Posted by
timothy
on from the cd-r-handheld-ogg-player dept.
ThatKidYouDid writes "Wired.com is holding a vote for this years best
vaporware. My vote definitely goes to the oqo, although I'd still snag one if they ever materialized. What do others really wish could have happened by Xmas?"
While not 2002's.... UO 2...
by
TibbonZero
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
I would have really liked to see UO ship, or at least release the source... instead of basically firing everyone and burning most of the work for no good reason..
If there is a piece of vaporware to rule them all it is Team Fortress 2. Check out the website http://tf2.sierra.com. The last time the news on the site was updated was Jan 23, 2001!!! The game has been in the works since 1998!! According to all the official websites TF2 is still in developement/coming soon. Neither Sierra nor Valve has reported that the game is dead. Some version of the game was even demo'd once or twice, which means it was SOMETHING.
TF2, king of vaporware.
-- The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
I actually did some sound effects work for this back when it was originally slated to be a Quake 2 mod by the TF team (before they all joined on with Valve). You can actually still download the MP3 of the sounds all put together, made to sound like one huge battle.
Once they got bought out by Valve, I got paid for the work I did and that was the last I saw/heard about the game really. Looking back at it now though, I hope they really don't use my old sounds, as they're quite dated and admitedly amateur.
At one point, while I was working on the last version of TF released for QuakeWorld (remember that?), Robin of TF had me take a look at a first run of TF2 for Quake2. I actually think I have that still laying around here on an old CD somewhere.
Remember Zeosync made that huge fuss claiming 100:1 compression on random data?
Many news agencies like Reuters ran with it and as usual Shanon proved them wrong (try www.zeosync.com hehe)
If only they had read the newsgroup compression FAQ they would have saved time and all that investor money (they had over $10 million at one point I believe).
Anyhow I thought that was the best vaporware... if only it could have been true;(
Re:100:1 Compression Baby!!!
by
frozenray
·
· Score: 4, Funny
> Remember Zeosync made that huge fuss claiming 100:1 compression on random data?
I bet that they probably achieved an even better compression ratio than 100:1 on their venture capital.
-- "There are already a million monkeys on a million typewriters, and Usenet is NOTHING like Shakespeare." - Blair Houghton
Soviet Russian Linux Distro?
by
TibbonZero
·
· Score: 4, Funny
Never came out.. but Soviet Russia was mentioned a few too many times...
Neverwinter Nights for Linux is technically vaporware, as it has yet to be released, and isn't going to be released before January 10.
QuarkXPress for Mac OS X
by
phillymjs
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
I actually submitted this one to Wired last week when they originally posted the request for submissions.
Those fuckwits at Quark have been pissing on their customers for years, and now they're making my life harder because I have to deal with supporting the Classic environment instead of being able to make a clean break to OS X.
I've heard that this way-overdue version of XPress has been the final straw for many of Quark's customers, and they're finally dropping XPress for Adobe InDesign. Quark's customer-hostility has done more to sell copies of InDesign than anything dreamed up by the folks in Marketing at Adobe.
... a RMS approved completely free operating system with nothing but GNU tools/kernel/etc.
... an actual gaming system based on linux.
... a crash proof secure windows distro.
... peace on earth
so many to choose from... so so many. I know HURD will never reach full developement (no one will dump linux to do something new), 3D in linux sucks hence why there are no games for linux, crash proof windows that is secure (MS always promises and always fails horribly, and well peace on earth and good will towards men (not so long as we got a war mongers running america...)
-- Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
Re:Vaporware ...
by
(startx)
·
· Score: 4, Informative
... an actual gaming system based on linux
Did you try the Gentoo 1.4rc1 live cd? It booted, loaded the nvidia driver, and started the ut2003 demo for me with zero trouble.
I wonder how well the geek-virgin stereotype holds up to the myth, or if it just gets thrown around because we like to poke fun at ourselves. I'd like to see this slashdot poll:
Are you a virgin?
Yes
No
I'm keeping my virginty for Cowboy Neal you insensitve cold!
Silicon Film Technologies should be on there, hands down. They won in 2000 or so. You'd think after two more years they'd find a way to make this work.
It's vapor, but it could be the road to digital for people with high-quality 35mm SLR cameras. Everyone wants to go digital for the convenience, the instant feedback on the shot, the uh, privacy of not going through a photo lab, etc. There must be over a million people with SLR's of higher optical quality than most of today's point-and-shoot digitals.
In fact, I can't imagine why this hasn't flown. I don't think anyone else has beaten them to the punch, and it seems technically feasible. Maybe they can't get the sensor thin enough to close the camera back?
Gotta be Duke Nukem Forever
by
hoser
·
· Score: 5, Funny
Yeah, it's made the list before, but it deserves to be on there again. We've been waiting for this game since:
- Clinton was president.
- The Spice Girls were popular.
- Princess Diana was alive.
- Tony Soprano was a twinkle in David Chase's eye.
- Yahoo was a good search engine.
