Slashdot Mirror
Tech Predictions for 2004
Quirk writes "The Independent has the predictions of Charles Arthur for 2004. 'The ubiquity of the iPod, the return of the Mac, and the simplicity of the portable memory stick are just some of the developments that could change our lives in 2004.'"
# Moore's Law will be deemed "obsolete". Despite this, faster computers will still be produced. We will also see x86-64 chips proliferate the market.
# Linux becomes ready for the desktop (they've predicted this every year).
# Doom 3 still won't be released.
# The total destruction of Microsoft's monopoly due to the utter, complete failure of their upcoming retarded product lines. Bill Gates' Ring Of Power tossed into the fires of Mt. Redmond and becomes molten slag. The towers of Microsoft crumble and all rejoice. (Note to Microsoft apologists : If you find this offensive, you need a sense of humour. If you're still unhappy with this, well, you suck.)
# BSD finally dies. (Note to BSD snobs : See above about Microsoft apologists)
# KDE and GNOME merge into one project. Supporters from both camps become outraged and civil war breaks out.
# Linux 2.7 will be forked, ported to run on vending machines and kitchen appliances. 2.6 becomes truly stable, and nobody will care.
# The RIAA will hand out more lawsuits, some of them for toddlers and livestock.
# Darl McBride follows the RIAA's footsteps, and starts suing toddlers and livestock too for unauthorized use of SCO intellectual property.
# Martians recover Beagle 2, reprogram it and send it back to to conquer Earth.
Practically the entirety of business now relies on computers for just about everything, yet few, if any, can find careers working with computers?
Business isn't willing to pay for products, innovation and careers, so we get brands, mortgage commercials and layoffs.
The ubiquity of the iPod, the return of the Mac, and the simplicity of the portable memory stick are just some of the developments that could change our lives in 2004.
So, if I buy these Apple products and flash memory, my life will change and this gaping chasm which plagues my existance will be gone forever?
To hell with new years resolutions! Where's my credit card!
SEO Copywriter. Just Say ON
There will likely continue to be an increase in crime due to several factors, such as increasing poverty because of neoliberal economic policies, and also due to importation of poverty from 3rd world, which also lowers wages.
I predict that this increasing poverty will cause a boom in home and auto security devices which are linked to personal computers in order to provide more sophisticated theft deterrents. For example, motion detectors which transmit detected motion signals to a personal computer via serial port or USB interface via either wireless transmission or signal wires.
The motion detected signals will be detected by software that will be able to be configured by an unsophisticated user to take actions that will scare off burglars. For example, play useful sound files output to speakers outside. The sound files might be randomly selected files that sound like a security officer talking to a dispatched about an intruder.
Also the computer could communicate with relays and stepper motors via via serial port or USB interface to turn on and move in a random, jerky manner an outside floodlight.
There are some products currently out now that can provide these deterrents, but they typically too expensive, unreliable, or too hard to use right now.
eat shiat and bark at the moon
Return of the Mac? Mark Morrison is singing again?!
Noooooo!!!!
Some of the music download stores which opened in 2003, and are set to open in 2004, will "consolidate" - that is, close or merge, because it's not a great money-making market.
What is wrong with this picture (paraphrasing) "in 2004, the cost of 256 MB USB memory will cut in half from it's current $223 (125 pound) price". What planet is he buying flash memory from?
"Spam will get worse"
"Apple won't release a tablet, phone, or camera"
These are some of the most amazingly crappy predictions I've ever seen. Easily half of them have already come true. The rest are obvious enough that my 5-year-old already knows they will happen.
---gralem
USB "flash memory" sticks will become very popular, and applications will be released that can be stored on them to run on any computer without altering its settings.
These things are hard to part with once you get them. They're so nice to have, being able to carry around documents or what have you, but the only thing that stinks about them is that you can't just "hand them off" to others like you can do with floppy disks or CD-Rs. When something like that costs $40 or $50, it's hard to let it go.
The other disappointing thing is that, unlike Floppys / CDs, if your system goes to hell, the BIOS isn't equipped to automatically boot or mount a USB memory stick, leaving you shit outa luck if Windows is behaving badly (reminds me of the time I thought I could help someone install a service pack on an XP machine by keeping it on my memstick...turns out that he needed the service pack to help fix a problem he had with USB devices (downloaded and installed a USB 2.0 driver fix for his motherboard that needed XP SP1, which he didn't have) and it left us both high and dry until I got back and burned it onto CD...he didn't really want to wait four or five hours to download the 50MB file from his modem).
But you know, I'd LOVE to see a bootable pendrive option...it would be so sweet and easy to help someone fix their computer by just plugging your handy-dandy USB memstick right into a USB port and have everything right there at your fingertips, rather than carry around bulky CD-R media.
yeah. sure.
did anybody actually click on this? You have to pay to read the 2003 article...
very kind of him to explain "consolidate"
oh, btw what does "galvanise" mean?
is this really noteworthy? all download stores use mp3.
yeah. sure.
aka "files"
on the computer there will be a general software framework that can "read" these "files" and enable you to "work" with the "contents" independent of the OS and hardware: document files, excel files, image files, html files, audio files.
can anyone imagine normal users doing that?
I don't use the Mac, but I can't imagine that to be true: document and email macro viruses?
______________________________________________
sigamajig...