Gadgets

I love gadgets! At home I have a talking meat thermometer. A female voice pleasantly tells me "your entree is ready" (it even tells me when it is almost ready so I can begin to salivate), then there's the HDTV(the best thing since sliced bread), wireless internet(why can't they make a wireless toaster? I'd buy one), an electric envelope opener (no more paper cuts). I'm starting to sound like a spoiled brat. But one of the "gadgets" that I couldn't get to work correctly at the registry of deeds was "video help". Here's how it worked...or didn't. We installed an inexpensive minicam on a PC in our lower record hall and one on a PC in Customer Service. The computers were connected through the internet. You're in the lower record hall. You need help. No need to run all the way upstairs to Customer Service. Just "ring"...instantly you "see and hear" someone. I imagined this working similar to a supermarket "information phone"(hello, can you tell me what aisle the LaSeur peas are on?) It just didn't work right. The audio quality was horrendous. It sounded like Charlie Brown's teacher...whha, whha, whhawhaa. After about a month we scrapped the idea. This was about fours year ago. Since that time there have been major improvements in audio and video computer equipment. The equipment is better and less expensive. And as I said... I do love gadgets.