Dial Up.
Everywhere you look on this information highway are signs that read SOPA this and SOPA that. It’s even spilled into real life media like our TV and paper news. While I agree SOPA would be bad (if you’re fuzzy on the whole good/bad thing – Google it for god’s sake) I’m not going to posit my arguments here (being Canadian has to do with that for several reasons). Instead I’m simply going to give you guys a generous jolt of nostalgia. If you’re having trouble discerning what this monstrous sound that could only come from the depths of space or beyond is don’t worry your pretty little head. It’s simply what us old people used to hear when connecting to the Internet when it was in its infancy. We did it through our telephone landlines – how quaint!
This sound isn’t really used too often in cinema. At this point I’m guessing it would have to be a period piece set in the distant past of a decade/decade-and-a-half ago. If there ever is to be a scene where the characters of 90’s Joe and 90’s Jane, wearing their silly frocks, fanny packs and bonnets – connect to the World Wide Web through telephone modems and marvel audibly about living in the future, then that is exactly when you’d hear this noise. I suppose you could also mix it into some Sci Fi flick where the robots speak using only Dial Up tones – I don’t know think creatively! That’s what dial up Internet was all about.
How would you make this sound for yourself? My first suggestion is to build a time machine. Barring that you could try to connect using a dial up modem, but mark my words, the consequences could be dire. The best answer is don’t. Let this fade into history like the dead language it is. In the mean time enjoy it here – my treat.
I need to disconnect my mom needs to use her phone, more next week