What's the view from Silicon Valley, where the world's future is supposedly being mapped by gurus and geeks with gizmos? Dana Gardner, a reporter on the computer-slash-technology-slash-communications sector, thinks the industry is very much in its infancy, with empires being defended, skirmishes being fought, and upstarts seeking to conquer.

Caught in the middle and perhaps a victim of the technology battle is the consumer -- who must choose between a plethora of products, eventually having to make a bet on which company stays in business long enough to provide support, or the next upgrade.

Mr. Gardner, the keynote speaker at this year's Computer & Communications Expo 98, is editor-at-large for California-based InfoWorld, an Internet-based publication for managers of computer systems.

Mr. Gardner is an advocate of what I'll call techno-consumerism, an inspiration for all of us who want to switch from being a victim to gaining control so "that we as users can influence the business to become more focused on solutions rather than on conquest''.

Every business, he said, is focused on producing the "killer ap'', the software which will overpower every other application before it, and make loads of money.

His measure of technological success, the escape from a "drawn out and chilly spring marked by competition between technologies'' to a more "fruitful summer'' will be a real increase in productivity.

"So far, real productivity from computers has been elusive,'' he said. "And it seems that every step forward in terms of doing technology-enabled business practices requires a commensurate step back.'' He gave as an example E-mail, supposedly the killer application of the Internet. In concept it's a good idea. In practice, users are swamped by hundreds of messages which they have to cull.

"Yes, I can reach many people nearly instantly regardless of location, but I need two hours a day to sift through the 150 messages I receive to find the few items that actually aid me in my work,'' he said. "In the end I'm not really getting a lot more done.'' The steps forward in the industry are low-cost hardware, ubiquitous browsers and standardised clients, cheaper telecommunications, sufficient and growing bandwidth, and more and more companies doing software development.

In the hardware piece of the puzzle, expect faster, cheaper and smaller and more mobile machines. He predicts the desktop computer will eventually merge with the laptop.

"If you use it on a desk, it's a PC,'' he said. "If you walk away with it, it's a laptop,'' he said. "Not much difference, even in price. Mobility is a big deal going forward.'' The Internet is the revolution that will make these mobile devices more powerful by enabling them to be linked back to another computer. The interface is the browser and standardised clients that allow new and old systems to be linked and accessed from anywhere.

The problem with the growing amount of technology is the competing forces looking to get and remain on top. Mr. Gardner likens this competition to the World Wars.

"We can think of the First World War equivalent in the computer world as those battles having to do with the client or the PC,'' he said. "There were the PC operating systems wars, the productivity applications wars, the programming languages and interfaces wars, the Unix wars were also in there, and the most celebrated in recent memory, the browser wars. These pitted hotshot Internet darling Netscape against the scrappy and wealthy Microsoft.'' The current war is building between networked services: the Java programming language of Sun Microsystems and Microsoft's Windows NT and BackOffice.

On top of that battle for business is the war to build an application server which will allow a common language to connect host systems of various specifications.

The current hot language, and you've probably heard the name thrown about before, is Java, created by Sun Microsystems. Java "is supposed to make it easier to write programmes that are on the move and work on different machines, those handheld ones we talked about -- even the TV in the parlour that's hooked up to a satellite dish,'' he said. "Java flows over any of these networks to where its needed but doesn't necessarily reside there. These code components are called applets, Java Beans, and even Java Class Libraries.

There are now even Enterprise Java Beans.'' He predicts that over the next three to five years Java will work to consolidate the competing software languages, serving as a link between them, allowing computers and humans to interact. So instead of companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Netscape and Sun attempting to wipe each other out with a killer application, they can all survive and do what each do best.

"The fact is that the various products from these great companies need to coexist and work together,'' he said. "That will allow people to work together. And that simply has to happen if we're to reap those long-sought real gains in productivity.'' All this technology is heading toward the home where the personal computer meets the television-cum-home entertainment centre in a battle for monthly payment. There is a "huge potential for bringing all this confusion and techno-babble into the home''. However, the television, cable, satellite, home stereo, music, and movie industries are all about to mix it up with the various technology companies, creating more consumer confusion about what to choose.

The technology itself is not the issue. It's about the money each household will be willing to fork out for the services.

"I suggest to you that your ability to get the kinds of multimedia content you want in your own home -- at any price -- is being held hostage by the greed of a handful of companies,'' he said.

He therefore advocates a consumer rebellion to push for the solutions and products that work together. The goal is to boost real productivity, raise standards of living and create new ways to communicate.

"Vote with your dollars and insist on a solutions-based approach,'' he said.

"Support some of the smaller companies that focus on a return on investment, not how to get you to upgrade with them in 10 months. Because to the vendors architecture is strategy, and the vendors want to lock you into their architecture, and make you pay to be lucky enough to remain there.'' Check out Infoworld on the Internet at infoworld.com, for more of Mr.

Gardner's directions to the future. The site also has a lot of information on Java.

Tech Tattle is a column that focuses on technology and computer industry issues. If you have any ideas for topics please contact Ahmed at 295-5881 ext.

248, or 238-3854.

CONNECTED -- John Moon, an international stock manager, poses at his computer in his New York apartment. His apartment building, the Grand Millennium, has been built for workers in the high-technology marketplace and offers high-speed Internet access, one reason Moon chose to rent there.