R&H Closing Causes Panic on Facebook

R&H closing has caused panic amongst the 3D bunnies. They have had jobs for 26 years while the rest of the field suffered, and now that it is their turn, the world is ending. In a sense it is. But we don't really know what is going on so I will find out and report back.

Updates:

2-13-2013 Late in the day, I had a long discussion with a friend who knows R&H well, the visual effects business well, John and Pauline well, etc.  I am still processing his information.   As I understand it, there is a good chance for R&H to emerge from this, but it is an unfortunate and complicated situation, and whatever happens, it does not look good for LA employment.  Thus in rebuilding, they are more likely to rebuild in, for example, Vancouver, than in LA.  Oddly, Vancouver is more expensive than LA, except for that 60% refund that the Canadian govt provides, of course.   The studios are doing their best to put R&H out of business through their stupidity, but that is nothing new.

2-13-2013 An unauthorized source at the local SIGGRAPH meeting reports talked to two former employees, and quite possibly misheard stuff, but that R&H has laid off 100 - 200 people, mostly older and more expensive people.   The source also speculates that it was the real estate acquisition in El Segundo that caused the problem of cash flow in part.   There is further speculation that R&H may not need more than 100 people in Los Angeles to manage their overseas work force.   This information was from the previous day, I just got it today.

2-12-2013 Late in the day, I read some Facebook posts by people complaining about being laid off after 26 years.   Oh, boo hoo. Welcome to the club, goddamnit.  It is clear that people do not really know what is going on and are spreading rumors.  They need to understand that this is understandable but dangerous.  By spreading rumors, you may be contributing to making a bad situation worse.

2-12-2013 Wall Street Journal article on R&H
http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2013/02/12/oscar-nominated-life-of-pi-visual-effects-studio-to-file-for-bankruptcy/?KEYWORDS=rhythm++Hues

Archaeology of the Cold War: Espionage and Other Compromises of National Security (1975-2008)

Espionage and spying was one of the defining characteristics of the Cold War. It is easy to be nostalgic about the Cold War, of course. It was a time when America had a functioning economy, when the political system had not been destroyed, when we could still believe in the American Dream in one form or another.

It was a time of the Berlin Tunnel, of the silent war between nuclear submarines, of Mutual Assured Destruction, defections and moles, of spy satellites and science education, of sensor nets under the ocean built at vast expense but capable of hearing a whale at 2000 kilometers, or a door opening on a submarine while submerged.

Espionage and the secret service, some think, are the purest expression of the war between civilizations, fought by a nation's elite secret service that manifest the moral codes that define the opposing civilizations. This makes the secret service the first line of defense, the avant garde of the revolution, the keepers of the faith. They are the mujadeen, the soldiers of God who are willing to die for God.

The Defense Personnel Security Research Center in Monterey, CA, set out to write a report that summarized espionage and other breaches of national security in this nation in the last 30 years. It's goal was to provide a series of case studies for educators of security personnel. It provides good summaries of the different types of espionage cases that have been found and prosecuted in the modern period. It has been regularly updated, the latest version adds 20 more recent case studies up to 2008.

If, as mentioned above, the secret service represents people who are Defenders of the Faith and of the Faithful, then many of the people whose cases are summarized in this report are the Fallen, those who by their actions have fallen from Grace with God and are damned forever.

I have selected a few pages at random for your review and the URL for the full report is listed below. You could read it in its entirety, if you were of a mind to do so, in a few hours at most.

"Espionage and Other Compromises of National Security"

http://cryptome.org/2013/02/spy-cases-1975-2008.pdf

The Fall of Man
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_fall_from_grace

Relationship Between Grad School Acceptance and 6th Grade Clique Selection

[2.12.2013 complete rewrite]

As many of you know, I am applying to Graduate School in a futile effort to be accepted as an adult by society and in order to set the stage for a second act to my so-called career.   I have found the process to be very confusing, arbitrary and limiting thus far.

The impression I get is one of rigid rules and preconditions designed to winnow the applicants down to a small set of people who will act and obey as a ruling elite demand. And who have done nothing whatsoever but exactly those things they are looking for in the most conventional and unimaginative way.  "Those who are like us may apply but those who are not like us should not even attempt it.", they seem to be saying. (1)

It is not a new insight that situations in elementary and jr. high school prepare us for life as an adult by putting us through apparently incomprehensible and damaging social circumstances.   "Life is high school with money" goes the joke.  One example of such a situation is the "prom" nightmare many of us have had to go through.   Another is the weirdness of those who are accepted by a clique and those who are not.

