dive into mark

BusinessWeek: Technology without a cause. [H]aving a computer wirelessly track what’s in the refrigerator would mean never running out of orange juice again. This example (which the author goes on to rebuff) seems to come up over and over in pie-in-the-sky discussions of the “networked home”. It reminds me of something a wise sage named Joel once said:

If you keep hearing the same examples, you’re in deep trouble — like the idiot WAP people who talk endlessly about how “you’ll walk by a starbucks and the GPS in your phone will coordinate to beam you a coupon for that starbucks.” I’ve heard this same example a zillion times from “location based wireless” architecture astronauts and it amuses me, because it solves the one problem that coffee shops DOn’t have, namely, advertising to people who are standing right in front of the store! :)

OK, now I’m thirsty. (pregnant pause) Damn, I’m out of juice.

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