Robert Moog, Toolmaker, 1934-2005
Yesterday's news of Robert Moog's death at the age of 71 was sobering, to say the least. My musical tastes have been at least partially indebted to his synthesizer since I purchased Wendy Carlos' Switched On Bach at the age of ten and insisted my music teacher play the tape during class (my classmates didn't get it). I had the good fortune of meeting Bob Moog when he gave a short lecture at my school on the history of the theremin--a lecture that quickly turned into a Q & A on the history of the Moog synthesizer. He only reluctantly acknowledged his influence as a pioneer of electronic music, seeing himself instead as an engineer devoted to musicians. To him, the Moog wasn't a revolution--it was a tool. In light of that, this paragraph in today's NYT coverage of Moog's life and work really resonated with me:
"Artist feedback drove all my development work," Mr. Moog said in an interview with the online magazine Salon in 2000. "The first synthesizers I made were in response to what [composer] Herb Deutsch wanted. The now-famous Moog filter was suggested by several musicians... The point is that I don't design stuff for myself. I'm a toolmaker. I design things that other people want to use."
If you've ever played with a Moog, you know why people so loved using them; tweaking the knobs of an analog modular synthesizer is among the most gratifying things you'll ever do with a circuit. Musicians have accomplished so much with the Moog (and its numerous successors) because it's such an addictive tool--one of the most transformative to the arts in the last century. What Bob Moog did right in building his synthesizer is not much different from what we try to do as toolmakers today; he built a simple, gratifying tool and let its use dictate its design. To properly honor Robert Moog's achievements, you have to see him not only for his influence on music, but also for his devotion to the craft of user interface design. In fact, to anybody whose work involves the creation of tools--analog, digital, mechanical, whatever--I would say, simply: consider Robert Moog.
electronic music-ish , geek-ish , interface-ish , music-ish by tangentialist at 07:36 PM on 22 Aug 05 | Perm-a-link | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Chi'en Revolution!
It was going to happen, anyhow. I am particularly partial to the Arthur Chi'en Revolution tote bag.
[Chi'en Revolution Store @ Cafepress]
arthur chi'en-ish , geek-ish , t-shirt-ish by tangentialist at 03:30 PM on 20 May 05 | Perm-a-link | TrackBack (0)
Google: Accepting Inch, Taking Mile
How could this really be a good idea? One week ago, Google was just going to keep track of what you searched, but now they're in for the whole bagel. I'm not trying to be alarmist, and I'm sure Google has other things besides the sovereign privacy of the world's citizenry to plunder with each new tool, but I think it's important to note what Stewart at Ludicorp had to say in the panicked anti-Yahoo! backlash after Flickr's purchase.
Google is great, sure, but so was Yahoo! when they first hit the scene, and it seems to me that the sense of noble invincibility that now surrounds the geniuses at Google grows thinner with every creepy new announcement.
geek-ish , google-ish , paranoid-ish by tangentialist at 07:59 PM on 04 May 05 | Perm-a-link | TrackBack (0)
Quick Note: Backpack Is Awesome
37signals, makers of the so-simple project management tool Basecamp, are about to launch their new Backpack service on Tuesday, and I got one of the coveted Golden Tickets that allows you to play around in the sandbox. Though sworn to secrecy, I want to convey my impressions from my first fifteen minutes with Backpack:
- Okay.
- Good, there's no manual. I hate reading manuals.
- All right, I guess that's hip.
- Oh, wait.
- Ohhhhhh...
- and...
- OHHHH!
As a hint about what Backpack can do, and just how ridiculously simple and awesome it is, let me say this: I am about to leave the house, but I really want to continue playing with this all day, so I will.
You wouldn't think that a little web service would be able to steal my attention away from a fresh installation of Tiger ("The Widgets! They're everywhere!"), but I'm really sold on this tool, and I think that, by Tuesday, a lot of people will be saying the same thing.
37signals-ish , backpack-ish , geek-ish , web services-ish by tangentialist at 01:11 PM on 30 Apr 05 | Perm-a-link | TrackBack (0)
MacWorld: Oh, Buddy
under the mac mini
Originally uploaded by kenyee.
So, I geeked out this morning, as I do this morning every January, and followed the harrowing live text coverage of Steve Jobs' keynote at the MacWorld Expo in San Francisco. My brother, in the truest nerd fashion, was there, acting as my twitchy nerd eyes and ears.
I won't go into too much detail, beyond pointing out how childlike I become when new Apple products are announced, but mark my words:
Apple turned a big fat corner today. Every new product announced at the keynote (the Mac Mini, in particular) was expertly crafted to align the iPod market with the Macintosh computer. In short, they might finally capitalize on all this iPod hype. Apple stands to realize the computer-as-appliance vision that the Macintosh was designed to fulfill, and that's pretty great.
P.S. I'll take a Mac Mini and an iPod shuffle.
apple-ish , geek-ish by tangentialist at 01:14 AM on 12 Jan 05 | Perm-a-link | TrackBack (0)