This post is all thumbs. I'm entering it using the opiate of the connected masses-a smart phone. In my case it is a BlackBerry Pearl. This post is about an oddity of the connectedness such a device offers.

From a user's point of view, it is easy to see the appeal of such a device. I can have access to the internet wherever I am (assuming there is cell coverage, which is not necessarily a given), and can use tools such as e-mail almost without limit. The technology has delivered information to me by the side of the road, has sent pictures to kiosks for printing and has done all manner of things. It is almost ready to be released to the 'wild'.

I realize the smartphone is actually already out in the wild, but there are some things that must be considered. The first is the raw speed of things. As an IT professional, I have developed a typing speed of approximately 80 words per minute. However, using a keypad typing configuration, especially with multiple values being possible for each key,and keys that are actually smaller than my thumb tips, my speed is possibly thirty words per minute at the most. Cutting and pasting are possible, if clumsy, but the bulk of tools I use to create documents are not available, or are at least so inefficient as to be unusable.

So it is safe to say that though this technology is good in small doses, it is not a solution for real business needa for extended periods of time. This phone allows me to see the flow oF messages and even give terse replies as needed, though for sending code snippets and other more technical communications there are better tools.

The point here is that new and fun do not translate into beneficial and efficient. The relevance of this is illustrated by the resurgence of the mainframe within the computer center. The 'gold rush' of distributed apps was overcome by the practical realities of having to house, feed, cool and maintain the hardware. Here is where virtualization and other things enter in. When I do a posting using my intrepid keyboard, there is an interesting application I'll go over that I'm reserving the term virtual elasticity for - it will demonstrate this more fully.

PC-based computing systems are like my BlackBerry in that they provide a great convenience to be able to have access to a high level of information, with usefulness trending downwards with a rise in the need for intense data manipulation.

I can use my keyboard on my computer more than twice as fast as the one on my phone, which introduces two economies. The first is the economy of time saved. If I sit after a meeting and use the BlackBerry for ten minutes, I am trading in five minutes of time for convenience, versus getting twice as much done in the same time back at the office. If I have to go back to the office anyway, sitting down for ten extra minutes actually wastes time. I might try to walk and e-mail at the same time, but there is no net efficiency.

The second economy is the economy of separation. Extending the office allows me to work for more extended amounts of time and still be able to have time to try to balance home/work issues (paint doesn't self-apply, and I can see what kind of day is coming up while having breakfast), but it is inefficient work, and so the payoff diminishes rapidly.

Each of us starts out with certain amounts of time and commitment, and we spend those in the economies of our day. We need to maintain equilibrium so that we don't do ten hours of work in 20, and in the process lose even more efficiency due to the conflict of responsibilities and expectations. Technology created wings we can use to fly-it also created prisons that are inescapable, so be careful.

In closing, here are the top five ways you can tell you use your smartphone too much:

5) You actually begin 2 unDRstand Leet-speak

4) Your significant other has to make a beeping sound to get your attention

3) You hold contests to see whose phone can discover the most Bluetooth devices

2) You begin to wonder how to Remote Desktop to your work computer so you can save yourself the five minute ride into work

And the number one way...

1) You now notice your thumbs are flat.