I just created a /. account a few days ago, and today, I was moderated for the first time. I got a +1 along with an 'Insightful' modifier. If you're interested, here's the comment I left. I plan on being on /. a lot now.

Thanks to Evan Langinger, I just discovered Writely, an amazing peice of web based software used to create, store and share documents over the internet. There are lots of different paradigms surfacing right now, and I'm wondering which one everybody thinks will take the cake, whether it's the web based paradigm exemplified by companies and products such as Google and Writely. Nevermind, I just remembered Hegels dialectic. I think that smaller devices, such as smart phones which can already access the internet will continue to become more and more advanced and will eventually be able to load their entire (smaller than desktop) operating systems from the internet and everybody will be able to load their lives onto such a device: their address books, important documents. And the bluetooth capabilities of such devices mean that information would be instantly transferable from one device to another, or from a presentation based device (such as a projector). The only things I don't see having a place in this new system are complicated programs for creating content (3ds, Photoshop, Final Cut Pro). But maybe there will be a gap between normal computing devices for the consumer, who has no need to create such content, and professional computers that will have that ability. And honestly, everything really heavy duty that I can think of has to do with graphics. I believe that compilers could be used over the web, html pages are just text, word documents will become Open Document Files, which is already an xml based format, perfect for transport over the internet. And most importantly, I see all this happening in the next decade.

Exciting

Test Document

So this is what an online text editor looks like. I think that this is the future. We'll have a ton of completely inexpensive dumb terminals whose only basic functionality is to connect to the internet and load an operating system from a server. The necessary speed is almost here, and pretty soon all but some of the most intense functionality will be able to be loaded remotely, like this. It would be pretty easy to put OpenOffice on the internet, and then just have people load and use it from there. If people only stored on their hard drives the actual files they use (and even that might be unecessary), and loaded all of their programs remotely, then for the casual user, a labtop (what's the point in having a desktop computer if all you're doing is connecting to the internet?) could be brought down in price to $100 or less without having to sacrifice computer power.

Now, I'm going to invite Evan to join me on this document just to test that feature out. Enjoy Evan. I hope you used your gmail address to set up your account here 'cause that's where I'm sending this.

Work is... interesting. I enjoy being on computers all day, but I miss the lack of freedom. Fortunately I've been getting a lot done. You can check it out here, if you'd like. I'd be interested to hear anybodys feedback. I like this job, although I'm looking more forward to getting paid than anything else.

Today I started researching VoIP, which for the non-nerds out there stands for Voice over Internet Protocol and basically is a method of talking (as opposed to typing) with people over the internet. It's a pretty great technology, implemented incredibly well in GoogleTalk. I also found out that AIM and GoogleTalk are going to be interoperable (and it only cost Google $1,000,000,000). GoogleTalk will also be coming out with an updated version that supports buddy icons (and possibly emoticons?). We'll just have to wait and see, but I'm excited. MSN is also buying Yahoo Messenger, and it looks like battle lines are being drawn in the IM wars. I know which side I'm on. Do you?

My first blog test. I'm typing this from within Picassa, Google's free picture editing software. There's a button on the bottom which says 'BlogThis.' I clicked this button, it asked me how to align this picture, and then gave me the space to type this message. Let's see if it works.

OK, official first post:
I've spent the past few hours researching the consumer electronics show (CES) held every year in Las Vegas the 2nd week in January. I feel so lucky to be a nerd when technology is developing to the point where it's able to do some amazing things. I also feel incredibly underpriveleged in that I can't afford any of it. To get an invitation to CES, you need to be a part of the technology/developer industry. This blog is going to be the chronicle of how I accomplish that in one year.

Step 1: Get a job in some sort of technical field
Step 2: Learn as much as you can about everything you can

Step 1 is already done. I start work on Monday as a webmaster and system administrator for Continental Art Supplies.

Step 2, I invite you to join me for. I love working with people as dedicated to technology as I am. I want to work with people as dedicated to technology as I am. If you're such a person, let's do this together.

For now, that's it, but I'll update with whatever my next project is soon, as well as how the first day on the job goes.