- The X-Files was on, and it was worth watching.
It's been a long, long time since Duke Nukem Forever was announced. 3DRealms should get an award for most vapourous software ever.
--
hoser: Slashdot reader since 1987.
Re:MS .Net Server
by
TeknoDragon
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
RTFM
"As in previous years, software locked in the pre-release, beta-testing stage is considered vaporware, even if it's widely available. It hasn't shipped until it's shrink-wrapped."
We keep hearing about technologies for making low-cost, large flat panel displays. But either they don't work, or they don't stay cheap if made large.
There's been talk for years about "printing transistors", "organic light emitting diodes", "E-Ink", and similar concepts. So far, none of these technologies have progressed beyond the prototype or tiny screen level.
Since the market for this technology would be huge (all TV sets, for starters) if it worked and was cheaper than CRTs, it's the premiere vaporware technology. Nothing else actually promoted as Real Soon Now has similar volume potential.
Vaporware-like
by
Devil's+BSD
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
The all-time best vaporware, IMHO, is fusion power. In 1950, the experts were saying that we would have self-sustained, controlled fusion reactions on Earth within 50 years. 50 years later, the new deadline is 2050. Curious, isn't it?
-- I'm the Devil the Windows users warned you about.
ICQ and AIM meld (aka unified messaging format)
by
Gudlyf
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
How long has it been sice AOL bought out ICQ, yet we still have both ICQ #'s and AOL login names, and still a seperate messenger for each? How long will it be before these two finally become one, never mind having a single, unified messaging format that we can all use without having to either install one special client to handle all the different servers (i.e., Everybuddy, Trillian, etc.), or run seperate clients for each? ANd I'm not talking about something like Jabber.
How about the DOJ "punishment" in the MS antitrust case?
Last Year's Vaporware: Materialized
by
fo0bar
·
· Score: 5, Funny
It should be noted that out of the 10 items listed by Wired for the 2001 Vaporware list, the following have materialized:
* 3G wireless networks (Although not what we were promised. I have a 3G phone from sprint, but cannot do things like video on demand) * Photoshop for OS X * Warcraft III * Duke Nukem Forever
Err, wait, never mind on the last one.
The .Net "Revolution"
by
Drakker
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
Yes,.Net is coming! Is it a revolution? Not at all, we're going back to the good old mainframes.
Beside, 99% of their architecture isnt even ready.
Re:Next TAOCP volume from Knuth?
by
bedessen
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
Knuth is a guy who likes to plan ahead. On his web site he states that Volume 4 (of The Art Of Computer Programming) will be ready in 2007, and Vol. 5 will be published in 2009. He then goes on to describe how he plans to rewrite Vols. 1-3 after he finishes 5. Finally after that, "God willing" he says, he plans to write Vol. 6 (context-free languages) and Vol. 7 (Compiler Techniques.) We're talking probably 10-20 years into the future here, certainly what I'd call long-term planning.
Just because Sprint calls it 3G...
by
wilson_c
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
...doesn't mean it is.
The reason your Sprint "3G" phone can't handle 3G features like video is that it isn't 3G. Sprint is using interim technology that the rest of the world refers to a "2.5G" - it offers some of the features of 3G while still building on a second generation base. Since 3G has been hyped so much, Sprint just decided to piggyback their inferior technology by calling it 3G.
Linux stampede, MS death
by
NineNine
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
I nominate the stampede of users rushing away from Windows to some flavor of Linux. Every other article here is something like, "Company x is installing Linux on xxx,xxx boxes!! Linux is winning! So, how much longer do you think Microsoft will be around?" Yet somehow, this hasn't even begun to happen.
Slashdot Mirror
I would have really liked to see UO ship, or at least release the source... instead of basically firing everyone and burning most of the work for no good reason..
Tibbon
tibbon.com
Duke Nukem: Forever. 'nuff said.
You zap the moderators with a wand of humor! The moderators resist!
If there is a piece of vaporware to rule them all it is Team Fortress 2. Check out the website http://tf2.sierra.com. The last time the news on the site was updated was Jan 23, 2001!!! The game has been in the works since 1998!! According to all the official websites TF2 is still in developement/coming soon. Neither Sierra nor Valve has reported that the game is dead. Some version of the game was even demo'd once or twice, which means it was SOMETHING.
TF2, king of vaporware.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
Sex - Find It
22 years of empty promises... now *that* is a winner!
Recovery of the American Economy.
Remember Zeosync made that huge fuss claiming 100:1 compression on random data?
;(
Many news agencies like Reuters ran with it and as usual Shanon proved them wrong (try www.zeosync.com hehe)
If only they had read the newsgroup compression FAQ they would have saved time and all that investor money (they had over $10 million at one point I believe).
Anyhow I thought that was the best vaporware... if only it could have been true
Never came out.. but Soviet Russia was mentioned a few too many times...
Tibbon
tibbon.com
The new feature of slashcode to cut down on duplicate stories...
Post this early, funny. Post this late, redundant... better click submit now...
