Technology

Portability, Culture, and Mobile Technology

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I commute on a train to work every weekday, and it's often a festival of portable devices.  I often have my DS or my laptop.  I see plenty of Smartphones, iPads, and of course other laptops and notebooks.  There's the usual gaming devices (though it seems like most of the gaming I see is on phones and tablets as of late).

In my household, most everyone has laptops  – and among my friends laptops are becoming more common over time.  Netbooks are popular among many people I know, low-cost and portable.

It doesn't matter if it's work or if it's personal, portable is where it's at for geeks and progeeks.

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Technology and Dream Jobs

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There is almost nothing I do in my life or my career that has not been improved by modern technology, or made possible by it.  I have taken online training and researched careers, published books and gotten job advice, run websites and found work.  Modern technology is why I'm where I am now.

In fact, as I look around, the IT age has made it far, far easier to live our dreams.  You can publish your novel via an online service and get it out to the world.  You can take classes online.  You can publish a web comic.  You can find a new job.

So why is it so hard for many of us to find the careers we want, to be happy, to find integrated lives of professionalism and unrepentant geekitude?

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Is Everything an App?

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iPhone Apps.  Android Apps.  Google TV will have Apps.  It seems everything is becoming an App.

Now I'm all for some interesting slang, but I think what we're seeing is something deeper here.

An "App" of course is short for Application, such as a Word Processor, only it seems the term is broadening.  You can turn your book into an App, you can make an App that's a game, you can make an App that interfaces with Social Media services.  It seems that the "App" really is a term for "something specific you do on a piece of technology."

I think this is great because it actually brings out an important truth about our media and our technologies – they're about doing things and getting information.  It's all Apps.

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