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Technology Predictions for 2006?
OffTheLip writes "As 2006 fast approaches it's time for some to gaze into the crystal ball of technology and predict what will be hot, what will make a difference in our lives or make someone rich and famous. The Mercury News takes a shot at predicting the coming year of technology. No great revelations but it nice to see clean technologies make the list. The list is light on pure technology and big on trends. Perhaps killer apps are not as important as they once were thought to be." What would Slashdot users put in their top 10?
this is the year we all get flying cars!
I'm anxious to see dynamic (digital) paper, like with newspapers and junk, but I doubt we'll be seeing them this year.
Most likely the number one spot will be a-la-carte television and music downloading. Not just to compete with piracy, but just because that's what people want.
The domestication of the dog continues unabated.
microsoft makes a boatload of cash while their demise is predicted on slashdot,
linux is _almost_ ready for the desktop,
and duke nukem forever will briefly reach beta, only to be pulled
That we will have _____ wonderful technology in 20 years.
Because for some reason, everything wonderful always seems to be 20 years away.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
2006 will be the year Duke Nukem Forever comes out!
This just in: 2006 will be the year of the dupe!
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
time machine. go back in time, before i read this useless headline....
Although Microsoft didn't do so hot with their "trusted computing" initiative, they'll do much better with "trusted people". Check out a future issue of Playboy: "Hottest Places to Have Your RFID Chip Inserted! Please Your Woman and Keep Your Nation Safe at the Same Time!"
Ex nihilo nihil fit.
I think that most innovations will come in video and handheld form. Things will get more consolidated very quickly, and the handheld will become even more central than it is now. I hope to see something like an iPod Video that can store movies at screen sizes creater than 320x240 just so they can be hooked up to TVs and played back anywhere. Also, the outcome of Apple Intel machines should be interesting - one place for OS X, Windows, and Linux to all run at the same time.
It's evolution baby, not revolution, and that's the way I like it :)
I predict that by the third quarter of 2006 I will finally be able to drive to work in my flying car.
Linux on the desktop?
Computers will become twice as powerful and so expensive only the 6 richest people in the world will be able to afford them.
Google will come up with GoogleRate, a neat application that will automatically search for, record, archive, and then verify all these claims and predictions that everyone makes.
People will then be able to quickly find out how accurate companies, newspapers, etc. have been in the past when they now say that X will be popular this year or that the nano-wireless-widget market will grow from $2M to $100 billion over the next 5 years.
-- Fugacity: Confusing chemists since 1908
No, fuel cells! This is the year that they are only a year away! But maybe given all the stem cell research we could get monkeys flying from my butt. I predict digital ink will be big with lots of press releases and upcoming projects in future years. And this will be the year that a slashdot editor goes power crazy and tries to ransom sites with the threat of a slashdotting, and that he will fail miserably due to two other editors posting dupes of the story that editor #1 is threatening to post. The lack of faith in the negotiation will lead to long term hostility against the slashdot editors for posting duplicate stories on the same page causing multiple slashdotting. The end story will be that the submissions come from host servers with high per GB fees that had their customers intentionally slashdotted. This will cause mass user support for **Beatles. And in the Soviet New Year, technology puts out a list on you!
Why are women so complicated? Find out how little I know here.
I only hope that there will be a wireless thumbdrive.
And if it happens then I hope they will not try to patent it, 'cuz i thought of that shit first.
A blog about stuff.
It doesnt matter because... we'll read about it several times over here on slashdot, thanks to all the dupes :-P
I don't see this happening until the internet proves to be a bit faster as well as reliable. Yes, some companies have already started doing this, but very few. I don't see this taking off (like e-commerce take off) until at least 2010.
As for "Stem-cell research advances," I can only hope this is true. But I wish that they would also tie in the research which was in part taken up by grid.org for "Human Proteome Folding Project." Since that project is nearing completion, it would be great to hear that they have already started analyzing the data and will start rolling out some medical advanced due to that project. But I have a feeling both the stem-cell research advances and Human Proteome advances will be in research only and not in any beta medical trails.
Everyone predicted social software and VoIP would dominate 2005, well guess what? They were wrong!
Web 2.0 and AJAX are what defined 2005.
Flash drives get priced competitivly with hard drives of the same size?
Professional Politicians are not the solution, they ARE the problem.
Since the article mentions internet telephony, I figured the killer app will be a dupe prediction detector :)
Advancements in artificial limb technology driven by the Iraqi Military Operations
Advancements in stripping the psychotropic effects of drugs like Ketamine and X for use as pain killers, driven by the Iraqi Military Operations
A video card that cracks the $1000 US price point
More hybrid and bio diesel technology from the big Automakers
F/A-22, Eurofighter Typhoon purchases get cut, F/A-22 or the F-35 programs might get totally eliminated by the US DoD
Quad core AMD and Intel server chips
US program to put GPS in all cars becomes a political hot issue
UK program to track all cars does not become a political hot issue
E-ink, an MIT Media Lab spinoff, has been working on this since ~1997. They have products to market, although you can't yet get your local paper on it... :-\
. html
http://www.e-ink.com/products/matrix/imaging_film
I predict that, on January 10, 2006, Apple Computer will release an Intel-based iBook.
2006 will be the year we finally achieve a sustained controlled fusion reaction! My 1970 copy of the new book of knowledge annual edition says it's just around the corner! Let's hope its not around the corner for another 35 years as we really do need it....
Shh.
My hope is that 2006 will be the year a cheap, easily manufactured portable power cell will become popular. Rechargeable.. disposable.. who cares, just make it better then what we've been using for the past 20 years. Limitations in power supply is really starting to be the limitation for all our fancy high tech gadgets. We can put 3000 songs on ipod.. but you can't play them all. We can put the latest movies on a psp or portable dvd player, but they will barely stay on long enough to play some of today's epics. I can't think of any laptop that can last longer then what.. 8-10 hours? Pathetic!
OK, more a wish than a prediction
You just got troll'd!
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
um ... that wouldn't make a good load of sense. You'd have a wifi adapter in every flashdrive? You can't use BT as it's too slow and even Wifi maxes out at 54Mbps [all while using around 200mAh at 3V]. The cost would be an interesting figure.
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
Last year saw a new Debian Stable release... I think this year we'll finally see some sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads!
It could happen
> Perhaps killer apps are not as important as they once were thought to be." What would Slashdot users put in their top 10?
Perhaps in 2006 we can stop using the phrase killer app
Wikipedia will continue to grow, and content will continue to become more refined and generally better. Facebook will grow, and options for adding non-school connected individuals will be introduced before the end of the year. Myspace, Friendster and Liverjournal usership will decline. The television shows available on itunes will increase ten fold, some regular free television program downloads will become available by march. Political Speeches will become regularly podcast. A c-span like service will become reasonable popular on itunes podcasting service. Macintosh computers will sell more computers in this year than in the last two, combined.
