theTomWeekly.com - ARTICLES - My House Is Talking To Itself (just like Grandma)

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because the house knows that this is a woman over 50 and she likes it a little cooler. Bill's Shih Tzus are automatically caged because the house knows that this guest was inappropriately licked once by her family dog when she was a toddler, and that she is just not a dog person.

This is only somewhat exaggerated (dogs don't lick inappropriately). Refrigerators are on the market now that accept an internet connection. As one representative described it: the refrigerator will automatically order your groceries for you from your favorite store, based on its "sensing" of what items are running low. However, the refrigerator just eliminated the Mackinac Island Fudge ice cream from your next order because it just talked to your bathroom scale. And besides, the pantry just told the refrigerator that there are still plenty of Hostess Twinkies in back stock.

Granted, there is more stuff to figure out. As technologies get combined and reduced in size, we have to learn how to use each new gadget or piece of software. And speaking of software, convergence is also heavy in this area - I can now record, edit, mix, and master my own songs, and burn CDs, all with the same piece of bootleg software (just kiddddd-----innngggggg, Bill). But as certain innovations shake out, of the many that are introduced, people will learn to use those, and like them - just as we learned computers. Though, we may not be able to rebuild the transmission, we CAN still start the engine and drive down the road - to get that ice cream that the refrigerator cancelled. Guess I showed technology.

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Some people think that the fusion of home computers and home theaters will never catch on because most of us want to keep those two things separate, and that it would be too complicated for the average starchy tuberous root vegetable that lives on the living room settee. These are the same naysayers that said jetpacks would never arrive… and your point!?

With almost every innovation, from the automobile to the jetpack (am I missing something?), mass marketing of these products mandates simplifying their use. The convergence of technologies marches on - to, and sometimes past, its logical conclusion. Just as the exploration and settlement of the adolescent United States never stopped until virtually every square inch of territory between Mexico and Canada, and then some, achieved statehood - technological convergence is inevitable; as the sun comes up in the east; as every hard drive will eventually crash; as President Bush will fabricate at least one new word at each press conference.

The ability to access radio and TV stations all over the world, from anywhere in the world, is just too delicious. Think of the expanded consumer pool for advertising. And that's just the beginning. Don't even get me started on the existing video, audio, PowerPoint, and game files which will now be played through your big screen, big stereo media control center. AND, it slices, it dices…!

Our homes will eventually talk to themselves (just like Grandma). You may have read about how Bill Gates' house is completely wired, automated, and internetted. A guest may walk into the art gallery (what - you don't have an art gallery in your house?) and the paintings will rotate based on her taste in art because the house downloaded all of her likes and dislikes as she walked through the front door. The temperature adjusts as she walks into the guest room

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