The law of the long arm

It's easy to forget, when you are involved in optics, how many people still see presbyopia as something strange.

I traveled by train up to London last week and around Leatherhead a chap got on. He looked like a technical salesman, well dressed and sporting a pinbadge which appeared to read Fujitsu, the Japanese electronics company, but I wouldn't swear to that.

It wasn't long before his smartphone rang and after a slight double take he pushed the accept button and began to talk. The conversation that ensued reminded me of the old Not The Nine o'clock News sketch where Mel Smith confounds Griff Rhys Jones with talk of woofers and tweeters. About half way through out came a small handheld device which the chap started to read. The detail of the conversation grew so he asked his conversation partner to hold on while he got out an iPad.