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Wired Releases Annual Vaporware List
alacqua writes: "Wired
has an article titled
Vaporware 2001: Empty Promises
which is a top-ten list of last year's vaporware.
'You've Got Smell!'
made it, but the Justice Department did not. Says Wired, 'Speaking of Microsoft, some smart-aleck readers opined that the most vaporous thing in tech last year was the Justice Department's failure to deliver on its promise to punish Bill Gates for his company's monopolistic misdeeds -- but we thought that a bit of a stretch.'"
Anyone remember that one?
Yea - I thought I read this earlier
0 .h tml is 2000
0 .h tml is 1999
0 .h tml is 1998
Ripped right from the article (aka don't mod me up for this)
http://wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,40484,0
http://wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,33142,0
http://wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,16974,0
The articles in time are interesting - I get a feeling somewhere in 2000 we decided that multipage articles are great for hits }:P
The ultimate network admin tool needs HELP!
who wants to bet Lindows tops that list?
Cheers,
RLJ
How did warcraft 3 make the list of vaporware? It's coming out soon, the beta is tonight... Just because something is delayed doesn't make it vaporware.
Wow! Wayyy OT.
Ask any Economics 101 student and he will tell you that a free, open service market will eventually become closed, and the barriers to entry then raised insurmountably high. At this point, you need the government to step in and free up the market.
If I run a steel corporation and corner the steel market, what do I do next? In order to have my company continue to flourish, it must need to grow. If I have closed out a market, I need to expand to other markets....like utilizing that steel...
My next move would be to get involved in steel construction...then automotive and shipbuilding, each time utilizing my corporation's vastly deep pockets to outperform my competitors in my new market....
But 3D Realms CEO Scott Miller wasn't very upset to hear about his product getting the Vaporware top spot. "It's a very ambitious game," he said. "It's not cookie-cutter shooter like most are nowadays If it's another FPS, how can it NOT be cookie-cutter ?
it probably contains an abnormally large amount of vulgarity, nudity, and monsters. perhaps even vulgar nude monsters.
However, government does meddle in the marketplace: by purchasing M$ products, they validate the actions of the company. They are also a large purchaser, whose actions have repurcussions on the market as a whole.
Yes, Econ 101 might say that government interference is bad. But take a later course (or a special seminar), and you will see that many of the assumptions of Econ 101 are not so simple in the real world. First: perfect information. Consumers do not have perfect information. FUD is spread all around. More importantly: no buyer or seller has the power to individually alter the market. In this case, both M$ and the government have this power. The former through marketshare, and the latter by both legal means and methods of purchase. Finally, there must be no significant barriers to entry. There haven't been. Until the past... couple of years. There are substantial barriers to entry (patents, copyright, and other IP law).
America is not a free market. It is, in some cases, a slightly freer market than many others. But don't presume that this case is a prime example of basic economics. Outside of the classroom, those basic principles do not have effect on companies with 90% marketshare.
An A for Econ 101. A D for Econ 401.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
Government has no business interfering with the market!
Yep. I dream of the day when food products no longer need to have those annoyingly informative nutritional labels upon them. I yearn for when we can break free of the schackles imposed upon us by "truth in advertising". I'll lead the parade when we get rid of "safety standards". I'll...
Oh, wait. You're a troll. Nevermind.
I always laugh when I see that name.
I keep thinking of a jingle a colleague
of mine proposed "Pull my finger for iSmell".
Gotta luv it!
I for one am glad that the software developers (3D Realms for Duke Nukem Forever in particular) are taking their time creating this game. I am sick and tired of games being released these days that need patch after patch, often times just to make the game PLAYABLE, let alone enjoyable.
Where and when should developers draw the line? Shouldn't that be for them to decide?
-- Dan
aren't exactly vaporware, unlesss you consider vaporware to be something that is already designed, built and in operation.
OK so there was a lot of fuss made over them and unless your in Japan you're probably not going to get your hands on one. But realize that the phone companies buying 3G bandwidth was not a guarentee you were going to get the phones straight away, more like an insurance policy that the telco's would still be alive in a few years when they are providing it.
Also why does warIII make this list? It's just going into public beta, they could have at least selected 'World of Warcraft' instead.
He who defends everything, defends nothing. -- Fredrick The Great
Ironically, I believe that the libertarian view is that private lawsuits and public disclosure would take care of the loss of food and drug protection (and personal safety, etc.)
BUT, the Republicans, in their twisted world, want to remove the government protections, allow licenses and agreements that allow public disclosure (the software licensing that prevents printing of statistics, for example), and put a cap on damages and fees awarded to plaintiffs and their attorneys.
