computers_can__and_will__take_over 2 1/2 wise cracks Your stationery is more cluttered than Warren Beatty's address book. The letterhead lists a fax number, e-mail addresses for two on-line services, and your Internet address, which spreads across the breadth of the letterhead and continues to the back. In essence, you have conceded that the first page of any letter you write is letterhead. You have never sat through an entire movie without having at least one device on your body beep or buzz. You need to fill out a form that must be typewritten, but you can't because there isn't one typewriter in your house. Only computers with laser printers. You think of the gadgets in your office as "friends," but you forget to send your father a birthday card. You disdain people who use low baud rates. When you go into a computer store, you eavesdrop on a salesperson talking with customers, you butt in to correct him and spend the next twenty minutes answering the customers' questions, while the salesperson stands by silently, nodding his head. You use the phrase "digital compression" in a conversation without thinking how strange your mouth feels when you say it. You constantly find yourself in groups of people to whom you say the phrase "digital compression." Everyone understands what you mean, and you are not surprised or disappointed that you don't have to explain it. You know Bill Gates' e-mail address, but you have to look up your own social security number. You stop saying "phone number" and replace it with "voice number," since we all know the majority of phone lines in any house are plugged into contraptions that talk to other contraptions. You sign Christmas cards by putting :-) next to your signature. Off the top of your head, you can think of nineteen keystroke symbols that are far more clever than :-). You back up your data every day. Your wife asks you to pick up some minipads for her at the store and you return with a rest for your mouse. You think jokes about being unable to program a VCR are stupid. On vacation, you are reading a computer manual and turning the pages faster than everyone else who is reading John Grisham novels. The thought that a CD could refer to finance or music rarely enters your mind. You are able to argue persuasively the Ross Perot's phrase "electronic town hall" makes more sense than the term "information superhighway," but you don't because, after all, the man still uses hand-drawn pie charts. You go to computer trade shows and map out your path of the exhibit hall in advance. But you cannot give someone directions to your house without looking up the street names. You would rather get more dots per inch than miles per gallon. You become upset when a person calls you on the phone to sell you something, but you think it's okay for a computer to call and demand that you start pushing buttons on your telephone to receive more information about the product it is selling. You know without a doubt that disks come in 5.25 and 3.5 inch sizes. Al Gore strikes you as an "intriguing" fellow. You own a set of itty-bitty screw-drivers and you actually know where they are. While contemporaries swap stories about their recent hernia surgeries, you compare mouse-induced index-finger strain with a nine-year-old. You are so knowledgeable about technology that you feel secure enough to say "I don't know" when someone asks you a technology question instead of feeling compelled to make something up. You rotate your screen savers more frequently than your automobile tires. You have a functioning home copier machine, but every toaster you own turns bread into charcoal. You have ended friendships because of irreconcilably different opinions about which is better: the track ball or the track pad. You understand all the jokes in this message. If so, my friend, technology has taken over your life. We suggest, for your own good, that you go lie under a tree and write a haiku. And don't use a laptop. 010208 ... distorted tendencies Yeah, I actually do understand all the jokes.. Not use a laptop? Why the fuck not?! ...My handwriting is illegible. 011007 ... Casey No, it wont be computers. It will be a Dawson's Creek Trapper Keeper 011007 ... addicted to internet You rotate your screen savers more frequently than your automobile tires. better yet, you don't use a screen saver, you just turn your monitor off when you go to sleep so its still ready for you when you wake up 011008 ... the cheer-up kid You Email people you vaguely know with jokes someone you vaguely know emailed you. You are a conduit for bad comedy. You cause your actual friends to open emails from you with anticipation only to find some chain letter shit and no personal message. You are complicit in the corporatisation of conversation. You are a twat. Nothing personal. 011009 ... naughty naughty I like the virus hoax email. why bother writing a virus, when you can just write an urgent sounding email and infest everyone's computer that way? 011009 ... cyberdyne systems model 101 the_singularity 080312 ... SO. if you've got a PC it means your into capitalism and poverty. 080312 ... copypasta copypasta 080313 ... µ and old copypasta at that. an interesting historical document though. My how technology has changed.. 080313 what's it to you? who go blather from