It's hard to imagine life without technology these days. While I may exit the house sans my driver's licence, I will never leave without my cellphone - you never know when it might ring - my GPS, and my car radio face.
(Incidentally, my new car radio is iPod-ready, although this may mean drilling a hole through the glove compartment to make the system work properly. Hint hint.)
It's amazing how fast technology progresses these days. Yesterday's state-of-the-art notebook will pretty much be defunct by tomorrow morning. Remember dial-up Internet connections? Does anybody even have a dial-up connection anymore?
While it may seem a bit like science fiction to imagine walking around making phone calls that are not routed through fixed lines, but are instead routed over the Internet, through wireless headsets, at a fraction of the cost, this is theoretically possible.
Enter the age of broadband, triple play and Skype. It doesn't take a crystal ball to work out that in a few years we should all be able to make phone calls, through the wireless broadband connection running through the house, over IP and through our wireless headsets.
And that morning cuppa? Simply text your kettle from the comfort of your bed. Actually, this sort of stuff is already being touted and people can already switch on lights, the kettle, the stove and the state-of-the-art surround-sound system remotely.
We can also already tune into cameras at home and watch exactly what it is Fido gets up to in our absence. After watching my pooch turn on a desktop PC with her nose the other day, I'm convinced she surfs the Net all day long. This would explain the phone bill.
Even fridges nowadays can link up to the Internet. And that will save us all the bother of writing out shopping lists, and going to the shops, as the fridge can simply order the goodies, and someone will deliver.
Have, have not
Imagine Joe Soap, stuck out in the rural backwaters of SA, whose only means of communication with the rest of the world is probably through carrier pigeon.
Nicola Mawson, senior journalist, ITWeb
But it's not all peaches and cream in this increasingly broadband world. The digital divide - which everyone has been threatening to close for the past few years - can only widen as technology progresses.
Imagine Joe Soap, stuck out in the rural backwaters of SA, whose only means of communication with the rest of the world is probably through carrier pigeon. So remote is Mr Soap, it's feasible that he doesn't even have access to a cellphone.
So, where does that leave him as the world travels at ever-increasing speed to the future, where life is conducted online?
And how will we be able to reach him, and connect him and his family into the grid of online communities? People are, as we know, already conducting virtual lives online. Not so for Mr Soap.
So, while we unwrap this year's goodies, let's keep in mind that speed does kill, or at least has the potential to alienate people living in the developing world to the extent that they may never catch up with us again.
And, as this is 2006's last Citizen Jane, I feel justified in admonishing everyone to drive carefully, don't imbue too much, and remember - Big Brother is watching.
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