When we bought our window air conditioner unit earlier this summer, we were surprised to find it came with a remote control. Who changes the settings on the air conditioner so often that they keep a remote by their side? I would think that it would take more time and energy to get up and find the remote than to walk over to the machine and push a few buttons.

Then we recently bought a laptop computer, and it came with a remote control, with which you can control the DVD player "from up to 10 feet away." Ten feet. TEN FEET. The range of the remote control is ten feet. What has become of us that we can't move ten feet to adjust the volume on our movie? Ugh.