I've always thought that the Chit-chat section of this forum was like a group of friends sitting around a table over a beveridge of choice discussing what ever comes along and that the topic can vary during the session. The thing that's missing is the face to face aspect and we don't fully understand each others personality traits. So we miss out on the visual and audible queues and sometimes either make statements that might come across as a little confrontational or we misunderstand the intent.
At all times though we should try to be friendly and helpful.
The other thing is that when you get to a certain age its ok to repeat stories and jokes that you've told over and over because chances are your friends can't remember hearing them either
So point in question:-
A slight deviation from Contactless cards but still a tenuous connection - pun intended. We've had discussions eslewhere about Digital Voice/VoIP etc. and the fact that in the event of a power cut there is not phone service unless you keep your router alive somehow. To be fair this is not too different for a lot of people who only have cordless phones on the current wired system, except they did have the option to plug in a wired phone. While you can plug in a wired phone to the BT router it still needs the router to be powered in order operate.
But to return to Contactless. In the event of a shop etc having a power cut the card readers probably wont work and you wont have any money. Gone are the days of Arkwright who would probably charge you for a couple of candles, take your money and trap his fingers in the till while short changing you.