If we actually do develop a true AI that can think for itself and is self-aware, and combine it with the next generation of robotic hardware developed from that shown in the following video…

…the Terminator robot could be a reality.

I have been dabbling with this Facebook / Twitter phenomenon for a while now, probably not as long as most, but longer than some.  What really pulled it together for me is the free software called “TweetDeck” which is (in a strange, spreadsheet kind of way) the closest thing we have to an actual hive mind.  Especially over the last two weeks, when I am at home and the computer is on – and it is most of the time – I have TweetDeck open full screen as my backdrop to everything else.  Instant Twitter / Facebook updates from just about every friend and family member I have will appear in close to real time.

So I’ll be working on a novel, or an article, or a short story, and then get this trilling sound from TweetDeck announcing a new message.  It gives me a little jolt of pleasure, and I alt-tab over to see who is doing what.  And since it’s usually 140 characters or less, I absorb it in an instant, then happily alt-tab back to what I was doing.

I live alone now, in a new place.  I don’t know many people here yet.  Occasionally I feel lonely.

When TweetDeck is up and running, though, I don’t.

This would probably be interesting fodder for some University psych study.  I can’t be the only one who finds companionship in TweetDeck.  When it’s running I don’t feel alone.

Case in point:  The trill just sounded.  I alt-tabbed over.  My cousin Traci, who was one of my dearest childhood companions, is going to see Aerosmith and ZZ Top tonight.

For some reason, just knowing that makes me happy.

I use TweetDeck on both my computer and my iPhone.  It’s available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.  It’s free.  And it’s hereby officially proclaimed groovy.

Dear Bill Gates,

I am very sorry I shoveled so much ire on Windows Vista over the last few years, both privately and publically.  I approach with hat in hand and offer an apology.

Recently I decided to buy a new computer.  Because of being such a raving fan of my iPhone, I thought I would switch to a Mac.  Mac computers are very elegant.  Macs are beautiful.

But for me, ultimately, a Mac didn’t make any sense.  Not after I saw, and fell in love with, an HP Quad Core desktop machine with 8 gigs of RAM, and a huge and beautiful 23 inch wide screen monitor … for 2/3 the price of a Mac which, by tech specs alone, was only half the computer.

The only drawback, I thought, was that the HP came preloaded with Windows Vista.  Every experience I’ve had with Vista has been negative.  But, I thought, I’ll just uninstall it, put XP on it, and then upgrade to Windows 7 when it comes out.

That’s not what happened, though.  It turns out with a powerful computer, 64-bit Windows Vista rocks.  It rocks hard.  Software I thought had been buggy (Firefox 3, which I had all but given up on) and Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate (don’t try and say that with only one breath) both of them are rock solid on Vista.

On this computer, Vista runs effortlessly, and it multitasks like a supercomputer of yore.

It’s beautiful, elegant, and solid.  The operating system I thought I would hate, I have found I actually love.  Sure, it may suck on a lesser computer.  On hardware that is not worthy.  But on this machine?  Dare I say it?  It’s downright sexy.

And my apologies to Steve Jobs and Apple, and all the Apple fans out there, but this HP desktop kicks ass.  Vista kicks ass.

AND, something that people don’t figure in until it’s too late, I didn’t have to re-purchase all my software for the Mac platform.  That was really the nail in the coffin when I was teetering between choosing a Mac and a PC.  I have a significant investment in software.

So once again, Mr. Gates I am sorry for the loads of ire.  That is in the past.

And take heart Mr. Jobs, you still get a chunk of my money, as I pick up my new iPhone 3Gs tomorrow.

Here’s a lesson I’ve learned, not just in this instance but in many instances, and it holds true.  Brand loyalty is stupid.  It fosters complacency.  It even harms the companies you love, because what drives companies to continuously improve is competition.  If you’ve become a brand-loyal cash cow to your favorite company, you’re undermining the system of competition – and that actually ends up hurting the company you support.

I still like Apple better than I do Microsoft, and certainly more than I like HP (and I used to work for HP), but Mac computers are too expensive and too underpowered.  I don’t care how elegant they are.

Vista is pretty damn elegant if you give it a chance.  And I can’t wait to put Windows 7 on this thing.

But, I’ve decided, only after Windows 7 gets its SP1.

So what does this have to do with groovy gizmos?  Well, it’s … Star Trek!  You know.  Transporters, tricorders, phasers, tractor beams, communicators … dilithium crystals.

I haven’t been this excited about a movie for a long, long time.

I think it’s because these characters are firmly embedded in our culture, and we love them like family.  It’s good to see them out and about again.

You know, until I actually got the email from Yahoo, I’d forgotten I had a Yahoo Briefcase.  But then I remembed… yes!  Not just one, either, but three, all under different accounts.

That is because all they gave you was 20 MB of space.  When Yahoo first unveiled it, that was enough, but now it’s so small it’s a joke.

Google of course blew that up by giving everyone … what was it?  A whopping 2 gig of free space in their email?  Now it’s up above 7?

Yet poor old little Yahoo Briefcase … still sitting there with it’s pitiful little 20 MB allotments.  A place of several billion forgotten little files.  Abandoned.

That is, until Yahoo sent out the notice that it was closing Briefcase.  Now suddenly the site is all a flurry, more activity than it’s seen in years.  People going out to find what it is, exactly, they’d left up there, and hoping to download it before Yahoo pulls the plug.

Me, I found old copies of manuscripts, a whole collection of old programs for my long gone Sony Clie, a couple of Linux apps (I have no idea why I saved), some little jewels like Microsoft Private Folder (which they yanked almost immediately, so if you have it, you have it, but it you don’t, you’re not getting it from Microsoft).

Altogether I pulled down just a little over 30 MB of files from my three Yahoo Briefcase accounts.  I’ve put them all into one folder, “Yahoo Briefcase Archive,” and I’m going to put it…

You guessed it.

Up on one of my free 25 gig Microsoft SkyDrive accounts.

I have seen so many of these online storage systems come and go, and the one I (and many others) have been waiting for, the mythical Google Gdrive, will probably never surface.  And I have to wonder how long Microsoft is willing to foot the bill for all those free 25 gig folders out there?

A year?  Two?  Then I’ll be pulling all of it down again, to put it … oh,who knows where?  Probably on a dirt cheap 500 gig micro SD card that I’ll no doubt lose amid the flotsom and jetsom at the bottom of my desk drawer.

Anyway, I do have to send out my thanks to the folks at Yahoo who did in fact host all these files for me for all these years.

I suppose next on the Yahoo chopping block will be Geocities.