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Blinkenlights: Difference between revisions
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Originally, '''Blinkenlights''' were simply diagnostic lights on electronic devices. In some places, they still are. But that's boring.
Thanks to signs in [[As Long as It Sounds Foreign|"mock German"]] that appeared in various computer rooms in [[The Fifties|the 1950s]], Blinkenlights became something for non-technical people to look at, instead of touching something they really shouldn't touch. From there, it was only a matter of time – less than a decade – for Blinkenlights to become a visual shorthand for high technology in general, not just computers ... and, in Hollywood, they were ''always'' blinking.
As computers became more ubiquitous, the trope faded from the public consciousness. ([[Real Life]] 21st-century mainframes don't even have diagnostic lights any more, at least, not where people can see them.) Nowadays it's used in works that purposefully invoke [[Zeerust]], always paired with [[Beeping Computers]].
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