From the Editor

Taking Tech to Work

Tom Inglesby, editor
tom@editor7.com

Are you of the Connected Generation? Do you pilot a Palm around the job site? Does your business card have "I pack an iPaq" on it?

Technology comes in many sizes and shapes these days. As one who has been accused, rightly, of putting too much money into tech toys, I have seen and carried my share of these wonders. But the current fad — convergence — is still beyond me.

A couple of decades ago, I was looked at strangely because I carried a pager. That was my umbilical cord, connecting me to an answering service that picked up my telephone when I was out. Note I say "answering service." Live people answering the telephone! What will they think of next?

We've come a long way since then. Now when you call me and I'm not in, the call bounces from the office phone to my cell phone — which I never have turned on — and then to the voice mail system where you can leave a message of whatever length you want. When you hang up, the system pages me so I turn on the cell phone and pick up the message. Since cell phones are ubiquitous and most have long ago waived long distance and roaming charges, and pagers are nationwide if not international, that umbilical cord is mighty long.

So is the one that ties through the Internet. E-mail catches me anywhere on the planet once I log on to my server through the nearest telephone line and my laptop. I carry a notebook (paper) with hundreds of toll-free access numbers for getting through to that inbox. But the catch is, I have to proactively "go get the mail."

Now convergence threatens to end that. One-unit telecommunications is here: cell phone with e-mail. If the phone is on, the e-mail and calls come through equally well. One of our exchange students, a girl from Finland — home of Nokia cell phones — absolutely had to have a full-featured (Nokia, of course) cell phone within days of arriving in this country. She regularly gets e-mail from her parents in Helsinki on that phone; much less expensive than long distance, faster than postal mail, and no delay while waiting for her to dial up and log on. The next step, I guess, is chat rooms on cell phones. Already the high school prohibits cell phones from being on during class — every student has at least one with them at all times.

The wireless PDA — personal digital assistant — that combines the cell phone, e-mail send and receive functions, computerized date book, and, with the right add-ons, video conferencing, MP3 music player, and digital camera in a package with color screen and tiny keyboard is just around the corner. The "on the bleeding edge" tech types are running around with them out here in the Silicon Valley, clogging up the airwaves.

Software companies are porting their wares to these "Super Palms" and you can get most of the functionality of your desktop computer on one. Need a takeoff list in the field? No problem, you can order a set over the Internet, download them on your Palm, and upload the results to the server in your office. Time and attendance? Project management? CAD drawings? All available.

What Dick Tracy's author imagined, people think of as common today. The communicator that Star Trek introduced is anticipated next week or next month. Will we ever be "away from the phone" again? Makes you want to buy stock in the Eveready Bunny.

So you do have one of these modern day miracles, right?

No?

Don't worry, neither do I. But my wife just bought one and....