Tokyo Tower and the 147 Buttons

Tokyo's 50-year-old red and white landmark is doomed. You may have seen it under attack by the monster Godzilla in an old movie, but that was fiction. Actually, its purpose is to transmit analog TV broadcasts, and the analog format is being replaced by digital TV.

This means the largest self-supporting steel structure in the world has outlived its usefulness. That doesn't mean it isn't still an iconic landmark and a neat place to visit. The aquarium downstairs and the observation platform upstairs are two good reasons to see it.

I feel a great deal of sympathy for that tower, having the digital world passing it by.

We just traded in our ten-year-old analog TV for a shiny new digital one. It comes with three remote controllers--the regular TV one, the cable TV one, and the one for the deck that handles the DVD, etc.

Do you realize that means I have 147 dot-sized buttons to choose from whenever I want to make the TV do something for me? One hundred forty seven!