Thoughts about D, Surfurce and Other

It's been a couple interesting days on the web, we're seeing lots of acquisitions, like last.fm and photobucket. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs speaking together at D and really talking about the last 30 years and the future of computing. We've also seen the new Surface computing initiative from Mircosoft. It's generated a lot of great discussion as well as a lot thoughts about the future.

As I see it we're are truly in another special time with the internet, trying to make sense of our online offline selves, creating new understanding of how we interface with computers and how future devices will look. I definitely see mobility, natural interface and online/offline connectivity as the next stages of computing/the web. Part of me really sees an opportunity within the operating space. I think Microsoft has really lost touch with Vista, it's and operating system that doesn't do much except for creating a more visually pleasing UI. I really hope one of the big players, google or yahoo or someone takes on this challenge. The idea of hierarchy file systems and even the Desktop is sort of an old idea. If I asked you the first thing you did when you sat down on the computer, you don't go to your desktop, you open your email or go to your browser. I think the Desktop needs to morph into a new idea that gets away from useless icons. I see how widgets are starting to to that, but I just think they are part of the story. We really need someone to rethink the desktop and the issues with online/offline information, why is it that I have two copies of everything everywhere. I would love to just store all my information in the "cloud" of the internet and not store it in a hierarchy but just tag the information and throw it up there. I make my information either public or private and that's it. That sure would make it a lot easier than uploading, not to mention sharing with friends and family. Well, let's hope someone takes this one on.

Lastly, if you are passionate about the entire climate change issue, you need to watch this video by John Doerr at the TED conference. http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/128.