From an area of my recent interest (new job) I'd say that hot tubs will go really high tech this year. Already they do both hot and cold tempertures, have hi-fi stereo, flat screen tv, etc. I guess they'll have full Internet access and video games within the next year. Pretty cool.
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
3D iPod!!!
I thought it was easier - the herds who wants to make a fast buck in the stock market now jump on any tech stock hoping it will be the next eBay or Google. In short, there's a lot of demand for investments, but good ones are in short supply That might explain why so many stocks are so overpriced now (according to Buffett). But it should also be pointed out that most newcomers have a poor business plan and eventually are going to fail.
I vote for Blake Ross's "Ten predictions for the new year" as the most hilarious list of predictions for 2006.
For example (I picked this one out for the Slashdot crowd): Due to a glitch in Windows Vista, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will mix up his notes at PDC '06 and declare: "Developers, developers, developers....We're going to f*%ing bury those guys!" Nineteen will leave on stretchers with furniture-related injuries.
As a person who lives in 2 countries I had to buy the first DVD players on the market for both zones, then another two with recording capability. Then I found a recorder that can record and play my zones (multi-zone, thus illegal).
I guess the next big thing will be to throw away again what I have and purchase the DVD player that can play in High Definition. Then later, buy one that can record too. (No doubt they could make a recorder right away, but there is no business in there.)
I am awating the next HD DVD standard will force me to do. Will zones still be present? With 1920x1080 resolution for HDTV around the world, will I need to buy a different model just like now with the PAL and NTSC models?
One thing is for sure: I can start selling my normal DVD movies on Ebay before they become obselete.
maybe 2007.
Oh, and therefore, more flying chairs around the Redmond campus.
There are multiple sets of technology predictions just publisheed here too, at the AJAX Developer's Journal site. Amazing how AJAX is a-booming!
By the last quarter of 2006 quad core 64 bit Athlons will be common place at Circuit City and be preinstalled with Windows Vista. ExtremeWhizzoHot Tech will review and find it 10% faster than an Athlon 64 3000 with XP.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
1. The DMCA is overturned entirely when all the chief justices get threatening letters from RIAA for watching jib/jab videos. 2. The Patriot Act is declared dead in the water when it is found that undeclared wiretaps were actually against the FISA judges. 3. Video on demand systems requiring no physical media and available on multiple formats cause independent media moguls to become instant zillion-aires and they buy up studios by the dozens converting them to creative commons. 4. The really cool ultra slim portable gadgets found in Japan and Europe are actually released to North America versus gray market. 5. The hottest TV show involves high geek factor when a three guys, and a kid are marooned on a haunted island being bombed by the Pentagon, while a forgotten civilization forges forward trying to find a lost city in another galaxy with wierd looking zombie dudes who eat flesh play pool on the island with the guys and kid. 6. Video game ESPN sports takes on a new twist when they electrify the chairs with 100,000 volts. 7. Windows XP SP4 is released when nobody upgrades to the "late" Vista when no OEM produces a machine with a terabyte of disk space, and a 20Ghz processor required to do anything but load the OS. Bill Gates bursts into flames when demo-ing Vista from a microwave leaking processor. 8. Open Source Advocates actuall publish an agreed upon coding standard for all languages and it is ignored by all. 9. NASA launches a man to the moon sans rocket as it is determined that no rocket is safe therefore they get rid of the rocket and use a giant sling shot. 10. The Cubs win the world series.
--- Location Unknown
Faster computers, hard drives with higher capacities and faster networks. Batteries that last (slightly) longer. New releases of Linux. New patches for Windows. Several new rounds of iPods. Google release more software. Security holes in Windows and Internet Explorer. And new web protocols will be announced.
One of the main problems with the current meds is their massive potential for abuse.
I predict this will take off in 2006It doesn't really advance the effectiveness of painkillers, but it'll be a very very effective stopgap measure to basically kill the street trade in these meds.
Doctors will also be able to perscribe powerful painkillers to the patients who need them w/out constantly worrying the DEA will investigate them for possibly overperscribing pain meds.
BTW - the second method (with capsaicin) is really fucking evil. The Dr. describes the pain of snorting/injecting it here
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
My prediction is that technology predictions will be cut short because the US economy is getting ready to fall off hyperinflationary debt cliff. A rare condition where costs and prices become orders of magnitude larger while at the same time pay and employment become orders of magnitude lower. With over leveraged housing debt on a housing market that is getting ready to fall, too much credit card debt, too much corporate debt, too much trade debt, too much municipal debt, too much state debt, too much federal debt - and 270 TRILLION with a T in derivatives contracts that must settle wether thru default or thru printing up money. It wouldn't take too much in the modern efficient US economy for things to snowball and between the FED and a potential panic out of foriegn dollar reserves - it could really be a very very ugly global colapse. IMHO, people should really consider gold in their portfolios this year, there is a reason why it has been going up for the last 5 years, and recently those reasons have become a lot more immenent.
I know without a doubt that the long awaited Duke Nukem will finally be released bundled with Longhorn.
1. Early in December, a Sony EVP will say, "Honest, we are pumping out PS 3's out as fast as we can... we sure wish we could have more units out there on the shelves right now."
2. Microsoft proclaims the September 2006 Vista launch to be a stunning success, despite yawns and considerable harping by the trade press. Just before year end, Jeff Raikes announces that a service pack will ship in summer 2007 with a number of enhancements and improvements in the areas of security, performance, and robustness.
- PS3 sales exceed all expectations as Sony delivers sufficient consoles and games at launch, while the user base ignores the glaring fair-use issues inherent to the Sony product line.
- PalmOne resurges as the owner of the cell/MP3/Palmtop space by incorporating WiMax and Sun microprocessors.
- Apple's move to Intel chips causes the biggest brand loyalty seachange in modern history as disgurntled users throw their WinTel boxes off of buildings.
- Lawsuits will be brought against cities offering WiMax by local users who are hacked over their unsecured connection.
- AOL manages to rebirth itself as a dominant Internet player by selling residential access to Internet2.
- Dell actually "gets off the pot" and begins to sell AMD desktop/laptop systems.
- Elliot Spizer raids the home of Bill Gates, finds a Linux machine running the automated home features, along with the full archive of goatse images as framed art in a hallway.
- Europe splits off from the Internet As We Know It, China joins in, and most left-wing American political websites go strangely quiet on what comes to be known as "Internet Classic".
- The DMCA is overturned by a housewife in New York state appealing a fight with the RIAA all the way to the Supreme Court. Her arguments before the justices become required reading at most major law schools.
