8 Can't Miss Predictions... for 1998

alphadogg-nw writes "Tired of being wrong too often, a Network World pundit applies 20-20 hindsight to this list of prognostications for 1998, which if he's right will turn out to be quite a year. Among the forecasts: The U.S. Department of Justice will go medieval on Microsoft, Compaq will buy what's left of DEC, AOL likewise Netscape, Apple will introduce something said to look like an Easter egg ... and then there's the deafening buzz about this new search engine called Google."

Comments

Bad headline

[MSTCrow5429]

The headline is misleading. These aren't predictions for 1998, they're written by a guy in 2008 as if they were written in 1998. That's what the "hindsight" part means.

My prediction for 2008: Major worldwide recession, due to the massive inflationary bubble bursting, an inability of the central banks to continue using inflation to create a false sense of prosperity, and stagflation.

Re:Bad headline

[sm62704]

My predictions for 2008, all will happen (balls of crystal, I tell ya)

• the earth will not be hit by an extinction-causing assteroid
  
• Someone will invent something. The invention may actually be useful
  
• Somebody will launch something or someone into outer space.
  
• Someone will post "FIRST POST! with the comment "frosty piss" and be modded "offtopic"
  
• Someone will say something about the USSR, Natalie Portmen, a Beowolf cluster, or CowboyNeal and be modded "+5 funny"
  
• I will continue to write slashdot journals about prostitutes
  
• I will get at least one haircut this year. Maybe this afternoon.
  
• CmdrTaco won't command her "taco"
  
• Google [whatever] will remain in beta
  
• Microsoft will keep pissing everyone off
  
• 2008 will not see Linux overtake Windows
  
• I'll be turned down and stood up
  
• CowboyNeal won't get laid

-mcgrew

Re:Bad headline

[red_dragon]

In Soviet Russia, Natalie Portman uses a Beowulf cluster built by CowboyNeal to submit a first post with the comment "frosty piss".

There you go, you can scratch one off of your list. You're welcome.

Altavista

[hey!]

Y'know, I liked Altavista a great deal. It was a rare case of a great product getting its block knocked off by an even better one. Still, for some time I found Altavista's more bells-and-whistley approach useful for triangulatin Google results, at least until Google engineers seemingly perfected their MROIPP (Mind Reading Over Internet Protocols Protocol) technology.

Wow! That was easy.

[morgan_greywolf]

My predictions for 1988:

10. MS-DOS 4.0 will ship, finally, by mid-year. It will be so buggy and crash so much that Microsoft will be forced to release an update, MS-DOS 4.01, by year's end.
9. Liquid crystal will be discovered by Frederick Reintzer.
8. Someone will introduce a simple network management protocol, probably called SNMP. Nobody will care.
7. An alternative bus to IBM's Micro Channel Architecture will be introduced. Expect it to be called something like EISA -- Extended Industry Standard Architecture.
6. An Internet Relay Chat system called IRC will be developed.
5. A company called Creative Labs will introduce a sound card called the SoundBlaster, which will establish defacto standards for years to come.
4. People obsessed with clocks will introduce the Network Time Protocol, which will allow computers to sync their clocks over the Internet.
3. The first T-1 backbone will be added to ARPANET.
2. Motorola will release a new processor, the 88000. No one will care.
1. Apple will sue Microsoft over the trash can icon.

Wow!

[Otter]

In a first-of-its-kind case, a California jury will convict a U.C.-Irvine dropout, Richard Machado, of sending threatening and hateful e-mail to students of Asian dissent.

Between the timeliness of this story, his spelling, and his belief that Bill Gates is facing criminal charges, Paul McNamara sounds like he'd fit in well here as an editor.

Re:Digg?

[AstrumPreliator]

Slashdot has a much more focused story selection, the front page isn't rife with spelling errors, grammatical errors, and poor headlines, and finally the moderated comments on Slashdot are usually pretty good and I enjoy reading them. If I want to see some funny picture from 2001 complete with a terrible headline and mind numbingly stupid comments I'll go to digg. I'm not trying to bash digg too hard since I do visit it about as frequently as slashdot, but slashdot is definitely easier to read and the comments are really what makes slashdot special to me.

Mod parent up

[elrous0]

And tell Taco to RTFA too.

Re:Mod parent up

[Pharmboy]

No reason to RTFA, its lame, and it appears it is a very slow news day and they needed something on the front page for this hour. I hate being so negative, but if you do REFA, you will see that this is really weak.

Predicting the past?

[Per Abrahamsen]

Eh, I guess I miss something, what is the point of predicting the past? Poorly?

A question -

[banda]

What exactly are "students of Asian dissent"?

Would that include anyone who took a 20th century history class? Why be mad at them?

Re:Digg?

[cHiphead]

I "switched" to digg for about 2 months before it got excessively annoying. Ever since the interface change I've been 99% slashdot for comments, no more wasting my time on digg comments system, their useless trolls are nowhere near as entertaining as /.'s.

Cheers.

Re:Digg?

[sm62704]

the front page isn't rife with spelling errors, grammatical errors, and poor headlines

Um WHAT? You're talking about slashdot? THIS slashdot?

-mcgrew

Re:Digg?

[dbolger]

I believe he was trying to keep his post on-topic.

Clearly he is referring to the Slashdot of 1998 ;)

Re:Predictions for 2008

[Abreu]

But please remember that most europeans have access to decent public transportation... Poor gringos have to drive everywhere...