Remote monitoring

Surfing around the websites that help with defining and guiding those in search of independent living, assisted living, nursing home and the combination of these known as a CCRC (continuing care retirement communities), you can spend time on guidance sites like Gilbert Guide, RetirementHomes.com, the unfortunately-named

The GE-Intel alliance -- with an associated $250 million of joint investment over the next five years -- announced this past week could get everybody in the tech industry excited.  Even the business pundits that watch them are all aflutter about the possibilities for aging in place technology.

The nursing home lobbyists have clearly got the attention of the Florida legislature. In the land of the sun and the frailest elderly, the nursing home lobby has persuaded state senator Mike Bennett to file a bill that would eliminate department of health and safety inspections (restaurants would be inspected more often than nursing homes).

I spent some quality time this weekend writing and then losing a blog entry to a software crash. Computers. Gotta love 'em.  But I got to thinking about simplification, packaging, and reuse. If you think about it, how resourceful and enterprising business people are! Just think -- from one year to the next, contractors and interior designers move from new home building and decorating to renovation and retrofit. Car rental companies like Hertz get into the hourly car use business to compete with Zipcar.

I guess it's an idea whose time has come.