computers, broadband, and social networking

Does anyone remember Y2K?  It happened just 15 years ago. The $100 billion in the US -- $350 billion worldwide -- that was spent to convert information systems to move from a 2-digit year to a 4-digit year, well, it seems so last century. The belief at that time: The move from the YYMM format of dates in all systems everywhere (all military, government, and commercial) in the year 2000 would create a "0001" January 1, 2000 date format that would result in disaster. Checks couldn’t be issued, military systems would fail, hospitals and power plants would shut down or off. This was preceded by sky-is-falling anxiety, particularly among IT people who bore the brunt of redirecting work to code this change.

Tech companies want consumers who can be herded forward.  There was the magic of the iPhone 6 and the 6-plus.  By the time those came out, the old iPhones were tired, maybe too slow -- Apple fans were eager, if not desperate for a better device. Then not so long after Samsung introduced its Galaxy S4 in May 2013, it announced the S5 in February 2014. The Samsung Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy Edge (and their updates) showed up this week -- hustled out the door to keep pace with media mega-hype of the Apple Watch. How wonderful and different are the new Samsung gadgets from the S3 and S5?  Wait for it – startup with a finger swipe, a curved edge and again imitating Apple… no removable batteries. Oh, so the new phones have a 12-hour battery life?  Well, you can charge the phone within 15 minutes to get 4 hours of life out of it? Not so good when the day is long.

International CES expects 150,000 people this year and 3500 exhibits. I will be going -- my feet are tired in anticipation. The show organizer, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), represents the $208 billion U.S. consumer electronics industry. Almost every commercial tech company will be there -- why even Apple is represented by Hyundai and other partners. In fact, Apple’s iWatch threatens to overwhelm the show with its non-presence. Or maybe it won’t be the missing watch, but the yet-to-arrive HomeKit which will dominate the show.  I dunno about that, seems like the show is still dominated by cars. And will those giant TVs be supplanted by drones, wearables, and virtual reality? Or maybe the new generation of smart homes? Appliance and home improvement big businesses still believe in someone, somewhere having an as-yet-unmet desire for a smarter home. That’s been going on for a while, always hedged as the 'smart home for the future' because most homes are still pretty dopey. Perhaps the pipe dream of a smart home has never resonated with home owners – "connecting a bunch of devices that are primed for breaking."