I came across this article this morning and I have to say I absolutely agree! Of particular importance is bullet points 3 and 7.

3. Hybrid networks

The day of the all-Windows or all-UNIX network is already past, and networks are likely to grow more, rather than less hybridized in the future. As new versions of Linux, such as Ubuntu, become friendlier for end users, we’re likely to see some organizations deploying it on the desktop for certain users. However, it’s likely that other users will continue to use Windows because of application requirements and/or personal preferences, and there may very well be Macintosh users in the mix as well, especially in graphics environments.

IT pros will no longer be able to get by with expertise in only one platform; you’ll need to be able to support and troubleshoot different operating systems.

In actuality where I am currently employed this is already a reality and has been for five years or more.

7. Software as a service

Web 2.0, the next generation of the Internet, is all about SaaS, or Software as a Service. SaaS involves delivering applications over the Web, rather than installing those applications on individual users’ machines. Some IT pundits have warned that SaaS will do away with IT administrators’ jobs entirely, but the more likely scenario is that the job description will change to one with less focus on deployment and maintenance of applications and more emphasis on broader-based planning, convergence, etc.

If SaaS takes off, the job market may also shift so that more jobs are concentrated in the application provider sector rather than in companies’ in-house IT departments. In that situation, IT pros who have the skills relating to service provision and multi-tenant architecture will have a head start when it comes to getting and staying
employed.

This point is particularly true. The new paradigm is the office is your web. I have begun investing in web techlogy because it is both portable and requires thinner clients to access such as a web tablets like the Nokia N800 or web enabled phones like the Apple iPhone.

I came across this work of fiction by Cory Doctorow. But is it really fiction? Here are some excerpts you tell me how far off the mark they are:

The interrogator in the secondary screening room was an older man, so skinny he looked like he’d been carved out of wood. His questions went a lot deeper than shrooms.

“Tell me about your hobbies. Are you into model rocketry?”

“What?”

“Model rocketry.”

“No,” Greg said, “No, I’m not.” He sensed where this was going.

The man made a note, did some clicking. “You see, I ask because I see a heavy spike in ads for rocketry supplies showing up alongside your search results and Google mail.”

Greg felt a spasm in his guts. “You’re looking at my searches and e-mail?” He hadn’t touched a keyboard in a month, but he knew what he put into that search bar was likely more revealing than what he told his shrink.

“Sir, calm down, please. No, I’m not looking at your searches,” the man said in a mocking whine. “That would be unconstitutional. We see only the ads that show up when you read your mail and do your searching.

Yeah…. and you thought your searching was anonymous. Oh and while I am at it time to pull these gems out again: Epic 2014 and “Pizza Order” (requires Flash).

“We don’t know enough about you.” —Google CEO Eric Schmidt

Only Mark Stephens could take an article about Google and turn it in to an ‘Apple sucks’ piece (I am a fan of neither I should point out). I believe GOOG is in this for so called net neutrality reasons or rather the opposite. Already we are seeing traffic shaping for sites like gootube. Google is concerned that if 700 MHz is left in control of a typical cellular company this trend will only continue into eventually premium traffic virtual networks. Yahoo, Microsoft and others are looking into how to get preferential packet shaping (and have people pay for it no less). In the end yes Google would be a large ISP but I think that would actually help bolster competition against the traditional “big boy” cell companies (whom I am no fan of either). Personally I am more than cautious of Kevin Martin’s motivations for this band given the track record but I am in favor of sticking to the stated intentions of “cost effective deployment and more completion”.

That’s how I see it.

Ala TechRepublic. # 10, 9, 8 and 7. Check, check, check and check.