My first major milestone in moving to utility computing was to get my NAS unit and move all of my storage requirements onto it. I then put all of remaining programs I use onto a single PC which I had been using for several months. This had enabled me to power off 6+ PCs as a result. I have never powered any of them on again. The last application which required my PC to be on 24x7 was my email application. Last night I installed the MailStation package on my NAS unit. A copy of all of my emails now is being stored on my NAS unit.

I could always access my emails via the web so that I could read and respond anywhere and this change has not impacted my access. I can still do that but now all of my emails are stored for future reference. The Synology NAS unit has additional packages which so far have been fairly easy to install. If work did not require certain applications which require a PC – I would now be lights out. I am hoping that in a year or so they will enable my smartphone to replace this last PC

I am thinking about getting a Google TV box from Logitech. It will allow me to surf on the big screen until the smartphone makers realize that the interface for the TV set is the last knot tying end users to their legacy PCs. I have to be honest – I am very surprised that they have not updated their OS’s to enable the wireless interface to more rapidly move us into the utility model. I am assuming it has to be the “Great Recession” which has been the impediment from achieving this last mile tie off.

Though the Google box has some other features and Apps – I am doubtful I will use anything beyond their browser. All the iPad Apps I have tried to date have been so underwhelming that I doubt Google did any better with their box. I will post after purchasing and installing . . .    

Upate: Not spending the money to buy a GoogleTV box and I am modifying my approach. Click here to view.