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XFR STN Offers a Digital Update at the New Museum

Artists, editors and the occasional MTV producer are making pilgrimages to its fifth-floor gallery, where the museum’s XFR STN project helps them preserve, and in some cases, excavate, artworks stored on floppy disks, videocassettes and other obsolete media.

“It’s like Noah’s ark,” said Ben Fino-Radin, a digital conservator for the project. “Some of this stuff hasn’t been seen in 30 years.”

It can be something of a random archaeological dig, dependent on what is brought in by the artists seeking free one-on-one time with technicians to digitize their work. Most of it is then uploaded to archive.org, the Internet’s Wayback Machine, where it is available for anybody to experience.

The project, pronounced “transfer station,” runs through Sept. 8 and allows anyone to bring in their work after signing up on the museum’s Web site. It’s also open to museumgoers, who can see an exhibition of retro videos, posters and machinery, and witness the artists and technicians midrestoration. Along the way there’s a healthy dose of nostalgia, as well as the smack of recognition that time, or at least technology, travels rather fast.

In the space of a few hours “you go from U-matic,” an analog tape deck from the 1970s, “to watching it on your phone,” Mr. Fino-Radin said.

A recent tour revealed how art buried in the audiovisual graveyard lives again.

At a tower of outdated machines — a U-matic, an oscilloscope — Walter Forsberg, an audiovisual conservator for the project, worked with the artist Matthew Geller to digitize a tape of the artists Kiki Smith, Rebecca Allen and Ellen Cooper fronting the Cardboard Air Band in a performance at the Kitchen. Mr. Geller guessed that it was from 1981, when the artists were at the beginning of their careers. Even so, the footage, of men and women in skinny pants and floppy bangs singing and playing cardboard instruments, looked remarkably contemporary.

“It’s certainly interesting seeing a lot of this stuff, with the knowledge now of what comes after it,” said Mr. Geller, a site-specific installation artist. “We were all in our 20s, and no one ever imagined being famous until our 30s or 40s.”

Museum visitors watched footage from the Monday/Wednesday/Friday Video Club, an art collective begun in the 1980s, led by the artists and writers Alan W. Moore and Michael Carter. The club was spun out of Colab, Collaborative Projects Inc., a downtown group that also helped start ABC No Rio, a cultural space still kicking on the Lower East Side.

Andrea Callard, a Colab artist, has helped digitize hours of tapes from the MWF club that span a 10-year period. In 2004 New York University acquired her papers, including the first videos she made in the 1970s and ’80s. “I was at a point in my life when I really wanted to see what that stuff looked like,” she said, taking a break from her headphones and monitor. “If you want to experience the continuity of your work, that’s important. It’s really fun to see it. Now they have a new audience. It’s like a second life.”

The New Museum is digitizing some of its own archives, too. On an unlabeled Betamax tape, Tara Hart, the institution’s archivist, uncovered the museum’s founder, Marcia Tucker, discussing art in an early TV appearance.

“It’s very much high-’80s,” said Johanna Burton, the director and curator of education and public engagement at the New Museum, sounding enthralled about this window into the past.

As artists stream in to XFR STN, “histories are being told,” she said. “There are instant connections between the technicians and the people who are in the space. It feels very intimate in a space that we were afraid would be cold and technical.”

Because of the “precarity of the medium,” she added, “there’s something in the room that makes people aware of how easily histories get lost.”

Gabriel Tolliver, an associate producer on “Yo! MTV Raps” in the early 1990s, brought in a tape of performances by Public Enemy, Run DMC with the Beastie Boys, A Tribe Called Quest and the Wu-Tang Clan — the foundations of contemporary hip-hop.

In an era overstimulated by images, “there will be a need,” Mr. Tolliver said, “to look back, at certain points, at our cultural timeline to try to find moments to connect with, to revisit or be inspired by.”

Mr. Tolliver also digitized rap ephemera, like a 1992 Harlem boxing match. “Willie D of the Geto Boys knocked out Melle Mel” of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, he recalled. “That was one of the first times I ever picked up a camera. It was wild looking back at that.”

The nostalgia doesn’t extend to the older devices, which are nearly useless and often hard to come by. The majority of the project’s budget went to hiring people adept at wrestling with the temperamental machinery. Floppy disks and hard drives are jury-rigged with new software used in forensics and video games. The museum borrowed old cassette decks from other institutions or scavenged for them on eBay, where even an outdated cord might go for $200.