- The "Third-World Laptop" will be widely used....to grind grain. See also, "The Gods Must Be Crazy".
Don't hold your breath, it's not about to happen. Flash just can't be produced at 100$/200GB unlike HDs. They'd have to come down in price by over 100 times to be comparable - that's asking a bit much (a price reduction of over 99% that is). The drive is a few moving/metal parts (only cost so much) and some somewhat-inexpensive electronics, Flash would require billions and billions of NMOS transistors which cost a lot more to produce (and perhaps draw a lot of current and create heat at such quantities). Flash is coming down in price, perhaps by 2x to 4x per year, but nowhere near as much as it would take for that to happen (HDs are also increasing in size, although not as quickly).
There are several killer apps still needed to make Linux a main stream system for the average user.
1. visio replacement (dia is not quite there yet) 2. Income tax software (non-web based turbotax) 3. group calendar system 4. DVD/video editing packages 5. better wireless driver support
As has been requested from the writers of mIRC for nearly 3 years, mIRC will ship with upnp to deal with the nightmare of DCC ports.
`find / -name "*your_base*" -exec chown us:us {} \;`
hope to see something like an iPod Video that can store movies at screen sizes greater than 320x240 just so they can be hooked up to TVs and played back anywhere. You already can. If you want TV quality output, you have to save it to the iPod as that quality and the iPod will convert to 320x240 in real time when you use its screen. If you use an AV adapter and set the iPod to "video out" it will play it in the quality that you saved it as. Seems Apple has some fortunetellers working in R&D. http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/A ppleStore.woa/72703/wo/Na399iwmd8cv2dV70ja18EmHd0d /2.SLID?mco=543CBB30&nplm=M9765G%2FA
A total slashdot design makeover using techniques like CSS, so that its soft 'n' sweet on eyes.
Why does yahoo do this
Apple will encase a piece of rock in white, translucent plastic, name it iCon and immediately sell five million of them for $249 each to fans solemnly declaring that Apple has redefined the meaning of amorhpous silicates.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
Wimax becomes huge.
OpenOffice.org media campaign speeds adoption, achives 30% penetration.
Britney Spears remarries.
AJAX becomes even more popular making the internet kinda suck.
UPnP applications become almost universal.
Firefox penetration hits 25% before IE7 comes out and knocks it down to 15%, even though IE7 sucks.
Pope Benedict XVI dies.
Democrats take the house, gain in Senate.
US troops remain in Iraq throughout the year.
Bush's approval rating reaches 30%.
2006 Hurricane Season exausts name list again.
Somebody creates an effective non-website based bittorrent network.
Pi proven to be normal.
3 new higher prime numbers found.
Bird Flu kills about a dozen people and is stopped completely.
"The third man of the fire will empower the forces of the blue prince." - Deemed to be quite vague but fits several situations that occur.
South fails to rise again.
Majority of scientists backslide on existence of dark matter halos.
RIAA/MPAA go even more apesh!t.
It is no longer uncommon to be uncommon.
Voterless voting machines. No longer will the average american be burdened with the inconvience or respnosibility of voting. Simply register and you're done. Diebold will even see that you get to have a say in elections after you're dead. Field tested last year in Ohio the system is now ready for widespread use just in time for congrssional elections next year. Sit at home in comfort and watch the results to see who you voted for election night.
2. Lethal drone aircraft the size of insects.
OK, maybe two things. Thrones will also be chairs.
... and then they built the supercollider.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Why would having a GPS in your car be a political hot issue? GPS's just tell YOU where you are located on the planet, they do NOT transmit that information to anybody else.
Meh.
Satellite raadio service will be all the rage... until people stop and figure out that they are paying monthly to *listen to the radio*.
Meh.
Guys, our worst fears are coming true. I always heard that if women could make babies without us and figured out a way to open jars, we were not long for this earth. Well, check out this and this. Doh!
We will have _____ wonderful technology in 20 years.
And if you think a vaccine isn't a 'technology' then you're woefully ignorant of the extensive computer modeling and testing that molecules and potential drugs go through before they even reach the beginning stages of trials.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
More hybrid and bio diesel technology from the big Automakers
This is a scary one. The UK can produce enough biodiesel in an environmentally friendly manner (waste cooking oil) to supply 1/380 of its road transport fuel. After that, the most common form of biodiesel supply is oil palms. And this supply is an environmental disaster in itself - huge forests felled and burned to create space for the trees, peat bogs dried out.
God knows what kind of destruction will take place if this "environmentally friendly" fuel supply takes off in the US.
cLive ;-)
-- Trinity in high heels carrying a whip: The donimatrix - there is no spoonerism
You'd think that Slashdot being the number 1 site for geeks, nerds and techies, that the site developers could put in a little bit of code to check for dupes or display similarity percentages to the previous years worth of articles. I mean, come on, it's NOT THAT HARD! There really is no excuse for dupes.
Meh.
1) At least on major country or trading block will attempt large scale taxation of the Internet and Internet commerce. This will be used as a cover for the removal of the last vestiges of anonymity, with the sop of removing spam in the same breadth. The approach will spread worldwide as governments find it a no brainer.
2) Parallelisation will continue as not only to all normal machines become SMP boxes, but the flexibility grows to combine and split apart all the computer power you possess. The PDA/mobile phone won't be a separate item, it will become only a part of the wider entity that you can carry with you. Increasingly accessing and synchronising with the whole entity will become as norm.
3) Wireless will go long range as mobile phone companies attempt to get over the still birth of 3G with WiMAX like services.
4) TV will go Internet, and very quickly both transmission and country borders will look quaint.
5) DRM will be added to everything, and just as quickly broken. Lies will be told and individuals will be taken to court.
and finally, but not least
6) Bird flu will hit home, preceding by a dry run of the first wave of infection. All those that have been playing down its impact will point to the first wave and ignore the second. They will die and the world that emerges from 2006 will look very different than the one we have now. The double wammy of the shock of peak oil will send the world into an introspective spiral that will shatter certain expectations.
Heh heh OK, maybe not. What I'd REALLY like to see is for the Heliodisplay people ramp up production. Depending on how well it works, that technology has incredible potential and a lot of applications suggest themselves as soon as you look at it. I hope it pans out...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
http://universe.google.com/ [finally making Hubble images easy; follow-on to Earth]
http://audio.google.com/ [logical extension of current offerings]
http://calendar.google.com/ [a top productivity app]
http://todo.google.com/ [productivity app, maybe 37signals purchase?]
http://contacts.google.com/ [productivity app, maybe LinkedIn purchase?]
http://teach.google.com/ [for teachers, organizing materials]
http://learn.google.com/ [for students of all ages]
http://bookmarks.google.com/ [del.icio.us type service]
https://storage.google.com/ [personal storage space]
http://welcometotheinterweb.google.com/ [something, I don't know what, for the next billion Internet users]
The powers-that-be are fully aware of this situation and the "social ramifications" of what would occur. So I will add to your prediction (that I agree with), that a very large dual foreign/internal war will be promulgated. They have about failed to contain the information and even the most optimistic of stock market bull shills is having a hard time keeping up a happy face, so the herds are close behind. So, judging by historical parallels, they will need a diversionary tactic, and it's invariably always been a larger general war. It's always been the last gasp of failing empires....