Its been a long time since High School, however, and I was never very good at being accepted by cliques.    But I have come across a 6th grader on the Internet, by name of Hayley, who has two very interesting blogs that may enlighten me on this topic.  Her first blog is called "The Thoughts of an Almost Teenage Girl" and the second, "The Popularity Papers of 6th Grade", about her efforts to be accepted by an elite clique in her Elementary School in Minnesota.  (The URLs for both blogs are below).

So the plan is to monitor Hayley's blog and then report back how the process of getting accepted to graduate school is like or unlike the process of being accepted by a clique in 6th Grade.

Think of it as a research paper in Cultural Anthropology.

A spy vs spy comic I got from Hayley's general blog, demonstrating great taste in one so young.

The Thoughts of An Almost Teenage Girl

http://theteenagegirlthoughts.blogspot.com/

The Popularity Papers of 6th Grade

http://sixthgradepopularitypaper.blogspot.com/

___________________________________________

1. In particular, I have been advised not to apply to any top school because there is virtually no chance in hell that I will be accepted.  Thanks a lot, people, I appreciate your words of support!  But seriously, these people who give such advice are trying to help: by being realistic about the odds, one is more likely to be accepted to a school with good people that does not get the same deluge of applications that the so-called top schools get.

Which school is a top school is different in each field, but it should not surprise you to hear that, depending on the field, Harvard, Stanford, MIT, UC Berkeley, Oxbridge are on the list.  The point of the advice is that there are many other excellent schools in any field you care to name that are not one of the short list mentioned above.  And that is true.  The counterargument, however, is that America has always been elitist and it may only be those who attended the elite schools who will be offered a chance to participate later.

Ancient Computer Animation History on Facebook

A Facebook discussion brought up some technology that we developed at dWi, deGraf/Wahrman, Inc, and it sequed into a discussion of some of the talent and impact that we had. That was then, this is now. Nevertheless, it was a good opportunity to mention the following, repeated here, as Facebook is even more ephemeral than a blog.

Because there was so much misunderstanding in the aftermath of dWi, it is possible that the following was not made clear.  

I think that this is a good opportunity to thank everyone who was associated with deGraf/Wahrman for all their hard work. As far as I can tell, everyone who worked at dWi was amazingly talented and did incredible work under very difficult circumstances. Its hard to believe that we worked that hard in order to establish computer animation as useful for the entertainment industry, god only knows why we cared so much or why we thought we had to do our best work for clients who were, shall we say, not always appreciative of our genius. I am sorry we put people under so much pressure at the time, it was not intentional, it turned out that way. Perhaps things were a "little" out of control. You may not have been aware of how much pressure Brad and I were under.

I also think that judging by results, our alumni are without doubt very talented and did very well. Hopefully you will all continue to do well. Each of you has unique talents, remember who you are.

 I think that Jwalt's joke was a very good one, it would have been all that much better if we were actually that much more talented and collaborative that we thought that gag up as a deliberate comedy routine, that would have been truly impressive. People are so sensitive, you know.

I plan to document all of your contributions on my Blog, over the next few years, if all goes well.

Anyway, thanks again.

The Facebook discussion is here. I have no idea if you will be able to see it or not.

http://www.facebook.com/michael.wahrman/posts/283994975061964?comment_id=1233232

Great Performance Reviews in History: Lawrence of Arabia

Since employment and the search for employment seems to be on so many people's minds, I wish to share with you what I believe is one of the best "performance reviews" in film.  There are a few others, some more comical than this, but this is perhaps the best of the serious reviews.  It may even have some basis in fact.  That is less clear.

In this sequence, T. E. Lawrence, aka Lawrence of Arabia, has just come out of the desert and announced that he and the Arab Revolt have taken Aqaba. He is escorted into the presence of his commanding general, General Allenby, who is many levels above Lawrence's nominal chain of command.

Of course, this is from David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia (1962) starring Peter O'Toole as T. E. Lawrence. 

The sequence is here, until Youtube takes it down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CsUOYazQQU

 The Review

Allenby reviews his file, questions his actions, promotes him, and builds up his morale to motivate him to go back and continue his work. How many of us can say that we have had as well-informed and insightful a review, or one designed to help us do our best work?

