We have found in our little city of 25,000 perched in the colder north of the country, that we lose good people and good business to moving away or aging and retirement. I wonder what is happening in computing to some of the old standbys. Cheaper computers ($390 for a good little netbook from Amazon), free and good software such as Firefox browser and Open Office word-processor, spreadsheet, database, presentation (slides, like Powerpoint) and drawing, Thunderbird email. Google documents are free and storable on the web and Google web sites and email are, also. So are Hotmail and Yahoo Mail.
To work when you want, you need access to a computer and it needs to be connected to the internet. But advanced cellphones can do that and even my limited Alltel flip phone from Samsung can search using Google and has unlimited access to the internet for an additional $10 a month.
So, it is great to be able to access documents and add to my site from any computer hooked to the net but if everything is free, how will the smarties who build, maintain and defend all these wonders make a living? I hope they find a successful and popular way so I don’t lose them to moving away to something else or retirement.
