Television?

A couple of days ago I noted that after several years there is once again a television set in my Munich flat. It has not yet been completely connected and hence not switched on.

Why? Mainly because I have become accustomed to spending my evenings reading e-books on my Kindle, picking up wherever I might have left off and closing down whenever I feel sleepy. This means that I am fully in charge, the scheduling is entirely up to me. Now I find it hard to cope with the idea that watching television would imply abdicating control of the way my evenings are spent.

I hear protests... surely I can link the television set to my laptop and enjoy streaming content, video-on-demand and so forth? Not when your electronic devices are a decade old, lacking in such gimmicks as HDMI ports!

It could be that for the next little while I shall remain loyal to my Kindle.

I find it an interesting coincidence that yesterday Jeff Jarvis announced on his blog (required reading for anyone interested in our digital future) that he is now fully and contendedly 'cloud based' and finds the only disadvantage is the unavailability of Skype on the Google Chrome platform.

Should my forward planning anticipate a Chromebook with HDMI out?

Funny, when one thinks back to simpler days and amazing promises!