But that's today. A few years down the road, when mobile handsets with desktop-worthy CPUs and superfast connections are common, a brave new world of mobile video could emerge. Services like Bambuser and Qik could revolutionize news gathering. Imagine the Rodney King beating captured in real time, or the Obama inauguration as seen by 10,000 different live mobile feeds. They will completely obliterate professional sports leagues' monopoly on live footage (imagine frisking 90,000 spectators for their phone cams at the Super Bowl). And of course, there's real-time porn. I'll let your own imagination supply the visuals for that one.

But the real changes will happen on a more personal level, as some people choose to capture their entire lives and broadcast them across the Net. It's not just Bambuser, which has the feel of a company started by 20-somethings wearing ripped jeans and Chuck Taylors. Buttoned-down companies like (also based in Skane) are building portals for major mobile carriers who want to offer customers the ability to create their own personal "mash" of photos, videos, Facebook updates, tweets, and so on -- all in one handy page that can be accessed by invitation only or completely open to the world.

Is your day-to-day existence an endless exercise in drudgery? Just subscribe to someone whose life is more interesting.

Of course, you have to be one hell of a narcissist -- and/or desperately hungry for your 15 minutes of fame -- to take part in this. But there's no shortage of folks like that (just take a look at reality TV). If they want to butter their lives all over the InterWebs, they will soon have the ability to do just that.

The problem is the rest of us. What happens to the people who unwittingly find themselves on the other end of the camera? If you happen to intersect with one of these people, bits of your life may also be buttered all over the Net -- whether you like it or not. Let's hope you're not doing anything illegal or embarrassing when the "lifecasters" wander by.