Lawrence, who of course realizes he is being manipulated, tells Allenby to his face, "Youre a clever man, sir", and through his presentation makes it clear that he is accusing Allenby of doing something nasty by rewarding Lawrence and making him like it.   I don't know about you, but I think that is pretty funny.  

Allenby manipulates his employee by telling him he has done a good job, promoting him and buying him a drink.  What a tricky, low down thing to do!

As background on the film, many of the key plot points in the movie are historical.   Which is appalling when you think about it.   Of course any detail or dialogue or colorful incident at an oasis or whatnot is certainly fiction, at least to some degree.   I am not sure if Lawrence ever met Allenby or if Allenby invited him for a drink at the Officer's club.  I would tend to doubt it, but I do not know.  But I think that we can be certain that if they did meet, whatever they said to each other was different than what we see here.

The performance review:

Allenby: (reading from a file) Undisciplined .... Unpunctual ... Untidy ... Several languages,

knowledge of music, literature, knowledge of ... , knowledge of ... You're an interesting

man, there is no doubt about it. Who told you to take Aqaba?

Lawrence: Nobody.

Allenby: Sir.

Lawrence: Sir.

Allenby: Then why did you?

Lawrence: Aqaba is important.

Allenby: Why is it important?

Lawrence: Its the Turkish route to the canal.

Allenby: Not anymore, they're coming through Bathsheba.

Lawrence: But we've gone forward to Gaza.

Alleny: So?

Lawrence: So, that left Aqaba behind your right.

Allenby: True.

Lawrence: And it will be further behind your right when you go for Jerusalem.

Allenby: Am I going for Jerusalem?

Lawrence: Yes.

Allenby: Very well, Aqaba behind my right.

Lawrence: It threatened El Harish and Gaza.

Allenby: Anything else?

Lawrence: Yes, Aqaba is linked with Medina.

Allenby: Do you think we should shift them out of Medina now?

Lawrence: No, I think you should leave them there.

Allenby: You acted without orders you know.

Lawrence: Shouldn't officers use their initiative at all times?

Allenby: Not really. Its awfully dangerous, Lawrence.

Lawrence: Yes, I know.

Allenby: Already?

Lawrence: Yes.

Allenby: I'm promoting you Major.

Lawrence: I don't think that's a very good idea.

Allenby: I didn't ask you. I want you to go back and carry on the good work.

Lawrence: No, thank you, sir.

For those who are interested, the scene where Allenby announces Lawrence's promotion at the Officer's club is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=0VGBDYeEAVk

See also:

The Arab Revolt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Revolt

General Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Allenby,_1st_Viscount_Allenby

Thomas Edward Lawrence

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._E._Lawrence

Lawrence of Arabia (1962) on IMDB

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056172/

Real Time Programmable Shaders and Me

[or is it "... and I" ?]

As part of my Solari Sign simulation, I am working through more of the learning curve on Open GL shader language, e.g. GLSL or programmable shaders.

It is pretty cool but it sure is awkward.

There is a list of things you have to get through that are arcane in the extreme before you can do basic programmable shaders: compiling, linking and running shaders, creating and setting uniform variables, creating and using texture maps, figuring out the relationship between traditional Open GL and the new programmable shader paradigm, and so forth. As with so many things in Open GL, going from the documentation to real applications is not well documented or self-explantory. The list goes on and on, and when you need to add a new feature, you have to be prepared to dive into the bits for days before you emerge.

But once you build up an infrastructure to make these things manageable, then it is a lot like writing shaders in Renderman circa 1988, but in real time.

And real time is fun.

For example, out of frustration with an object that was relentlessly invisible no matter what I did, I mapped a texture map variable I had been calculating left over from a previous test. To my amazement, I picked up the texture map from the last digit of a digital clock I had running on the display. Only in this case it was mapped on an object that filled the screen, and it was changing every second.

Its soft because the preloaded texture maps are 128x128 but that could be easily fixed. 

Anyway, I think NVIDIA or someone should do the following:

1. Document the relationship between Open GL and GLSL with modern examples.

2. Write and document a toolkit, maybe libglsl, that lets one do basic GLSL functionality at a slightly higher level.  If no one else has done it, I may do it.

         Such things as: read shaders from disk and compile into a program, defining and setting

         uniform variables, loading and enabling texture maps, etc.

