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This is my personal blog and anything I write here in no way reflects the opinion of Cisco Systems, my employer. If it does, it is only by pure coincidence :) Nothing here constitutes investment advice either, so you can't sue me.
LicenseFun Stuff
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My 5 Most Exciting Technologies of 2010A couple of glasses of vino on a Sunday night and I got to thinking about what I believe will be the technologies that are going to reshape the world in 2010. After a stagnant year or two in there are some really killer things on the horizon right now.
Choice, the Placebo Effect, and Quantum SuperpositionI've been fascinated by quantum physics since I was a kid, learning about how reality works just really pushes my buttons for some reason. Or, should I say, learning about how little scientists know about how reality really works intrigues me.
iPhones - social computersI finally got an iPhone recently and I'm a huge fan, I'm already tinkering with writing some apps. It's a fantastic piece of engineering, really a work of art in the way they put the whole experience together, AT&T issues aside. It's inspired me to consider some new applications that I hadn't thought of yet. But that's not the point of this post. Ever since I got it, I realized that I really didn't need my laptop anymore 75% of the time. Most of the stuff I wanted to do on the road I could do from my phone now. Last time I traveled I didn't even pack my laptop, and I didn't miss it once. Most of my computer usage when I travel is pretty lightweight, and having my computer in my pocket has really made my technology usage more spontaneous and fun. My social network usage has skyrocketed due to the fact that I can whip my phone out of my pocket and be recording a thought and done with it in about 30 seconds. Grabbing your phone and staring at it for a bit is socially acceptable, at least where I've lived, and so now using the computer for bit is also socially acceptable now. My computer usage patterns have changed. I'm a lot more hesitant to bust out a laptop, fire it up, wait for it to load, fire up a browser, and go to the site I want to use when I'm in the middle of a conversation than I am to get out my phone. I can pull out the phone and use it for a few seconds while not even leaving a conversation. That was a huge revelation to me, I'm still kind of digesting it and its implications for software. Real-Time Smackdown: Twitter vs. FacebookThis is interesting. I think Facebook just killed Twitter by buying FriendFeed. I use Facebook as a private outlet. No business contacts, just friends and family. I use Twitter (@jasonkolb) as my public outlet: professional contacts, people I meet via my blog, etc. It's nice having that separation, but I know that Facebook is trying to be Twitter Turbo, and I hope they don't kill the "private" side in the process. I actually like FriendFeed, and I have an account that I never use except thru Twitter. FriendFeed is like Twitter but better, with threaded comments, no stupid 140 character limit, etc. The ONLY reason I use Twitter primarily instead of FriendFeed is the user base. That's the ONLY thing it has going for it over FriendFeed. The only leg up Twitter has is the buzz. It sure seems like Facebook just neutralized that bit, we shall see. Facebook is FAR bigger in the non-techie crowd that *I* know. Most people hear what Twitter is and aren't very interested, most people aren't as prone to blab about stuff as I am. I can't wait to see how this integration works: will Facebook cripple the Twitter to FriendFeed integration? Will my Facebook posts now flow into FriendFeed? I don't see any way Facebook lets FriendFeed tear people away from its site (where it can place ads) in favor of fat clients. This can only mean that FriendFeed as it exists today will be neutered in some form to push people to the Web client, I'm dying to see how they maintain their eyeball count.
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