“If you think Apple’s cables are expensive now,” Mr. Fino-Radin said, “wait until they’re vintage, and you have to get grandpa’s old photos off his iPhone that you find in a shoe box.”

The obsolescence of tools that were once cutting edge highlights the limits of the digital anthology the New Museum is creating; its collection is just a small fraction of what’s out there, Ms. Burton said, “and it’s rather arbitrary.”

“It’s going to be a great collection, and a weird collection,” she said, “but it will be just the beginning of something that we wish could keep going.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: August 12, 2013

In an earlier version of this article, a quote by Gabe Tolliver misstated the group with which Melle Mel was affiliated. He was with Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, not Sugar Hill Gang.

Gadgetwise: Plantronics’ Wireless Earbuds Get an Update

With its newer model, the BackBeat GO 2, Plantronics addressed the battery life issue by adding a travel case that doubles as a charger. The company says listening time for the earbuds is still about 4.5 hours, but a fully charged case can triple that. Users get a voice alert when the earbuds’ charge is low.

The BackBeat Go 2 costs $80, and the case is another $20, which isn’t bad for Bluetooth-connected earbuds. They tuck nicely inside the case, which comes with a detachable USB charging cable. The earbuds also come with three sets of ear tips and a stabilizer to improve the fit and comfort. Plantronics also added a liquid repellent, P2i, that makes the earbuds handy for active, sweaty workouts.

The improvements are welcome, but the earbuds still need a little work. The flat cord that connects the ear buds is intended to loop around the back of your neck, but it kept getting caught on my collar and dragging on my neck. The buttons on the inline remote are tiny and face right instead of forward, making the controls difficult to manipulate. I chose to wear the cord dangling in front of me, which made the remote easier to reach.

I had a little trouble with the fit as well, but this will vary among users. Once I had a proper seal, the stabilizers helped keep the earbuds in place.

The biggest drawback, however, was the sound quality. Everything I listened to was flat and listless. And phone calls were worse, sounding distant and choppy, as if I were calling on a walkie-talkie.

Plantronics has a great concept here, but a little more time needs to be spent on development before the 3.0 version is ready.

F.C.C. Backs Plan to Update a Fund That Helps Connect Schools to the Internet

WASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission voted on Friday to overhaul and possibly expand its E-Rate program, a $2.3 billion effort to provide schools and libraries with up-to-date telecommunications service and equipment, including high-speed Internet connections.

A proposal approved by the commission, which will be made available for public comment before a final version is completed, calls for funds to be moved away from outdated uses like paying for paging service and long-distance phone calls and into areas that will accelerate digital literacy, like Wi-Fi connections within a school or library.

The proposal also calls for measures that would drive down the cost of services, like adoption of purchasing consortiums, and the streamlining of administrative requirements — among them, shifting much of the required paperwork for applicants to electronic filings. “One of the biggest obstacles to seizing the opportunities of digital learning in America is inadequate bandwidth at our schools and libraries,” Mignon L. Clyburn, the F.C.C. chairwoman, said before voting. “Simply put, they need faster high-capacity connections and they need them now.”

Just last month in a visit to a North Carolina middle school, President Obama set a goal of connecting 99 percent of school students to the Internet through high-speed broadband and high-speed wireless within five years.

“To get there, we have to build connected classrooms that support modern teaching — investments we know our international competitors are already making,” Mr. Obama said on Friday.

The E-Rate fund has financed Internet connections to more than 95 percent of American public school classrooms, while only 14 percent were connected when E-Rate was established in 1997.

In 2010, however, an F.C.C. study found that more than half of the schools and libraries reported that their Internet connections were too slow to meet their needs. For the coming school year, libraries and schools requested more than $4.9 billion to pay for connections and equipment, more than twice the size of the fund.

“We fail our students if we expect digital-age learning to take place at near dial-up speeds,” said Jessica Rosenworcel, an F.C.C. commissioner. “Contrast this with efforts under way in some of our world neighbors. They are pouring resources into these subjects, into schools and connectivity.”

The E-Rate program has been faulted for inadequately allocating money in the fund, which is provided through a tax on consumers’ phone bills, a monthly charge between 50 cents and $1.

Commissioner Ajit Pai, the lone Republican on the five-member commission (where two seats are vacant), criticized allocations of the fund, saying an average of only $1.8 billion had been spent in each of the last 10 years, leaving more than $5 billion unused in the E-Rate account.