My best guess is that it will kick off with a phony WMD series of attacks on US soil, which will be blamed on the bad guy du juor overseas and unnamed domestic "terrorists".
Gold and silver are OK as far as they go, but I would also recommend actual long term stored food and medical supplies, etc as sound "investments". That and being totally out of debt. There's a reason they passed that bankruptcy law this year, and it's because they know what is coming and they are planning to shift masses of wealth upstream quasi-legally. Also see the FED stopping the reporting of the hard data of the M3 supply. A very telling clue there.
There are retired ex-nuclear-physisists working on creating reproducable cold fusion reactions in their basement labs at this very moment. Read that in a magazine somewhere.
Meh.
Blu-ray will take off and HD-DVD will be left wondering what happened. The predicted 'format war' will never happen except in the minds of a few HD-DVD fans.
Some sort of machine that tells people that they just did what they hate.
Slashdotter: DAMmit, This is a Dupe. Slashdot why do you always do this to me!
Machine: Negative! That comment is a dupe of the following members' comments: #21345, #21346, #21347...... #755000,#755001. Detecting date..... December 26. Happy Festivus!
I doubt it. I think we'll see more and more super-quick charging batteries though. Everybody doing the "15-minute" recharge now... next it is will "5-minute", then a few seconds.
Meh.
Robert X. Cringelys 2005 predictions:
Tech, life, family, faith: Give me a visit
"what will be hot"
except for this one, Vista won't:
"make a difference in our lives"
hey, surely yet another Windows won't.
"make someone rich and famous"
Bill Gates is already very rich and famous.
I don't feel like it...
How fast do you need a thumbdrive to be? It would have great uses I would think, sure it would be horrible for live distros of linux, but it would be great for word documents, excel spreadsheets, and small to medium photoshop projects.
Computers allow humans to make mistakes at the fastest speeds known, with the possible exception of tequila and handguns
I have my set of predictions for 2006:
http://webstandards.raquedan.com/
Need a color? Try 100 random colors
might not become a technology of 2006 but definitely one of the next years. It has the potential to change the future of the whole computer industry. Just imaging you go to the next store and buy a computer of your liking but never again have to ask "Does this application run on this system?" and neither "Is this game also available on this computer?". There will come a future were customers simply expect anything running on every system. 2006 might not be the right time but if you start asking for cross-platform solutions this future will come.
O. Wyss
See http://wyoguide.sf.net/papers/Cross-platform.html
Here are my .02 cents on their predictions;
Cell phones do everything: Puke and vomit; I think this is on the money. Cell phones will do everything; half assed, that includes making phone calls.
Internet phone calls zoom: Telcos have to much money and political clout; won't happen thanks to the FCC and political lobbying.
The office moves to the Web: Nope; off on this one; people like their app's on their PC's. Might have some small uptake in the corp world; but nowhere else. Once a network connection dies; 100,000 employees have nothing to do except put their finger up their A$$.
Stem-cell research advances: Ok, on the money.
Biotechs target flu vaccines: Uhhh; this person is on crack.
Even small start-ups go global: Yes, its called the web; been done already.
Video comes to the blog: People are already doing it.
On-demand video everywhere: Not till everyone gets faster broadband. Companies still pay by the packet; way too much cash. Other countries (home users) could do it; since their broadband is cheaper and faster. Please feel free to thank the FCC for our sorry assed state of broadband.
Clean technologies: This has been in the pipe for years; until it is cheaper than polluting the environment; it isn't going to happen. Money talks..............
The Point: Open read access to 1G of WiFi music files.
And after ThumbDrives are 10G with buikt-in WiFi, you will understand.
A blog about stuff.
You make no sense.
Yes; speed, resistance and cost would play a minor cost, It would be nothing in even the short/medium range and everything in the long range.
A blog about stuff.
...this will be achieved by extracting DNA from the bones of the Dire Wolf, the Bone-Crushing Dog and the Epicyon then genetically embedding the fragments into a poodle. Aside from the fact that it will then have three ears and meow on thursdays, it will be much placated with the therapy.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
An end to Slashdot's April Fools tech coverage.
ajaxjacking
Let's see who was right and who was wrong. Otherwise, why try to be right?
I18N == Intergalacticization
Hopefully more and more Video Blog services - which will lead to amateur TV over IP, begin integrating with amateur video to/from cell phones, and more video from more sources in more locations. More, better, everywhere.
Mooniacs for iOS and Android
With the completion of phase I of the HapMap project, 2006 will see the rapid development of the roots of "personalized medicine" that the media have been ranting about.
While Woo Suk Hwang stepped down from his position from Seoul National University in 2005 for falsifying research results, he still proves his method in creating patient-specific stem cell lines to be effective in 2006.
Windows Vista fails to gain the ground Microsoft anticipates. Universities and many corporations continue to use Windows 2000, and DIY PC hobbyists continue to use Windows XP. OEM users, of course, are forced into Vista.
"Social networking" internet sites like MySpace and Facebook begin to raise even more privacy concerns, but these concerns will only be limited to communities like Slashdot.
CCTV surveillance cameras crop up in the streets of major US cities, by decree of the DHS. The public is wary about being watched, but gradually accepts them just as traffic speed cameras were. America's freedom to racially profile are secure.
"It's evolution baby, not revolution, and that's the way I like it :)"
It's intelligent design.
I predict that a geek will get laid in 2006.
1. A dozen of new web-based RSS feed readers will be announced, all featuring tags and various intricate social features. Eventually one or two will be considered the "norm" (as Blogger, Livejournal, etc are considered the norm for blogging, despite all the imitators). My bookmarks folder rejoices.
2. AMD motherboards with DDR2 will finally show up. I finally upgrade from an obsolete 32-bit system. My applications rejoice.
3. Sony PlayStation 3 will be released. It will be sold out. Then more will be released. Then more will be sold out. Then more will be released. Then the price will drop a little. Then I'll buy one. Then it will be hacked by various groups for various purposes. Sony pouts. I rejoice.
