Monday, April 16, 2007

One Rain-Related Problem

My home phoneline appears to be out of commission right now, in case anyone out there’s noticed. Faring better than New Orleans so far, though.  UPDATE: Fixed, and in any case my problems today seem petty compared to those of Virginia Tech (which, as it appears John McCain would agree, might have been spared today’s horror had someone else there been armed), that Columbia student who got raped and set on fire, and even Bryan Ferry (whose sense of style I’ve long thought seemed decidedly non-left).

6 comments:

Perry E. Metzger said...

I have heard of these “phonelines”. They are a late 19th century voice communication channel that uses analog voltage modulation over pairs of unshielded copper wires to transmit low fidelity audio, yes?

Todd Seavey said...

Not to be confused with cell phones, which transmit low-fidelity audio _through the air_, destroy people’s ability to make and stick to long-term plans, put the last nail in the coffin of grammar and style by teaching Generation Y 2 comnik8 in Prince-symbols gibberish, have actually managed to outdo cigarettes as causes of routine acceptance of rude behavior in public settings by their users, and do wonders for inspiring the oft-heard vocal messages “What do you mean you called? I didn’t hear my phone” and the almost as popular “But I didn’t get the message — when did you leave it? I hate my phone company!” Damn them to the lowest level of Hell.

Brain said...

Amen, Brother Todd. Amen.

cb said...

Now, now…like any tool, what you do with radio waves is up to you.

toddseavey said...

All right, I suppose technology can be either friend or foe — as underscored in this Roomba/Asimov piece from The Onion that Jacob Levy e-mailed me:

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/roomba_violates_all_three_laws_of??utm_source=EMTF_Onion

Brain said...

Strychnine also has its uses, but keep it out of my coffee, thank you.