I have no idea if the LP has similar views regarding lawsuits, software licenses, etc.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
It's in the /. MacWorld coverage.
But still, they're right. I think I can be correct (mostly) in saying that Apple wouldn't exist today if it weren't for Adobe, and without X-native Adobe apps, X will flounder. It's a *wonderful* OS, but Adobe has long been providing Apple with the killer apps it needs to stay alive, and OS X is no exception.
"Mod, mod, mod...and another troll bites the dust."
Aside from promises made aproximately 40 years ago (and every decade since then), I don't know of anyone who honestly expected AI to arrive in 2001, especially no one who knew anything about it in 2001, or in 2000, or 1999, etc. Claiming its vaporware was a bit off. No one is marketing HAL to the masses everyday, like the other things on the list.
Secondly, Blizzard has always been late with their games. Usually several years late. In fact, I submitted a story (that actually got accepted) to Slashdot a few months ago saying that Warcraft3 wouldn't be out until 2002. Blizzard is almost always the first to say "Calm down, its not ready yet" as opposed to other items on the list that we were always being told "Expect to get this real soon!"
I always felt Vapor involved products that we were falsely told to expect soon. Both AI and Warcraft3 were things that we should have known weren't coming anytime soon. Thinking otherwise is a result of being ill informed.
Half-Life was an FPS that managed to avoid being cookie-cutter, through the inclusion of plot and scripting. Most FPSes at the time consisted of "You're on a strange world. Go fight.", while Half-Life had a more immersive feel to it. The technology behind it may have been nothing revolutionary, but the overall effect was anything but cookie-cutter.
Thief redefined the term FPS to mean "first person sneaker". It's technically the same sort of game as Quake or Doom, but a few tweaks to the rules of the world result in entirely different gameplay.
Just because most FPS games have been content to go with very straight-forward games, there're significant changes that can be made to avoid being cookie-cutter.
That "digital film" idea is a pretty damn good idea. If it had a good enough sensor, it would rock to be able to use a real camera with real lenses. It makes me wonder if they could make the sensor part thin enough to fit in the average camera.
Other problems are battery life (not a lot of room for batteries), and where can you put a flash card (don't think it would fit in that format).
Still, if someone could pull that off, it might rock hard. Imagine being able to use either film or digital depending on what you're doing.
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
I swear I will do my damndest to incoporate this line into everyday conversation tomorrow. I just want to see the jaws drop.
Thanks for the laugh, troll,
-- RLJ
It's probably a good thing that the iSmell didn't make it last year. I can see a whole new world of disasterous hacking in the works. The ability to make somebody's iSmell give off an iFart whenever you felt like it would probably cost companies billions as all their employees begin bickering and taking constant fresh-air breaks.
Wired doesn't get it: software development is HARD. I can't really blame them, though, when so-called software developers don't get it. How hard can it be, I say, when I myself have developed several Visual Basic applications? Naturally this doesn't distinguish between doing it and doing it RIGHT. There is the problem of defining requirements; they generally turn out to conflict; then they change every other week. I'll say it again: developing commercial software for general release is HARD. And for the terminally inattentive, I'll spell out the rule of software release:
It is released when it is released. Don't expect it any sooner.
Anyway, here's Wired's (software) Vaporware for the last three years. Consider this year's in light of it...
Vaporware 1998: Windows 2000
It's here now.
Vaporware 1999
9. Ideaworks3d's Vecta3D
It's here now.
7. Games for the Mac
Not a Mac afficionado; all I know is that there are Mac games, but not many. I'll give them this one.
6. SDMI
It's here now, though flawed in both concept and execution...
5. Daikatana
It's here now.
4. Diablo II
It's here now.
3. Netscape's Communicator 5.0
It's here now (though they secretly incremented the version number while no one was looking).
1. Windows 2000
See 1998's list, above
Vaporware 2000
10: Tribes 2
It's here now.
6: Warcraft III
Hey, they finally nailed one!
4: A New Linux kernel (2.4, specifically)
It's here now.
3: Black and White
It's here now.
2: Duke Nukem Forever
This one's not here, but the article itself states there's no scheduled release date! How is this vaporware?
1: Mac OS X
It's here now.
So, Wired, in the software category, you called 2 out of 14 (both of which are still under active development). The rest weren't vapor. How, then, should we view this year's software entries?
The fact is that in a free market such labels would already exist, because consumers would demand them!
Oh, they would?
