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Ask Slashdot: Predictions For 2016? (slashdot.org)

Posted by Soulskill on from the pants-will-fall-out-of-fashion dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Ok folks, it's been ten years since we've done this. What are your tech/science/nerd/misc predictions for 2016? Is VR going to be the bombshell it's being hyped as? Are wearables going to come into their own? Which tech companies are going to implode, and which are going to blossom? What discoveries are we going to make this year? Will people ever shut up about Donald Trump? Which new movies, books, games, and TV shows are going to be awesome? Which are going to suck? How will our privacy and security erode in 2016? And anything else you'd care to forecast.

9 of 239 comments (clear)

  1. Stealing one from 2006 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm going to steal one from 2006 since it is almost a reality:
      by BCW2 (168187) on Monday December 26, 2005 @11:59PM (#14342970) Journal
    [How about] Flash drives get priced competitivly with hard drives of the same size?

    1. Re:Stealing one from 2006 by greenfruitsalad · · Score: 4, Interesting

      now if we could get rid of fans as well, i'd be happy. i'd like my laptop to have cpu in the screen part so it can use the lid as its heatsink.

    2. Re:Stealing one from 2006 by jones_supa · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The low-end Core and Atom series already allow designs without a fan. Also, many modern laptops stop the fan when idle, as the energy efficiency of the mainline chips has gotten so good.

      Your idea of building the CPU board inside the screen part is interesting, manufacturers should experiment with that.

    3. Re:Stealing one from 2006 by Gadget_Guy · · Score: 3, Interesting

      i'd like my laptop to have cpu in the screen part so it can use the lid as its heatsink.

      The only problem with putting the workings into the screen is that it makes it top-heavy, which changes the balance when hold it. It can be slightly more prone to falling over too, although none of these problems are really horrendous. I guess if you kept the drive and battery in the base it would counter-balance the computer.

      I have an ASUS Transformer Book T100 (which has a detachable screen that can be used as a tablet). The weight problem is not too bad because the entire computer is so light. I do want to try a Surface Book, which also has a detachable screen (and so has to have the CPU in the screen). But it also has an extra battery and graphics processor in the base to give it more grunt when using it in a traditional notebook format. I'm quite keen to see how the balance is with the mix of parts.

  2. Firefox will continue to lose market share. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I think that 2016 will be a disastrous year for Firefox. Thanks to more dumb changes by Mozilla, most of which will be unwanted by Firefox's few remaining users, many of these users will move to Chrome, Edge, Safari, or one of the other browsers out there. Firefox's share of the market, which is only in the high single-digits at this point, will drop below 5%.

    Furthermore, Mozilla supporters will continue to refuse to acknowledge why this massive drop in market share will have happened. Instead of just admitting that Mozilla fucked up and fucked over its users, these Mozilla supporters will use excuses like "Google advertised Chrome a lot" and "it's because of mobile browsers". They still won't realize, or at least admit, what the real problem has been: Mozilla has repeatedly fucked over Firefox's users with one stupid, unwanted and awful change after another!

    Additionally, Servo and Rust won't see much progress in 2016. Rust will continue to spin its wheels as it tries to become as useful as C++14 has been for a few years. Servo might get to the point of providing an IE 7 level of experience, rather than the IE 3 style experience it currently provides. Both will continue to be a waste of resources that could have instead been put toward improving Firefox's performance or fixing many of its longstanding bugs.

    1. Re:Firefox will continue to lose market share. by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Interesting

      They should do a WinAMP and go back several versions. Maybe use the Pale Moon code base as a starting point.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  3. More IPv6 by Tim+the+Gecko · · Score: 4, Interesting

    10% of users accessed Google with IPv6 yesterday: http://www.google.com/intl/en/...

    If you expand out the graph you can see that during the work week there are about 8% of users on IPv6, but at the weekends it increases. There is a two-speed internet, with residential and mobile leading the way, and corporate networks lagging behind.

    Prediction: 14% at weekends next year.

  4. Crypto Wars, take 2 by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The brushfires have been smouldering, but in 2016 both the owners and subjects will organize to oppose each other with fervor. Individuals and companies will begin making news for fleeing repressive regimes to continue their work and these will be regimes that used to claim a penchant for liberty. Other subjects of these regimes will begin to notice and start a three-year cycle that will lead to one extreme or the other.

    --
    My God, it's Full of Source!
    OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  5. Re:Will people ever shut up about Donald Trump? by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Quite the opposite, the very fact THAT he is offensive to women, latinos, gays and pretty much everyone but white male protestant voters is his strong suite. Because they are fed up with the whole SJW bullshit, even enough to vote for the hairpiece.

    Just to give you an idea how far that political correctness bullshit has gone.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.