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The Best and Worst Technologies of 2003?
Phoe6 asks: "Last year, at Hexadecimals discussion group we shared a news that Worst Technology of 2002 was TIA (Total Information Awareness by DARPA).
What is the Worst Technology of 2003? For the Best, Time Magazine seems to have adjudged Steve Jobs' iTunes as the Invention of 2003.
What are your ratings?"
I'll not saying best or worst though.
I really hate Dan Patrick.
Oh, the horror...
There's this thing called "two-point-six" or something that Bill keeps ranting about... I dunno... maybe that's it
((lambda x ((x))) (lambda x ((x))))
And the CVS now has AI diplomacy. All, right!
Slashdot: when news breaks, we give you the pieces.
... the pissing videogame from those kids at MIT
Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.
I'd say the PowerMac G5. For one thing, its a completely new design internally, losing a lot of the legacy of old Mac OS machines. (Which they can do since they don't need to support a 20 year old BIOS or OS.) Another advancement is the attention spent on creating a case that can effectively, efficiently, and quietly cooling the new design.
Rutan's rocket ship! Broke the sound barrier in 2003, though it's suborbital spaceflight will be in 2004.
This is America, damnit. Speak Spanish!
While I agree that the Slashdot DDoS attack caused many people quite a bit of annoyance and frustration, I think leaving the impact at that is very short sighted.
Firstly, I don't think the blame for this DDoS can be centered on just one person or group. Obviously, those who attacked Slashdot are to blame, as are Slashdot's sysadmins, and the people at Arrowpoint. And secondly, the costs of this are much greater than you might think.
I have an eight year old daughter. We had a family pet - a rabbit, black, named Midnight, and my daughter was very fond of it. Midnight, sadly, passed away about two months ago. A week or two after Midnight died, my daughter came to me in tears and asked me, "Daddy, why won't God bring Midnight back? I've been praying like Deacon Simmons told me to."
Naturally, I had to think about how to respond to this. I finally answered, "well, honey, God is a little like Slashdot. He can seem arbitrary, cruel, and unresponsive, but he's really a nice guy who's just a little out of touch and is a little slow at responding to requessts."
This was fine, and I thought that would be the end of it. However, when Slashdot went down last week, my daughter burst into my den, positively sobbing and wailing, and managed to choke out "Daddy! Daddy! I can't get to Slashdot!" "Honey," I said, "it's just a website." But, between sobs, she said, "but you said God is just like Slashdot, remember? Does this mean God is dead?"
I tried to console her as best I could, but nothing seemed to work. When Slashdot came back up, she seemed to return to normal, but she hasn't been quite the same since. She doesn't ask me about God so much any more, and she seems less interested in Church.
As a good Christian, I will turn the other cheek, and not call for the punishment of those responsible. But to the heinous criminals and negligents responsible for this, I must ask, how do you feel about destroying a small girl's sense of innocence and wonder about the world? About crushing her childish dreams and idealism? About shattering her faith in God and his benevolence? About possibly having crushed her soul and emotion forever, leaving her to live the rest of her days in spiritual agony as a broken, scarred husk of a person?
I hope all of you think long and hard about what you've done. What is the soul of a child worth, next to a few double-checks of the router?
Thank you.
This has to be the least welcome technology to have come to the public's attention in 2003. Thanks alot, Diebold.
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How about Serial ATA drives which became popular this year. It was about time that the old fashioned ribbon cables were replace with something more modern.
This is America, damnit. Speak Spanish!
...also known as "Beagle 2". I don't have to say which one this belongs to, do I?
This signature is intentionally left blank.
Linux Kernel 2.6
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
Ok, technically it's not out this year, but they have started releasing beta copies to people.
Right before windows XP came out, the majority of home/business users were finally 'getting it' -- they were figuring out the filesystem, the menus, etc.
Then XP came out and turned their world upside down. Sure you can revert the theme and menus back to win2k, but I don't know anyone that has done that. Not to mention new features integrated into explorer, like CD burning and MP3 playing. Quite a steep learning curve for XP's majority users.
Longhorn is going to come out, and users buying a new Dell or Gateway will get it automatically. Sidebars, and SQL data storage? Their world will be turned upside down once again.
_______
2B1ASK1
Just to touch on the other topic posted here about DVD burners the fact that there is multiple formats out has got to be the worst. I don't think the VHS/BETA fight took this long to figure out a winner. One format would help everyone in the long run and its about time we got to it!
