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The Type-A, High-Tech Bathroom
Carl Bialik from the WSJ writes "Hard-driving homeowners have converted their loos into virtual satellite workspaces, with retractable desks or waterproof touch-screen monitors, the Wall Street Journal reports. Among the features: showerproof computers and mirrors with stock quotes. But beware the accidental 'BlackBerry dunk' in the toilet or sink. 'Audio One says about all of the 30 home-automation systems it's installed near its Miami head office in the past year--prices can reach $200,000--have featured TVs in the bathroom. "It's become a given," says company engineer David Sussman. "There's not much sanctity left." '"
If you can't even cut the umbilical to the television long enough to take a dump, you need to seriously re-examine your priorities. Next they will be putting computers and refrigerators in there and nobody will ever have to leave the throne room.
...or at least more than usual.
Not to be pessimistic about the technology on display, but does anybody really crave this? At my workplace I'm lucky if you manage to squeeze in (or out?) the time to use the facilities in peace, let alone being able to carry on working while present.
I think it would be about time to sit down and seriously assess your throughput (haw) if you'd reached the point where you could honestly say you need that kind of information present while attending the throne. I see the bathroom as the last calm and sensible place in my home, possibly to the point of insulating the walls so the mere presence of wifi can't exist in such a sacred space.
After a 60 hour week with a myriad of after hours calls, notifications exploding into inboxes and pagers like hand grenades, and the proverbial generally hitting the fan (or the terminal in this case), I'd soon choose to walk a few blocks to a public loo than step into a wired bathroom. You never know what you might be walking into.
This is about embarrassment.
I agree that it's anyone's right to spend money in whatever way that makes them feel like royalty.
And it's also my right to point out that spending $200K on a bathroom is plainly ludicrous and without merit. It reminds me of other noveau riche, grandiose stupidities.
No, I'm not in academia. I just have sensitivities towards irrational excess.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
I have never understood why people make such an issue of the toilet seat. If it's up when you arrive in the restroom and you need it to be down, you can put it down. If it's down when you arrive in the restroom and you need it to be up, you can put it up. NOBODY should concern themselves with the damn status of the toilet seat. Leave it in the position that it ended up in after you used it. The only thing I require of the toilet seat is cleanliness. Other than that, I don't care about the position. Don't you have enough concerns already?