Gadgetleib Uber Alles

So I'm driving to a little nosh with the actress who plays my wife in YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU this weekend, and she says, "What do you think of the billboard?" A little context here -- in Los Angeles there is some anti billboard ordinance that they have circumvented by replacing the billboards with the million-watt Diamondvision signs. They're just like billboards, only they change every five minutes and you can see them from outer space. At high noon.

After a brief interlude of soul-searching, I had to admit that I love 'em. The colors are bright and sharp and their frequent resets mean that my limited attention span isn't taxed by them. What's not to like? Well, they're enormously annoying advertising media. And if you live within viewing distance, it's like living in the far north hemisphere, except you even even get the six months of compensating darkness.

But I realize that to me, these billboards are fantastic perfect GADGETS, like a giant iPod touch. Whatever bad qualities you might see in them, you can't deny that they do their jobs great, and great tech was used to accomplish the goal.

It's just a matter of time before I get myself beat up because I start rhapsodizing about Nazi architecture.