

DVD-RAM: The Disc that Behaved like a Flash Drive

DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW ain’t got nothin’ on my man RAM. Oh yes, DVD-RAM, the format of mild obscurity which seems like it should have been friggin huge. Alas, it was but mildly useful.

The Odd History of the SD Logo

So, what’s the deal with the D? Why is it all, disclike? Last I checked, SD cards weren’t any sort of disc. What’s going on? In this video, we find out.

The Time-Lapse VCR

Analog video and frame-by-frame review don’t usually go nicely together (unless of course you’ve got a CAV Laserdisc onhand). So how did security camera systems stretch the normal recording time of VHS from a couple of hours to upwards of a week? Why, with ingenuity of course! Watch this video and find out the juicy secrets!

Space Heater Nonsense

Unless my understanding of the universe is deeply flawed, something about space heaters just doesn’t add up. In this video, I talk about that.

The Story of Disney's PeopleMover in Texas

This is the fun, weird, and surprisingly complicated story of Disney’s PeopleMover attraction and how it ended up somewhere unexpected. And maybe even somewhere *really* unexpected!

The Electromagnet in Your Toaster

Ya ever wonder about what’s in a toaster? No? Well, too bad ‘cause you’re gonna find out right now!

Exploring the World of E-Ink

It’s ink. But better!

E-Ink on Android, and other new things!

Big things are coming soon. In some ways, they already have!

The Antique Toaster that's Better than Yours

That title isn’t hyperbole or clickbait nonsense. This really is better than your toaster. At least, I think so. Seriously, can we make this the norm, please? If we figured it out in 1948, you’d think we woulda kept going with it. I mean, really.

Flexplay: The Disposable DVD that Failed (Thankfully)

Have you ever run across a cool idea that you desperately hope doesn’t catch on? Flexplay is one of those. In this video, we’ll talk about what it is, why it was crazy to think it would go anywhere, and why it’s probably a good thing it didn’t.

Thermostats: Cooler than you think!

Boy do I have a COOL topic for you today. We’re gonna turn up the HEAT with this one!

Automatic Record Changers: We used to like them

Hmm. What were these things? Why were some record sets made to work with them? When did we decide we hated them? Was that the right call? Will I ask another question? These are the things you’ll learn in this video, where we explore the humble record changer. Seriously. They didn’t suck!

Portable Air Conditioners - Why you shouldn't like them

Oh no. It’s a new version of a well-established product that trades efficiency for convenience. But this time, it’s more than just being cool. It’s about cooling. Seriously, either we need to get more awareness of how dumb single-hose portable A/C units are, or we need to just use window units whenever possible. While I know that there are times a portable unit is the only option (remember, I’m in that boat), it seems that only very high capacity, premium machines have the facility to use two hoses. Which is frankly stupid but then again that’s what I’m trying to tell you now.

The Best Easy Way to Capture Analog Video (it's a little weird)

After much annoyance dealing with fiddly capturing methods, I thought I’d show you the method I stumbled upon that works amazingly well, is fairly cheap, and awfully easy. I’ve been thrilled with it, and I think you’ll be too.

TOSLINK: That one consumer fiber optic standard

Well. Isn’t that strange. Digital data through fiber optics, and in the home no less! Let’s explore this a little, shall we?

Fiber vs. Copper; What do we really need?

Fiber optics. A DeLIGHTful technology. Ooh that’s a groaner. Well, why don’t we see them around more often? Let’s find out!

Switches are Clicky; Here's Why

Click clack I was taken aback. Wonderin’ ‘bout those switches of light, yeah. Let’s find out what the point is of all that clacking, shall we?

The Weird World in RGB

Have you ever wondered why the word looks so weird? Wait. Weird as in, like, all the time? Of course! We live in a weird world! But light, though! What about weird light? Ahhh, that's what this video is all about. This is the strangest vid. description I've written in a while. Cool.

The CED: RCA's Very Late, Very Weird Video Gamble (Pt. 1)

Bring the magic home… with RCA! Please? We really want you to buy this. Please. Buy it now. Right now. It’ll be great.

The CED: No really, it coulda made sense! (Part 2)

It’s seriously not that crazy of an idea. RCA might have pulled this off in a couple of ways, and in this video we explore those new angles.

LCCS: The LCD / CRT Hybrid from JVC

So. Ya want color, eh? But you don’t want any of them dots or stripes? We can do that.

The VFD that isn't

Wouldn’t it be nice if VFDs made a resurgence? Just put VFDs on everything, already! Make VFDs the new “blockchain” or “neural networks” or whatever. Priorities, people!

RCA's CED failed; their history can tell us why (Pt. 3)

Part three! It’s here! Huzzah! Let’s learn about what happened in the history of RCA that led up to the eventual failure of the CED.

The VHS cassette was more clever than Beta

“Oh nooo! Betah!” In this video, we discuss the endlessly discussed rivalry betwixt the Victorious VHS and the Bent-outa-shape Beta, but from an entirely new angle!

LED color experiments 2019; Beyond the Sharpie

Yeah, so if you're new here, this is a thing that happens because I'm a curmudgeon about holiday lighting. Let's see what this year brings!

Klaxons; What makes them sound like that?

ahOOOOOga! All aboard the HONK HONK express! We're gonna learn a few things about horns and then probably there will be bloopers or something.

One more thing: the VHS notch

This is not the same video you watched previously. I promise. It’s a whole new video.

Holograms, Lasers & Boredom; the CED's march towards eventual invention (CED Part 4)

Alright, here it comes! The fourth part.

You are being misled about renewable energy technology.

Let's learn and grow. New things are cool!

The clever feature that makes cheap heaters safe — and why they're actually dangerous

Algorithms are breaking how we think

Power is not energy: why the difference matters

Dehumidifiers are confusing. Here's why.

Closed captions on DVDs are getting left behind

The "standard" car charger is usually overkill—but your electrician might not know that

Induction lamps: fluorescent lighting's final form

VHS-C: when a lazy idea stumbles towards perfection

Desiccant dehumidifiers are fascinating... but not for everyone

Catalytic converters are simple, but getting them to work is not

Video projectors used to be ridiculously cool

I was right about dishwasher pods, and now I can prove it

This cassette player is built into an 8-track cartridge

My car charger can boil water really fast

It's the Christmas light video again - 2025 edition