3. Create a good implementation of noise, classic or simplex, and make it available.

        There is an implementation of noise that looks very good online, but it is 10 pages of

        code and its days of work to transfer it to your program. That is less work than it would

        be if you had to write it from scratch.

As for using real time graphics for work directly in motion picture filmmaking, in other words, as final footage, that will only work for certain kinds of graphics.  For visual effects and most final animation such things as advanced filtering, motion blur and global illumination is either required or highly desirable.

For a very low budget film of course, anything is possible.

Villains! Enemies of the People! Stop Driving Blue Pickup Trucks!

[2.12.2013  We do not know at this point how crazy Dorner is and how unjust, if it was unjust at all, was the procedure that got him fired from the LAPD.   But on the surface of things, it looks like another example of the LAPD punishing someone who tries to make them live up to their promise to clean up their overt racism and violence.  If my post is unfair, should we decide that to be true later when we know the facts, trust me when I say that the history of the LAPD makes it a perfectly good conclusion to jump to.  The LAPD has earned its reputation.]

We want to loudly and firmly announce support for our LAPD in these bleak hours when, in our defense, these stern defenders of the peace go on another rampage shooting anyone in a blue pickup truck.

If I were you, I would park that blue pickup truck right now, and walk away. Otherwise, you might be shot, and so you should be, you wretched blue-pickup-truck-driving villain!

The enemy

One of the pillars of Los Angeles is the Los Angeles Police Department, the LAPD, whose motto is "To Protect and Serve".  These selfless and upright public servants protect Los Angeles from the forces of crime and racial equality, placing themselves bodily between us good folk and the nasty bad people out there.

Today they are under immense pressure because of a challenge made by a former member of the LAPD who has sworn revenge against the noble LAPD.

The hunt to destroy blue pickup trucks began when a former LAPD officer was fired for the gross offense of reporting that a superior had brutally and sadistically beaten an innocent and mentally-challenged person. Of course he was fired!   How dare he denounce a member of our famously humane LAPD? This is Los Angeles after all, and in Los Angeles, the LAPD can beat the shit out of anyone with impunity as has been demonstrated time and again.

Our former officer, who is suspected of murdering his ex-girl friend and her fiancee, has sworn to get even, and drives a blue pickup truck. The LAPD has sensibly and reasonably responded to this challenge by going on a rampage and is even now shooting wildly with assault weapons (2) at anyone with a blue pickup truck.

Lets remember what Los Angeles stands for. It stands for crime, criminality, hypocrisy and the exploitation of the poor in the service of the rich. Los Angeles and crime go hand and hand.

With the possible exception of the Aerospace industry, all the major industries in Los Angeles were founded on crime. (1)

Consider a few highpoints of this notable history. The motion picture industry moving here to be able to more easily evade the Edison patents. The agricultural and garment industries based on illegal labor. The theft of water and political fraud for real estate development. The music industry (need I say more). The Construction industry. Import-export and the turn-of-the-century opium trade. Chinese slave labor and the building of the railroads. The destruction of the mass transit system. The oil industry. The porn industry. The consistent rumor that the Heidi Fleiss affair was caused by Sony Columbia refusing to pay their annual $1M bribe to the head of the LAPD. The Rodney King riots which were caused by the video of the LAPD beating the shit out of Mr. King as he lay prostrate on the ground, defenseless.

These are the things that Los Angeles stands for.

We at Global Wahrman support the LAPD in its efforts to suppress crime and call upon on all evil-doers to stop driving their blue pickup trucks at once!

Los Angeles Police Department Home Page

http://www.lapdonline.org/
________________________________________

1. The author wishes to acknowledge that many cities may have been founded by criminals.  Also that criminality is sometimes a matter of point of view.  After all, New Amsterdam became New York because the British Navy stole it from the Dutch, to give one example.

2. A friend gave me a hard time over my use of the term "assault rifle".  He is correct to do so, as assault rifle is really a marketing term, not a technical one.   But the fact is that the only people who make that distinction today are people who are opposed to any kind of gun control.  So, to hell with you, we need gun control in this country.  I think "assault rifle" is a fine term to use in this case.

Eric Cantor, the One Ring of Power, and my Virginian High School

Part One

Once upon a time, I attended the The Collegiate Schools in Richmond, Virginia, a somewhat prestigious private high school in the region. We had a number of people from Virginia society in our school, or their children at least, as well as some well-established outsiders. I propose to describe something about this High School because it affects all of us as citizens of this country.

