And from even earlier, Dick Tracy's watch is available too. Not for me, though. I've been hard enough on watches that I considered using our project engineer's trick of wrapping rubber bands around the crystal. It was either that or give up and use the cell phone as a pocket watch. Now I just need to figure a way of attaching a chain to the phone.
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Science Fiction, after a few years
The Happy Bookers by Richard Armour (not his best, I'm afraid) is a 1976 history of libraries and librarians told with his usual mixture of fact, anachronism, and just making stuff up (with lots of puns). It ends with "future libraries" section which came mostly true. He predicted "micro-micro-microfilm" requiring the assistance of optometrists, or perhaps "there will be no libraries and no librarians, flesh-and-blood or otherwise. The onetime library patron will press a button and turn a dial on his TV, whereupon the requested book, in the desired language, will appear on the screen." I have several books in PDF on the miniscule chip in a thumb drive in my pocket, which is surely micro-micro-micro enough, and a laptop or tablet or kindle/nook takes the place of a TV. Not too shabby a guess.
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3 comments:
Ha. You can't find a cellphone case with a lanyiard? Funny, the new iPhones are so exquisitely thin, but the first thing I do is put them in an Otter or a Lifeproof case to keep from breaking them or getting them wet, so they're all bulky again. Although mine doesn't have a lanyiard, that would be a good idea. I used to use a clip-attachment to my belt. When I'm painting or driving and want to listen to music or lectures, I slip the iPhone under my bra strap so the speaker is pretty close to my ear: nonstandard equipment use.
Sort of like the ultra-light bicycles that you have to carry a heavy chain to protect?
I don't have a smartphone, I've a dumbphone clamshell. More robust and cheaper...
Honestly I use my more as an iPod than a phone. I don't particularly like talking on the phone, and rarely need to be reachable.
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