My life is changing day by day, thanks to Angels In America. There are more train rides than previously. I’ve arranged things so I can make trips without turning this damned thing on, but that, too, is changing.
Last week I attended an after event during TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 and I was amazed to be the only unhip old person bearing the anachronism known as business cards. All of the kids just pulled out their phones(!) and showed each other QR codes(!!) which they would simply trust and scan(!!!) in order connect on LinkedIn.
I patiently spelled my name to several bemused youngsters as they pecked away at their phones, but … passing without notice … requires that you pass. And I failed. Even though my job description IS now literally “old man yells at cloud”, I felt a bit out of place.
This is not directly applicable to that problem, but after years of not even having a phone, then more years of not turning it on, followed by a ritual involving the SIM and a SIM carrier push pin riding in a pill canister on my key ring, I got myself a Silent Pocket Faraday Bag.
There are some obscure hazards out there that demand the removal of the SIM from one’s device in order to pass safely. Yes, even if your phone is turned off, there are reportedly good reasons to go a step further. The little nylon bag with a metal mesh liner will purportedly stop most signals from crossing, so in an effort to be a trifle less obviously paranoid, this is taking the place of the pill canister.
That is not entirely correct …
The pill canister with its little tool and a variety of SIMs is going to remain on my key ring. And you’ll notice there is a tiny iPhone 12S on the left in that second photo, and from the first photo you know it’s got a gray leather wallet. The light brown wallet is an iPhone XR.
Can you work out what is happening there?
Most modern phone plans, even prepaid, come with hot spot service. So it’s entirely possible to have a digital identity on one device, configured with a fail closed VPN, but lacking an active SIM. The little phone has nice access via 5G, and it may or may not have a bit of my digital shadow on it. The XR has something that was taken out by Complete Commercial Collapse.
But this “collapse” is a funny business. The thing that shadow was tied to is gone, but an unattached shadow has value …
Conclusion:
I get that I’m being vague and weird and insufficiently specific here.
That is intentional, because I want you guys to break out of singleton mode.
I am a PERSON, who has a PHONE, with an associated PHONE NUMBER, and when I’m not using that device, but I’m still active online, I will be using MY COMPUTER.
There’s no rule that you must have just one phone, or just one phone number, or just one computer. And names are a burden, which is why I have several, depending on the context.
Writers may have a nom de plume. Fighter pilots are given a nickname by their peers, the last vestiges of the ancien régime French practice of assigning a nom de guerre to those going to war. Doing such a thing in the 21st century is … an exercise in frustration, as anti-fraud measures make the path ever narrower. Just wanting to quietly be, here in 2025, is enough to get the machine curious about you.
Did I inform you in some fashion here? Perhaps. But more importantly, did I set you to thinking about things you’d normally not consider? If yes, then I accomplish my purpose with this particular scribble.