You may ask, why would Michael's High School be important to all of us as citizens?

Because Eric Cantor is now the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives in Congress and Eric went to Collegiate. 

And Collegiate is a somewhat amusing, somewhat peculiar place. It definitely has a culture all its own, and its place in Virginia society.

But first I want to review with you how our imperialist superpower works because you need to understand this to understand why Eric Cantor matters. Although the president gets the helicopters and the airplanes, and gets to say who gets a drone missile up his ass on a day-to-day basis, it is in fact Congress that allocates the money for those missiles and helicopters. And in general, the executive branch abides by the law, most of the time at least, we hope, and those laws must be passed by both houses of Congress and signed by the President.

But to bring a bill up to a vote is not a trivial matter, and it requires the machinations and scheming of the two political parties to do so. Every time there is an election, the House and the Senate reorganizes itself into a majority and minority coalition, and each of those coalitions has representatives on the important committees that are preparing the legislation and the budgets. So if the Republicans have a majority of the House, as they do, their representative is the chair of, for example, the House Armed Services Committee. Seniority in the House and Senate also plays a role in determining who can get things done.  The standing committees take the lead in preparing legislation for their branch of Congress, House and Senate, and when passed by the committee it goes to the floor of the House or the Senate for a vote by all the members. (1)  (2) 

the smoke filled room

So the House and the Senate are each a complicated network of smoke-filled rooms, each filled with power, self-entitlement, influence, obligations, history, villianry, idealism, and hypocrisy and having been driven mad by power, push each other around with their large software packages, working with great vigor to get nothing done.

But one stands above these smoke-filled rooms whose job it is to coordinate their actions and bring it to a vote on the floor of the House of Representatives.

One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.

Eric Cantor is the Majority Leader for the House of Representatives, and Eric went to Collegiate.  The mind reels.

End of Part One

Eric Cantor on Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Cantor

The smoke filled room on Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke-filled_room

The One Ring on Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Ring

______________________________________

1. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences works in a similar way. The various subsections nominate films in their respective categories, e.g. acting, screenwriting, costume design, film editing, cinematography, etc, but then the entire Academy membership votes on who receives the award that year.

2. If you think about each of those representatives and senators having constituents, each with their own strongly held beliefs, and multiply out the different agendas, then it becomes clear that most bills in Congress must be wild compromises almost by definition to "get out of committee".   Thus, having a major party that does not compromise throws a wrench into the system like you would not believe.

Comments on the Daily Variety Article about Rhythm and Hues

There is an interesting article in the Daily Variety about the cash crisis and related issues at Rhythm & Hues. You can read it here:  VFX House Rhythm and Hues Endures Cash Crunch

There are a number of amusing things about this article that someone who has not had the pleasure of working in this business might not realize.  The situation probably sounds worse than it is, although companies do go out of business as a result of things like this, they probably won't.   Here is some background information: 

1. R&H has done this sort of thing before and always survived.

Running what is essentially an unfinanced, work-for-hire, production service facility is a juggling act that requires immense skill and stamina. Every two years or so, in the early days of R&H, I would be told something like "R&H is in trouble, they are on half salary, maybe they will go out of business".  

But the reality is that when the work is not there, a good production company will have to reduce payroll. They can either lay people off, or find a way to help people stay on but at a lower salary. And then eventually the work comes in and people go back on full salary. Don't worry, I would say, they will be fine.  

2. The visual effects facilities business is a very low margin business.

The visual effects facilities business is incredibly labor intensive, skill intensive, capital intensive, R&D intensive, risky and competitive.

In the days when commercial (e.g. advertising) production was the primary work, a facility like R&H would completely recreate itself every 12 weeks or so. Motion picture projects last longer than advertising projects and are often much bigger, but they are then by definition more risky. If a project is delayed, it has a much larger impact on the cash and work flow of the studio.

3. The Studios do not care about your cash flow.

Projects start when it is convenient for them to start, and end when it is convenient for them to end. The facility has no (or very little) say in the matter. But a company like R&H has an astounding payroll to make every two weeks. They either have to have the projects that make that payroll, or they have to lay people off. If they lay people off, they may or may not be able to hire them back if your project finally decides to start.   (1)

4. The Studios are adversarial.

The studios could not care less if a facility goes out of business. If anyone tells you differently, laugh at them and call them stupid. I can give you example after example where a vfx facility saved a screwed up production from itself and got slandered for doing the studios a favor. (See for example, ILM and Paramount on Hunt for Red October, which will be the subject of a later post). (2)

5. Any situation like this will be manipulated by the competition.

Your competition will do everything in their power to manipulate the situation to reduce confidence in the troubled facility, and thus cause all their clients to pull the work, forcing the company out of business.

