Getting Smaller, Smarter, and Faster

by John Fleming

 

It was 9:30 a.m. I had been working on my computer since 6:00. I knew it was time for the office to be open in Mexico, so I brought up my MSN Messenger. With it I can talk to my office manager, Romeo, without using a phone. It’s done through a two-way Broadband dish. We talk several times a day and have saved lots of money in phone bills since we installed this program.

I also have a new software that allows me to have access to Romeo’s computer. From Tucson I can manipulate his mouse, type on his keyboard, and print on his printer. I did this last night when he was in the middle of a job, and he pleaded with me to give control back to him so he could finish his project.

For some reason Romeo didn’t turn on the computer when he got to the office this morning.

I called the office, but Romeo was at the bank. He spends a good portion of the day standing in line there. Fortunately I thought I could reach him through the technological miracle of his cell phone. Unfortunately it was out of gasoline. (It costs over 50 cents a minute.)

I asked our printer Everardo to turn on (apagar) the network dish and the computer. He said he did, but I was still disconnected.

At 10:00 Romeo called me and asked why I had told Everardo to turn off the computer.

Then I realized that I had used the word for turn off, apagar, instead of turn on. The dictionary says encender means turn on, as lights or stove, but it sounds as if I’m setting the computer on fire. Maybe I am.

I asked Romeo to encender the computer and leave it on all the time, day and night, 7 days a week. “Don’t ever turn it off,” I said. An hour later it was still not on. Do I have a language problem, or what? Could it be that encender is the wrong word. Maybe I told him to burn down the office.

 

That’s the real world. Now for my utopian vision.

 

The computer is on, the printer is loaded with paper, PC Anywhere is installed and waiting to go. Now I take control of Romeo’s computer in Puerto Peñasco with my Tucson computer. I move files; I install software on his computer; I service and repair it while he sleeps.

I bring up Corel Draw on the office computer and give Everardo a training session. He sits there, enthralled by the dexterity of my fingers and my mind. I use a text box on the screen to give him directions (if I can remember the right words in Spanish). Then I turn the controls over to him and watch him do the exercise. It’s all remote control.

 

This remote control software can be loaded into a portable computer that I take with me when I travel. All my files and software can be accessed from anywhere in the world. At some point the portable computer and the cellular phone will become the same device. This is true already in many places.

 

Getting Smaller

There are over 1 billion (1,000,000,000) cell phones in use in the world today. Only about 150 million (150,000,000) of them are in the U.S. The United States is slipping behind in the cellular phone business. High-speed phone systems are developing rapidly in Japan, Finland, France, Sweden, and other European and Asian countries. Since most of them don’t have the large numbers of telephone lines that we are so dependent upon in the U.S., the need for alternative high-speed communication has been more urgent and the technology has developed more rapidly.

A Smart Phone is one on which one can download data and view Web sites. A Super Phone is an equal mix of computer and communicator. It allows the user to

• organize information
• use e-mail
• watch videos

For example, on their cellular phones, users in Asia and Scandinavia can

• participate in 4-way video conferencing
• watch movie clips
• check out weather data

In Sweden, users can

• book airline flights
• send and receive multi-media postcards
• perform banking transactions

In South Korea, they can

• exchange video e-mail
• watch 50 channels of TV programs, cartoons, & films
• find the geographical coordinates of a location (Global Positioning System)
• cash their paychecks

With some of these phones children can play preloaded video games or download Internet games. At the same time their parents can be constantly in touch with them and always know where they are (which may not be an advantage in the kids’ minds). Voice dialing and optional digital camera are other features available on some. Certain phones can be worn around the neck or as wrist watches to avoid losing them.

While Europeans and Asians are walking down the streets hooked up to the Internet and enjoying all these high-tech advantages, we in the U.S. are battling over wireless technology standards. Cellular phones roar throughout the world, but snore in the United States.