Make me your friend. All my friends get +1 modifier and I need friends :)
It's too soon to judge the "worst technology of 2003". Whatever it is, we'll find out later, when the side-effects have made themselves known.
Probably it's some bio-tech invention we haven't heard about, which is going to render us all sterile and hairless, several years from now.
-kgj
-kgj
I was reading an article in a recent issue of DefenseNews recently where they were reporting that a lot of TIA isn't being scraped, it's being given over to private contractors to perform. The feds still think it's a wonderful idea to track everything we do, they just don't want to so directly involved for political reasons. Private companies are not subject to these sorts of pressures and have considerable leeway on how much tracking of customer information they perform. So DARPA is looking to them to do most of the work and simply provide the government with the processed information.
Remember folks, just because CNN says that TIA is over doesn't make it so, necessarily. The privacy vs. terrorist-defense war isn't over -- it's just beginning. And next time, the government won't be so bloody obvious about what it's trying to do.
GMD
watch this
Lemmie see if I got this straight. Inferior camera, none of the advantages of digital apply here, costs more than a disposable film camera.... what's the advantage again? Okay, I can see saving one use film strips, so it is 100% reusable, but that is the only benifit. OTOH, now that it can be hacked, there may be one benifit. A cheap digital that you can take in poor environemntal conditions and not feel bad about wrecking it. ALso, you can use it in situation where you know you will destroy it, such as taking close up pics of explosions, etc.
you're forgetting the true technological breakthrough that Iraq's technologists made when they perfected cloaking for said WMDs ;)
Software Freedom Day!.
Extensible Firmware Interface EFI
Worst technology introduced. MS/Intel
Replaces traditional PC BIOS and Consumer Rights simultaneously.
I'm just glad this year passed without further proliferation of those damned singing plastic fishes.
Best: Super Model Cloning Kit
Worst: GE Bathtub Toaster ( fresh hot toast while you bathe )
I hope they don't sell it to the Romulans or we're all fucked!
Hardware central have a great review of the year here: http://www.hardwarecentral.com/hardwarecentral/edi torials/5139/1/
Personally I cant decide what I would class as the worst. There's plenty to praise and plenty to whine about.
It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others.
Trolls lurk everywhere. Mod them down.
Sorry, but iTunes seems to be pretty worthless to me. I can't find anything I like on it. I go to search for "Foo Fighters" and it suggests Too Fighters instead. What kind of online music store doesn't have Foo Fighters!? I open up Poisoned, type in Foo Fighters and voila. Tons of songs available for free. The problem with all these online music stores is selection and overpriced tracks IMHO. It's certainly not the best invention of 2003. Napster on the other hand probably was the best invention of its year.
The radio tags for billing/tracking. There's a technology with a lot of promise for being very, very cool, and at the same time, possessing vast potential for abuse.
I can see the arms race now. RFID tags, RFID countermeasures.
Stores selling things by RFID, and claiming countermeasures are the providence of theives (echos of RIAA, MPAA).
Sigh.
www.voiceofthehive.com - Beekeeping and Honeybees for those who don't.
The evidence SCO invented to claim ownership of Linux.
I woke up on Christmas to little kids driving up and down the street on gopeds and mopeds outside my parent's house. At first I thought they were battery powered and didn't go very fast, but I was apparently wrong. They honk at each other and idle them outside, polluting the air in more ways than one. They fly down the road faster than anyone without traffic sense should be allowed. And people wonder why americans are generally overweight and unhealthy.
So in evaluating technologies as best and worst, are there any personal feelings people rate these with? Personally I would say that improvements to communication and travel are good because it brings family and friends closer - 1200 miles doesn't seem as far as it used to, and it's a lot cheaper to get there (It was actually cheaper for me to drive home for Christmas than fly this year). On the other hand, people like my father refuse to use a self-propelled lawn mower because it forces him to get some routine exercise. He wouldn't say it's a bad technology, just not useful to him.
Shudder...
Right. 250 mass grave sites have been reported and only 40 or so have been investigated so far:
+ 1983: 8,000 Kurds rounded up an executed
+ 1988: The "Anfal campaign" 180,000 Iraquis disappeared
+ 1986: Sarin, VX, and Tabun chemical weapons kill between 8,000 and 24,000 Kurds, injure thousands more. There are pictures of the attacks where you can see the gas over the villages and pictures of the victims, not to mention Iraqi documentation.
