People always have such high hopes for new technology. What fools! The cars that were supposed to liberate us have turned our cities into empty ghettos surrounded by endless miles of narcoleptic sprawl. TV started off showing stage plays and classical music concerts and ended up with Wife Swap and Cavemen. And the Internet, well, you know all about that one.

So it is with the webcam. The beautiful dream of Jetsons-style video calling has curdled into a nightmare of underage nudity and witless lipsyncing (when in doubt, blame teenagers). It’s a shame that this fine Philips webcam, with its 90 fps refresh rate, 640×480 resolution, and low-light performance down to 1 lux, will be wasted on such inanity. But hey, look at it this way: if you’ve got this webcam, a perky set of breasts, a lack of shame, and a Paypal account, you too can be a professional e-stripper. When a dream dies, you might as well take whatever money you can find in its pockets.

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