Airport Musings: Living in an Analog World

Today, at the airport, ellipticcurve and I started free associating after this fellow left his iPhone on the charging stand. Here are some of the thoughts:

It’s lucky his ring-tone isn’t a ticking sound. Just imagine phones programmed with that sound at the airport… ummm, officer, that phone is ticking. It’s like in the Illuminatus trilogy, where a fellow taught his parrot to say “Here Kitty, Kitty, Kitty”.

Then again, what timers tick these days. Ticking is so analog. Does anyone know digital timers that tick? It’s like digital cameras that make a shutter noise. While we were on the subject, we wondered if anyone ever made a real bomb that looks like those ones in the cartoons… you know, round and black, with a visible burning fuse.

We then got to thinking about how we replicate the analog. Look at all the phones programed to sound like an old-fashioned ringing phone. We wondered if it would be possible to make phone that made clicks just like a rotary phone.

Then, when arrived in Baltimore, I got a Nissan Altima as my rental car. Now this is cool: a car with no key, only a fob. However, I kept reaching to turn the key—it is that force of habit after over 30 years of driving. We wondered how many of the dealers have folks come in with broken fobs: … it stopped working after I tried to turn it.

Yes, some days this is how my mind free associates.

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