Neverwinter Nights for Linux is technically vaporware, as it has yet to be released, and isn't going to be released before January 10.
I actually submitted this one to Wired last week when they originally posted the request for submissions.
Those fuckwits at Quark have been pissing on their customers for years, and now they're making my life harder because I have to deal with supporting the Classic environment instead of being able to make a clean break to OS X.
I've heard that this way-overdue version of XPress has been the final straw for many of Quark's customers, and they're finally dropping XPress for Adobe InDesign. Quark's customer-hostility has done more to sell copies of InDesign than anything dreamed up by the folks in Marketing at Adobe.
~Philly
I'm still holding my breath on flying cars...
Tibbon
tibbon.com
so many to choose from ... so so many. I know HURD will never reach full developement (no one will dump linux to do something new), 3D in linux sucks hence why there are no games for linux, crash proof windows that is secure (MS always promises and always fails horribly, and well peace on earth and good will towards men (not so long as we got a war mongers running america ...)
Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
What do others really wish could have happened by Xmas?
/. and all, I was thinking sex would be the #1 answer and might say I'm surprised it's not here.
this being
Creationists are a lot like zombies. Slow, but powerful and numerous. And they all want to eat our brains.
Silicon Film Technologies should be on there, hands down. They won in 2000 or so. You'd think after two more years they'd find a way to make this work.
It's vapor, but it could be the road to digital for people with high-quality 35mm SLR cameras. Everyone wants to go digital for the convenience, the instant feedback on the shot, the uh, privacy of not going through a photo lab, etc. There must be over a million people with SLR's of higher optical quality than most of today's point-and-shoot digitals.
In fact, I can't imagine why this hasn't flown. I don't think anyone else has beaten them to the punch, and it seems technically feasible. Maybe they can't get the sensor thin enough to close the camera back?
Yeah, it's made the list before, but it deserves to be on there again. We've been waiting for this game since:
- Clinton was president.
- The Spice Girls were popular.
- Princess Diana was alive.
- Tony Soprano was a twinkle in David Chase's eye.
- Yahoo was a good search engine.
- The X-Files was on, and it was worth watching.
It's been a long, long time since Duke Nukem Forever was announced. 3DRealms should get an award for most vapourous software ever.
hoser: Slashdot reader since 1987.
RTFM
"As in previous years, software locked in the pre-release, beta-testing stage is considered vaporware, even if it's widely available. It hasn't shipped until it's shrink-wrapped."
Lots of guys are still waiting for this.
Since the market for this technology would be huge (all TV sets, for starters) if it worked and was cheaper than CRTs, it's the premiere vaporware technology. Nothing else actually promoted as Real Soon Now has similar volume potential.
The all-time best vaporware, IMHO, is fusion power. In 1950, the experts were saying that we would have self-sustained, controlled fusion reactions on Earth within 50 years. 50 years later, the new deadline is 2050. Curious, isn't it?
I'm the Devil the Windows users warned you about.
How long has it been sice AOL bought out ICQ, yet we still have both ICQ #'s and AOL login names, and still a seperate messenger for each? How long will it be before these two finally become one, never mind having a single, unified messaging format that we can all use without having to either install one special client to handle all the different servers (i.e., Everybuddy, Trillian, etc.), or run seperate clients for each? ANd I'm not talking about something like Jabber.
Trolls lurk everywhere. Mod them down.
How about the DOJ "punishment" in the MS antitrust case?
It should be noted that out of the 10 items listed by Wired for the 2001 Vaporware list, the following have materialized:
* 3G wireless networks (Although not what we were promised. I have a 3G phone from sprint, but cannot do things like video on demand)
* Photoshop for OS X
* Warcraft III
* Duke Nukem Forever
Err, wait, never mind on the last one.
Yes, .Net is coming! Is it a revolution? Not at all, we're going back to the good old mainframes.
Beside, 99% of their architecture isnt even ready.
Knuth is a guy who likes to plan ahead. On his web site he states that Volume 4 (of The Art Of Computer Programming) will be ready in 2007, and Vol. 5 will be published in 2009. He then goes on to describe how he plans to rewrite Vols. 1-3 after he finishes 5. Finally after that, "God willing" he says, he plans to write Vol. 6 (context-free languages) and Vol. 7 (Compiler Techniques.) We're talking probably 10-20 years into the future here, certainly what I'd call long-term planning.
...doesn't mean it is.
The reason your Sprint "3G" phone can't handle 3G features like video is that it isn't 3G. Sprint is using interim technology that the rest of the world refers to a "2.5G" - it offers some of the features of 3G while still building on a second generation base. Since 3G has been hyped so much, Sprint just decided to piggyback their inferior technology by calling it 3G.
I nominate the stampede of users rushing away from Windows to some flavor of Linux. Every other article here is something like, "Company x is installing Linux on xxx,xxx boxes!! Linux is winning! So, how much longer do you think Microsoft will be around?" Yet somehow, this hasn't even begun to happen.