Slashdot Mirror
The Magic 8-Ball's Take on Tech in 2008
PCWMike writes "It's that time of year again, when every website makes predictions about the future of technology. PCWorld is no exception, but tried to put a little humor into their prognostication by calling on a neutral third party: the magic 8-ball. '4. Open Software and Open Networks Will Dominate! Magic 8-Ball says: Ask again later. Open-source software meets open wireless networks, fostering an unbridled era of innovation and consumer freedom. Right? Well, maybe one day, but don't bet the bank on it in 2008.'"
If you want to have an idea of where technlogy is headed.
:)
Read Neal Stephenson, go watch Gattaca but whatever you do don't bother reading PC magazine
MP3 Search Engine
1. The Internet Will Melt Down
Very doubtful
2. Social Networks Face Security, Financial Woes
It is decidedly so
3. DRM Is Dead, Jim
Don't count on it
4. Open Software and Open Networks Will Dominate
Ask again later
5. Everything's Going Mobile
You may rely on it
6. Green Is the New Black
Outlook good
7. Hackers Get Political
Without a doubt
8. Google Stumbles
Outlook not so good
9. Microsoft Will Buy Yahoo
Signs point to yes
10. Your Next Pet Will Require Batteries
Cannot predict now
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Things will get worse before they get better for software. We're accepting buggier software than ever and paying more for it than ever. We're spending more time trying to get the hardware and software to behave itself (maintenance and troubleshooting, never mind the BS companies are putting in our ways with things like DRM going crazy these days) than we are actually accomplishing tasks. I naively thought things would get better but it's become clear to me that things are going to much much worse before they get better. Only when things get so bad they're unusable (and therefore unbuyable) are people going to pay attention.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
The magic 8-ball can in fact predict the future. To do that reverse the polarity of the universe (CPT symmetries apply), entangle the entropies of the required universe with the 8-ball and remember to shake the ball outside the universe to avoid recursion.
Seriously, anyone who's read Experts Speak or paleo-future blog will probably be rather critical of such predictions. But like the Dune book says, prescience does modify the future like a fish through water.
So, being hopeful about the future, but wary about it at the same time is the most productive approach to predictions. Check plus on that for this effort.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur
and kicks Microsoft on the way down...
Whatever is coming in the future will be bleak, confusing and only serve to remind us how much better things were when we were children. Its been said since the beginning of civilization and therefore must be true.
Ginga no Rekshiya Mata Each page.
One minute the magic 8 ball is saying 'Outlook Good' and the next minute it's saying 'Outlook Not So Good'.
Is it really that tough to pick an email client?
Stepping so low,and slashdot parroting it.
Next up in news : How many licks it takes to get to the center of 9-volt battery and tic-tac-toe championship results.
That is vista
12: Microsoft continues to promote their 'Surface' technology http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7174333.stm as the be-all and end all of input systems
13: Gates resumes daily role in Microsoft, fires Balmer and then starts throwing chairs out of the Window as he struggles to use the latest beta of VS 2010 shouting, "I know how to frigging program
you useless heap of sh1t" as the 'help' system tries to tell him that 'goto' is not allowed.
I'd rather be riding my '63 Triumph T120.
well that's great! What does the Magic 8 Ball say about SCO?
..outlook not so good?
(also why does it have such a problem with Outlook? ok, I'm no MS fan boy but Outlook at least works. sheesh, next thing you know somebody will claim the 8 ball runs Linux.)
Some long range predictions. Take them with a grain of salt if you will.
1.
Proprietary Operating systems will become either open source or free as in beer as existing OSS operating systems become more sophisticated, user-friendly, and compatible with proprietary systems. (ReactOS and Wine as examples of the compatibility).
2.
DRM will become a none-issue as record labels realize that it is more efficient to phish for users on P2P networks and sue them, rather than to alienate paying customers with DRM issues.
3.
The Internet will break up into smaller proprietary pieces much like the former Yugoslavia. Countries and companies alike will seek to gain control over their own Netizens through proprietary protocols, clients and servers, firewalls, etc. And the Geek crowd will seek there own refuge (from the incessant censorship and control of the available "open" Internet) in private IRC servers and channels, and through services such as Freenet and Onion server based services and Web sites.
4.
There will always be people who read spam and and open virus filled email attachments, because people will always want larger penises, bigger breasts, and more money. Hope will never die.
5.
Small and intelligent home-built "hobby" Robots and self-replicating nano-technology based devices will be the new nuisance of the future.
Bookmark this comment and come back to it in 10 to 20 years and see...
It's all just speculation... but I think there is a strong probability of these things coming true based on current trends.
Must say, it sounds like a distinct improvement over Dvorak's annual wrong-a-thon.
Britney spears with four male backup singers (and dead DRM, of course)
3. I think you're wrong about the DRM. DRM was stillborn, as every pipe dream (in the case of the RIAA, crack pipe dream) is. DRM is already dead, was dead to begin with. What man can make, man can break. What a team of programmers can create, a million nerds can can shred in an evening.
Once the lock's broken anyone can get in.
She's dead, Jim. She's always been dead. That's not wedding rice, that's maggots.
-mcgrew
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
If you like speculative fiction, Bill Gates wrote a book about an alternative universe where the Internet never happened.
Writes some good near future sci-fi (Accelerando and Halting State). You should also check out Vernor Vinge's Rainbows End.