4. A new flavour of Cola: Chocolate! (Eww) Oops, not technological, sorry.
5. Opera finally releases a stable, good, browser for PocketPCs. I rejoice.
6. Enlightenment 17 is finally released. I try it, don't like it, go back to XFCE.
7. XFCE 4.4 is finally released. I upgrade. I rejoice.
8. Microsoft releases Vista. Only thing new from XP: Aero and 9 versions of the same thing with 9 different price tags. (The cheaper version users are stuck with an inferior plastic paperclip.)
9. Apple releases their new line of Intel PowerBook laptops. No one notices -- attention diverted by the release of 4 and 8 gig iPod Nanos with FM radio. I consider buying one until I realize, again, that it's a waste of money. iPod lovers' collection of iPods grows to 9 units per person. Apple rejoices.
10. I go to sleep. You rejoice.
- shazow
I've got money on most of my predictions, but I'll have them out here.. 1. WiMax, Intel signed onto this technology in 2005, and companies like Alvarion has already deployed BreezeMAX solutions all around the world. I think this is going to be one of the biggest trends in wireless networks in 2006, but maybe to hit the US the latest. 2. Video on Demand, this one has been around and gradually picking up steam, but as higher bandwidth starts hitting the national infrastructure and portable devices capable of carrying it around with you increase in popularity, the demand for this is going to start gaining exponentially. Companies like Path One Networks develop video switches and such for this technology that is going to do very well in 2006. 3. High Definition TV, in 2006, Sony is going to be the first company that has an end-to-end solution for HDTV from hardware to content. HDTVs, players, games, and videos. Expect the PS3 to be bigger than just what "core" promises. The Blueray will challenge against HDTV will be monumentally strengthened by the Japanese demand for this console, and once again, we will see the United States slow to adopt the revolutionary technology foreign countrys are recognizing first. 4. Portable electronics, with chip manufacturing down to a 65nm process, look for continued improvements in minaturization and energy efficiency to make more capable, portable electronic devices. Look for Sony to make the thinnest, lightest most capale VAIO yet. Also look for competition erupting against the Blackberry with devices like the Treo and iPod to meet head-on challenge in the portable mp3 player market. 5. Digital Rights Management, everyone's skittish about this one as it threatens many of our very lifestyles. Today we have the flexibility to record and tranfer our files between our devices spurring the innovation of new products. With the RIAA lobbying heavily to Congress to put barriers in manufacturing and lawsuits against application, don't be surprised if digital right managements mandated by law are applied to consumer electronics devices, and don't be surprised if these applications of the law suck worse than the recent Sony-BMG fiasco. 6. Unlimited bandwidth, Sun's been talking about this for years it seems like. The infrastructure is dependant on the fattest pipes you can imagine, and I'm imagining a combination of several emerging technologies competing and combining to create the fastest, most robust architecture ever conceived to emerge in 2006. Utilizing powerlines, wireless, fiber to the home, as well as improvements to cable signaling will result in companies like SBC, Verizon, and Comcast to offer cost-effective internet capablities up to 100mbit, and allow home access upward of 35mbit. 7. This one is wishful thinking, but an application of techonlogy that is entirely feasible and useful in 2006. The first self-bootable chipset. I'm talking the first motherboard with an integrated C: for loading an operating system resulting from "on board" nvram. I've got my fingers crossed it will be a company like ABIT or ASUS that drop this, what I see as the inevitable evolution in chipsets. Companies like Saifun that used different signaling storage to double the capacity of NVRAM promises to see the emergance of a 4GB nvram chip in 2006, which would be sufficient space to load any operating system in existance at lightning fast speeds. We've already integrated the sound card, networking cards, and everything else into the chipset, with the tremendous performance increase of integrated storage, coupled with the demand for "locked configuration" workstations dependant on network file storage system, the ability to expand with SATA devices doesn't even seem necessary in many configurations leaving us a motherboard, usb ports, and a video port combined with new low heat cpus could result in the slimmest pc yet, and without an optional optical drive.. no moving parts. This is a corportate administrator's dream, but I still think this configuration is more likely for 2008 than 2006. 8. AMD, 2006 is
Any fool can criticise, condemn, and complain, and most fools do. - Benjamin Franklin
Sorry about that last post, I didn't realize it wouldn't carry CRs
I've got money on most of my predictions, but I'll have them out here..
1. WiMax, Intel signed onto this technology in 2005, and companies like Alvarion has already deployed BreezeMAX solutions all around the world. I think this is going to be one of the biggest trends in wireless networks in 2006, but maybe to hit the US the latest.
2. Video on Demand, this one has been around and gradually picking up steam, but as higher bandwidth starts hitting the national infrastructure and portable devices capable of carrying it around with you increase in popularity, the demand for this is going to start gaining exponentially. Companies like Path One Networks develop video switches and such for this technology that is going to do very well in 2006.
3. High Definition TV, in 2006, Sony is going to be the first company that has an end-to-end solution for HDTV from hardware to content. HDTVs, players, games, and videos. Expect the PS3 to be bigger than just what "core" promises. The Blueray will challenge against HDTV will be monumentally strengthened by the Japanese demand for this console, and once again, we will see the United States slow to adopt the revolutionary technology foreign countrys are recognizing first.
4. Portable electronics, with chip manufacturing down to a 65nm process, look for continued improvements in minaturization and energy efficiency to make more capable, portable electronic devices. Look for Sony to make the thinnest, lightest most capale VAIO yet. Also look for competition erupting against the Blackberry with devices like the Treo and iPod to meet head-on challenge in the portable mp3 player market.
5. Digital Rights Management, everyone's skittish about this one as it threatens many of our very lifestyles. Today we have the flexibility to record and tranfer our files between our devices spurring the innovation of new products. With the RIAA lobbying heavily to Congress to put barriers in manufacturing and lawsuits against application, don't be surprised if digital right managements mandated by law are applied to consumer electronics devices, and don't be surprised if these applications of the law suck worse than the recent Sony-BMG fiasco.
6. Unlimited bandwidth, Sun's been talking about this for years it seems like. The infrastructure is dependant on the fattest pipes you can imagine, and I'm imagining a combination of several emerging technologies competing and combining to create the fastest, most robust architecture ever conceived to emerge in 2006. Utilizing powerlines, wireless, fiber to the home, as well as improvements to cable signaling will result in companies like SBC, Verizon, and Comcast to offer cost-effective internet capablities up to 100mbit, and allow home access upward of 35mbit.