Mr. Pai also complained that the program placed greater emphasis on the wrong services.

“E-Rate today prioritizes long-distance telephone calls and getting phone service to a school’s bus garage over wiring up a classroom,” Mr. Pai said in a speech this week at the American Enterprise Institute. “How can it be that E-Rate in the last few years committed about $600 million, more than one-quarter of its annual budget, to support voice telephone services while at the same time denying eight out of 10 applicants’ funding for connecting classrooms?”

At a Senate Commerce Committee hearing this week, both Republicans and Democrats spoke favorably of the fund, although some quoted Mr. Pai’s observations in a warning of reckless spending.

Libraries Try to Update the Bookstore Model

Of course, librarians acknowledge that when patrons’ passion for the sexy series lacking in literary merit cools in a year or two, the majority of volumes in the “Fifty Shades” trilogy will probably be plucked from the shelves and sold at the Friends of the Library’s used-book sales, alongside other poorly circulated, donated and out-of-date materials.

“A library has limited shelf space, so you almost have to think of it as a store, and stock it with the things that people want,” said Jason Kuhl, the executive director of the Arlington Heights Memorial Library. Renovations will turn part of the library’s first floor into an area resembling a bookshop that officials are calling the Marketplace, with cozy seating, vending machines and, above all, an abundance of best sellers.

As librarians across the nation struggle with the task of redefining their roles and responsibilities in a digital age, many public libraries are seeing an opportunity to fill the void created by the loss of traditional bookstores. They are increasingly adapting their collections and services based on the demands of library patrons, whom they now call customers.

Today’s libraries are reinventing themselves as vibrant town squares, showcasing the latest best sellers, lending Kindles loaded with e-books, and offering grass-roots technology training centers. Faced with the need to compete for shrinking municipal finances, libraries are determined to prove they can respond as quickly to the needs of the taxpayers as the police and fire department can.

“I think public libraries used to seem intimidating to many people, but today, they are becoming much more user-friendly, and are no longer these big, impersonal mausoleums,” said Jeannette Woodward, a former librarian and author of “Creating the Customer-Driven Library: Building on the Bookstore Model.”

“Public libraries tread a fine line,” Ms. Woodward said. “They want to make people happy, and get them in the habit of coming into the library for popular best sellers, even if some of it might be considered junk. But libraries also understand the need for providing good information, which often can only be found at the library.”

Cheryl Hurley, the president of the Library of America, a nonprofit publisher in New York “dedicated to preserving America’s best and most significant writing,” said the trend of libraries that cater to the public’s demand for best sellers is not surprising, especially given the ravages of the recession on public budgets.

Still, Ms. Hurley remains confident that libraries will never relinquish their responsibility to also provide patrons with the opportunity to discover literary works of merit, be it the classics, or more recent fiction from novelists like Philip Roth, whose work is both critically acclaimed and immensely popular.

“The political ramifications for libraries today can result in driving the collection more and more from what the people want, rather than libraries shaping the tastes of the readers,” Ms. Hurley said. “But one of the joys of visiting the public library is the serendipity of discovering another book, even though you were actually looking for that best seller that you thought you wanted.”

“It’s all about balancing the library’s mission and its marketing, and that is always a tricky dance,” she added.

Lindsay Lohan Assaulted: Star Allegedly Attacked In New York City Hotel Room (UPDATE)

Lindsay Lohan was assaulted in the New York City hotel room where she was staying Sunday morning, by a man she met at Chelsea nightclub 1 Oak, WNBC reports.

Law enforcement officials told WNBC that the “Mean Girls” star began arguing with the man, identified as California resident Christian LaBella, over photographs he took of Lohan with his cellphone that she wished to delete. The altercation took place in Lohan’s 15th floor room at the Union Square W Hotel in Manhattan, while a few of Lohan’s friend were present.

Lohan reportedly told police that when she confronted LaBella about the photos and confiscated his phone at approximately 4:30 a.m., LaBella responded by throwing her on the bed, leaving scratches on her hands.

Sources told TMZ that Lohan ran out of the room, and Lohan claims when she later returned, LaBella choked her, then threw her on the ground and climbed on top of her.

TMZ’s sources say that one of Lohan’s friends was able to pull the man away. Lohan then pulled the fire alarm to call for help. Cops arrived at the hotel and arrested LaBella on two misdemeanor counts of assault and two charges of harassment.

