Working in a software company gives you some intersting insight into the technological advances we can expect in the near future. I overheard one of my colleagues talking about this and thought I'd try and find some video for it. Behold the result: the Microsoft Surface PC. It seems like a pretty exciting technology that can have a lot of commerical and educational benefits. We shall see how well it goes over, as I'm sure the initial price tag will be something only the five richest kings of Europe will be able to stomache. However, if it does become a common phenomenon, you can kiss all that confusion about who ordered what at a restaurant goodbye.

A little too gadgety for your tastes? Perhaps. But working well, this kind of user-friendly technology might be the linchpin when it comes to moving away from the standard desktop PC. We've already seen the explosion of handheld devices drawing more and more attention away from the traditional box. I've had several clients sending e-mails asking about the compatibility of our software with portable devices and tablet PCs. Not just yet for the small outfit I work for, but who knows what kinds of things the future will bring?

The above video, though kind of long, and perhaps not presented as flashy as the potential of the technology suggests, gives you a good working overview of the kinds of applications that can be implemented by this software. I think it's also an attempt by Microsoft to try to wrest some market share of mp3 players away from Apple. My take? A silly sub-ploy that won't go over so well. I, for one, think it's a damn shame they'd have to resort to this kind of technological integration to get people to buy those sorry-ass zunes. Seems to me, people aren't going to buy an mp3 player just because you can trade songs on a neato graphical interactive table.

As for the potential in restaurants, resorts, and casinos? I see people jumpin' on that bandwagon real quick. There's no doubt the kids are gonna love it, too!

I wonder how many potential spin-offs there will be to this. It could very well be that we'll finally have the holographic touch-screen computers that we always seem to see in sci-fi films.