It's Alive!

I've made the offhand comment on more than one occasion that Microsoft will one day be such a mega conglomerate that they will own our remains. As morbid as that sounds, it doesn't seem like a far-fetched Orwellian ideal.

At a keynote speech by Bill Gates a few years ago, he discussed the development of SPOT (Smart Personal Object Technology), a new wireless data service Microsoft was piggybacking on FM radio transmitters.

Riding the "L" one evening home from work, I sleepily looked up and there it was, Microsoft SPOT technology in the form of a coffee maker. The Melita Smart Mill & Brew Coffee Maker equipped with MSN Direct Weather. This coffeemaker will tell you all about the weather as it brews. "Drop it like it's hot!" Today is a day for some iced coffee!"

What's next? A toaster that gives you fashion advice by registering how you're reflected in it's surface or a microwave that tells you what to eat? I clearly fear that if my appliances were given these programmed traits that someday they might rebel like a bad scene out of 'Short Circuit' and I'd be left with burnt coffee, charred toast or overdone veggies.

Call me old school but I'll take mine as plug and click thank you.