Mr. Baker writes:

"Which is why Peter's two little words (VIRTUAL ME) hit a big nerve with me. It is what we have all been looking for; a computing infrastructure that serves ME and not the other way around. A computing infrastructure that knows who I am, where I am, the type of device(s) I use, what I need, and gets it to me. A self-healing, self-discovery network/computing infrastructure that 'feels' what I need and provides it: services, information, entertainment, whatever I need - it provides, INSTANTLY!!! At work, at home, on the airplane, at Starbucks, anywhere and EVERYWHERE.  And if the data center needs to evolve to support this, so be it, but that's more information than I need to know. As the slogan goes, just do it!"

I agree with Mr. Baker that "the year of the End User" is long overdue. However, I do not share the enthusiasm of his vision. His visison requires a significant rethinking of the *design* model of the infrastructure. Rather than pushing functions as close to the edge as is functionally possible (end-to-end), his vision mandates a central-switch model of infrastructure delivery. (Here I'm trying to make a distinction between a design model and an engineered implementation.) For the infrastructure to 'feel' what I need means that there is strong, centralized intelligence in the system.

I don't like this at all. Through rose-colored glasses, this looks like an appealing future. Through the dark raybans of counter-intelligence, this looks a whole lot like big brother command and control. I DON'T want an infrastructure that knows who I am, etc. I want an infrastructure that allows me to identify myself and my choices when I want to, and allows me to hide when I want to while still using the infrastructure. I want an infrastructure that allows me to choose, not one that chooses for me.

Mr. Baker's vision reminds me of the story of the Tivo user who keeps getting his hard drive filled with suggested viewing based on the selections he has already made. Unfortunately, none of the suggested stuff appeals to him, and he hasn't figured out a way to let the infrastructure understand this. This type of interaction is much worse than the current state of affairs.

I think that the place of Virtual Me is not in the data center nor is it at the end device. The place of VM is at the junction of them both, where I can have a modicum of control over both spheres. Yes, I want access to everything. Yes, I want a simple interface to interact with. But I want the control. I want to decide when to self-heal and auto-discover. I'm willing to accept personalization, but I want to override it when I want to.

An example of where I think things should go is the way Michael Robertson is going with Lindows. The installation is pretty simple, yet the guts of the system are transparent. Click'n'Run both centralizes and simplifies application delivery, but leaves Me in control of what I install and when.

Just do it is a great slogan when you know what to do. I propose that the slogan should be: Give ME the Choice.