Surf's Up

There's been a lot of press of late about the return of the command line for those who are using their cellular telephones as ubiquitous computing devices while eschewing the eye candy of graphical user interfaces. My favorite example of this is how the environmental organization Heal the Bay now offers text messaging services to cellular telephone users who want to see the grade reports on over a hundred California beaches from its Beach Report Card. In a press release, the organization describes how dialing 23907 can provide information about water quality. In a similar vein, I've recently activated Facebook mobile, to access the social networking site without a web browser. Still, I miss the command lines of my old eighties machines, even if the cell phone takes up much less space on my desktop.