Roadtesting the wireless home

I heard a funny story a couple of months ago. A colleague of mine went to a presentation about a new piece of automation kit that enabled the remote control of various pieces of household equipment. "What's really great," enthused the presenter, "is that you can turn off the kitchen light when you are upstairs!" My friend couldn't resist the opportunity to ask the obvious, yet all-too-infrequent question. "Excuse me," he said. "Why exactly would anyone want to do that?" In the pause that followed, it became obvious that the presenter had not rehearsed an answer. What also became obvious was, if he needed to rehearse an answer, he already had a problem.

There have been plenty of examples over the last few years of techno-whiz devices that are going to change peoples' lives. Indeed, these things go way back - we chortle over the adverts for convenience products that came out in the 1950s, and guffaw at Morecambe and Wise's automated house where the armchairs move around on rails, all the time ignoring the fact that we are all still suckers for such gadgetry. Like a lottery winner or a pop star, every now and then one such device really does have a major impact - the mobile phone, say, or the MP3 player, but none have thus far succeeded in changing the way we spend our lives at home.
It was thus with a troubled mind that I accepted the challenge of road testing the Linksys wireless media adaptor. Troubled, not least because I had been wooed by its capabilities and gadget value, without really asking myself, "why exactly would anyone want to do that?" When the box arrived some six months ago, I resolved to find out.