Dullicious.net

Technically, you’re already a cyborg. If you keep your cell phone with you most of the time, especially if the earpiece is in place, I think we can call that arrangement an exobrain. Don’t protest that your cellphone isn’t part of your body just because you can leave it in your other pants. If a cyborg can remove its digital eye and leave it on a shelf as a surveillance device, and I think we all agree that it can, then your cellphone qualifies as part of your body. In fact, one of the benefits of being a cyborg is that you can remove and upgrade parts easily. So don’t give me that “It’s not attached to me” argument. You’re already a cyborg. Deal with it.

– Scott Adams (via the daily dish)

Ok, so I’m a sucker for the term “exobrain”. I do hate to be away from my phone for too long and having grown up with Star Trek and Star Wars and other Sci-Fi as such constant cultural references I think I’m more inclined to think “cyborg?!! AWESOME!” (and then be vaguely disappointed with the end product since if I’m a cyborg it’s a dangerously beta, buggy, squishy one) than to be worried. So though I can’t completely agree with the idea, (using a shovel doesn’t make me a backhoe), I was amused at the notion.

and on the other side of the idea, the iPhone as object that desires to be used:

“Pet me, touch me, love me, that’s what I get when I perform”, one of several great images in the “Sociology of Objects” set by the ever-fantastic Stéphane Massa-Bidal

Today I learnt that the well-known default alert tone when you receive a message on a Nokia phone, da da da daaah daaah da da da, is Morse code for “SMS”.

Also, my hotel in Prague has the best implementation of the “Do Not Disturb” sign I’ve seen. The sign has one completely green side with the word “YES” in huge letters and one completely red side with the word “NO”. Simple and clear, even for those people who don’t understand the words (unless they are either red-green colour blind or don’t understand traffic lights).

The next gripping installment in my series of stupid lists.

Fake magazines I’m glad not to subscribe to:

• Autopsy World
• Dental Plaque Digest
• Crash Victim Photo Journal
• Ultimate Ulcers
• Toilet Mould Monthly
• Sanitation Examiner