15 July 2002

24: it's all about Jack Bauer's phone Last week Bruce Sterling wrote about phones disrupting the plot of thrillers. Only now does it occur to us to mention 2002's hit FBI series, 24, in the mildest of rebuttals. 24 is all about communication (and failure of communication, mostly) on the phone: the many calls between Bauer and the CTU calls that interrupt meetings calls that interrupt other calls calls waiting the undesired call that reveal Jack Bauer is in a silent warehouse mobiles with no signals mobiles with no battery mobiles left on to eavesdrop on a conversation Rodcorp would recommend readers in the UK not to follow the link in the title until the series is finshed though, unless they're happy to learn who the mole is now etc. Bitter disappointment. Oh... and what about The Conversation (OK yes, it's more about listening than it is calls) and All the President's Men. 8:08:16 PM     comments

If Watson had been a cat what Alexander Bell might have said... 7:30:54 PM     comments

Sing a song, and get a unique ringtone delivered to your handset Callers can "dictate" a ring-tone by singing it [via Cam]. Note that this is not the same as song recognition (eg Shazam). 7:25:51 PM     comments