Geek's Talk VI: The Disappearing Computer

Will we be surrounded by computers by 2010? Yes (according to Abang Bil Pintu Pagar @ Bill Gates kita), but we wont know it. In the very near future - computer will be around us, unnoticed. A freaking view? too futuristic ? nooooppppp, guys - - it is around us now. Where, ?- your handphone, your microwave, your PDA, your ASTRO decoder... bla bla bla...

A few years from now, the average home entertainment system might not look much different than it does today. But it will probably have an Internet connection that enables it to download and play digital music and video, display album artwork and song titles on the television, and even interrupt your listening if an important message arrives. It will have a central processor, disk storage, graphics hardware and some kind of intuitive monitor- as we have now with typical computer. Add a wireless mouse and keyboard, and this home entertainment system will start looking a lot like a personal computer. Will people buy and use these systems in large numbers? Absolutely. Will they think of them as computers? Probably not (even we do not it is eventually a computer - just in another form of not-so-called computer.

iPhone (lagi ...) ~ kecil, dan senang hilang :-)
(sesuai la dgn konsep "the dissapearing computer" * opps it is not what i meant)

This scenario is in sharp contrast to the computers of just a few years ago--back in the pre-Internet age--which were still mostly passive appliances that sat in the corner of the living room ( i would rather to say - it is a symbol of luxury or a modern society) - nobody was allowed to touch them! . Back then, people used their PCs for little more than writing letters and documents, playing games or managing office works. As a communications tool they were largely ineffective, except for a few primitive e-mail, and bulletin-board. The PC had not yet become essential to most peoples lives--not in the sense that the television, telephone or car now are.

Too futuristic? ... not really. It is coming now!

But today we are in the early years of a truly digital decade, in which the intelligence of the PC is finding its way into all kinds of devices, transforming them from passive (and big bulky) appliances into far more significant (cute and small) tools for our daily chores. Even many of us - will be devastated when their pc is having problem or there is no internet connection. I admit i'm having that problem as well. As computers are becoming smaller, more powerful, less power-hungry and far less expensive (imagine - the first pc (yg bagak bagai) i had bought in year 1998 - cost me RM 6000 - but now with the same ammount i can have a high end laptop - lagi ringan, takde la terkehel tulang bahu mengangkat CPU n monitor tu). Now, making it easier to build computing power and connectivity into everyday devices. The new genre of society now has been exposed with these technologies - and i'm careful to say that we are too dependent to them (our computer), and all electronic devices.

Komputer zaman dulu-dulu (sanggup beli tak ?)

All this will lead to a fundamental change in the way we perceive computers. Using one will become like using electricity when you turn on a light. Computers, like electricity, will play a role in almost everything you do, but computing itself will no longer be a typical experience. We will be focused on what we can do with computers, not on the devices themselves. They will be all around us, essential to almost every part of our lives, but they will effectively have "disappeared" . Woow, it sounds too good to be true! Lepas ni, kalau org tanya mana komputer kau ... tunjuk je hand phone korang ye ... :-). Cakap je - the disappearing computer.