● Ubiquitous Internet
Thanks to wireless hot spots, it's getting easier to be online no matter where you are, but we're still not there yet. Existing wireless hot spots needs to be upgraded to 802.11n as soon as it's available, since it offers not only faster wireless speed but also much wider coverage. And public venues such as airports and coffee shops need not only to offer wireless but also to do so at no cost to the user. Quite simply, people will prefer locations that offer free, fast wireless, and there's an obvious commercial advantage in attracting people.
● A surge for open source
There's good reason to hope that next year is a watershed in open source software, a period when computer users learn that there are realistic alternatives to fee-based software. Open source products such as OpenOffice.org (www.openoffice.org) have proven that free software can be not only as powerful as the big-name products from Microsoft, Corel, and others, but they can be entirely compatible with those products as well. Today, a computer user can outfit a machine with virtually any productivity application at no cost whatsoever. Open source can put the power of computing in more hands than ever before.
● A pause for thankfulness
Personal computer technology has advanced at a rate unimaginable when the first PCs were introduced to the public. A little over 20 years ago, a typical computer user was sitting next to a large, expensive 8088-based PC with 256k of RAM and two floppy drives, staring at a green or amber monochrome screen on which flickered a text-based application, probably a word processor or spreadsheet.
Now your typical computer user sits in front of a large, thin flat-panel monitor, multitasking, communicating with people around the world, shopping, or talking for free over the Internet. And all of this capability is powered by a machine that not long ago
So while a new year is for wishing and more gadgets are typically what gets a tech fan's attention, it's helpful to reflect upon how far we've come.
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