If we are to believe the pundits the new millennium will free us from the bondage of the cable. Yes, the wonderful world of wireless computing is on the way. Rather than having one PC that meets most of our computing needs we will have many devices that: download and read us our e-mail as we drive into work; notify the supermarket that our refrigerator is empty; and tell our doctor that our pacemaker is on the blink.
Take a problem, perhaps the worst of all household problems, forgetting to buy toilet roll. Well wireless technology could solve that. By connecting up your toilet roll holder to a giant shopping network, it could, for instance, notify the shopping authorities of your needs. So that next sheet of two-ply could trigger off a series of complex electronic transactions that result in the felling of a tree in Argentina.
In reality, of course, the wireless revolution is likely to create a greater change for mobile devices. So in this scenario, it's the lumberjack's onboard wireless computer that tells him that we only want 50 acres of rain forest today.
Last month, I was in Seattle, America's coffee capital and home of Microsoft (not a coincidence), at the Microsoft and Association of Computer Manufactures MobiCom mobile communications conference. Here, academics and scientists met to discuss the future of wireless computing in the next millennium. The future looked great for technologists and pretty grim for everybody else.
The papers presented included electronic dust, a US military-sponsored research project, that would create a cloud of particles that could be dropped from a plane, settle on an area, say a tank, and relay back the shape of the tank to headquarters.
An idea put forward by Microsoft was an indoor wireless network that could guide you to your next meeting or for that matter stop you from nipping out onto the fire escape for a quick smoke.
Then there was NeXus, which proposed a collection of indoor and outdoor networks that could guide you around a city or airport terminal. Handy yes, but do you really want somebody having an electronic record of your every move.
Of course, in the short term there are less invasive technologies. In the next two years we are likely to see the proliferation of cheap traffic management systems which will combine GPS or global positioning technology with maps and traffic information.
Personal digital assistants or electronic diaries that can notify your appointment that you will be 10 minutes late, and Internet access from everywhere.
Certainly, if the pundits are right, computers as we know them will begin to disappear from sight and will be replaced with devices that have specific uses. One thing is certain, though, the next couple of year's marketing machine will get rolling and phrases like "ubiquitous", "pervasive" and "invisible" computing will replace Internet, electronic commerce and Web-enabled. No doubt you've heard of Moors Law. That computer capacity doubles every 18 months. Well, I've always wanted my own law. Let's call it McKay's Law. I have observed that the number of computing devices doubles every 12 months.
When this whole information technology revolution started all I needed was a computer. Then I needed a computer and a personal digital assistant so that I could carry my appointments and contact numbers with me. Then I needed a laptop computer so that I could collect e-mail while on the road. Now I need a cell-phone because - well everybody else has one and how else am I going to find my friends in a busy pub.
When I started as a junior reporter, all I needed to cover a conference was a notebook and pen. Now I spend my time lugging a huge bag of electronic devices, in search of phone jacks and power sockets. Will wireless make my life simpler? I doubt it.
Like my Dad used to say when buying a car. Son, the fancier the model, the more gimmicks you get, the more there is to go wrong.
How right he was.