Let's suppose that you're right, and the consumers do demand nutritional labels. Without government intervention, what keeps the business from simply lying ("Hey, look! This Cinna-sugar-pecan-fudge-bun has zero fat and only ten calories!")? Sure, someone might decide something was suspicious and do their own tests...but probably not. Who's going to pay for these tests? Consumers? Nah. Reporters? Perhaps, but the company in question could just pay the reporter's company more to keep them quiet. And finally, even if it somehow comes to light, and consumers lose confidence in that company, it can simply reinvent itself under another brand.
And I noticed you bypassed the other items. Let us look to history. Did seatbelts come about because consumers demanded them? No. Well, surely consumer demand must have put a stop to waste dumping. Oh, no, it hasn't done that either...
Now, I'll admit: in the macroscopic, long term view (and by this I mean "in the 100+ year timeline"), consumer demand may or may not have the desired effect on the marketplace, in its inefficient fashion, because consumer demand is as inefficient as evolution: if you give it long enough, it'll get the job done, but there will be plenty of mistakes along the way, and you'll be dead by the time the desired result comes to pass.
Xanadu has definitely got to be the king of vapourware! Four decades in the making, and still not ready :)
I guess it will never be, really. The original concept was way too wacky, even for modern times. But three cheers to Ted Nelson for his advances in Hypertext systems! Many of his concepts are used on the internet nowadays. Modern version-control systems remind me of his "time-scrolling" idea, and although we dont need "visible" links we certainly would be better off having zero broken links. He even foresaw copyright problems in the digital age!
Ironically, I believe that the libertarian view is that private lawsuits[...]
Wouldn't "private lawsuits" require the government meddling in the affairs of business? Wasn't this whole shebang started because of lawsuits lodged by various parties against Microsoft?
(I'm not trying to argue, here, just to understand. I was under the impression that the Libertarian platform was no government except for a military for national defense, a police force/courts for personal (ie, non-corporate) crimes, and the minimum personnel required to collect taxes to pay for the above.)
allow licenses and agreements that allow public disclosure (the software licensing that prevents printing of statistics, for example)
I don't get this part; did you mean disallow public disclosure?
I think they call that stuff Easy-Cheese or something.
I'm not a nerd, nerds are smart!
First point:
There are two persons. One is a human being, the other a corporation. Let's say the corporation sells a product called a quarter pounder, and represents it as being a quarter pound of vegetables on a bun. It turns out to be a quarter pound of ground kangaroo on a bun. The corporation lied to the human, and now will not return the money.
Under libertarian system, obviously, the human can complain loudly and frequently about the actions of the corporations. I believe that *some* libertarians would also say that the human has a right to appear before court. There is a verbal contract: corporation will provide a quarter pound of vegetables on a bun to human in exchange for $1.99. Corporation did not fulfill their end of the bargain. Courts are supposed to solve disagreements between people. Here is such a case.
And the other part (about disallowing public discourse) was indeed a type on my part. Sorry.
Also, I should note that I'm not an expert on Libertarians. This is just my understanding of their views.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
It's one of many available commercially-produced mods for DN3D. Some of them are very entertaining, and humorous in the same way DN3D itself is, only moreso. I have one based on a Carribbean resort setting -- all the aliens are in swimwear, and the weapons have all been replaced by squirt guns and such. (And of course, roughly 10x the bikini babes...)
And the brethren went away edified.
...goes to GNOME's lack of anti-aliased fonts.
AA fonts may not have been promised by any developers but how can we live in the year 2002 without anti-aliased fonts on our desktop? Sometimes I find a quiet, isolated spot and just sob quietly thinking about it.
I know there's the gdkxft project, but let's get it into standard distributions soon.
It is on the alltime greatest vaporware games. Its worth a read.
Then there was also <insert Microsoft slam here>. And don't forget <insert Sun's latest Java-enabled pipe dream> - I mean, who couldn't see that coming!
OK,
- B
http://www.bradheintz.com/
- updated
Wired should take a look at Brooks work ( http://www.ai.mit.edu/ ), they are getting there, pritty darn quickly too...g roup/cog ) is flipping cool, as is many other projects at the AI lab at MIT.
Cog ( http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/humanoid-robotics-
mlk
Wow, I should not post when knackered.
Please actually try something before you troll.
redHAT 7.2 works perfectly (as perfectly as any windows OS) on almost any hardware (including laptops! this Compaq EVO is running 7.2 and I didnt recompile or download SQUAT.
