There's A Reason They Don't Call It The 'Theoretical Electronics Show'

Tony Long is Wired's copy editor and resident Luddite (in his own words). Why a Luddite would want to work at Wired - and, more puzzlingly, why Wired would let him - is a bit of a mystery to me, but I read his columns purely as counterexample. Anyway, his latest shows a, shall we say, iffy understanding of things:

The Luddite has a spy roaming CES in Las Vegas this week. Keeping him away from the Vegas fleshpots and gaming tables is proving a chore but he did surface long enough to provide a foretaste of what's in store over the next four days.

The theme of this year's industry spectacle, apparently, is "more tech stuffed into ever-smaller packages."

"Much of the talk is about the next generation of cell phones, smartphones, you name it," he said. "But as you've experienced with everything from VCRs to the newest phone, how much of the stuff that they cram into these things do you really use?" (The answer for most people, in case you were wondering, is "not much.")

That's an awful sloppy use of parentheses and punctuation at the end, especially for a copy editor. But I digress.

Of course, the expo promises to be what it always is: the geek's annual wet dream. Especially if said geek is toting plenty of folding green (or stiff, hard plastic) in his pocket. Because while CES is nominally about technology and electronics, what it's really about is consuming technology and electronics.

I would certainly hope so. Someone needs to explain to him that the 'C' in 'CES' stands for Consumer.

I would certainly hope so. Someone needs to explain to him that the 'C' in 'CES' stands for Consumer.

Tags: tony long wired luddite