2051 Dang Dongle

Sometimes just the names of things get me curious to learn more at about them. I always wondered when the Toyota Tacoma came out why there wasn't a car dealership in Tacoma named Tacoma Toyota. Would have been perfect. Think of how many people would come to Tacoma Toyota to buy a Toyota Tacoma. 

I'd have at least gone to look.

So recently when I heard of the new “Google dongle” I just had to check it out. It's real name is Google Chromecast, but everybody started calling it Google dongle right away. I guess because it sounds so fun to say Google dongle. Like twitter and tweet, and even Google itself, it seems to satisfy some basic American consumer need to refer to high tech products in baby talk. 

Goo goo don gah tweet tweet.

And the Google dongle is a great piece of technology indeed. Able to pick up WiFi from any of your devices and route it through your TV. All you have to do is plug it into your HDMI slot. 

Or as the techno-people put it, it will sling WiFi to your TV. Slinging WiFi. Sounds so medieval. Another of our techno-traits. Using medieval carnage terms to describe stuff. Nerd artifact from D&D and virtual reality role-playing games.

Anyhow, I thought, perfect, I'll get one. They're just $35. Now I can sling Netflix from my laptop. Except one thing. My TV's too old to have an HDMI slot. Wonder if the dongle comes with a RCA jack adaptor. Or better yet, an RF cable.

One thing though. I wrote a column recently about hackers using  USB chargers to hack your electronic devices. Can someone hack back to your device slinging a reverse WiFi signal? 

Ping and ding your dongle?

Dang.

 America, ya gotta love it.