Stalk Your User
By Jeffrey Veen
Last fall, my wife and I walked into a San Francisco bar, sat down, and ordered drinks. It was then that a thought occurred to us: Here we were in a major American city during the height of the Major League Baseball playoffs, and we didn't know whether our local team had won or lost. We stared at each other for a moment like deer in headlights until a smile emerged on my face. "Ah, don't worry," I said smugly. "I'll find out what happened."
From my pocket, I pulled my Palm V attached to my latest gadget—an OmniSky wireless modem. I clicked through a screen or two to find the browser, then asked for the site I thought would give me the score. "Connecting to Service..." my screen told me. Seconds ticked away. Then, through the miracle of IP technology, information started to appear. Slowly, the screen revealed the logo of the sports-information site. I scrolled through the list of its offerings. Aha, baseball! I clicked and more seconds ticked by. Scores! That's what I need. Click. Tick tick tick. National League! Tick tick tick. The San Francisco Giants. Tick tick tick. Euphoria! "They won!" I proudly proclaimed. "Jeff Kent hit a three-run homer in the eighth!"
"I know," said my wife, lifting her half-empty Cosmopolitan. "The waitress told me five minutes ago."
Invisible Technology
Some of you who are reading this are thinking that the woman I chose to spend my life with is too pragmatic. Sure, she obtained the information faster. But I harnessed the Internet's power in a social context without the limitations we typically attribute to the task of knowledge gathering with a computer.
