By Michael Karl Witzel ©2007-2008
Remember those halcyon days when the customer was always right? When you made a retail purchase and were unhappy with the deal, you spoke to the salesperson or store manager and eventually received satisfaction. Whether an item was too small, the wrong color, defective, or simply unwanted, you made your request [...]

By Michael Karl Witzel ©2007-2008
The venerable paper day planner is fast going the way of single-screen movie theaters. Electronic Personal Digital Assistants—or PDAs, for short—are popping up in palms everywhere.
Check out any computer or office supply store, Internet retailer, or mail-order electronics catalog, and you will find an ever-increasing inventory of PDA makes and models, [...]

By Michael Karl Witzel ©2007-2008
These days, software vendors are unveiling all kinds of speech-recognition software. It’s now possible to dictate to your computer, make verbal menu commands, and do other things you never imagined.
Very soon, input devices like the alphanumeric keyboard, mouse, trackball, and stylus will be obsolete. The switches, buttons, and wheels we use [...]