'The ultimate parody of modern society'
Some of the most sublimely ridiculous gadgets are designed to appeal to a younger set who spend hours in front of computers. The Dream Cheeky USB Missile Launcher plugs into a computer's USB port. A few mouse clicks aim and fire soft foam darts capable of clearing cubicle walls. A USB Hamster Wheel uses keystrokes to set a toy rodent scurrying nowhere, "the ultimate parody of modern society," an online retailer notes.
Going gadget ga-ga can lead to problems that no gadget can solve. Sarah Lazarovic, a photographer in Toronto, said she rues the day she bought a trick camera lens from a Russian dealer on the Internet that turned out to be uselessly cumbersome. "I've tried to stop buying useless stuff I'm never going to use, like periscope camera lenses," Lazarovic said. "I'm not proud of the whole box of cords and digital detritus I have."
Eisenberg, the clutter expert, suggested a low-tech solution to gadget overload. "The good thing is you can go through your apartment, gather them up and have a tag sale," she said by cell phone. "Pass them on to someone else."
Not every gadget is useless. The Annoy-o-tron works. An informal test on an unsuspecting newspaper reporter yielded a slow-rising boil of annoyance, starting with the question "What is that annoying sound?" and cresting, about 18 hours later, with cursing, a furious hunt, the device's discovery and a brutal stomping on it.
It survived.
Bzz-eee-eeep!
RSS