My House of Ink

With all of the continuous innovation in technology, there are still some basic components that lack compatibility. Perhaps this is a conspiracy between companies to make us buy specialized goods—I don’t know. It does seem odd, however, that companies can’t design video games that can be read by all systems.

The same can be said for power tools and other electronic gadgets: how hard would it be to design a universal battery that transcended manufacturer. One of the most basic examples of this lack of compatibility is printer ink. This aisle at Office Depot contains thousands of products that only work with one or two machines.