offbeat
Seeking a deeper meaning to a network error
BORK!BORK!BORK! Sometimes a digital sign can carry a message that means more than just words. Like this example, which could be a simple connectivity issue or speak to a deeper spiritual meaning: You’re not connected to a network.
Spotted by an eagle-eyed Vulture on a visit to Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany, near the border with Austria, the digital sign normally displays information to individuals waiting in a nearby queue.
Not today, though.
From a purely technical standpoint, it appears the sign is running a browser that cannot connect to the computer serving content for visitors. The error “You’re not connected to a network” indicates that a WiFi network may be misbehaving, or that an adaptor (or driver) has packed up.
Or perhaps, just perhaps, the message has another meaning. “You’re not connected to a network” could be a warning to citizens unable to draw their eyes from the device in their hands. Sure, they might think they are connected to a social network, but such connections are merely virtual. You are, as the sign says, not connected to a network. Not really.
It’s certainly food for thought. Or it might just be that something somewhere has fallen over and been unplugged, and the hard-pressed techie responsible for it has either not spotted the problem, or lacks the time to deal with it.
Neuschwanstein was built from 1869 to 1886, and initially served as the residence of King Ludwig II of Bavaria. It’s a strange place, having been built at a time when castles weren’t necessary as strongholds, but it was still given a medieval-ish design. There’s hot and cold running water, a heating system, and even a telephone connection (despite the digital sign insisting it can’t find a network).
It’s certainly worth a visit, and as the throng beside the possibly philosophical signage makes clear, it is a popular attraction.
Walt Disney visited the schloss in the 1950s and – judging by the multiple similarities with the Disney Sleeping Beauty Castle from the 1959 movie – was seemingly inspired by its architecture and distinctive towers.
Or perhaps it’s worth attending not for the architecture, but for the inadvertent philosophy in the borked signage: you’re not connected to a network.
But you are in Bavaria.
So how about a lovely beer and Schweinebraten mit Kartoffelknödel? ®
