10 Technologies MIA

Fantasy Football writes "CNet lists ten technologies they miss, which includes Napster, the originial Palm Pilot, good keyboards, and more. From the article: 'Technology evolves. Good technologies and products usually survive; poor ones usually go extinct. But not all of the technologies and tech products that have swirled down the drain of the tech gene pool deserved their fate. Here are some big, and some small, ideas that we thought we'd have with us forever, but that unfortunately have gone the way of the dodo.'"

Comments

top 10 /. top 10 posts!

[Dahamma]

Yeah, CNET is having a top 10 celebration for its 10th aniversary... can we just point everyone to it rather than having to make each one a new article!?

http://www.cnet.com/4520-11136_1-6250162-1.html?ta g=bottom

Re:My take on the list

[dbIII]

There's no such thing as a "Zero Emission Vehicle"

Of course there is - it means zero emission from the vehicle, emission happens elsewhere. It isn't the way to cut down on energy consumption or CO2 emission, it's a way to not have CO, NOx or SOx where people are breathing it. The first hybrid car I saw in 1987 was for this purpose - above ground at a mine site it ran on fuel and below ground it ran on batteries - no emissions when it mattered.

From what I've read the zero emissions policy was at first a reaction to unbelievable amounts of pollution from automobiles in L.A. - any other slant that was put on it after that was people playing politics and the nuclear lobby trying to get green credibility (and possibly succeeding).

Re:Space travel - no kidding

[OldManAndTheC]

The idea of expanding into space is good for many reasons, but reducing population pressure is not one of them. The number of new persons born each year will easily outstrip any conceivable launch capability, even if there were somewhere for people to go.

We must reduce population growth, and the best way to do that is to grant more political power to women, especially in developing countries (where in many cases, they are considered chattel). There's a good article on Wikipedia discussing the theory of demographic transition and how it affects population, and how giving women more economic and political control naturally reduces the birth rate. Of course access to contraception and (gasp!) abortion is important as well.

I agree that the "what, me worry?" approach will not help, and unfortunately that is the one adopted by most of our political leaders. No one wants to tell people to stop having kids. In a few countries with declining populations citizens are actually encouraged to accelerate the birth rate!