Gadgets and cars...

For techies, there is no more powerful combination. For environmentalists, they are a bane.

This year, two prominent trade events, CES and the Detroit Auto Show, promised to bridge the gap between eco and geek camps and help solidify the sizeable overlap between them. This "greening" made headlines, but will it make a difference?

In the case of the Detroit Auto Show, automakers were big on promise (and green paint) but came up short on impressing industry watchers. The New York Times brings us this observation:

This year's overreaching theme had to be green. Automakers desperately tried to make converts by rolling out a woozy parade of concept cars designed to run on renewable fuels like ethanol as well as less plausible dream machines that consume hydrogen or recharge from a wall plug.

There is some definite progress, but the steps are generally smaller than automakers were preaching at the show or the breathless headlines would have you believe.

Though they cite some progress, slapping some green decals on a Ferrari somehow fails to convince. Shocking, but true.