Future porn

[robot_god]

This is the kind of thing I've been talking about!

http://technology.todaysbigthing.com/2010/08/13

If seeing creativity like this doesn't give you a future-boner, then honestly, I think you're too old to live.

[AugustWest]

Neat, well-designed stuff but hardly a new concept.

[jay-ell]

Not new, certainly, but not quite old, either. Very nice designs. I'll have to consider one of those wallbeds when I build a tiny house in my backyard as a writer's retreat. (I've decided this is a thing I want to do when I have 20 grand to spare. I am really fascinated by these ultra-efficient small homes, if I didn't have young kids I would love to try living in one for a year.)

My in-laws have a coffee table kind of like the first one on the video. They have a 3,000 square foot home with an ample dining room, but they eat in the living room so they can watch House Hunters while they eat.

[Choop]

They have a 3,000 square foot home with an ample dining room, but they eat in the living room so they can watch House Hunters while they eat.

the saddest thing

[jay-ell]

Especially since they can actually see the TV from their dining table, albeit from 20 yards instead of 5...

[AugustWest]

the saddest thing

What is the attraction of those shows, anyway?  Is it just voyeurism?

[jay-ell]

I like to watch the DIY shows because I have a house and want to make it better.

My MIL likes House Hunters and its ilk for the same reason my mom likes the Home Shopping Network, but more so. "Look at the stuff we could have!" 

[Asherdan]

What is the attraction of those shows, anyway?  Is it just voyeurism?

THAT

ALSO: I demand that we turn off all appliances and sit at the friggin' dinner table and interact like family for 15 minutes every damn day. Even though the oldest would rather be holed up in TeenCave^TM and the younger parked at the coffee table with his sized chair and watch the Pink Panther and Spouse would like to put her feet up in the La-Z-Boy.

Fuck that, I demand my 15 minutes of stilted one-word conversations in between mouthfuls daily.

Actually, I'm kind of an asshole about it. Sometimes I'll relent and let everyone have a 'lazy night' while I sit at the dining room table, alone.

BTW, I like the furniture concepts just fine. I've been eyeballing an undeveloped acre zoned for livestock. Thinking about building my own barn and arena and adding a little 350 ft² house built out modular.

[jaydub]

That's going on my Facebook wall ASAP.  Maybe not new, but its new to me.  We're casting around for a way to get more functional space in my daughter's room.  Our 4 bed house should probably be 3 beds with bigger rooms.

[jay-ell]

jaydub, you might want to check out Wasted Spaces on Hulu. Lots of good ideas there for how to DIY and save some $eriou$ bread.

http://www.hulu.com/wasted-spaces

[robot_god]

Well duh, of course they're not new, what am I, an infant here?  But imagine this:

The couch and TV disappear effortlessly into the walls.  Racquetball court.

After the game winner you play air guitar, but it sounds like a real guitar.

[AugustWest]

I like to watch the DIY shows because I have a house and want to make it better.

I like DIY better than HGTV.  You can actually learn stuff DIY.

[Drygioni]

Well duh, of course they're not new, what am I, an infant here?  But imagine this:

The couch and TV disappear effortlessly into the walls.  Racquetball court.

After the game winner you play air guitar, but it sounds like a real guitar.

I just came

[fanta]

that's neat...  however... addressing one point...

the reason a small studio apt costs what it costs is because you can't live in it comfortably...  The factor that determines the price is the question of how much discomfort people are willing to put up with.  If new technology makes a thing comfortable, then it will go up in price, and this opens up a price point for a new uncomfortable thing, in this case that new uncomfortable thing would be even smaller apartments.  The free market is really a bitch in this way.  As long as the market is free and unregulated, there will always be uncomfortable price points for products and things that suck.

[pmcd9]

Way to shit on a man's dream of sleeping on a foldaway bed.