If only technology were true to its promise

New engineering constantly disappoints, but that does not indicate it is not cool. My to start with encounter with a technological innovation was in 1964 when I was presented the coveted Tressy doll for Christmas.

I was not fond of dolls and hardly ever performed with them, but the Tressy was various since she arrived with a key you could adhere in her again. Change it and her hair would expand or shrink.

I was entirely awed by the advertisements for Tressy, so when I opened my existing and identified a true Tressy, I was in raptures.

The first time I performed with the doll, nevertheless, the keyhole on her back again broke, and her hair refused to retreat into her plastic scalp. I was crushed.

I’ve been skeptical about innovation at any time considering that, but I nevertheless relish the concepts driving every new invention.

When the Alexa smart speaker was advertised, I was astonished at what it was supposed to do. It could give you time and weather conditions preserve a searching record, look up just about anything on Wikipedia, established timers and alarms, add situations to your calendar, participate in tunes and deliver voice messages.

It does most of those matters some of the time.

Extra and additional routinely, even though, it mishears or ignores me completely. When Alexa was new, the advertisements mentioned it was created to make improvements to alone around time. In its place, it appears to be to worsen.

Typically, Alexa presents off-the-wall responses to my requests. If I convey to it to perform a Fargo radio news station, it may possibly perform a place station in Texas, or an alternate audio station in Philadelphia. It may well include odd products to my buying checklist or my calendar. Alternatively of “appointment with Dr. Kaiser” it could say “appointment with lock your eye provide.”

GPS technology also disappoints. Once, we went a pretty limited distance from an airport to a wedding ceremony location. We must have checked an option for most power economical alternatively of the most immediate route, so the GPS took us in a slower — but somehow extra ecological — manner of vacation.

One more time, I inadvertently used pedestrian fairly than vehicle method, and I was routed in a really strange way. These are human error challenges, not know-how issues for every se, but they took place so simply that I nonetheless blame engineering.

Story continues

A short while ago, our fridge died, and we acquired a new “smart” fridge. I was wowed by several new attributes.

This fridge has a camera within so you can see what is in it without opening the doorway. Supposedly.

Also, you can check out your refrigerator’s contents from your cell phone so that if you are at Ken’s or Kessler’s and just can’t recall if you continue to have ketchup, you can use an application and see.

Regretably, the camera only exhibits what is proper in front of it. You can not see what’s in base drawers or the doorways. It is even now great, but not pretty as cool as it will make out to be.

The fridge has a display on the doorway, so you can surf the online although choosing what to make for evening meal. You can hook up your fridge to your sensible Tv, if you want.

My son suggests, “Great. Now you can look at the inside of of your fridge from the ease and comfort of your dwelling room.”

When you check out your fridge contents, labels on items appear and make a checklist. This is handy simply because it arranges merchandise by expiration day. However, it invariably mislabels objects. My yogurt is labeled “beer.” My salsa was named “cookies.” Pickles were a sports drink.

The promise of technological know-how is frequently brighter than the truth, but the reality is at least a resource of amusement.

Donna Marmorstein lives and writes in Aberdeen. Email [email protected].

This post at first appeared on Aberdeen Information: Soliloquy column If only technological know-how have been genuine to its assure