1980s!!! Jesus, what's wrong with you?
....................
According to the jumping, shouting youngsters in my midst, email is for the olds. If you really need to reach me, they say, you'll use IRC and other varieties of Internet crack.
HelLA-based Monroe ally 'OldDirty' writes:
"Why wait around for 2 second to get an email, when you're already in a chat room of your peers and can PM if it's personal?"
Of course, being an email veteran, I see this as shortsighted and dismissive. What about all the lovely, complex thoughts you can transmit via a carefully crafted email -- the sort of email you compose, and re-compose over the course of long minutes, hours, maybe even days? Nonsense, the youngsters say.
Which brings me back to Nicole Richie, the woman and the mystery.
Why ask questions, I wonder, when a simple GOOG search is only a mouse click and keyboard input away? Some people love Jesus, others love crashed cars and still others love to look at the future ruins of Dubai. Me? I love rapid access to information: both important and trivial.
Out of a smoky corner of the bar, a woman asks: what's the temperature at which nitrogen becomes liquid?
Sppphffttt!!! I spit out my strawberry daiquiri. I've forgotten the answer. But there's good news: via my EVDO linked laptop, I can do a search for liquid nitrogen. Thoth be praised! An informative Wikipedia article is among the first results returned.
So now I understand the youngsters a bit better. I understand because I'm as impatient with non-searchers as they are with email users.
Am I wrong?
.d.
-- "I'm sorry, I can't hear you! I'm wearing a towel!"
H.J. Simpson
...................... http://monroelab.net/blog/