Please stop spreading blatent lies.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I hereby coin the term "Crumble Ware" to apply to things like Anarchy Online, that maybe should have been left as Vapor for a little longer. They were sent out into the hands of eager consumers before they were done, and were shoddy and incomplete.
/. here )
So I'm now nominating the following products into the Crumble Ware top 10:
Mac OS X v 10.0 (10.1.2 is actually quite good)
Xbox (see
Halo (only on xbox)
AO
"What thou shalt not, I shalt did!" -Bart Simpson
I find it funny that Warcraft 3 made the list on the same day that beta test signups for WC3 are being accepted. Mind you, the site seems to be completely down at the moment.
---
I didn't want to leave this space blank.
well, it should come as comforting to recognize the signs of unrest when people like us are beginning just to say 'fuck it' and start fighting the system. we all know where this is going, given the relative peace on this continent for so long, and guys like him will be first to the wall when they force us to fight for our will to live in the kind of world we want to.
I just wish schools of thought didn't always have to polarize like they always seem to do. Actually, what a strange thought I just had. History seems to support the notion of social ideals being formed, and then, over time, undergoing a sort of sociologic and ideological mitosis.
"Old man yells at systemd"
The only thing that could be more vaporus than Duke Nukem Forever would be the OS X version of Duke Nukem Forever.
WikiAfterDark.com It's a sex wiki, go now!
Mozilla, Konqueror, Opera, Netscape 4.0+, and IE 5.0+ fully support PNG.
OmniWeb seems to as well - that's what I'm using to post this on my Mac OS X box.
And, just to keep this on topic, my vapor vote goes to IPv6. I hear deployment is still just around the corner. In the mean time, I still can't get a guaranteed static IP at any price from a cable or DSL provider here in Buffalo.
Supposedly IPv6 will have enough addresses to give one to each of the angels dancing on the head of the proverbial pin. Can't wait.
--saint
This is just more proof that when a person (OJ Simpson) or corporation(m$) has the financial resources and the power that comes with it to go one on one with the gov in a court room they always win and we (the taxpayers) lose?
Prospecting Stinks. Stop Wasting Time on Cold Calling.
Registration for beta starts in about three hours (PST). Dang it (for ActiveX part)!
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
I thought Top Ten Lists were OUT in the wake of Sept. 11. No wait, that was In or Out lists. That were out. My bad. I'm outta here.
Edith Keeler Must Die
Number 1: Major Code Rewrite
Duke has never been about the engine its always been about Duke and the wacky adventures he gets into. "Come Get Some" comes to mind. 3DRealms went back and totally rewrote the game for the Unreal engine. Never ever ever ever go back and totally rewrite something unless your working in parallel. It just isn't worth it.
Number 2: This has been hyped for a LONG TIME
I was still living in the DORMS playing Quake 2 when they said this thing would be out soon. I distinctly remember chatting with people on the second map on the original CTF rotation about it. Don't give me the crap about "Its done when its done".
Number 3: Give leeway to those companies that deserve
At Microsoft anytime you are on a team that ships a product you get an award. id Software and John Caramack will have shipped Doom 3 before this thing gets out the door. Blizzard gets leeway because they generally take longer but STUFF SHIPS! This must make 3DRealms investors bonkers. Do you pull the plug on the funding or do you get out a product.
I predict DNF will be exactly like Romero's piece of trash. It will smack of dating, be full of holes, and everyone will laugh. Show of hands of people who thing they could have studied C++ and game programming for two years then went pack to an ALREADY built engine and wrote this thing? Not sure if I could but I bet a big hunk of individuals here could.
HT
The thing is, I don't think TF2 wil get noticed much. FireArms and Day of Defeat are the same dang format as TFC, and have drowned it out. TFC now looks outdated compared to CStrike and such. I got bored with it quickly.
I think they did start shipping at a point this year actually, but after a month they suspended operations:
link.
Or alternatively: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005NCE Z/o/qid%3D1010095826/sr%3D8-1/ref%3Dsr%5Faps%5Fvg% 5F1%5F1/026-6218755-4392446
two words, HOLY SHIT!
Our Price: £27.99
Platform: Windows 95, Windows 98
Release Date: 8 March, 2002. Not Yet
Available: You may still order this product.
We will ship it to you when it is released by the manufacturer
-- Dan
What about the Tux2 file system that was announced on Slashdot last year? The SourceForge site is dead and Google only turns up the original announcement and links to dead pages.
Amazon are renowned for selling items when they don't have an actual release date. If it's not announced at 3Drealms, then nobody knows the ship date.
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