Online Spreadsheets

Reminds me of the lectures I did on DWA, where I gave a view of the web in the future. The need for us not to keep data in our local drives. The liberation from Utility Software. Why would you want to buy Office software when you can do similar things online for free, AND you dont have to worry (BIG assumption) of losing data. Gone will be the days where you will have to install applications in your machine. With the increase in bandwidth, the servers can handle all your processing. All you have to do is enter data.

Have we come full circle?

There was a time when people used the server to do all there work via a terminal. Then there was the revolution of the PC. Now we are going back to the days of terminals and servers.

So what will your "workstations" have? The only thing that you need is a web browser. No need of any software. No need of an OS. Just boot your machine into the browser.

So what is the use of all the workstations' processing? Well we can donate it for "distributed processing" tasks. We will need to develop algorithms where problems can be broken into packets of independent work, and then put together to complete the BIG problem.

Since "workstations" will only become a gateway for entering data, there will be more emphasis on developing it to become more efficient in this task. The input output devices will improve. Voice recognition will be something common. Other forms of input, emotion recognition, thought recognition? Voice output, graphical multimedia "forms" to deliver output in a more efficient manner. This will open up avenues for more people to use computers. Think of the illiterate, the differently abled people.

There will be great strides made in multi-media, for sophisticated interaction between the hardware and liveware. There will be a demand for UI Engineers, and Multimedia specialists. Funny isnt it, the more sophisticated the computer becomes, the more "human" related disciplines get involved in it's progress. This, for an area of science which was known to be dissociated with the human or the humane aspect.

When will we be able to just see the screen in our "minds", i.e. projected into our eyes, without it being projected into a source for our eyes to see. The visual output will connect directly with the nerves connecting the part of the brain which handles visual processing from signals received from the retina.

Enough for now... Later...