RickInOz

Despite the various woes and troubles around the world this is a good time to be alive. We are enjoying a golden age of technological developments with a pace rivalling the industrial revolution. Enormous resources are being invested in improving existing products, taking tangents and turning imagination into reality. Gene Roddenberry deserves much credit for having the foresight to introduce possibilities into the public conciousness. Back in the 60s he had already conceptualised handheld computers, wireless communication, automatic doors, medical scanners and space habitation … all of which are now taken for granted. How long before we meet his other dreams of interstellar travel, matter-energy transport and the bending of space-time. In the meantime, the nerd can revel in available products. And this nerd is taking pleasure from his.

We have a comprehensive wireless network within the house. A total of 16 devices link into this network and many of them are accessible to others. The printer, for example, reports to any computer. The network drive stores all of our music, videos and work accessible from any device anywhere. This makes it very easy to work as documents can be retrieved, edited, saved and printed from different devices. The term cloud computing has only recently entered the zeitgeist but we’ve been running a domestic cloud for the best part of 10 years. In fact, at one point we even ran an externally accessible server here which meant we could obtain the same services from anywhere in the world.

Versatility is key to the interaction of our kit. And the geek can have endless possibilities. For example, the amplifier can read the media library from the media computer and the network storage and then play music or video without needing any direct input from the user to either of those devices. This laptop can wirelessly beam it’s AV output to the amplifier allowing it to also be used as a media centre. The amplifier responds to an application on my tablet so I can control music within the house without needing to be in the same room as the amp. Radio now streams seamlessly across the internet to a variety of devices allowing us to listen to Radio 4 for a reassuring dose of the Today program and to find out what’s going on back in Blighty. A VPN token for the Health intranet allowing me to effectively “sit” at my office desk while at home.

But there are plenty of future options I would like to explore. A dedicated home server so that we can be completely independent from webmail, web-hosts and other online services. White goods with a network interface. Wireless speakers in an acoustically perfect home cinema. A unified tablet interface for everything in the house. 3D video without special glasses. Having the media player in the car access the home network. Wireless IP cameras covering the exterior of the house.

Regan is, of course, utterly unimpressed by all of this. Which shows the different ways our minds work. Mine is obviously intrigued by the available options and hungry for more. The obsessive compulsive type A in me thinks nothing of spending hours fiddling around with equipment getting it to work … just so … even though the modification may be little different to the standard. Time well spent … indulging the inner geek.