Don't get me wrong--cable television is one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century, and it has only gotten better since the early days. But having access to dozens, then hundreds, of channels created a rare first-world problem: How can you find something to watch amidst all those choices?

(and its competitor at the time, ReplayTV) had the solution: Plug a hard drive in between your cable box and your television set, and tell it what your favorite shows are. The DVR takes care of the hard work of changing channels and hitting Record, so even if MacGyver comes on at 3 a.m., you always have an episode waiting for you the following morning. It didn't take a genius to integrate these two boxes together, and anyone with a serious home theater setup has gigabytes' worth of stuff on tap, just waiting to be watched (another first-world problem, there).

Along with crying babies and fingernails on chalkboards, the sound of the old-school alarm clock ringing must rank as one of the most annoying noises you'll ever encounter. Sure, the advent of the clock radio meant that you could wake up to the sultry sounds of your local smooth-jazz station, but this remains a fairly brutish way to wake up in the modern era.