Working without wires is a new concept for the automated buildings industry. Like the skydiver pictured here, the freedom and power is awesome, but a little scary. Our industry has been woven together with wires and only recently have we been getting our minds around a wire-reduced world with the acceptance of several levels of networking. If you think that the networking standards and the Internet/Intranet have had a phenomenal affect on our industry in the last few years, just watch what wireless technology is going to do.

Embarrassed to use my old cell phone in public, I finally upgraded to the latest and greatest cell phone, which taxes the limits of my sight and manual dexterity. The new flip phone provides e-mail access plus an Internet microbrowser. This wireless microbrowser provides a powerful link to preformatted Web material, which I feel is a harbinger of the wireless future.