The Microsoft Surface—the most overhyped technology since the iPad

Near the beginning of fall semester 2010, I decided to make the trek to Fondren just to check out this new gadget called the “Microsoft Surface.” The new arrival to Fondren was the subject of a front-page Thresher article, so I had a feeling that it may be worth a look. I decided to make a trip with a a couple  curious , tech-nerdy friends.

When we made the trip up the elevator (this was the first time that either of my friends had even been above the first floor of Fondren), we came to the familiar, musty stacks of obscure fiction and poetry. At the end of the stacks was a room of its own (a room with a view, I might add) dedicated to the Microsoft Surface.

Proof that I was really there. Photo Credit: Sonny Nguyen

Luckily for us, we were apparently the only ones on campus who actually cared enough to check out this enormous technological novelty.  (We did eventually meet a scrubby freshman from Hanszen, who almost had us believe a ridiculous story about the origin of his initialized, two-letter name, but that’s a whole other story…)

And no more than a novelty the surface proved to be. The most difficult task we faced that day was trying to figure out what the Surface was actually good for-for comparison, we actually had a biochemistry exam that evening.

We found ourselves wondering, “What purpose does the Microsoft Surface serve in a library setting? “

None, the Microsoft Surface replied, again and again. No matter what buttons we pressed or what screens windows we virtually slid to one another, we could find no utilitarian purpose for this giant tablet.

No Internet, no Microsoft Word, no calculator.  The Surface did feature a somewhat amusing four-player version of Ping as well as a Cloth simulator (all touch-stimulated), but is it really necessary to shell out thousands of dollars just to amuse a few lonely people for a few minutes?

Bottom line: the Surface is essentially a virtual coffee table that does a few “neat” things (and it’s not even a good coffee table—what kind of coffee table runs on electricity?)  

Of course, if you believe that I’m just a tech-noob (which I’m not) or a Microsoft-hater (which I’m certainly not) the best thing for you to do is to actually go to Fondren and see the Surface for yourself—or spend thousands of dollars of your own so that you can continue write that list which Americans have been writing for ages: “One thousand ways to utterly waste your money.”