7. This one is wishful thinking, but an application of techonlogy that is entirely feasible and useful in 2006. The first self-bootable chipset. I'm talking the first motherboard with an integrated C: for loading an operating system resulting from "on board" nvram. I've got my fingers crossed it will be a company like ABIT or ASUS that drop this, what I see as the inevitable evolution in chipsets. Companies like Saifun that used different signaling storage to double the capacity of NVRAM promises to see the emergance of a 4GB nvram chip in 2006, which would be sufficient space to load any operating system in existance at lightning fast speeds. We've already integrated the sound card, networking cards, and everything else into the chipset, with the tremendous performance increase of integrated storage, coupled with the demand for "locked configuration" workstations dependant on network file storage system, the ability to expand with SATA devices doesn't even seem necessary in many configurations leaving us a motherboard, usb ports, and a video port combined with new low heat cpus could result in the slimmest pc yet, and without an optional optical drive.. no moving p
Any fool can criticise, condemn, and complain, and most fools do. - Benjamin Franklin
A 2D ipod would be much better.
Think thin as a sheet of paper.
Yeah. I've been trying to figure out what that's going to be though. I don't think it will be the war on terrorisim
[from a different AC]
watch what's happening in Iran. U.S. has them cornered, with bases in Afghanistan on one side, and Iraq on the other. They're working on building some nukes, because the U.S. has a policy of not invading nuclear-armed countries. Israel will attack Iran to take out their nuke sites, the U.S. being the enabler by removing military opposition in the in-between country of Iraq...
China is also a powder-keg. If they see the U.S. too distracted with briar-patch entanglements elsewhere, they'll move to take Taiwan...
Silver, Food, Guns and Gold are on my shopping list. Silver before Gold, because Silver is industrially useful, and it's easier to trade. 1oz silver liberty is currently ~$10, whereas a 1/10 oz Gold Eagle is ~$58. Also, most of the silver that's ever been mined has been used up over the last 20+ years (production deficit + price controls == big problem).
Got a bag of rice, bag of beans, and a 50lb bag of wheat is in this week's natural food buying club order (they deliver to seven western states - four corners, Nevada, SoCal, W. Texas). I'm also stocking some seeds... Yes, economic troubles are certainly ahead, and all the world seems blind to it.
fulfilledprophecy.com looks interesting (found link from the wikipedia), though I haven't really looked through it.
also see Michael Mandeville's The Coming Economic
Collapse Of 2006
michaelmandeville.com/collapse2006/index.htm
Apple will launch iEarpod which fits in your ears. /. will continue to get trolled and post dubs. And possibly see member number 1.000.000. /. will finally understand the difference between Bill Gates as a private person, and Microsoft the company.
/. >_<
Spam text obfuscation will evole into a new language.
Steve Balmer will start a company to manufacture more durable chairs.
Linux/BSD will finally become available on toast (but remain uneatable until 2010).
Mary Poppins will make a surprise return as an online VR guide on Google.
India will outsource IT to Mars, after the martians makes official first contact on the first day of the 4th month of the year.
People will flock en masse to the stores to exchange/replace crap gifts recieved during Kwanzaa/Yule/Xmas/...
SCO will hire Uri Geller to represent SCO in the courts. Uri Geller will promptly get sued by the creators of the Chewbacca defense.
And finally...
I will probably continue to post serious and/or (un)funny posts on
Carbon based humanoid in training.
"There shall in that time be rumours of things going astray, erm, and there shall be a great confusion as to where things really are, and nobody will really know where lieth those little things wi-with the sort of raffia-work base, that has an attachment. At that time, a friend shall lose his friends hammer, and the young shall not know where lieth the things possessed by their fathers that their fathers put there only just the night before, about eight O'clock."
cure for cancer ???
This is NOT a sig - billy
No I am not a Sony fanboy directly. Only consoles I own are handheld. The new Cell processor IF it lives up to its promisses could however be a intresting new approach. Some Intel exec said it was a stupid design and we all know what that means. (Oh you don't? Well that it will be insanely fast while not causing a china syndrome in your box).
IF the PS3 will indeed have a linux-on-hd addon and it is properly open I am looking forward to see what it will do as a desktop machine.
IF sony indeed will support linux on it may be the first time that modern graphics hardware has open drivers, okay this is a long jump, Sony could easily combine the GPL Kernel with a closed source driver BUT lets be positive here shall we?
Linux already has a lot of support for multi-core machines and while the Cell is not a regular SMP machine it will nontheless be intresting to see how a desktop will behave with 8 cores inside.
Of course there is a lot of IF's here but who knows. Sony in my opinion wants to take MS on for the PC in the living room market. They do not have the resources to write their own. They might just pull an IBM and decide to support linux fully in the hope of using it to bring MS down a notch.
This I think will be the biggest story in 2006. The possible emergences of a desktop contented.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
2006 will be the year of linux in the desktop :-)
2006 will be the year of the Linux Desktop.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
I only hope that there will be a wireless thumbdrive.
And the new pick up line amongst the cafe laptop crowd will be . . .
"Is that your data in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?"
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
Here are 4 technologies that are always seen as "just around the corner" but which I predict wont make much progress in 2006.
1.Flying cars. Not because the technology isnt up to par but because of the difficulty of dealing with the huge regluatory hurdles.
Right now, there are laws limiting where VTOL vehicles (which would include flying cars and also includes helicoptors) can take off and land. If flying cars were introduced, you would need to completly re-write the rulebook when it comes to aviation, flight paths, places you are allowed to take off and land from etc.
2.Video downloading services offering content you can watch on your TV. (as opposed to content you can watch on a mobile phone or video ipod etc)
Firstly, the TV operators (pay and Free-To-Air) do not want competition from "Internet Television" (be it true IPTV running as an actual stream you download or be it something you buy and watch later) and will pressure the content providers (a number of who have investments in cable/satelite/FTA TV) not to expand in this area (just look at what the TV networks did when ABC offered its shows on the iTunes store). Remember that several cable companies are starting to offer video-on-demand and would see internet downloading as a direct competitor to that.
And secondly, the bandwidth required to download full-size movies and TV shows is huge (especially if compressed at a rate that doesnt sacrifice the quality too much and makes them worth spending the $$$ on vs buying the DVD) so many (normal) people (especially people on ISP plans that limit their monthly transfer allowance) are not going to want to download large files like that.
The other problem is how to get the content from the PC where it was purchased and downloaded into something you can watch on your TV. Burning to DVD is not an option (not everyone has the time, skills or gear to burn a DVD and in any case, there is no copy protection method that can be applied to burnt DVDs AFAIK) and the other option (having your computer send the video to a box connected to your TV) is out too because the boxes just arent available (and there is no standards between boxes that do exist as far as what formats they accept or what, if any, copy protection they support)
3.Stem Cells and related technology. (including such things as cloning body parts) There are too many people opposed to this sort of technology (including, I believe, George W Bush to some extent) and too many people worried about the negative effects (e.g. cloned babies) for this to advance out of the lab anytime soon.
