Ideas for a non-web software startup?

I'm pretty depressed about the current Silicon Valley startup scene. First, it seems that everyone is chasing after the finite pool of ad money, i.e. the game is (at least somewhat) zero-sum. Plus, although AdBlock is right now limited to the tech circles, it will eventually spread to everybody. Second, none of the startups have interesting tech. For example, reddit or digg are just marketing + some pretty interface. There only place where powerful algorithms are employed seems to be at Google. What market should someone who is interested in working with algorithms enter? Is there a bright future in bio-informatics? I want to write software that will actually make a difference, not be the next twitter or facebook clone. Those are fun to play with, sure, but I highly doubt that it changed anyone's life the way Google did or genetic testing will.