Plastic Logic - leading the paperless revolution

As a daily fighter in the paperless revolution, I am always on the lookout for new and exciting technologies that bring about the end of wasteful paper uses. You know, those endless copies of documents and reports that clutter up our desks, lives and landfills.  

There are the common solutions that I stand behind, like using a desktop or laptop computer leveraging a wide range of desktop document management applications and supporting integration with tools like the iPhone. But, as good as these solutions are, there are drawbacks. What if you don’t use a computer all the time? That laptop can be a bear to carry around all the time. That 2 hours of battery life only gets you so far. The iPhone is a great way to manage portable documents, but it really only is a 3″ screen. Reviewing a document with a coleauge or client can be a challenge. Then, you can only read documents, not edit or mark-up.

Any Star Trek fans out there? Remember in the original series, some type of clerk would always bring Captain Kirk that digital clip board? Some have speculated that the realization of this device was the Tablet PC. I think not. I don’t believe that this device was a full out computer with a touch screen. That is overkill in the actual application of this idea. If the main application of this device is only to review and annotate documents, then why do I need a device as powerful as a full laptop?

What if there was a device that was more like reading a real document? Something that was light weight, portable and robust. A device that provides an application specific solution. What if there was a device that would allow me to upload hundreds of documents and take up no more room then a standard folder? Some of you may be saying, “What about Amazon’s Kindle?” Come on, the Kindle? Really?

Enter Plastic Logic. This one really blew me away. Not only are they bringing a concept to market, but they also created the supporting software and the actual product hardware. Take that Microsoft. These guys made an LCD device that is flexible, light weight and amazingly resilient. A device that is the size of a traditional document and is readable in almost any lighting situation, even bright sunlight. This reader even supports features like markup and has a touch keyboard for attaching notes. 

Watch the video and see for yourself. Laptops, tablet PCs, future ideas for a MacTouch, all these ideas are great, but the idea of having a device that could contains multiple full manuals, technical documents, schematics,  etc . . . all in a robust, damage proof, portable and light weight device. That is gold my friend. Gold.

New tool for the paperless revolution

Paperless in the cloud

Some say that I have sold my soul to Google or that I have become one with the Borg.  But I say to them that using Google tools has changed my life.

Recently my home was damaged in a flood. Although our basement was heavily damaged by flood waters, luckily I was able to pull all the computers from my home grown data center before the flood waters came in.  But this meant taking all my computers off line.  Ok, not so bad. But what about my important home docs? I can’t access what I need.

Yes, I have a back up system. I wasn’t worried about loosing data, my issue is that I can’t access data. Answer. Google Docs.

General documents, scanned in PDFs, number crunching spread sheets. Its all there. No file cabinets. No worries about loosing primary systems and all your data. All the really important stuff is out there at the Googleplex waiting there for me when I need it.

This whole thing got me really thinking. The flood was manageable. But what about a fire? Or such a disaster where I had to evacuate my home? If a F4 tornado is coming my way, do I have time to grab the computer with all the important docs? Probably not. Can I grab one of my back up drives and my laptop? Probably. But again, access to important home data may not be possible.

Disaster plan. Computer with family photos, back up on an external drive that is easy to disconnect and crab. They make external drives that fit in your pocket, no excuse. Computer with family documents, same deal. External drive that is easy to grab. Essential docs that may need to be accessed if data center is off line, Google Docs.

Ok, maybe the identity theft stuff (taxes, etc) not out there. Gotta go the old skool, burn a CD and safty deposit box for that. At least I am not hording paper in a foder somewhere, augh.

And the best part, I can pull it down from the iPhone if needed ;)      That is GOLD man!  GOLD!