Thursday, February 05, 2009

Lookin' at the Devil, Grinnin' at his Gun

If I might put on my day job hat for a moment, I think it is a good thing the digital transition has been moved. If you are reading this blog, or follow me on Twitter, or are my friend on Facebook, or are my colleague on LinkedIn, you are fine with the digital transition. But there are millions of people that aren't. Many of them I talk to every day, who don't know what's going on. There are many, many technically naive people who would be left out in the cold. Allow me to give some anonymous examples:

ANONYMOUS DAD: I need to use the internet at your house. Is it the same internet we have at work?

ANONYMOUS SON: Dad, it's the same internet.

ANONYMOUS FATHER-IN-LAW (OVER PHONE): I can't get the internet to work.

(Anonymous son-in-law tries to troubleshoot)

ANONYMOUS SON-IN-LAW: Wait, aren't you on dial-up?

ANONYMOUS FATHER-IN-LAW (OVER PHONE): Yes, I'm trying it right now.

ANONYMOUS SON-IN-LAW: You're going to have to hang up the phone now.

ANONYMOUS PROFESSOR CALLING HELPDESK: I can't find a video projector in this classroom.

ANONYMOUS HELPDESK PERSON: Did you look on the ceiling?

ANONYMOUS PROFESSOR CALLING HELPDESK: All that's there is something called a Toshiba.

And so on, some too painful to recall.

I was asked to serve as a judge for the Media Arts panel for the Indiana Arts Commission again this year, helping award grants. I hope it does not speak to the state of art in Indiana that I have been asked to rejoin this august group. I enjoyed judging before and am happy to serve.

Under threat of a junk-punch from the ghost of Bruce Lee I have sworn to catch up on script coverage I have promised as well as emails I owe between gaps in my latest (nondisclosure) script rewrite (Hint: The Christian Bale rant making the rounds right now holds a peripheral, tertiary clue). So until later, I am at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.

4 comments:

Joe Sherlock said...

Anonymous Staff: WIth this new Schedule design I can't find the campus map anymore!

Anonymous Schedule Designer: Did you look in the table of contents?

Anonymous Staff: Well, no...

Anonymous Schedule Designer: You can also use the tab along the side of both the front and back covers - the one that says, "Campus Map Page 44"

Anonymous Staff: Oh.

Ryan Paige said...

What makes you think the technically naive people will be any more savvy in June?

Jim said...

Having been in technical support positions for over a decade, I can tell you that June will make no difference and will only serve to complicate the issue for those that know what's going on.

John Oak Dalton said...

To clarify, I read in the paper that there are several thousand Hoosiers, as well as potentially millions nationwide, who have not been able to get the boxes or the coupons for the boxes. I think that has driven even more of it.