Ep 2 - Blinkenlights

Before listening, be sure you have a sufficiently robust spiral decommutator.

ABOUT “ME TOO”

Back in the days when you had to sit around and wait for every single webpage to load, even if it’s only text…

and a picture might easily take half an hour to show up, line by line by line…

and the idea of watching video online was only a fantasy…

…it was considered extremely rude to get on a message board or newsgroup (the medieval ancestors of social media) and make a post that simply agreed with someone, without adding something new to the conversation. Everyone had to waste their precious time, bandwidth, and limited AOL minutes loading up your pointless comment, and they weren’t happy about it. Posting “me too!” would draw down upon you the wrath of everyone else on the site. And their verbal smitings would load…very…slowwwwlllllyyyyyyyy…

LINKS

William Isaacson - this episode’s guest composer - on SoundCloud

Sid Caesar explaining doubletalk on Letterman (the whole interview is worth a watch)

“Mr. Doubletalk” Durwood Fincher

The original Turbo Encabulator article

GE’s 1962 spec sheet

Bud Haggart’s first Turbo Encabulator video

A version for Chrysler with a perfect added scene

The version of Blinkenlights that I originally saw.

Purportedly, an example of the type of sign common during WWII in Allied machine shops.