I've seen the future

I've seen the future! It happened the other day as I spent some time downtown with my pal Troy Hanford. That's a picture of Troy to the left. I love this shot of him because he looks so thoughtful. It's the perfect shot, because he really is. He spends a lot of time forecasting the future. He's pretty good at it. Troy has been talking about his set top box for some time. I didn't quite understand what he was talking about, but then again I think I'm not alone. A lot of folks have been skeptical of his device called the STREAMsurfer. But this week I stopped by his office at his urging to see it in action. I left saying, "I get it."

His set top box will take what you are looking at on your computer and connect it to your TV so you can watch it there. His slogan for the device is this, "It's time to watch Internet TV on TV." Initially I thought who would want this? Who would need it? I was also expecting the quality to be rather poor. But it wasn't. As to my initial questions, the answers are limitless. But here are a couple of answers.

1. Ex patriots from other countries who can view content from their homeland.

2. People who have to make choices with their budgets.

Let's start with immigrants from other countries who move here. There are tons of Internet channels out there just for them. Let's say you are from India for example, Troy showed me some content on the Internet that could keep you plugged in to what's going on in your homeland. The device gives you a way to watch it all on your TV. As everyone knows Video is a content King on the Internet.

How about the second point, budgets? Let's say you are a college student and cash strapped. You can't afford both high speed Internet access and cable, now you only need the high speed access. So much of the content is out there now that you can watch programs on your computer when ever you want. Would people actually do this? Think land line phones. They are disappearing. More and more people feel like they don't need both a land line and a cell phone, so they are just keeping the cell.

More programming is coming. In my business everyone seems to be talking about mobile technology. We'll be able to watch our favorite programs on our phone. Troy says that those programs will look better on your home television set. I also see it's value here in Washington, since no one is from here. I was thinking it might be nice to watch newscasts from Los Angeles where I grew up. With his device it can all be customized to fit your needs, and it's priced economically.

Spending time with Troy is great for me. I feel like he's helping me to understand where we are heading in cyber-space. I was talking to a friend recently who told me their daughter told her, "My Space is so yesterday nobody is on there anymore." Troy told me that "Mobile technology is yesterdays news." Without these people I wouldn't even know about yesterdays news, because I hadn't even gotten there yet. Now at least I can say I've looked into a crystal ball, even if it is not my own.