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]

Neil Gaiman used this fact to start a story a few years back comparing the perfect blue of the sky to a TV screen.

[dougo.livejournal.com]

Maybe he was referring to Neuromancer too.

[greyaenigma.livejournal.com]

He was. I remember him discussing this, maybe last time I was in Portland. I just don't remember which book or story it was.

[dkw.livejournal.com]

Ooh, nice Wikipedia page. I remember having (in the 1960's) a portable AM radio that proudly proclaimed "7 transistors"! To "micromicrofarads" they should add "cycles per second".

[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.

[greyaenigma.livejournal.com]

Er, last time he was in Portland.

[dougo.livejournal.com]

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

[dougo.livejournal.com]

I saw a sign the other day saying "this area is being videotaped" and wondered if they actually used tape anymore. But there is no one-syllable verb to replace "tape". ("This area is being videoblogged?")

Heck, even "YouTube" is based on obsolete nomenclature. "YouPanel" doesn't have the same ring.

And "cablemodems" don't do any modulation or demodulation.

[greyaenigma.livejournal.com]

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

[memegarden.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but most of the stuff I see on YouTube is from 70s TV shows, so I'm okay with that.

[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.