I agree to some extent, but I think the direction is going to be wireless--cell phones and PDAs are becoming the same thing, and soon they will be much sleaker and lighter and more convenient---and soon, I think if you want to own a cell phone it will have to be a PDA.

So here is my proficy:

The important change in computing will be computers that can sense your context in a reasonable way. Beacon systems, small cameras with good image processing, and efficient networking (wireless everywhere) will be established first. The beacon systems already exist in a pretty good way, because cell phone tower triangulation combined with wireless networks help establish a relatively accurate model. However, as companies begin to latch onto the idea, and extra bits get passed to your network saying "you are near here, we will give you free network access if you look at this add later on, or give us some informatio about what you bought yesterday---we loves are marketing information for free." This will allow you to pass off your information through their wireless network (connected to a more traditional network) as well as recieve updates---i.e. all that stuff you mentioned (your media, et al).


Context aware systems are HOTT in the small wearable computer geek community -- well atleast among the serious reserachers they all recognize that context aware systems are cool and important.


I'm working on some stuff with my wireless wearable computer at the lab that has a camera, a beacon system throughout the building, as well as GPS and an intersense system (i.e. it sense your orientation). The voice command system works pretty good, and I think now all I need to do is get things working in a better system than one that is using a million perl scripts :-) Also, one of my friends just wrote this sweet hack that can run on them, he has a 3D game world that can interface with the wearables, so while you move around the world (thanks to all the gadgetry) you move around in the 3D wearable world. A cool new feature he added to this was that the textures of surfaces can be Mozilla browsers -- thats right, you can "click" on the wall (or shoot it or however you are interfacing with your 3D world) and browse the web, and you can view multiple ones at a time if you back up in yoru room and see the two walls, ceiling, and floor -- each being a different browser window with different web page -- imagine cool flash animation bouncing between browsers, "pop up" ads can take on a whole new form!

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oh, p.s. you can take a cab almost the entire length of manhatten and you can maintain a wireless connection almost the whole time! And even out here in amherst I can almost always find two networks within a mile of each other -- and they aren't even _that_ popular yet! If you have it, and you know how to use it, wireless already is what is popular -- now it is just some simple interface work to put all the things I like under one roof---but the _only_ reason I can do that is because everything I have is open sourced, if it was closed, HELL, I don't think i could stand a chance of making use of a damn thing I have software wise!

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I believe there are several related, but still different issues here. One is wireless, which allows for portable and on-the-go applications.
The second is context aware applications, which were really hyped up three years ago, but never went anywhere because of their relatively low value for the consumers.
And the third one is wearables that enable even more autonomous user behavior than, e.g. portable devices.

Somewhere in this space lies the sweet spot for useful applications. I think context aware apps have a chance when mapped on social networks, e.g. something like "location-based LJ friends", or a Friendster-like dating network associated with certain places, and etc. Otherwise you end up loosing you privacy and expose yourself to more ads/spam.
When I said "LJ went open" I meant they opened access (dropped codes) to their services, thus allowing for unlimited influx of virtual "passers-by".

It would be a cool 3D virtual world game to kill as many pop up ads as possible ;)

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очень рада, что Вы вернулись.
Пожалуйста, не уходите.

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спасибо.
постараюсь вести себя более цивилизованно :)

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That all seems a bit much