+ 1991: Tens of thousands of Shites killed
+ Iran-Iraq War: Up to 1 million dead. Numbers likely unknowable. Documented chemical attacks against Iranians. Iran estimates 60,000 affected.
+ 4000 Kurdish villages wiped off the map.
+ Human Rights Watch reports from 50,000 to 100,000 Kurds killed in the various attacks and purges over the years with 500,000 becoming refugees.
+ So far: 300,000 victims in mass graves. Some with hands tied behind their backs apparently buried alive.
And we also have credible reports of medical experimentation, beatings, crucifxion, hammering nails into fingers and hands, amputating penis and breasts with an electric carving knife, spraying victim's eyes with insecticide, branding with a hot iron, raping children and wives in front of parents and spouse, nailing tongues to wooden boards, extracting teeth with pliers, cutting off of tongues, victims shredded in plastic shredding machines.
Victims so far: approaching a million in a country with a population of something like 25 million.
How about a moderation of -1 pedantic.
I mean come ON, how many free rides does Apple get? I like Apple, they have great designers, but don't you think it's kind of retarded to give best invention/product to a product that is, in essence, just a rip off on numerous products already made? Not only that, but don't you think its a sad statement on Apple AND The industry if we give props to a program that is neither original nor all that great?
I mean let's see here. First you have the annoying fact that iTunes is sooooooo horribly limited from a technology perspective. AIFF is the testicle sweat of codecs, AAC is just Apple's way of invading your womb, mp3 is a blind man's bluff, and (jump back) IT HAS WAV CAPABILITY. Hold the phones, get Sony circa 1982 on the phone, WE CAN RECORD A CD IN A 20 YEAR OLD FORMAT! Point is I don't consider a measly four options for codecs very good, especially when adding in the rest is literally point and click.
But, you say, I have the iTunes store! You sure do partner, but its kind of a one way trip since AAC files are a pain to convert out of AAC (see capturing audio) and you can't shop anywhere else with iTunes. Yeah, nothing like the glorious method of using one product to force use of a second product, eh? Wait a second, that sounds like a similar plot I saw someone in Redmond try!
From just a format perspective, how about the fact that winamp5 has like 10 codecs (haven't looked, but it supports everything I've trried including WAV, MP3, OGG, FLAC, etc.). True, I like the iTunes interface a lot more, but the program itself is more robust in winamp than iTunes.
So basically the grand point here is that unless you use an iPod iTunes isn't required reading, and while the program is snazzy it isn't necessarily the best and is definitely not original.
-rt
I nominate OnStar vehicle GPS system for both best and worst.
Best because (among other uses) if your car gets ripped off, they can find it fast.
Worst because it can be used as vehicle-embedded spyware.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
You are so very correct, yet I can't help but wonder if leaving off the "DUMBASS" might have helped.
:-)
It is possible that if you had left off the "DUMBASS" the poster whom you corrected might have seen your post and thought, "hark, a link _would_ be more useful than a URL. I shall use that next time." Instead, with your technique, the poster might think, "Oh my, I am truly a DUMBASS. Since I can't do anything right I may as well not post at all... sniff," and we would miss the benefit of his knowledge.
Thank you for your informative viewpoint, but please keep in mind that we all learn faster we use our polite voices. Have a nice day!
TW
Vaporware is a 'never has been'
Abandonware is a 'had it, but sold/disposed/threw it out'.
We know he had them, the UN knows he had them, *he* knew he had them. His Kurdish and Iranian victims certainly knew he had them.
Go back a few years and ask Al Gore about Saddams WMD's. Ask Hans Blix. Ask Tom Daschle. Jaques Chirac. John Kerry. Madeline Albright. See what they say.
They were all campaigning hard to go to war, because we knew (or they told us) that Saddam had, and was building more, WMD's. Now, because Bush says the same things and actually does something about it, suddenly it's all a falsehood. An 'illegal war'.
Why weren't you yelling "vaporware" when Clinton attacked with those cruise missiles?
The real question is...what happened to all that stuff? Did he, in fact, dispose of it? Well WTF didn't he provide unambiguous proof of that? Or is it merely buried out in the desert, like they did with some frontline aircraft.
"It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons."