The actress’s father, Michael Lohan, told the New York Daily News that he has not been able to reach Lindsay. As for LaBella, he says, “Wait ’til I get this guy.”

This is only the latest incident in what is turning out to be a stressful month for Lohan. Less than two weeks ago, she was arrested in NYC after allegedly tapping a pedestrian with her Porsche and fleeing the scene. And just last week, she was hospitalized for an asthma-related issue after a weekend of partying.

UPDATE: 9/30/12, 8:30 p.m. ET — Lindsay’s mother, Dina Lohan, tells HuffPost Celebrity’s Rob Shuter, “She is resting home. Her asthma is bad.”

UPDATE: 9/30/12, 6:30 p.m. ET –The Wall Street Journal reports that criminal charges against LaBella have been dropped. LaBella now only faces a harassment complaint, but according to a law-enforcement official, he cross-filed the same complaint against Lohan.

App Store Update: July 27

Every day hundreds of new apps make their debut on the App Store, and hundreds more are updated or reduced in price. We have sifted through the noise and highlighted those select few that might be worth your attention.

Bar Oasis 2 – ($2.99)

Bar Oasis is one of those games that absolutely shouldn’t work, but somehow does. The experience is one part virtual cocktail maker, one part interactive novel. Players will meet and interact with a variety of characters while learning to master more than 100 (virtual) cocktails. The highly-anticipated sequel is finally here, offering up a new bar adventure.

 

Total Recall Game – ($0.99)

Movie fans that can’t get enough of Total Recall’s 2084 future vision can now dive in even deeper with this on-rails shooter tie-in game from Jump Games.

Bitless – ($0.99)

Bitless represents platforming distilled down to its most elemental state. Gamers not bothered by Atari-age graphics should get a kick running and jumping through the game’s 50 stages.

 

Brickshooter Egypt – ($2.99)

Playrix is back with another promising casual puzzler. If it’s anywhere near as good as the company’s surprise-hit Royal Envoy, it’s worth a spot on your iDevice.

 

LostWinds – ($0.99)

Frontier’s whimsical 2D platformer can once again be nabbed for $0.99. If you’ve missed its previous sales, don’t put it off any more. LostWinds is fantastic.

 

LostWinds 2: Winter of the Melodias – ($0.99)

Frontier’s season-switching sequel can also be grabbed for $0.99 for a limited time.

Sid Meier's Pirates! for iPad – ($0.99)

The star of 2K’s big App Store sale is undoubtedly the Pirates! iPad port. This is a ridiculously large amount of swashbuckling available for just $1.

 

Civilization Revolution – ($0.99)

If Pirates! is the star of 2K’s big sales, Civ Rev is a very close second. The franchise’s deep turn-based strategy is a perfect fit for touch-screen play.

 

Around the World in 80 Days – (Free)

Playrix’s classic puzzler is available for free – no catch!

 

Galaxy on Fire 2 HD – ($4.99)

Some gamers skip Fishlabs’ incredible Galaxy on Fire games due to their (relatively) high price. But for $5 GoF 2 is a steal. It’s the best space sandbox game on the App Store.

 

Remember to subscribe to the App Store Update via email for extra convenience:

Justin is Editor of IGN Wireless. He has been reviewing cell phone games since the dark days of Java flip phones. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN.

App Store Update: July 23

Every day hundreds of new apps make their debut on the App Store, and hundreds more are updated or reduced in price. We have sifted through the noise and highlighted those select few that might be worth your attention.

Price Drops

Paper Monsters – ($0.99)

It's a rare day when no new games debut in the App Store, but that's what's happened today – so we're jumping straight into our Price Drops section. First up here is Crescent Moon Games' colorful Paper Monsters, which has dropped back down to its debut price of 99 cents after spending a while up at the three-dollar level.

Hotel Dash: Suite Success Deluxe – (Free)

One of the many spin-offs of PlayFirst's popular Diner Dash franchise, Hotel Dash: Suite Success Deluxe is available for free for iPad owners right now.

Mutant Storm – ($1.99)

The iOS edition of this twin-stick shooter debuted last month, and now it's had its first drop – a buck knocked off its asking price.

Superman HD – ($0.99)

Also getting its first ever price drop right now is Chillingo's Superman HD, one of the better adaptations of the Man of Steel into the video game medium.

