In reality I don’t have a single point of failure at all because I’m leveraging web services by not putting all of my eggs in one basket. However, if my laptop did have a serious problem I’d have to deal with an annoying situation. If for instance my cat spilt a glass of water on the computer (happened to my sister just last week), I’d be out of commission for a few days, but I would still be able to get back on my feet relatively easily. For these reasons I do have a single point of failure, but one I’m comfortable with.

Since June of 2006 I’ve used my MacBook Pro at all of my recent 9-5′s as well as personal use and I have yet to have a hardware failure. In fact truth be told I rarely even turn it off.<br/> knock on wood again

I’d say most savvy netizens have similar setups. Although it can’t hurt to share mine.

Online Applications I Use

• Gmail in favor of Mail
• Google Calendar in favor of iCal
• Google Docs in addition to Numbers and Pages
• Subversion Repositories for Code Projects
• Serial #’s Labeled:Serial in Gmail (or any other important info worth labeling)
• Del.ici.ous for Bookmarks
• Flickr for Pictures

and many more

• MP3 Library on a LaCie external drive + DVD Backups
• iPhoto Library on external drive + DVD Backups

I also use SuperDuper! for nightly bootable backups. Time Machine was putting a strain on my system and if it ain’t broke – don’t fix it.
One thing I would like to move completely online are my finances. I do the usual online banking, but I use Quicken on my Mac for personal finances. Quicken sucks, especially on the mac. Hopefully one of these days there will be a decent web app to replace it. I’ve played around with Mint and Wesabe but they’re just not there and I don’t feel entirely safe with that type of personal information in-the-cloud yet.

Right now we’re at a half-way point between pre-internet-personal-hardware-entrapment and post-personal-hardware-cloud-processing-greatness. How long do you think it will be? I say 10 years before I’m on an Apple Thin client as a primary computer. That will be sweet.

<img class=”right” src=”http://somedirection.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/goog.png” alt=”goog.png” border=”0″ width’em”157″ height=”58″ />

It’s funny because as much as I love Apple software, at the end of the day I know the future of software in the broadest sense belongs to Google. The computer of the future will be the network and cloud computing. I honestly think when we’re wired enough and fiber optics (or something better) is woven into our very being, we’ll be utilizing thin clients – probably 10th generation iPhones. Down the line (ridiculously far down the line) their lead in hardware is what really sets them apart. Even Google can’t catch up, it’s just not in their DNA. Both of these tech companies are already poised to transform our relationship with “computers”. Google on the OS, Apple on the hardware. You can take that to the bank. Hell I’m already most of the way there. I’m a Google Apps junkie who lives on his MacBook and wants a 3G iPhone like you read about.

What do you think the future holds for computing?

ReadWriteWeb Why Apple Will Dominate Next Gen Computing

As a backstory, I wanted a PSP when they first game out, but I waited until it was hacked. What I really wanted to do was play old school Nintendo games on my PSP and I knew with the device it was a possibility. Then it got hacked, then someone created an emulator, and only then could I justify buying a PSP (which I’ve since sold).

With Apple’s recent release of an iPhone API and introduction of the new iphone developer program I’m about to climb onboard the iPhone gravy train. I was undoubtedly impressed seeing what the phone is capable of while viewing the keynote.

So far, I’d say most people may have bought iPhones for lust or they’re early adopter crazies of Apple products with plenty of disposable income. Only now will pragmatic people (such as myself) buy them for their software capabilities as well. The game demo’s shown in the keynote were amazing. The single point of distribution with Apple’s own App Store application to be included with the 2.0 update is incredible integration. The iPhone is going to become a candy store of applications for users that I can no longer ignore.

I was hoping to stave off the forgone conclusion of iPhone ownership until Version 2 (The second version of Apple products are always exponentially better), but then I had a realization this morning. Apple is in bed with AT&T for 5 years and they are hoping to sell 10 MILLION iPhones by the end of 2008. Why would they release a second better version of the phone to upset 10 Million users before hitting sales targets? And you know the backlash of consumers who feel they’ve been cheated is severe. Besides Apple will take care of you anyway. More so, are millions of users really going to be locked into a shitty EDGE data network indefinitely? That is, aside from those that jailbreak their phones to use on other GSM networks… Apple has a master plan, and there are a lot of intelligent, crafty people out there that will all be in the same situation and won’t be happy with their crappy EDGE data plans if there’s an alternative.

To steal a page from Malcolm Gladwell, I’ve reached my tipping point with Apple’s iPhone. I must have one, now.

With Microsoft Exchange Server support with the 2.0 firmware update not even the Crackberry crowd of business lemmings will be able to resist. The naysayers have officially been trumped.

Reactions around the Interweb

• 37 signals
• Daring Fireball
• Apple iPhone 2.0 ‘Bigger than the Personal Computer’
• That’s how you launch a platform

Update

Rumors of 3G

I’m going to wait a couple months before jumping the gun after reading this article. It does add up and some of my conversations with current iPhone owners lead me to believe that patience will be a virtue when it comes to my iPhone purchase.

From Seeking Alpha<br/>

And then, of course, despite the lack of any announcement, the iPhone v2 (3G) would be coming out soon. In my mind, this development is more definitive than speculative. I think the only reason Apple did not announce the iPhone v2 is because such an announcement would halt the sales of the current generation of iPhones.

iPod + iTunes + Intel + iPhone + Safari = Mac convert

Apple has filed for a patent titled “Techniques for pairing remote controllers with host devices” that mentions using a “mobile phone” to serve as a remote controller for a Mac computer.

Although this is only for use with a Macintosh computer, the future implications are astounding. I was immediately reminded of a conversation I had with my friend Poz back in 2004. I was frustrated that my cellphone couldn’t interface with any other electronic devices. Think about it, the cell phone could be the Ultimate Universal Remote. The only thing required for convergence of electronic devices would be some sort of standardization across the industry. Call me a dreamer, but I imagine a product that can interface with the smorgasboard of digital devices to my hearts content. I think that product has arrived, and it is made by Apple (the only company that could get it right).

Here’s an extremely short list of possible uses for an iPhone that will play nice with the electronic devices around it.

• Unlock/Lock your car
• Unlock/Lock your house
• Open your garage
• Control your tv and home theater
• Make coffee

The reason why the iPhone will be The Ultimate Convergence Device is simple. The iPhone will have a flexible UI for interaction. The interface will be malleable for any application; you would only have to program a widget. Want to unlock your car? Fire up your Honda widget! Of course I expect Apple’s shunting of 3rd party software developers to loosen over time to make all of this realistic. Of course, when you’re talking about things like unlocking car doors or gaining access to your home – biometrics are necessary for security purposes.

These changes will happen, it’s just a matter of when. I mean, the iPhone has already assimilated a functional iPod. I wonder how long it will take, but all of the elements seem to be falling into place. What type of use do you foresee in the future for The Ultimate Convergence Device?

Read on » Apple patent points to iPhone as remote