4.Online & home delivered groceries. There is some movement towards this idea but no-one has been able to make it work yet. In the vision of the future, you would just scan the barcode on something you want and it would record the item. Then, this combined with other items (items you dont have to scan or items that dont have barcodes like fruit etc) would be placed online and the items would be delivered directly to you.
I am sure there is a big market out there from people wanting to be able to buy all their food etc online.
Even better would be if the online supermarkets could combine with a store like K-Mart, Target or Big W (here in australia, Coles Myer owns K-Mart, Target and Coles Supermarkets and Woolworths owns Woolworths supermarkets and Big W) so you could have all sorts of variety goods delivered in the same order. Also, combine this with the alcohol sales too and you have a perfect item. (both Coles Myer and Woolworths own bottle shop chains)
But even where you can buy online, the range and price dont compare favorably to the bricks & mortar stores and its only available to a limited area. (I have no idea if other parts of the world like europe and america are any better).
As to why I dont think we will see any forward movement with this in 2006, I think it is because in order for this to really take off, the interface has to be dead simple to use.
And it needs to be accessable where the food is
Emacs 22 will kick much ass. On many platforms. Grown men will weep.
2006 would be the year for Linux on the Desktop.
--
Psychiatric help: 10 cents
- First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.
Or failing that, a user controlled system whereby the presenter gets "instant electrocution^H^H^H^Hfeedback" when they are spouting shite ?
How about a dupe-free /.?
Nevermind, I predict flying cars will come first.
And they said zombies weren't real!
...The mandate of low-sulfur motor fuels (e.g., under 15 parts per million sulfur compounds) starting Summer 2006 in the USA will actually have a HUGE benefit for automakers in the USA.
:-)
Why? Because by removing sulfur compounds (which can corrode engine components from the intake system to the exhaust piping system like sulfuric acid), we can finally see in the USA the application of these new technologies:
1. Direct fuel injection of gasoline into combustion chamber combined with lean-burn (e.g., air to fuel ratio of 30:1 or higher) on a large scale. This allows extermely precise fuel delivery, and with the use of low sulfur gasoline we can apply a new generation of highly advanced catalytic converters that remove the increased NOx output from lean-burn operation very easily. The result is 10-15% improvement in fuel economy over current gasoline-fuelled engines.
2. The arrival of homogeneous charged compression ignition (HCCI) for production applications in motor vehicles. Fuelled by gasoline, it promises diesel-like fuel economy without the exhaust emission issues that plague diesel engines; this means 30-38% better fuel economy compared to today's gasoline engines!
3. The arrival of truly clean-burning turbodiesel engines. With low-sulfur diesel fuel, we can apply common-rail pressurized direct fuel injection for extremely precise fuel delivery and apply a new generation of diesel exhaust catalytic converters that double at diesel particulate traps. Already, I've read that BMW has succeeded in getting their turbodiesel engines to meet the world's toughest auto diesel engine exhaust standard (the California Air Resources Board 2007 standard) using these new technologies and low-sulfur diesel fuel. Imagine switching every SUV, light pickup truck and minivan to clean turbodiesel power--it will improve the fuel economy of these classes of vehicles 30-35% or more compared to the gasoline engines used now.
Or was that last year?
Isn't this supposed to the year that Linux *really* takes off?
DLP will be shoved down our throats. ...
You will be nobody without HDTV.
Electro-gas hybrid cars will still be too expensive for the average driver.
DRAM prices will continue to drop to $25/GB (GByte).
Solar power for the home will still be too expensive for the average home owner.
eh... I'm still waking up. That's all you get.
All you need are the genes controlling size from these, and you could have a single rabbit for the entire block! Much more efficient and you could possibly train it to keep guard at nights.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Hippy Dippy Weatherman paraphrase: "Technology trends will change off and on for a long, long time."
120 characters for a sig? That's bloody useless.
Terabyte ATA hard drives by year end. 1.2TB SCSI drives in 2007.
I feel pretty confident about that. Seagate is already selling 160GB platters. Hitachi will be stuffing drives with five 200GB platters real soon now.
+++
NO CARRIER
You made a lot of good points, but I think some additional information would be useful. Most people don't know why certain drugs are outlawed in the US.
Opium was outlawed because Chinese immigrants in California were making a fortune selling it to Americans. Political elites were terrified by the idea of Chinese immigrants getting rich and having political clout, so it was outlawed. Keep in mind this was during the 1800s, and the very idea of white men and women hanging out with Chinamen just disturbed conservative elements to no end.
The motivation for outlawing "marijuana" was pretty much the same: plain old racism. William Hearst had a lot to do with it. Loads of people smoked "cannabis" at the time. But Hearst's papers started publishing all sorts of propaganda about some evil substance called "marijuana" that Mexicans smoked. It made them lazy and unwilling to work. The prevailing, irrational fear was that black men would smoke it and somehow that would induce them to not only be lazy, but rape white women.
I think if most Americans knew the utterly asinine and racist reasons we outlawed these drugs in the first place, they might be more willing to reconsider their legal status. But for whatever reason, the media won't examine the issue.
Personally, I think the key to judging a law's justness and value lies in evaluating our motives for creating it in the first place. Bad motivations lead to bad laws.
Check out my world simulator thingy.
George Lucas will finally succumb to his past and re-release a digitally enhanced re-mastered version of "The Star Wars Holiday Special". Thus, truly completing his Star Wars odyssey. Again, Burger King produces accompanying merchandise...fans rejoice.
http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/12262005/world/ 79889.htm
No incentive for AIDS vaccine, researcher says
WASHINGTON (AP) - In an unusually candid admission, the federal chief of AIDS research says he believes drug companies don't have an incentive to create a vaccine for the HIV and are likely to wait to profit from it after the government develops one. And that means the government has had to spend more time focusing on the processes that drug companies ordinarily follow in developing new medicines and bringing them to market.
"We had to spend some time and energy paying attention to those aspects of development because the private side isn't picking it up," Dr. Edmund Tramont testified in a deposition in a recent employment lawsuit obtained by The Associated Press.
Tramont is head of the AIDS research division of the National Institutes of Health, and he predicted in his testimony that the government will eventually create a vaccine. He testified in July in the whistleblower case of Dr. Jonathan Fishbein.
"If we look at the vaccine, HIV vaccine, we're going to have an HIV vaccine. It's not going to be made by a company," Tramont said. "They're dropping out like flies because there's no real incentive for them to do it. We have to do it."
"They will eventually - if it works, they won't have to make that big investment. And they can make it and sell it and make a profit," he said.
An official of the group representing the country's major drug companies took sharp exception to Tramont's comments. "That is simply not true. America's pharmaceutical research companies are firmly committed to HIV/AIDS vaccine research and development with 15 potential vaccines in development today," said Ken Johnson, senior vice president of PhRMA, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.
