INBOX:WELL, THIS is my last column for The Irish Times.Inbox is going to the great column graveyard in the sky. So before I go I'd like to impart a few thoughts, not about what gadget to buy, but about how to think about technology in a way that may help you with your future decisions, writes MIKE BUTCHER

Because here's the rub. No matter what sparkly new gadget hoves into view every week, a number of inexorable trends are worth thinking about. Here are some of the main ones:

Moore's law:In 1965, Intel co-founder Gordon E Moore realised that computing power doubles approximately every two years. This trend is not expected to end for at least another 10 years.

This means that almost as soon as you buy an electronic device, a more powerful version will be available in a matter of months at roughly the same price.

In other words, you may as well buy new. Buying second-hand means you get a device that will become obsolete faster.

It also means that if you get, say, a new laptop, it is best to get the highest specification you can afford. That way it will last longer in the scheme of things.

The end of operating systems:Technology writers like me often go on about the battle between the Mac and the PC or between the Internet Explorer and Firefox web browsers.

But let me let you in on a little secret. Much of this is bluster and grist to our journalistic mill. The truth is that a great deal of real computing power is no longer confined to the PC in front of you.

The power of applications is moving online and pretty soon it won't matter if you are using a Mac or a PC - you'll probably be using a web browser to do most of the things you need.

Broadband internet access can now make the web operate almost a fast as a PC and with "cloud applications", you never have to worry about your hard drive crashing. Don't get me wrong, I still use external hard drives to back up my laptop, but I can see a point when this too will move online.

Mobile everywhere:Mobile phones are gradually becoming full-blown computers able to run applications. The best examples of these are Windows, Android and the Apple iPhone. The last two are blazing ahead for a simple reason: they incentivised programmers to create the applications.

Now, for instance, an iPhone is almost indistinguishable from a Nintendo DS because it can run amazing games. So don't think about your mobile as just a phone any more.

The internet of things:In the next 10 years, lots of things will be connected to the internet. This is not a gimmick. You can already buy equipment to monitor your house online 24/7.

Now people are building systems to register automatically any event online. Before you cry "Big Brother", it's worth thinking about the benefits of this, such as being able to see if your teenage child is on their way home by accessing their mobile's location.

More than just televisions:Televisions used to be self- contained devices, now they are just screens plugged into a variety of sources: HDTV, the web, DVDs, you name it. We already have super-thin, super high-definition televisions and they will gradually fall in price.

Televisions themselves are not so interesting any more - it's what you plug into them that counts.

Social:Perhaps the biggest change in technology over the next few years is everything becoming social. Right now, I can upload a video to YouTube straight from my iPhone. From a Nokia, using Qik.com software, I can stream live video to the web and tell all my Facebook and Twitter followers about it - immediately.

I can also tag photos from my camera and share that location with others.

We are all going to have to learn how to deal with this. What we share and how we share it becomes important - as well as what we don't share.

This will change society. If you've been reading about how Twitter has helped democracy campaigners in Iran recently, you'll know what I mean.