The Rise of Atlantis HD (Premium) – (Free)

Here's a severe drop worth paying attention to – Playrix's mythical puzzler has jumped around in price quite a bit before this, but it was sitting at $6.99 before falling all the way down to free. Saving seven bucks isn't too shabby in the App Store.

Warm Gun – ($0.99)

Developer Emotional Robots' first-person shooter taking you through a futuristic vision of the Wild West has matched its lowest ever price again, once again hitting the 99-cent mark.

Call of Mini: Zombies – (Free)

It wouldn't be a proper App Store Update if we didn't point you toward a potential fix for your zombie-slaying addiction, and today's is both free and overly cutesy. (As cute as zombies can get, I suppose.)

Monster Soup – (Free)

Also free – and also cute – is the Kieffer Bros.' Monster Soup. Look how whimsical those little guys are, floating around dodging the encroaching ice!

Lumi – (Free)

And you know what, let's just finish things out on the same note with Lumi, an action/platformer dealing with manipulation of light and magnetism. It is, of course, both free and cute.

Hot Shots Golf on Vita Gets Big Update

If you’re still playing Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational on your PlayStation Vita, then there’s good news. On the evening of Monday, July 23rd, an update will go live for all World Invitational players that will add a bunch of new features completely free of charge. To get the update, all you need to do is start the game with your Vita connected to the PlayStation Network. You will be prompted for the update at that point.

There are five considerable additions attached to the update. For starters, players can now invite their friends to private tournaments as opposed to having to rely on Real Mode tournaments that were open to the public. Additionally, previously ad-hoc exclusive features Stroke Mode and Match Mode will now be available in head-to-head form.

Finally, rankings will be introduced for Real Mode tournaments to bring balance to tournaments, and Daily Tournaments will now be limited to one game per day from three in order to make “each Tournament… more focused and exciting.”

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App Store Update: July 16

Every day hundreds of new apps make their debut on the App Store, and hundreds more are updated or reduced in price. We have sifted through the noise and highlighted those select few that might be worth your attention.

Game Debuts

Goal Defense – ($0.99)

Kicking off our new week of Game Debuts is Dynamic Pixels' Goal Defense, a new goofy take on the tower defense genre that uses silly-looking football players for its theme.

Price Drops

Great Little War Game – (Free)

This week in Price Drops is starting strong as well, as indie hit Great Little War Game can now be yours for free. We had a chance to interview Paul Johnson of Rubicon Development last summer, and it's exciting that Rubicon's work will now have another chance to expand its audience. Check out the game's trailer right here:

Adventure Bar Story – ($0.99)

This JRPG that splits its time between traditional questing and an entirely untraditional sim of running your own restaurant has put itself on the Dollar Menu for the summer.

Cooking Dash: Thrills and Spills Deluxe – (Free)

If you don't have the dollar to spend to get into restauranteuring, though, PlayFirst is offering a free option with this spin-off of Diner Dash.

Pizza vs. Skeletons – ($0.99)

And the food connection just keeps rolling with Riverman Media's ridiculous Pizza vs. Skeletons. A whole pie can be yours for just 99 cents, with free delivery too. Check out its crazy trailer:

Starbounder – ($0.99)

Breaking free of the eating theme, we find ourselves breaking free of gravity itself out in the depths of outer space – where Studio Radko's high-speed 3D racing platformer Starbounder is available now for just 99 cents.

Jurassic 3D Rollercoaster Rush – (Free)

Digital Chocolate's mash-up of prehistoric animals and modern theme park attractions can be yours for no admission price right now.

Gamebook Adventures 7: Temple of the Spider God – ($0.99)

Tin Man Games' modern update of the old "Choose Your Own Adventure" book series normally requires a five dollar investment for a read, but you can take home your own copy for 80% off right now.

Swords & Soldiers HD – ($0.99)

And finally we have the iPad edition of Chillingo's 2D side-scrolling RTS, which has dropped to the one-dollar mark as well. This one has been one of our favorites across its many editions over the years, most recently earning itself an 8.5 and an Editor's Choice Award in last year's review.

That's all for today! Remember to subscribe to the App Store Update via email for extra convenience:

Lucas M. Thomas is IGN Nintendo's longtime champion of downloadable titles across the Wii, DSi and 3DS. He's happy to now be helping Justin round up the best options for App Store shoppers. You can follow him on Twitter.

by Lucas M. Thomas Latest IGN