Staying one step ahead of the consumer technology bubble

"Everything you see here today will be totally obsolete in four years."

Those words of wisdom came from Bill Gates, spoken to Alberta-based technology commentator Steve Makris just before Gates stepped down as CEO of Microsoft.

"Count on everything changing every few years," said Makris, whose reviews and analysis of consumer technology can be found in Postmedia newspapers, on Global TV and at techuntangled.ca.

"The cycle of technology, even smart technology, arriving to consumers and disappearing altogether is getting shorter."

New-gen systems offer sophisticated safety

Randy Larkam sits at his desk in southeast Calgary looking at the sunny backyard of his vacation home in Arizona. The image on his computer screen is overlaid with several transparent tinted rectangles

As we watch, a caretaker enters the frame and checks the pool and surrounding patio.

"There she is," said Larkam. "Right on time, too."

The coloured areas on-screen show the motion detection fields of the cameras that monitor the yard. They can be adjusted in real time just by clicking and dragging.

This ain't your dad's burglar alarm.