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10 Failed Technology Trends of 2005
mikemuch writes "ExtremeTech's Loyd Case muses on ten trends of 2005 that never panned out. He points the finger at analysts like himself for waxing glowy-eyed at technologies like the BTX form factor and the 64-bit version of Windows XP. On DRM and the Sony rootkit fiasco: 'Hint to the music publishers: It's not going to work. There have been easy workarounds to every system that's been tried, and the more stringent the copy protection, the greater the risk of having angry customers who won't buy CDs. I suggest you start investigating new business models, as the old ones ride off into the sunset.'"
I find it odd that Case complains about Gmail. He goes on about how hard
it is to add attachments - it's really not that hard.
And why does he bitch about it still being in Beta? Hell,
most of the stuff on Google STILL is in Beta. Besides,
invites are like a dime a dozen now (as I type this, I have
100 invites). But GMail being a "failed tech trend?". Hmph.
BTW, the article layout is disgusting - 11 pages!
My MythTV HowTo
First off, the Gmail screen still reads "BETA." Will it ever not be beta? Who knows? That means that you still need to be invited to, uh, participate in the beta.
Alright, so it is still in beta. To most people (the author seems to forget this) this means that there are probably little bugs or issues with the service. It may have been in beta for quite awhile, which could mean that they are still working on bugs, but then again most geeks are quite fickle about release dates (The author of TFA even admits this when he discusses Windows x64). Next, he goes on to say:
Gmail is inconvenient in many ways. Managing a mailing list isn't trivial. Trying to send legitimate attachments with executable files is damn near impossible. Even ZIP files are a chore.
Wait a second...Didn't we just determine that Gmail is still in beta? Don't we all know that beta == issues? Alright, so we have a service that shouldn't be in beta, but that has issues. Gotcha. Perhaps the arguement should be that there aren't enough resources going into Gmail, then perhaps I would buy the arguement.
do.what.promptcmds
I used to buy 80% of my CDs, pirate the rest, and fell a little guilty about it. Now there's no _point_ in me buying CDs. They're useless to me. So I pirate every single one now.
Why do I think copy protection is great (for me) ?
Because I don't feel guilty anymore.
but your example is flawed. CD sales have not plummeted. While total sales are down slightly, labels have axed their research/product development, and numbers of artists. Their sales per release are up, and their profits are way up. Digital downloads are currently a drop in the bucket. People with iPods generally still buy CDs. They are filling up their iPods the same way we filled up their glove boxes with mix tapes in the 80s: by copying our CDs, and our friends' CDs. Except that, thanks to P2P, we all have a lot more friends to share with.
Gmail a failed tech trend? What? As far as I can tell it's been wildly successful. Everyone I know who uses it, has been slowly moving all their email capabilities to it. For the past few months I've been forwarding all my email from all my various accounts to my Gmail account. I haven't opened Outlook Express in a couple months. Sure, it takes a little while to get used to Gmail, but I found that the more I used it, the more intuitive it was as an email service. The labeling is far better than the directory/folder paradigms from other email systems. I prefer it's filtering structure. The search functionality is the best I've come across (which you'd expect from Google). So, Gmail a failed tech trend? I think not. Hell, Gmail sort of launched the new AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript and XML) tech trend (or if you want to argue over the semantics of "launched", at least brought AJAX into the forefront of web development). Besides, how can any email service be considered a trend?
to separate concepts from implementation, that and keep in ExtremeTech's
need to sell papers.
Home systems need to be quieter more than cooler. Colo servers are
better off with larger/fewer drives and more energy efficient cpus.
PCs are replacing TV in this respect. People want better content more
than prettier pictures. Then too there's the problem with bandwidth
and storage capacities. This is a technology whose time will come when
the supporting infrastructure catches up.
Demand is there but cheap storage is not
Microsoft FUD, just like IPnP.
WTF? CDs are dead.
RIAA/MPAA/Sony FUD.
As the owner of a Creative MP3 player it seems to me that iPod
competitors have always had better technology but need to match Apple's
marketing.
Haven't you been eating your X10 spam? Seriously though, this is as
promising a field as it gets, especially regarding energy efficiency.
Only reason there's little development is the fear of Microsoft's
monopoly. Thanks due utterly clueless Republican economic policies.
Privacy issues, spam problems, nothing really new about this service.
Preempted by workspace ergonomics, cubicle size, and multiple virtual
desktops.
This retard seems to think that 64-bit computing will arrive when windows supports it. I've been doing real work on 64 bit platform for 4 years.
Windows is backwards. So is the columnist.
So, impressed by their own cleverness, they get people to stamp their logo on DVD+ format discs. Which puts you in the situation I was in where I'd bought a spindle of DVD+R discs (precisely to avoid RW compatibility issues) only to take one out and find it had the letters 'RW' stamped on the disc in a prominent way.
This was not to indicate that the disc was re-writeable - it was to indicate that the disc was in a format of a type specified by the RW group. It took me a few minutes of googling to confirm that I did in fact have R and not an RW disc in my hand.
I mean, what a bunch of goddamn muppets.