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his must be the fastest post i’ve written so far. And with that I mean that I have never blogged at this velocity. As I’m writing this I’m flying through the sleeping landscape of Belgium , Its Six am , i’m on the train to Antwerp and I have a new best friend ! With that I mean my UMTS Data-card that is snugly sitting in the PCMCIA slot of my laptop. Man .. that is one nice peace of kit. Connectivity is pretty good, sliding up and down in between UMTS and classic GPRS, but still enough to do the trick.
If I look back only a few years ago, I would have only dreamed of technology like this. Ever since my first smart phone i’ve been dreaming of ‘constant connectivity’ The ability to have access to the net no matter where. These last few months that dream has become a reality more and more. If I look at the evolution of portable technology in my life it has been quite a ride. Starting out with a simple PDA, a smart phone, then going to a smart phone with GPRS and lately the portability of my ASUS EEEpc with wifi connectivity .. there are not that many places where I cannot get online. If its not for my cellphone or Ipod picking up some stray wifi (which is pretty abundant these days) I can use my EEEpc or in this case my work laptop with the UMTS data card. ( or as a client of mine calls it : "the nerd card"
How has that changed the way I use technology in my life ? Well for one : I have lost the concept of "waiting". If I need to "wait" for something these days i’ve got plenty of ways to keep me entertained. Watch a movie on the Ipod ? Type something on the Asus ? Chat with buddies over MSN ? Where it used to be something that was reserved for doing at home ? I now have that connectivity everywhere. Things like commutes, train rides, for me they are opportunities to consume content (like listening to podcasts and stuff) to "contribute to the web" when I’m writing an article or doing something productive, or to "tap into the grid" and hook up with the virtual crowd and the powers they bring
But the social impact is even more profound. With the new job and the "open firewall policy" I’m constantly connected to my peers in Cyberspace. A nicely stacked Pidgin contact list (with experts on a variety of subjects spread all over the world) Constant access to Gmail and web based applications, A fair amount of memberships on forums and of course : The Twitter posse. All of them have made me a citizen of the web. Nothing new there, but "being part of cyberspace" and the social entourage I have there used to be something I could only do when I was at home. These last few months I have felt that "presence" creep into my everyday life. No matter where I am , an IP address is never far away. And with that connectivity to the net comes the power the web has in store for me.
It makes me laugh, especially when you look at the "mega mindy incident" but in many ways it IS like being a little bit of a superhero. There is this nerdy guy sitting on the far side of the table, doesn’t look very special. But when he whacks in his UMTS card he turns into this virtual superhero with an enormous amount of knowledge and power at his fingertips. Its like becoming a virtual powerranger… or just a bigger nerd 🙂