How many of us can say we don't need the Internet.

The main raison d'etre for computers, OSes, iPhones and a host of other technologies is so that we can enjoy the Internet. I remembered there was an incident involving the severing of underseas cables that disrupted the Internet connection in Singapore. It was a painful 3 days. Websites were slow to load as everyone clogged up the other undersea cables. Other websites just did not bother to load. Everything was down. It seemed that we had a glimpse of what the end of world meant.

One thing I realised was that many of my peers, including myself, did not bother to on our computers. We emerged from our caves and started to embrace a life without the WWW. A relaxing afternoon lying on the bed with a book is not so bad afterall. Time slowed.

Yes.

Without the Internet, I would boldly say that computers, OSes.... would be relegated to work only. Even offices need the Internet.

"We believe the web has won and over the next several years, the browser, for economic reasons almost, will become the platform that matters and certainly that's where Google is investing." I quote this from Google Engineering vice president Vic Gundotra, who was speaking at the MobileBeat 2009 conference in San Francisco.

Google has announced that it will be developing its own OS, the Chrome OS. It is designed specifically for the Internet. It will be simple. Starting up will be a breeze, whereas a Windows OS will take 2 ice ages to start. To be fair, Mac OS is currently the fastest OS to start up and I am not being bias.

I can foresee in another 3 years, everything will be developed based on our internet needs. We have a browser that can, of course surf net, check emails, play video (minimal load time), virtual gaming, online collaborations (with regards to products like the Office 2010, google docs) and everything else that we always wanted. We can get this without having a "Windows OS" and for that matter, a "Mac OS" or any OS that we are familar with.

OS is obsolette.

The reason for OS is mainly because of the Internet and work. If we can integrate everything into the browsers. OS as we know of it currently will find its place in the museum.

Twitter: Your news this instance

Iran and China faced the same issue in the span of one month. Iranians poured out into the streets demonstrating against the legitimacy of the Presidential election. China's issue with its western frontier demonstrated once again the distorted viewed on communications.

Twitter was blamed to be the main cause. It used to be mobile phones and sms. But with Twitter, all we need is internet connection and we can post second-by-second live updates of what is going on around us. And the messages could potentially reach to everyone with internet connections.

And then the fateful wake-up call in Indonesia just a few days ago.

"Bom @ marriot and ritz Carlton kuningan jakarta," the 38-year-old digital media head posted from his Blackberry, shortly after the second bomb went off at the hotel he was staying at - the Ritz Carlton.

I lifted this from the CNA website and it was a news post by itself. The title is "Jakarta bombings first on twitter".

Twitter has indeed evolved from a mere fad to an important tool which will...and I say with conviction... will change the media landscape. Newspaper will die. Online news will be relegated to a second-base spot where people will turn to for commentaries, political opinions and interviews. News, and I mean instant news will be carried by Twitter or its descendants. We will have this application on our mobilephones (iphones for me) that will update me instantly on what is going on around the world.

"The Dollar has raisen!" "Flash flood!" "Banana costed more today."

Yes. Expect more changes to come in months to come.

TV contents

My favourite past-time when I was still a kid, was to memorise the timings for the TV shows from the TV guide. I could tell you what shows were on and what shows were rescheduled. Life was simple then, there were only a few tv channels.

Around 15 years later, in the 21st century, there was significant shift in how people viewed the world. Convenience was the key word.

People were pampered by the burgeoning technology that it seemed that the only thing that mattered was themselves. In this particular time-period, where news is no longer on traditional media but on twitte, where the hunger for technological break-through intensified and taken for granted and that all governments in the world going to propose a day to be of 48 hours.

Memorising time-slots for tv shows seemed anarchronistic. People no longer have to wait for shows. The shows go to the people. Web-streaming is a popular mean. Tivo is another. iTunes opened an avenue for people to own tv shows.

The future of tv seemed bleak. No longer do people want wait in front of the tv just for that one hour of show. This sounded the funeral bell for tv advertisments. Perhaps, the only profitable tv shows are the live telecast on sports, the inaugration of the President and major accidents. But then, web-stream can rob the traditional media of the last revenue.

Free content is the bane of tv shows. Are we going to see great shows coming back? Or the tv studio decided to cut all costs and produce boring and predictable shows?

One thing for sure, we can expect more of paid tv like HBOs. HBOs has been providing us with entertaining contents like True Blood and Sex & the City.

The immediate future is not clear. But I like to sound the death knell for Mediacorp first.