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The Onion in 2056
agonist writes "Has anyone seen The Onion in 2056? I accidentally ran across it after clicking on one of the hyperlinks in my weekly Onion email." It's been awhile since we link The Onion. Always good for numerous laughs.
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Satire.... meant to be funny.... not to predict future accurately....????
The Crimson Dragon
Sure, since 50 years ago (1955), it was pretty much like it is today...well, except for the Internet, the Cold War and Globalization
Globalization has been happening for several hundred years. Start with China's and Spain's silver trade for one. Nothing new, just no one noticed it until recently.
Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
One story they missed, though, is that even in 2056, some slashdot geeks still don't have a sense of humor.
Fer chrissakes... so it's in Flash... turn off flashblocker for 5 friggin' minutes and read some of the stories... they're quite good.
I can literally hear my computer huffing and puffing to keep up with this page, because the temperature-controlled fan turned on as they rendered.
"Semi-People" Magazine features "50 Hottest Mutant Bachelors"... ...classic.
Those wacky humanoids.
I might know what I'm talkin' about, but then again, this is Slashdot...
For those entirely missing the point, the problem is the old maxim that over time the usefulness of proprietary software (and also proprietary plugins) drops inexorably to zero.
A simple example - I'm running a 64-bit version of Firefox on Linux. There is no Flash plugin available for this platform, and there is nothing I or anyone else can do about it because only Macromedia make the plugins (yes, I know you could reverse-engineer the thing...)
So, I can't see the content, now in 2005. What will it be like in 2056? What are the chances of Macromedia still producing a plugin or supporting a 60 year-old technology? Flash content has an unknown lifespan completely out of your control.
HTML is an open standard. There are free programs available now which can parse it. When you use HTML you can be sure that in the future there is a very good chance of it still being accessible because even if the standard falls into disuse you can still go back and read the open spec and recompile / reuse the free code out there.
Flash in 2056? It's true irony...
> Flash in 2056? It's true irony...
I actually took this to be part of the joke. web content out of control, contributing to the hellishness of dystopia.
more accurately, I didn't take it as a direct slam on Flash, but rather a statement on how we seem to move toward complexity instead of simplicity. (cell phones are a good example.)
gadgets gone wild, you know.
I call bullshit. You find it to be un-funny because you just plain can't look past your own political bias. When Clinton was in office he provided plenty of material to lampoon. Bush just seems to provide even more, and it's not like they're not concious of what an easy target he is: "VP Cheney Bursts from Bush's Chest Cavity" for example. I mean, it's rediculous, funny, but biased? Eye of the beholder man... it's like all those conservatives that BS about 'liberal media', but are convinced Fox News is without bias. You're fooling yourself.