A reboot of one of my blog entries from September 23rd, 2004 in light of recent history :
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"Certainly Sir, would you like the last 24 hours downloaded to your Memory Wafer?...."
If you've followed the media lately you're probably aware that very soon the media will be following you around. Cash, Videos, Game Software and Music in your wallet!
Imagine. 24 hours of high definition TV held in a piece of silicon that is embedded in a card no bigger than your credit card. Of course, the same card WILL be your credit card, identity card, drivers licence, debit card, library card etc...
Well, stop imagining because the future is here, almost....
Smart cards promise to revolutionize the way people make financial transactions, or for that matter, any type of transaction. Want cash?, Insert the Wafer into the modified ATM and actually download it into your card. Money is debited from your account and the smart card is credited. Making a purchase is the reverse, the smart card will be debited until its balance is zero, or a predetermined negative balance based on your credit rating.
Why stop there. Take a trip down to your local Video store, provided you have the Smart Terrabyte Wafer then you can download, from the data bank, any movie, in any format, in any language. It will be loaded into the credit card sized computer and will be encrypted so that you can view (on a suitable player) the film multiple times in a 48 hour period. Starting with the first viewing. So, if by some chance you can't watch it that particular night, don't sweat. If you wish to own the film (a collector of bytes) then they'll certainly subtract more money from your card for the encryption key. Hey, wasn't that the DIVX concept from Circuit City!
Take a stroll down to the local music store. Download that latest CD. Did I use the word "CD" there, sorry that concept will fade into history, probably along with the Video and Music "offline" stores.
Just plug the card into the terminal and download it. Pay your money (by the Smart card) and take your encrypted bytes away with you.
In all of the above I missed out the obvious, soon, through mega-bandwidth cable services, everything will be available, 24/7, at a terminal close to your sofa, or set-top box, or slipper warmer. No need to even move out of the house, everything will beat a path to your door. Video on demand (VOD), money on demand (MOD) and of course, games on demand.
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