qdog, the trend is our friend. Don't worry about memory and battery. In 1990 I bought a 286 with 40 megabytes of hard disk, thinking that I only needed 20, but should get 40 so that I would never run out of memory if I lived 100 years. Now, several puters later, [buying at the rate of one a year these days], my RAM is 256 megabytes! Six times as much as my huge hard disk was. The hard disk is umpteen gigabytes and I can store mountains of stuff on It somewhere too.
Memory is getting really cheap and really small with huge capacity and really fast. There is 3D solid state memory now being lined up with a millimetre sized one being a monster.
Power consumption will be a worry of the past. Topping up a fuel cell at the gas station will be a few cents and will run a power hungry screen for hours if not days and weeks. The ASICs are shrinking, getting faster, cheaper, more efficient and needing less power. Look out for optics and quantum puting. Look at these virtual screens [thanks for the url Keith] which will need little power anyway:
mvis.com
Sony had wearable screens in Akihabara Feb98.
We need huge complexity with really simple operation. Like a Lexus controlled by a radio signal from the highway = fully automatic and all the 'driver' would need to do is get in, which can be challenging, say the destination, which might also be challenging, sit back and enjoy the ride. Okay, that's a while away, but already, the amazing complexity of a Lexus is controlled with very simple operations such as push the accelerator, stand on the brake and turn the steering wheel. Bloatware will be good.
Railway was a legislated monopoly in NZ. It was illegal to compete with it. Trucks were not allowed to deliver goods more than 60 miles or some such. Many monopolies are government provided and protected such at AT&T was.
The New Age of Computing is about complexity with simple operation, high quality, low cost, 3G and It. Disintermediation too! Intelligence at the periphery.
I'm sure you'll grow to love $ig Brother if not $ill Gates.
Mqurice |
