The Future As Seen By Me In 2010

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Well looky here, things one has scanned in eh. (ignore the photo, that's some guy that made some accounting software, not sure what became of him ;) MIKE RIVERSDALE is fuming. The expensive headphones he bought in Sydney three weeks ago have just died. His first reaction is not to randomly spill expletives into his coffee, but to use his iPhone to vent his frustration to his Twitter con- tacts, under the moniker Miramar Mike. "I will also put, 'What should I do?' It's a conversation. I'm reaching out to the people following me." The council predicts hand-held digital devices such as smartphones will rule the world in 2040. They already rule the life of Mr Riversdale, whose company WaveAdept helps businesses adapt - their computing sys- tems to allow staff to work from anywhere - and with anyone. In order of fre- equency, he uses his iPhone to tweet (1136 followers; 8363 tweets since joining), e-mail, make phone calls and use online services, such as checki
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Storing your information in the cloud - it´s coming

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There are quite a few of my family, friends and colleagues that think I am mad as a hatter to store all my information (all that becomes electronic at least) in the cloud (i.e., on the Internet).

For instance I am currently uploading to Flickr all of the Yuletide photos and, as they are successfully stored online, I delete the surplus copy stored on my PC. That means there is only one copy of the photo in existence, the one on Flickr.

Scary stuff? Nope.

Yes, it does seem madness to those that aren´t used to living online. However, this is a brave new world and others don´t have the time and energy to explore it like I have. I still love radio and find the world of iPods a mystery, each to their own.

However, the world is going to be forcefully changed for millions when Microsoft start to incorporate storage into the cloud. Don´t believe me, this from Bill Gates (via Rafe Needleman) at the opening of the CES yesterday:
"Masters" of your media files will be stored in the cloud, he said, but personal devices will synch and view them.

And what does that mean for those in such organisations as the Government that are mandated to keep their information within one geographical boundary?

Better start getting used to it people - this commentary, again by Rafe, is something I buy into as well:

What was odd about this talk was what Gates said at the beginning: Broadband is in 250 million households, he said, but, "The trend is clear: the future will be software-driven." Of course, all the cool stuff we saw was software, but for the most part, only the eye candy was running on local devices (games being the exception). The really useful and powerful services were running in the cloud, on servers, not users' PCs.

And it's worth noting that even at the gadget-happy CES show, live Internet technologies are everywhere -- in TVs, GPS receivers, and built into new motherboards -- threatening traditional operating systems and software more every day. I think it's fitting that this year was Gates' last CES keynote. Yes, software is everywhere. But the future, as most real users will understand it, is on the Web.

Comments

  1. Anonymous8 January 2008 at 14:45

    Scary? Not a bit! Why would I not want to let others worry about security, backup etc? And have access to it everywhere I go. People used to say they have laptops to have their data with them - but why carry around a 2-3kg piece of metal when your data is available everywhere and on every device?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mike Riversdale8 January 2008 at 21:39

    Ditto ... but not everyone thinks that way - in fact, I'd say the vast majority don't ...

    ReplyDelete

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The Future As Seen By Me In 2010

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Well looky here, things one has scanned in eh. (ignore the photo, that's some guy that made some accounting software, not sure what became of him ;) MIKE RIVERSDALE is fuming. The expensive headphones he bought in Sydney three weeks ago have just died. His first reaction is not to randomly spill expletives into his coffee, but to use his iPhone to vent his frustration to his Twitter con- tacts, under the moniker Miramar Mike. "I will also put, 'What should I do?' It's a conversation. I'm reaching out to the people following me." The council predicts hand-held digital devices such as smartphones will rule the world in 2040. They already rule the life of Mr Riversdale, whose company WaveAdept helps businesses adapt - their computing sys- tems to allow staff to work from anywhere - and with anyone. In order of fre- equency, he uses his iPhone to tweet (1136 followers; 8363 tweets since joining), e-mail, make phone calls and use online services, such as checki

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