I looked at your link, but it amounted to little more than someone saying there wasn't an incentive and a pharmceutical rep saying there was. I'm inclined to disbelieve pharmaceutical companies just out of habit by now, but why isn't there an incentive to develop an HIV vaccine?
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
All print media goes crazy - This will be the year where newspapers and magazines follow suit with the recording and movie industries by going completely insane. News programs will announce absurd declarations such as: "You will never see a Newspaper again!", "The DEATH of the Magazine" and such. I imagine cell phones will be involved, but somehow this doesn't seem quite right....
The Empire Strikes Back (Re: Google vs. Microsoft) - I mean it is really just too perfect! The all powerful empire struck down by the upstart Google! What could be next? Microsoft will invade Google's winter stronghold....uhh figuratively
PVR's will make everyone cry. Either with joy (You!) or in pain (Advertisers!) - Let's face it this is not some crazy over-priced monstrosity (like Laserdisc). For about a few hundred bucks any computer can be a PVR. TV companies will complain at first, but then they will rejoice that they can make money off of primetime shows 24/7.
because the people who need it most, are leasat able to pay for it.
that and it's better (economically) for the company to churn out drugs that will suppress the virus and possibly beat it into submission, because they can charge big bucks every month.
It doesn't really benefit the shareholders to produce a vaccine that will have to be sold cheaply to sub-saharan Africans.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
ok... so with the release of vista, Direct X 10 will come out. the problem that Direct X 10 will not be compatible on any cards that have come out in 2005 will hinder it from being used. so i predict Direct X 9 will used all next year and perhaps that more developers will switch to openGL considering the minimal overhead of the implimentation on top of Direct X 10. (DX 10 is quite similar to openGL)
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
In general, though, you are absolutely correct about scaling. An insect doesn't scale well - partly because of limbs, but mostly because they don't have a scalable way to absorb oxygen. The 60s sci-fi horror of giant mutant insects is a physical impossibility. The proportions are all wrong and they'd die from a lack of oxygen.
Likewise, elephants seem to be fairly limited in size. There are no fossil records of a pint-sized elephant - although there ARE fossil records of a pint-sized horse.
Rhinos scale well - the largest in that family reaching 18' in height. It is not clear how small they can get, but I seem to recall that the Manatee is a fairly close relative that returned to the oceans.
Humans seem to be about the upper limit on size - the largest of the Great Apes was only about 10' - but fossil finds seem to indicate that hominids have existed which were much smaller. I'd call hominids passably scalable, then.
I'd love to see someone do some in-depth research on what forms ARE scalable and where this differs from what has actually occured in practice, why that potential might not be viable in practice.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
I should have suggested gun ownership and food storage too, but I was really just focusing on the dollar fall.
FYI, I hate moveon.org, hate the copyright/media industry that supports them, and am one of those minorities that support the war in Iraq, but that doesn't change the fact that the US has some suvere financial problems. And FYI, the banks are that stupid because it has paid bigtime to be that stupid - that's half the problem. When you have the power to create money and out of thin air and loan it out, you tend to do stupid things that wouldn't make sense with naturally limited money like gold.
This year somebody will leave a semicolon out of the source code for their nanites, and everything will dissolve into a pulsating earth-sized blob of yellow goop.
Later spacefaring civilizations will put up warning signs just inside the Oort cloud: "Danger! do not touch the yellow sticky stuff! It's evil!"
I'll stay one step ahead and start building my Web4.0 app now.
(It was also a bird of prey, so detention for more troublesome kids would not be necessary.)
We already have talking turkeys, but I won't say which reality TV show they're on. Seriously, although you'd never be able to get a bird to talk, the avian brain is demonstrably capable of a respectable level of intelligence. African Grey parrots can understand grammar, adjectives and context, whilst crows have been filmed manufacturing tools (the only animal other than humans to demonstrate manufacture, not just exploitation of pre-existing resources).
The problem with PETA has nothing to do with their arguments or beliefs. Their problems revolve around communication skills and a lack of hard data - both of which could be fixed. Slogans do not an argument make (did Yoda say). Do animals have intelligence? Do animals have feelings? We have fMRI, we could settle this beyond dispute. By making ethics an issue of faith alone, those with different faiths can - and do - feel free to ignore those ethics. Once ethics becomes a matter of verifiable fact, faith is irrelevent and can say what it likes.
The communication aspect is just as important. Fine, let's say some things are wrong, but society (for whatever reason) feels they're important. Animal experimentation being a good (or bad) example. Can you communicate why the existing option really isn't as good as it seems -and- offer a better, cheaper, easier alternative? The alternatives do exist, but if you can't communicate that convincingly, why should anyone care? Society has inertia and unless you're willing to be convincing enough, inertia will always win out.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Next hot thing will be lossy, pixely, shitty DRM'd and overpriced digital video on tiny LCD screens. Hey - it worked with jpeg and mp3 after all, dinnit?
1. Steve Ballmer will have his own TV show.
2. Google will contract Dalai Lama.
3. Many people will see Argentina winning FIFA World Cup 2006 on Internet.
4. Nicholas Negroponte will design an iPod clone for 20 dollars.
5. GNU Hurd will run on more machines.
6. Blogs will have recursive references.
7. New AJAX interfaces on your watch.
8. Linux penguin will be married.
9. XBOX Patched.
10. Amazon will read books to childrens while parents watch TV.
Well, funnily enough I saw a programme on TV about the UK's new alternative GPS satellite network this evening, since they're just launching the first trial box into orbit.
It was quite scary that, while discussing the better resolution than the existing GPS network, the first example use quoted by a spokesman was that it was accurate enough to be used for automatic road tolls.
If you think the UK doesn't care about these things, though, I suspect you're wrong. Word hasn't quite hit the mainstream about the new nationwide spy camera network that will track everywhere you drive on main roads and hold the information for 5 years yet, but when it does (along with the fact that it's all been done by the police without any parliamentary oversight, based on a technicality in their rules) then I predict there will be hell to pay, and it could even be the catalyst for a nationwide protest against the ever increasing government surveillance we're being put under. The whole ID card/register thing has gone very quiet since the terrorists actually attacked us and the government admitted that the ID card scheme wouldn't have helped, so now the civil liberties gang need a new target. As luck would have it, one has turned up right on time!
And for the record, three GATSO speed cameras have been taken out (violently) within a mile or two of my house in recent months, and nationally even senior police figures have now admitted that the emphasis on those monstrosities was misguided and taken as a whole, the current road safety policies not really bringing the improvements that were claimed earlier.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
You must go register these predictions on ZapFuture.com at once.Loved them. Regards.
It's called the "power" button...shuts up fox real nice!