| The Incredible Shrinking Woman | |||
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Thursday, June 24, 2004 ( 4:12 PM ) Melody You've got to admit it's getting better... I find myself resenting technology much of the time. I spend so much time with it at work that I can hardly bare to drag the laptop out in the evening, even if I just want to look up a movie time or check on the weather. It's this ugly hard machine in my soft comfy home space. Then as I was doing some consumer electronics-related Internet research today, I started thinking about the ways that consumers are integrating technology into their lives, about the things that are possible now that weren't a few years ago. Up till now I've been thinking, why does someone care about networking their appliances? Are we that lazy? Then it occured to me that converging home technologies is not only about convenience and ease of use, it's also about making technology disappear, or, rather, fade into the fabric of our lives-- making wires disappear; taking the TV out of the center of the living room and hanging it on the wall like a picture, where it's out of the way, where it becomes a part of the home, where it can't obnoxiously pronounce its presence even when it's not turned on; installing your stereo speakers in out of the way places and building whole home audio systems so that nothing can interrupt the music as you move freely from room to room. Suddenly, I get it. I'm not going to go so far as saying it's a noble endeavor, but it is kind of beautiful. Geez. Do I sound like a commercial for Panasonic or what? # |
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