When I was around 10, Revell came out with a model Goodyear blimp that was advertised on TV and sold through Goodyear stores. The coolest thing about it was you could create your own messages to be displayed on the blimp’s screen. I was very, very excited. When I got the blimp for my birthday, I was disappointed to find that you created the messages not with some cool keyboard or electronic interface, but by filling in dots on specially-sized paper with a magic marker. I think I also expected to be able to fly it around the room, and that didn’t happen either.
I was thinking about the blimp model because, 30+ years ago, it was about the coolest thing I could imagine. Just now I bought an iPhone app for $1.99 that is advertised as an alarm clock, but also allows you the ability to play radio feeds from 14,000 radio stations from around the world, just as a bonus.
That’s the world my son is going to grow up in. I might still buy him the blimp, though. I found one on eBay for 40 bucks.
