The Portable Life
Nov. 15th, 2006 02:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dsrtaoI have just noted that it is rare, and I think will become increasingly rare, for me to use any software which is not available either as a Web app or as command-line UNIX software. In the first case, I just need a username and password to access My Stuff from anywhere. In the second case, I have ssh and screen available on my personal server to give me access from anywhere. The notable exceptions:
- visual media creation and editing. You still can't depend on enough bandwidth, nor are the remote tools good enough, to run GIMP over the Net. The file sizes are big, the response times critical. A vector illustration program might work well enough to be an AJAXish app, though.
- access to local removable storage devices. You can't usefully burn a CD or a DVD over the Net, although if you've preloaded a disc, you can do it... but then you have to wait for a tape monkey in your machine room to FedEx it to you. Not quite immediate gratification. I wonder if there's a burn-yer-disc web service out there? Send them an ISO and get back an overnighted disc. Good for sending stuff to family, micro-runs for garage bands...
Eventually, I want my PDA to be a box in my backpack or in my pocket that handles local computing, storage, and transceiving, with a set of HUD glasses at a nice high resolution (180 pixels per degree of view sounds about right),
earphones with HRTF precalculated for my ears, and some sort of virtual keyboard. Or a real one. Or a GigE connection to my brain, as long as I've got a sufficiently good and paranoid firewall.
- visual media creation and editing. You still can't depend on enough bandwidth, nor are the remote tools good enough, to run GIMP over the Net. The file sizes are big, the response times critical. A vector illustration program might work well enough to be an AJAXish app, though.
- access to local removable storage devices. You can't usefully burn a CD or a DVD over the Net, although if you've preloaded a disc, you can do it... but then you have to wait for a tape monkey in your machine room to FedEx it to you. Not quite immediate gratification. I wonder if there's a burn-yer-disc web service out there? Send them an ISO and get back an overnighted disc. Good for sending stuff to family, micro-runs for garage bands...
Eventually, I want my PDA to be a box in my backpack or in my pocket that handles local computing, storage, and transceiving, with a set of HUD glasses at a nice high resolution (180 pixels per degree of view sounds about right),
earphones with HRTF precalculated for my ears, and some sort of virtual keyboard. Or a real one. Or a GigE connection to my brain, as long as I've got a sufficiently good and paranoid firewall.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-15 07:40 pm (UTC)#2: Removable storage is dead. I can't remember the last time I used a CD that wasn't for backups. DVDs are dying as online distribution rises; they only hang on (IMO) because the older generation likes to "own" things. Both of the uses you mention would be irrelevant if everyone were as connected as you suggest. ;) Storage prices will continue to plumment, such that MegaDataStore can afford to store all 1EB of your data essentially for free (or, to train their ad filters on).
This of course makes the real issues coverage and uptime. If your life is not local, then going in a tunnel means your brain shuts off, and that's not good. Your 'computer' is nothing without the network.
Scott was right.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-15 08:03 pm (UTC)More to the point, Charlie Stross was right (cf. Accelerando, in which the protagonist's external brain is stolen).
I use CDs to store MP3s for my commute. But if I had superwirelessterminal, I probably wouldn't.
Don't count DVDs as dead: they deliver sufficient quality and quantity at a low enough cost that I expect to see them as the default commercial video (long form) delivery method for a whole decade more.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-15 08:29 pm (UTC)[blink] Oh, *you're* the person who hasn't bought an iPod yet. ;) Of course I shortly expect broadcast music (from your customized radio station, a la Pandora or the equivalent, over IP to your phone/transceiver) to overtake stored music soon. Apple was onto the right thing with iTunes sharing, but then backed away from the truly open distribution model that seems to be the natural destination of current trends.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-15 08:46 pm (UTC)CD/MP3 discman, with remote, from Panasonic, with 60 hours of battery life
per pair of AAs (rechargeable): $30
iPod shuffle: $80. Holds ~1.4 CDs worth of music. Smaller. Hard to pick up a pair of batteries for it when you're not near a computer. Hard to swap in another CD when you're bored with those 7 hours of music.
Also: the car has a CD/MP3 player. Eliz bought a CD/MP3 boombox for $30 for her sewing room. The rental car came with a CD/MP3 player. Almost all my computers have CD drives. (Not the Netwinder. Not some embedded devices.)
(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-17 09:24 pm (UTC)I agree, but with an added note: This is primarily due to corporate shortsightedness and greed. If there had been a single standard for blue-light optical storage, as opposed to the standards war that is currently going on, I would expect the prices on those to drop fast enough to replace DVDs within 2-5 years. As is, it will take much longer.