John Scalzi had an interesting blog post on the Ficlets Blog today about the LongPen, which is a device that allowed him to be in New York and sign autographs for people in Anaheim! We truly are living in the future.
The way the setup worked was that he sat in front of a monitor and chatted remotely with fans as he signed his autograph with the LongPen device. Once he pressed the Send button, the robotic pen in Anaheim would sign his autograph. He states in the post he would prefer to sign autographs in person, but that the technology is cool.
As far as my own thoughts, I would prefer to have an author’s autograph in person, written with the author’s own hand and ink. I know he technically signed those books, but it all feels to close to a rubber stamp for my taste. I agree the technology sounds amazing, though.
The Struggling Writer 
I remember hearing about something like that a while back. I remember the author that was testing it was some famous Canadian women whose health wasn’t good enough to let her travel as much as she wanted and that was why she wanted to start using it.
It is kind of cool, but I’ve never been a big autograph person. Hook one of those up to let people fold my laundry remotely and I’ll get really excited.
That Canadian would be Margaret Atwood, I don’t think it was because she was sick. I just don’t think she likes the hassle of travel. Here’s some info on her:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Atwood
And here’s the Longpen’s website:
http://www.longpen.com/lp-welcome.html
(I’m a google geek, I admit it)
Mike – I’m with you on the laundry. Actually I don’t mind the washing and drying of the laundry. I just hate the folding.
Chris – thanks for the info.