The largely mechanical noises of typewriters, daisywheel and dot-matrix printers, telephones you had to dial, shredders and squeaky filing cabinet drawers have been quietly replaced by the considerate hums of laser and inkjet printers, pleasant paper crumpling noises as you nuke reams of paper in half a second in your cavernous electronic trashcan, subdued tones from your deskphone and the quiet chirping from your hard disk platters as you effortlessly work away on your electronic files. And not forgetting the daily fanfare of Mission Impossible, Nokia Grande Valse and countless other musical treats and bleeps from mobile phones, pda's and freshly restocked inboxes.
You hear colleagues say things like "my mobile phone is not talking to my notebook today", "shit, the global economy is really in the dumper this week", "this is the personal voicemail of Gary Turner, its Thursday 22nd November....." and "good evening Hong Kong thanks for waiting up, before we start can you see the drop down menu my mouse is hovering over on your screen ok?".
You hear colleagues say things like "my mobile phone is not talking to my notebook today", "shit, the global economy is really in the dumper this week", "this is the personal voicemail of Gary Turner, its Thursday 22nd November....." and "good evening Hong Kong thanks for waiting up, before we start can you see the drop down menu my mouse is hovering over on your screen ok?".