Last time we saw hardware turning somewhat towards mobile phones, with PCs still firmly entrenched. Today we will look at future of non hardware based things to come. Increasingly, things are bought ready programmed and we have little influence over what we have bought or use, just initial choice of supplier and package. So we are being gently pushed down pre-defined paths, with conforming to compatibility being paramount, especially as current market is essentially split between Google and Microsoft. Here Google will try to offer all options to all men purely by being online to them, as opposed to Microsoft’s tendency to tie user to their PC for Word Processing/Office/Email applications and get their frills on net. Much as most would privately relish a Google triumph, this is Microsoft after all, who have seen off a good number of contenders for crown, and also generally speaking we are all more comfortable with net for net and PC for rest; it is what we have grown up with, plus possibly there is an underlying fear that net does not reek of “permanence” as it was historically not so long back “down” as much as it was up, and is somewhat dependant on transient factors, not least electricity in an ageing, creaking grid network, surviving in an epoch of sophisticated terrorism. (Personally I think our increasing reliance on all things electrically based, with no alternative parallel backup manual systems is a t least worrying and at worst frightening.) Anyway, I think Microsoft will be major monopoly for many a day yet, with a new search evolving with Longhorn and as in any event “devil that we know”.

On another tack, I recently visited Ireland, where my mobile phone supplier does not function! News to me, and news relayed via texts from other suppliers who do work there almost as soon as I stepped off ferry. “ Welcome to Ireland we are now looking after you” kind of thing. One even had temerity to phone me and ask if I wanted to upgrade to their network as mine did not work there. A little startling to think you are targeted so quickly, automatically. So project this further if you will, as ID cards, and like containing DNA, Iris details and fingerprints, plus bank balances and credit card balances become prevalent as money ceases to be in tandem. You walk down street, and a CCTV recognises you via facial and retinal scan correlation and activates a speaker/plasma display which says “hi Malcolm, are you interested in ………. Today?” It will know your available credit, your credit rating , preferences, your season of year typical buys. It will have countless data via surveys you filled in to get freebies. It will in short target you with your weaknesses knowing money is there. Similarly actually pick up any displayed article and DNA or fingerprint technology will trigger a similar chain of events and questions merely by having touched them. All this is delivered to your door with minimal fuss, and item may even tell you when it needs replacing, and on command replace itself via home online system hooked into intelligent fridge, washing machine, cooker, and freezers and conversing 24/7 with net and relevant suppliers and re suppliers. Your home system constantly monitors stock and varies purchases according o season and personal preferences learned ad hoc from its inception, much as your blue DVD system learned your viewing preferences and your commercial TV channels learned to tune their adverts specifically to be in sync with your personal psyche, style and tastes. All choice is made to be as minimal as possible, all whim taken away everything is so SIMPLE. There will be no problem getting what you want, when you want it, almost instantaneously, and your every internet search will be analysed and filed for finer tuning into your underlying psychological profile. given this weight of mundane tasks being effortlessly achieved in a sort of background low profile mode, and given most will effectively be “working from home” there may well be a tendency to introversion, an almost hermit-like existance, where communication is by and large electronic and not in person, more “in camera”. We see start of this in endemic mobile phone use by our youth who are losing their grasp of spelling and personal contact via texting, and an almost addictive usage of phones where once we talked face to face. This incidentally stimulates rudeness and abuse and easily causes offence where none is intended, as electrons flow and actual physical face to face meetings with all their emotive vision hearing touch and smell are slowly but surely eroded and recede, and with it human contact is so much poorer. As I say this all assumes an uninterrupted power source which can Answer increasingly heavier and heavier demand with absolutely no blips. Is this achievable, is this stable, is this possible? Much as our supermarkets now are eviscerating smaller shops and garages, so they will become sole silent suppliers to your door via global net,( or not so silent suppliers should you venture past your front portal) . Holidays may even become a matter of “plugging in” to distant locations via a sensual virtual link, sort of web cam with touch and emotion, then……no more travelling, packing, flying, ferrying, just dreaming awake with subliminal time outs for ordering. We are leaving an age of choice and reason and opinions to go to an era of facile effortless indulgence and contentment at expense of our free will being subjugated to appeasing convenient, line of minimal effort. Every day that passes it is easier to spend and receive, easier to indulge and then discard. It is also becoming increasingly hard to manage and function without a mobile, a laptop, a PC and a Net; and more expensive to buck system and “do it manually”. Soon there will be no money, no bartering, no MANUALLY. Soon it will all be credit and online and AUTOMATICALLY . Who is to say which is preferable, but there is little doubt which way it will go. Ask your computers, they will tell you if you don’t believe me; soon we will be more comfortable talking to our computer than to each other. Apparently even now users in Internet cafes and Universities use SAME computer in a room of many, giving choice, because they TRUST that one, they are happy it worked for them before; plus your computer never lies to you or annoys you or answers you back, it just does what you say, for now.

When it comes to dating, it seems everyone thinks they’re expert to turn to for advice. Whether it’s your friends or your lovable aunts who constantly inquire about your love life, everyone has a dating tip for you. But we all know what to do on a date, don’t we? Always have a smile, listen attentively, be yourself, have fun, and list goes on. So, if everyone knows tips for successful dating, then why do we go through so much trouble and anxiety about first dates? Maybe it’s because there is no set standard of rules anymore.

Once upon a time, chivalry was norm. Nowadays, some women get offended when door is held open or their seat is pulled out for them. Consequently, many single people are at a loss when it comes to knowing what to do and when to do it. And while there may not be an ultimate list of shoulds and should nots, there are still some common dating tips that everyone can agree on.