part of the development of the IFB, the earpiece in common use on every tv news show: The turboencabulator skit was originally intended to demonstrate the usefulness of earpiece radios as a replacement for cue cards when actors are delivering lines for a video. Bud Haggart wanted to show that you could use the earpiece effectively even when the lines get ridiculously difficult to follow, so he used the turboencabulator as a subject because it'd been a running gag in the engineering community ever since its first technical description was published by John Hellins Quick in 1944.
the hackers soundtrack is fantastic and includes some of the best electronic music from the era. the version of halcyon and on is in my opinion almost as good as the original 11 minute 12" uk promo edit [0], which may not have fit on this soundtrack.
in 2020 varese sarabande released an expanded 2xCD of the hackers soundtrack [1]. the second disk includes full length versions of the instrumental electronic music composed for the film by simon boswell [2] but not included on the 1 disk soundtrack and is absolutley essential listening while rollerblading to the payphones at penn station.
it is hard not to mention the fine WGBH produced re-enactment [1] version of this story any time this book is mentioned. there's also a german film from the POV of the other side of cliff's story [2]
> I can't even find this album on eBay, and you can find everything there!
i hope that discussing secondhand sales in the context of piracy might not be off-topic. if it is on topic, discogs.com is a decent source for most secondhand recordings. if you visit [1] you'll see there are two different sellers offering copies there, as well as price histories. i have not found many releases not listed on discogs.
in addition to helping to liberate kopyright, the KLF have also done us the favor of archiving some relatable artistic sound works in perpetuity at the internet archive:
i have found that an external broadcast television tuner with a regular hdmi display works well for my needs. the mediasonic HW220STB includes a PVR function to record broadcasts but the firmware is a bit old. Contemporary Research 232-ATSC is an older but fully capable tuner with rs-232 and ethernet remote control and can be had for around $100. there's a newer model called "232-ATSC 4K" which retails for around $1k and offers 4K output - the older one only goes up to 1080.
these are both ATSC tuners so they're fine for me in the US, but there is of course a different broadcast standard in non-US countries so this advice won't apply there.
D/A and A/D | Digital Show and Tell (Monty Montgomery @ xiph.org) 3/2/2013 https://youtube.com/watch?v=cIQ9IXSUzuM