I always enjoy reading technology predictions offered by industry pundits and perceived experts. Post CES is always the best time for such reading. Everything seems possible, and bright, flashy digital things promise to make our lives easier and more entertaining. It’s this time of year that vendors promise us it’s here, it’s finally here. Not so fast. I only need to think of last week, and doubt sinks in. I’m not making this up - in the span of one week I sent my DVD recorder back to the depot repair facility for the second time this year, I lost all my iTunes songs (also for a second time), I spent four hours removing spyware from my PC, and I dedicated over three hours trying to figure out my new camcorder. All told, I spent over 10 hours in tech purgatory, and cannot recall a single moment of digital joy during the same time period. So, it’s no wonder that, while the industry collectively patted itself on its back a couple of weeks ago at CES, the rest of us were in our homes, offices, and cars pulling our hairs out, just trying to get all this stuff to work.

I don’t have answers, only horror stories. I would say this: the tech industry should take a lesson from a typical kindergarten class, and learn to play nice in the sandbox together. If not, consumer tech consumption will hit a wall, possibly in 2006. Personally, I’m taking a technology breather this year. It’s just not worth it to me anymore. I’ll start buying again when Apple lets me use Yahoo’s music service, Microsoft actually sells software that can protect itself, or when Hollywood lets me make a copy of my purchased DVDs for redundancy purposes. I’m sick of putting in three-hour days for random technology-related activities. And, I mean it this time…really, I’m serious – ooh, is that the new Samsung 82-in plasma?

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