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    So, today marks the beginning of the end of the quarter. Finals are next week, spring break the following, and just like that we launch into another 10 weeks of courses. I thought it would be good to reflect back on how much I’ve changed this quarter. I may not have done very well in my match class, but I think I learned a lot about myself instead. I finally got myself a stable job, which I’m so happy about. Having finished my first week at Arbitech I think it’s a great fit. I’m sure I’ll be forced to endure the new guy status for a while longer, but everyone is really cool. I happy to have made it through this last quarter solely on consulting income, but I’m looking forward to being able to buy some toys and tryout some projects far more. To my surprise I’m not having that much trouble waking up at 6 AM to be at work by 7:30AM. Anybody that knows me at all, knows I’m not a morning person. In a way this is something that has changed about me. I used to sleep through alarm clocks, earthquakes, the end of the world, you name it. Not so much anymore.

On my  way home today I started thinking about how society is rapidly changing because of computers. Now, before you stop reading, this isn’t another rant on how computers are special, and good, etc. I’m thinking more specifically of how we store information as human beings. With search capabilities growing more and more common, our endless exploration of folders has come to a close. The way we think about everything is changing. With Google, you no longer have to remember the name of a web page, but only three special words or so from a sentence, with iTunes you no longer need to remember the name of that band, but only that their album was Dead Parade something. We as people can remember more by remembering less and rely on computers to remember all of it. With the advent of search systems like Spotlight and Windows Live Search these ideas don’t limit themselves to online material. With Windows Vista and Mac OSX it is now more efficient to search for something than to take the time guessing even once where that file is or to even navigate directly to it. That is astounding considering so many advances have been made in user interface design. Consider Google’s home page, that is the definition of what a user interface is coming to. I wouldn’t doubt that someday Windows will be a search box centered on your screen. To launch a program or do anything with it you wouldn’t click you simply start typing what you want to do or what you want to work on and Windows will make it happen. With drive space expanding exponentially while changing form factors simultaneously it is becoming increasingly important to index all of our data and be able to look through it quickly and efficiently. I think this phenomenon is going to bring about some startling changes in the computer industry soon. Hardware assisted searching or hardware that is specifically designed to accelerate searching is going to become a key focus for manufacturers as well as coders alike.

I’ll post some more updates and thoughts later. For now I’m off to dinner.