As I was driving home from work the other day on my 20-plus-mile commute, a fellow ham radio operator told me he heard about a bad accident that had happened earlier a few miles ahead of me, but he did not know if the road had opened back up. Not to worry, as I simply toggled the "Scanner Radio" utility on my Droid and heard the entire emergency communications online streaming feed as the rescue vehicles finished up their work and departed. No need for me to detour. That same Droid also helped me find two Geocaches on snowy trails this weekend, doing the work that my Garmin hand-held GPS is typically tapped for.
Finally, my teenage son was asked to DJ his sister's middle school dance this weekend. As I helped him load his speakers, amp and lights, I asked him if he had his music to bring. The look on his face told me just how out of touch I am, as he pulled his iPod out and waved it at me. "It's all in here," he said, as I had foggy, fading visions of turntables and racks of vinyl LPs roll across my mind.
These are truly amazing days, if you measure amazement by gadget count and what those gadgets are capable of. We've all somewhat gotten to the point where "convergence" is old news from the perspective of voice and video joining data on the network, but convergence of function, fun and business is also happening in more and more devices before our very eyes.
Sure, in other columns I'll lament the headache that comes with trying to keep the peace when one highly mobile disruptive technology after another knocks on the front door of the enterprise network, but for this go-round I'm playing the kid in the candy store. Ah, so much cool stuff to ponder!
