Big tech companies think "surface computing" will be important someday. Walls, tabletops, car dashboards and so on will basically be touch-screen, Internet-connected computers. The heck with carrying a laptop. Go to lunch at McDonald's, sit down with your burger, and get on the network using the table -- after you wipe the ketchup and other slop off it.

Microsoft today introduced its version of this technology, called Microsoft Surface. No surprise there. Chairman Bill Gates has been talking about the concept in keynotes for years. Still, Microsoft didn't say much about when these thing will be available in your local Wal-Mart -- probably not too soon.

Meanwhile, H-P Labs has been monkeying around with tabletop computing for years. And in 1998, I interviewed an IBM Research scientist working on that company's version of surface computing, which he was sure would be on the market 10 years hence.

The surface computing guys often say that, for instance, a tabletop computer could download any board game ever invented from the Net and let you play the game on the table's touch screen -- thereby Napsterizing the board game industry. So far, Parker Bros. has nothing to worry about.

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