The color of the sky

[dougo]

Bruce Sterling's article in the Washington Post uses the phrase "the sky was the color of a dead television channel", referring to a similar line in William Gibson's Neuromancer. Ironically, on most TVs nowadays, tuning to a dead channel gets you a solid blue screen.

Comments

[greyaenigma.livejournal.com]

I remember that dot!

This page doesn't have as much actually archaic stuff as I'd hoped. I heard a news report a year or two ago about iconic sounds (such as a camera shutter sound for digital cameras and the vinyl screech of a record being stopped for a "wait, what?" moment. I'd like to see more stuff like that -- terms and sounds still used but no longer used. Even just "dialing" is a leftover from older technology.

[dougo.livejournal.com]

Not only do phones not have dials anymore, but they don't really "ring" either. Except in David Lynch movies.

[greyaenigma.livejournal.com]

I do know people that have their cellphones set to old fashioned ringing sounds.

[the-gadgetman.livejournal.com]

A couple of days ago my 5-year-old daughter saw an old-fashioned, rotary phone at my office and wanted to try it. So she actually dialed mom's cell phone. Probably one of the few kids her age around here who's ever done that...

[greyaenigma.livejournal.com]

Did you have to explain to her how to use it, or did she figure it out on her own?

[the-gadgetman.livejournal.com]

She pretty much got it on her own. I think I dialed one digit for her.