--Sen Hillary Clinton, Oct 10, 2002
"If Saddam rejects peace and we have to use force, our purpose is clear. We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program."
--President Bill Clinton, Feb. 17, 1998
I would have to say your wrong on this point. Windows Server 2003 is the most complete Windows os to date. I'm not saying this because I'm pro MS in anyway, but the 2003 operating system is 100 times better then Windows 2000 and about 100 times better then XP (giving into the fact that XP is better then 2000 in many ways but opens many new problems that were are almost tottaly fixed in 2003). I enjoy the control and flow of 2003, and I praise them for locking it down in the install. This turned out to be a very valueable feature for our company that does Windows (as well as Linux and BSD) webhosting on both dedicated and shared systems (so we have 100s of machines to setup that we don't have to us an image system for that install right off the cd or over the lan without a hitch. Also as provider of distrubted LAN solutions for small to medium sized companies that can't afford full time IT departmarts, 2003 Server (including Small Biz Server 2003) simplifies setting up the distrubtied network and keeping it secure (all be it, it costs more for the hardware and software aspect to something that Linux could do with 5% of the resources required, but it still averages less then hiring someone full time).
Windows Server 2003 has the ability to do things that previous versions couldn't even fathum from a programming aspect. The networking aspect is about a thousand times better with the ablity to (not super dooper but good anough that anyone with experience with routing couldn't work something to just make it work).
Understand that I'm a born Linux user myself, and I end up installing Cygwin, Mozilla (Firebird mostly), GCC, Apache, PHP, Perl, TLC, and about a hundred other Linux tools on just about every windows machine I come across that I have to use for more then 10 minutes. I know that Windows has querks but I would rate it towards the top in this case.
No.
Easily the best technology of 2003 was the Slashdot Dupe-Post-Checker(c). Using the up-to-now unknown technologies of "regular expressions" and "pattern matching", the wiz-kid staff at Slashdot was finally able to automatically check if a story had already been posted before.
Oh wait, I'm getting ahead of myself.. that isn't due out until 2004, right? Or maybe it's just vaporware..
Unencrypted wireless keyboards. Oh man, how did that get out of the gate?
ActiveX Spyware. Looks like an official message from the OS, better click on it.
MP3 players under 256 megabytes. Look ma! I have the convience of spending over 200 dollars for something that barely holds more music than carrying around a el-cheapo CD player and two CDs, plus with the added advantage of lossy compression!
The Color T-Mobile sidekick. "Whoops, we screwed the pooch on licensing so we're going to remotely delete your games. Also, there is no software to download from developers. Enjoy your vendor lock-in!"
Anything targeted at "business people." "Oh hi IT department. I saw a cool ad for this treo/PDAphone/speech2text/etc but I'm too stupid to read the instructions so lets setup a time where you can train me on the stupid stuff I can afford to buy every week and then never use again."
Email to phone services. "Now I can get spam read to me by a computer voice on my cell phone!"
"Speed-up" dial-up web proxies that cost almost as much as DSL. Geez people, just get the damn DSL line.
Segway HT Has yet to revolutionize anything but has shown us how the media can be exploited for free advertising.
Red Hat Linux.
RH:Screw you guys, we're going corporate, you know, where the money is.
ME:But, but I'll pay you for updates! In fact I do!
RH:Too bad kid.
Lindows. Worst. Name. Ever. Its like a Sonyo or a Magnetbox.
Windows/Office activation. Pain for when you need to re-install and pushes people back to the 2000 products.
Cellphone earpieces with hanging mics. You look like a crazy person talking to yourself. No really, you do.
AGP 8x Thanks for making my old AGP cards obsolete and bringing back old PCI cards for PCs that don't need kick-ass 3D.
Best tech:
Alltheweb.com Google now has a kick-ass competitor.
The T-mobile sidekick. Once you get over the vendor lock-in its the best mobile browser out there, sans java-script.
The Treo600. Camera and all the palm apps you can handle and it plays MP3s.
Google text-ads. This should be self-explanatory.
Mandrake policy. Nice to see a distro care enough to say how long they're willing to support the product.
Gnomemeeting. Its like a big geek party.
DVD players that can play SVCDs. Finally.
Adapative spam filters. Just golden.
The Firebird/Thunderbird projects. Bye, bye IE/Outlook on windows.
Wifi everywhere. Love it.