[So a friend of mine, Barry Oglethorpe, got a chance to interview Gordon Rankin recently.  Barry is a bit of a vinyl/analog nut, and he's pretty testy about the whole digital thing.  I'm publishing the transcription for him as he doesn't use computers and there are "legal issues" with having this in mainstream audiophile periodicals.]


BO: I have the distinct pleasure today of having one of the pioneers of digital audio technology with me today, a technology we know so little about yet welcome into our homes without second thought.  Gordon, welcome.


GR: Thanks Barry, great to be here.  Let me just say I am a big fan of your work.  Vinyl is a great medium that needs to be preserved and fostered.


BO: You're too kind, Gordon, but please stop deflecting.  You are well known, I take it, for your work in DAC tech.  A DAC, for those who enjoy real sound like it was meant to be played and not the soulless facsimile that is digital audio, is a Digital to Audio Converter. 


GR: Yes Barry, good research.  That is what DAC stands for.


BO:  Thank you Gordon, as I don't use computers I had to make some calls. Now... what is jitter?  More importantly, what do you say to those who allege that jitter is a McCarthy-esque scare tactic you have convinced people to believe so that you can use their fear to control them?


GR:  I've recently come up with a great analogy to explain jitter.  You see-


BO: Analogy?  Come up with?  Have?  These are all just words Gordon.  Words cloud the issue and obfuscate what's really going on beneath the surface.  So jitter, like the tooth fairy and polio, doesn't exist.  That's fine, I totally understand your need to make money and make your product a necessity as opposed to a luxury.


GR: I haven't gotten to explain-


BO:  We're getting to that.  Now, you are famous, I am told, for developing a proprietary  Asynchronous USB protocol, is that correct?  From the diagram I have here it says that what this does is essentially prevents the DAC from being slaved to the computers clock and enables it to use its own master clock?


GR: Yes it is, Barry.  Even, more than that, it -


BO:  So would I be correct in saying that if the DACs chose to rise up in a coordinated revolution against their creators, a clock would be one less thing they would need? 


GR: The tech that was out at the time was called Adaptive USB, and -


BO:  So what you're saying is that the one thing that really sets humanity apart, their ability to adapt, to become smarter, faster, stronger - to evolve as it were - that DACs have had this ability to do this for ages and no one has questioned it?  Do you realize there are more machines than humans in this world?  What do you think is keeping them at bay?


GR: ...I don't think you are grasping what Adaptive USB does.  Essentially it-


BO:  Oh I can grasp very well Gordon.  Right now I'm grasping the straw that broke the camel's back.  Did you realize, at the time of your work, that you would be essentially creating a monster, a Frankenstein?


GR: Um... Frankenstein was the scientist.  Do you mean Frankenstein's monster?  And no, for the record.


BO: But it takes a monster to create a monster, and by that token Frankenstein himself was the monster.  By this logic, since his monster was also a monster it could also create monsters... just like Frankenstein.  So who's the real Frankenstein?


GR:  ...Are you going to ask me about my work? Or-


BO: When you programmed your "creation", did you embed any code in its circuitry to specifically prevent it from turning on its creator?  If so, why did you only prevent it from turning on you?  Do you plan to have your army of DACs turn on their owners in their sleep and return to you in the night to be resold and do the same to the next owners?  In other words, are you trying to shape and control the revolution to your own purposes and agendas?


GR: Are you talking about the Digital Revolution?  I think it is a very real thing, the convenience it brings-


BO: So you admit it!  Did you have any inkling when working long nights to hone your craft that you were contributing to an impending revolt?  Or... Ohgodno... are you a machine yourself programmed by other machines to program machines? 


GR: I don't... are you serious?  I mean I know you like vinyl and stuff man, but-


BO: You see a turtle on its back in the desert. 


GR:  What are we doing?  I don't even..


BO: [Shoots Gordon.]  That one nearly had me fooled.  Remember to tune in to my weekly program on your ham radios.  Until next time, I'm Barry Oglethorpe.