6. Notice this happens as they await the word on their Academy Award.

R&H has been nominated for an academy award for Life of Pi.  Actually, a facility can not be nominated, but they did the work and people from R&H are listed.   Notice that doing good work, which everyone says about Life of Pi, doesn't seem to help that much in the short run.  (The proper way to say that is "... that and three dollars and fifty cents will get you a decaf espresso in this town").

I want to finish this incomplete analysis (there is much more that could be said) with the following thought: Although this is probably a very difficult situation for R&H, or we would not be reading about it in Daily Variety, this is the kind of weirdness that a production company like R&H is expected to be able to deal with.   And deal with it they probably will.    They may have to restructure and / or downsize, but that would be par for the course.   The only reason why R&H would not be fine is if the founders, John and Pauline, decided they wanted to do something else.

_________________________________

1. A production company will of course have a cash reserve that they have carefully built up to tide them over the unevenness of payments and down periods.  But that reserve will go very quickly indeed.  It is one of the reasons it was healthier when a studio could balance their production across several different industry areas (e.g. advertising vs motion picture vs special venue) to maintain some income when one area was depressed.

2. Boss Film Corporation (BFC) was doing the visual effects for Hunt for Red October and was being treated very harshly by the studio and the director of the film.   There are many potential reasons for this, but I doubt it was because Boss was completely screwing up.  There were (past tense, Boss Film Corporation is no longer in business) many excellent people at BFC and Dave Stewart certainly knew how to shoot "dry for wet", as it is called.   Mike Fink was called in to help supervise, and ultimately the production was pulled from BFC and given to ILM with a change in schedule (more time) and budget (much more money).  ILM did a very good job, of course and they charged Paramount a lot of money to come in at the end and do this production.  Paramount, being cowards, used ILM to manage their difficult director, e.g. they let ILM be the bad guy when Peter Hyams wanted changes.   Ok, fine. The movie comes out and it does well, even if it is a silly story, and for years and years and years I heard Paramount complaining about how ILM had "reamed them a new asshole" for doing the work under those circumstances.  I am sure ILM charged a premium, why not?

In other words, the studios are spoiled children who want it all for free, and don't want to invest their own money to have the capability in house.  They want to be able to buy the service cheaply when they want it and not pay for the R&D or maintaining the infrastructure.  And they are able to get away with this because they are, after all, the only game in town.

Simulation of Classic Solari / Split Flap Sign Technology

[Update: 2/4/2013 The Solari company is online, one just needed to know their correct name.  "Solari di Udine".]

As we slam headlong into the chaos of our future, and embrace whatever stupid idea someone has for new media or a smart phone, we also have the opportunity to recall some pretty wonderful "old media", or "receding media technology".

One of my favorites of old media, was something called a "Solari sign", or a (don't blame me) split-flap sign, so named because the letters were on metal plates that were split down the middle. The sign would use an actuator to pick which letter was visible, and as it moved through the different letters, it made a very distinctive "chattering" sound.

The sign at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, PA

You would see these signs in about 100 places in the world, mostly train stations in places like Paris, New York, Milan, London, Frankfurt and so forth. The signs were made by an Italian company called "Solari". Solari has no presence on the Internet.   Stop the presses, we have found them.  Ok, so this will be more interesting.

See http://www.solari.it/.

The Wikipedia page on "split flap" displays:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split-flap_display

The Museum of Modern Art in NYC on "Hacking the Solari"
http://wp.moma.org/talk_to_me/2011/09/hacking-the-solari/

A Youtube video of a real Solari sign (for Amtrak) 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1SAjGfYPI0

And finally, my simulation of the Solari sign, written without any documentation or operating guide of the sign itself.  Clearly my simulation has a ways to go.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLjdEeGq8HA

I am trying to find someone to use this simulation (suitably art directed) for some public sign, maybe a render farm queue display or something.

Farsi.  

English.

The zither music is just for atmosphere and was ripped from the sountrack of The Third Man (1949).