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visorcentral.com >> Stories >> Commentary
The PC is Dead
Wed Feb 14, 2001 - 10:28 AM EST - By Alan Graham
Let's Take a Trip

Years before the introduction of the DVD, MP3 or the media rich Internet we know today, I took a Mac and a touch screen monitor and installed them into a wall of my house. I then built a program in Macromedia Director that allowed me to play CD's in any room and even control lighting. Am I a freakin geek or what?

Two years later Oracle released the first version of the n|c (Network Computer). At the time, many mocked Ellison's vision of having a server in each home as crazy. As crazy as Ellison may be, he was crazy like a fox about this concept. The idea was that everyone would have a server in their basement that handled all of their media and Internet needs in any room. I saw it as a masterful prediction of the future, and when the n|c died (or went into hibernation), I felt it was a shame. Granted it had some serious limitations. No one wants to run CPU intensive applications like Photoshop over a network. However, like the Newton, it had the dubious distinction of being way ahead of its time.

It's Time Has Come [Whoosh - Back to the Present]

Today I run a server in my house that provides wireless net access, wireless music and wireless video to almost every room (no video in the bathroom - yet). I use it as a central point of access for all my digital needs. The problem however is that I have no way to control my server without a terminal or computer. I want to check my e-mail, need a terminal. I want to play an MP3, need a terminal. I want to play a DVD, again need a terminal. All of them cumbersome and expensive. Also, when I leave the house with my Visor and wireless modem, I am connected to the world around me, but I am disconnected from my world.

What the Visor represents to our future, is a Brain that connects us to our inner and outer world.

The Man With Two Brains >>
 

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