In Switzerland, some Coop grocery stores have started self-scanning. you are given a hand-held gadget (which can be placed in a holder on your shopping cart) and you scan the items before placing them in your bags.

You walk to the cashier, give them the scanner, pay the amount and leave. No unloading and repacking of groceries.

They do have random checks so you may still have to put all your items on a conveyer belt.

Kerouac-love those order taking machines. They have them in Sheetz gas stations in the US.

Analogue and hanl - that light system in garages works well. They have the system in the garage at Baltimore-Washington International Airport.

The first time I saw electric sensors in public restrooms that turned the water on and off and flushed the toilets was in Iceland, 1968. I was amazed. It was many years until I saw the same in the US.

BA have invented an incredible system whereby you give them suitcases which enter into random wheel of fortune - a Barbary Ape then presses a button and your cases go on an exotic holiday in completely the opposite direction to you - they have called in Heathrow Airport!

Rush Limbaugh has just been explaining the miraculous, tankless, environmentally friendly, endless hotwater system

Fuelled by hot air, by chance? I wonder where that would come from....

Forgive me for dragging this thread back up, but some of these 'new' things already seem common, so I was wondering what else is new?

sorry, I only just found this thread, and haven't read every post but has anyone else got "touch-lamps"?

we have them as bedside lights and they are great - touch once to turn on, twice and thrice to make the light brighter, again to turn off. no more gropping for the switch, knocking the lamp over, etc,etc,

we got them about 5 years ago when there were several types on sale, but they seem to have disappeared - they never caught on. I wonder why not?

regards, ann

Touch lamps aren't really new. About 20 years ago friend had one on a lamp in her den. She kept thinking someone was in her house while she was at work because she would come home and the light would be on. The phone ringing was somehow triggering the light.

Ann

We bought a touch lamp at John Lewis within the last few months. It's on my desk now. Unfortunately, it sometimes comes on for no apparent reason when some other device on the same circuit is switched on or off.

John Lewis have seventeen different touch lamps on their website, and they do offer free delivery. I know you live a long way from any of their stores.

As for other handy gadgets, does anyone else have the Dyson blade hand dryers? They are the most effective hot air hand dryers I have used, and usually leave the flesh attached to the bones, unlike some others.

>>does anyone else have the Dyson blade hand dryers? <<

Are there on sale for domestic use? I've only seen them in public loos, and then only in a few posh places - they are the only air-dryers that work.

My wife found some very high tech toilet stall doors in an Amsterdam restaurant 2 years ago... it was right behind the Rijksmuseum.

She noticed all the stalls had clear glass doors and thought it very odd. She almost left but nature was calling! When she closed and locked the door the glass turned opaque!

Very cool!

hi chartley,

as you say, we live along way from...well, virtually everywhere else.

but if these lamps are now as common as you say, how come I've never seen them anywhere else, even in more civilised parts?

regards, ann