james kahn's scratchpad
a blog on technology – cloud computing, software and strategy

Apparently you’re supposed to get smarter as you get older.  I think I am, if only because I’m becoming quicker to accept new technology before its use is immediately obvious.  You only need to look at an old blog post of mine to gather this.

Some (not so) new technologies I was initially blasé about:

• RSS – back when all I read was Slashdot and a couple of other news sites, RSS seemed pointless.  Now, it would be hard to imagine how I keep on top of around 100 blogs that I read regularly without wasting reams of time visiting the sites and re-reading the same information.
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure – why use VDI when you can set up Citrix Presentation Server (XenApp) for lower TCO?  Turns out that if you don’t have CCIA level knowledge of Citrix, setting it up is a pain in the ass.  Maybe that’s why Citrix consulting companies that actually knew what they’re doing did so well.
• GMail – and other web applications.  Why use some boring web interface when I can have a rich client installed?  Turns out that the browser is just getting better and better, and Google Gears for offline access is just magic.

As it turns out, I’m being much less of a cynic, and much more of a dreamer when it comes to new technology. Just because technology isn’t totally game-changing, doesn’t mean that it isn’t awesome, and won’t change your life for the better in little ways if you use it.

Some things that I’m really excited about at the moment:

• Amazon S3 – super cheap online storage as a service.  Forget about building economies of scale in your own lower-tier storage infrastructure and use Amazon’s.
• Mobile devices – mostly the iPhone.  I’ve had a data-enabled smartphone for years, but none have changed the way I use the phone until the iPhone.  Work, play, fitness – I use it all the time.  I don’t think we’ve seen anything near the end of this yet.  Apple has found the recipe for the ultimate convergence device and others are starting to follow.
• Ruby on Rails.  Unbelievably flexible web-based application platform that makes rapid web site/web application building easy.  Twitter was built with this, and most of the new web startups are using it.  That’s got to tell you something.

These technologies have all happened in the last few years, and I think they’ll shape how we interact with technology over the next few.  I don’t think any will be majorly game changing directly.  They’ll affect the industry in more subtle ways.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 17th, 2009 at 9:53 pm and is filed under tech. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.