Other Tech

Cable Cutoff

Q. What is the maximum length for an HDMI cable? Alan F. Wufsus Via E-mail

My spirits were hovering somewhere between disdain and contempt when Press Day started at this year's Consumer Electronics Show back in January - but man, did that change in a hurry! It seemed like every manufacturer had something big, new, and important to say, and I felt a strange emotion welling up. Dare I say it? I was actually excited!

Personal hovercraft. Jet-propelled backpacks. Robots that automatically prepare your meals and clean up afterwards. And everyone's favorite - weekend junkets to the orbting Hilton space station. Back in the optimistic 1950s, technology writers were confident that by the 21st century, such things would be a part of daily life.

"The most interesting thing in life is change." So says Cy Curnin, singer of the perpetually shape-shifting synth-rockers the Fixx, in discussing both his creative (and personal) wanderlust and the impetus behind his second solo offering, The Returning Sun (Cy Curnin/Squirrels Eat Nuts; available at cdbaby.com).

System control can be a nightmare. Almost every gadget comes with a remote, and many "basic" systems require multiple controllers. Even my parents - whose entertainment system is built around a 27-inch tube TV and a VCR - have three remotes.

Nat Hentoff has just celebrated 50 years of writing about civil rights for The Village Voice. We at S&V would like to point out that, in February 1958, Hentoff was also a contributing editor to this magazine's earliest progenitor, HiFi & Music Review.

These days, Apple likes to hold court at a different consumer electronics shebang - the Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco. "And where Apple goes," says any peripheral maker looking for some action, "iFollow!"