"If you tell a lie long enough, the people will believe it. The greater the lie, the more people will believe it". Adolph Hitler, and I may be mistaken on the exact wording..
Sigh... strike two.
It wasn't Stalin nor was it Hitler (though if this were horseshoes, you'd get points for being in the ballpark, technos)... Joseph Goebbels, of Nazi Minister of Propaganda fame, was gracious enough to leave the world the depressing insight: if a lie is repeated often enough and long enough, it will come to be perceived as truth.
Sidenote: A simple search into Google before posting can clear up so many offtopic threads.
Sidenote Two: You might consider choosing less genocidal sources when selecting a quotation to bolster your point...
Maybe this is the real reason MS wants Linux eliminated, because it keeps hackers sharp.
Or maybe MS doesn't really want Linux eliminated but doesn't really mind the perception that it wants Linux eliminated, because it keeps hackers sharp.
For those who actually clicked the ABC News Link..
on
Dual-headed Laptops
·
· Score: 0
Well, not to split hairs with you, but this isn't exactly an "either/or" thing. The U.S.A. is a democratic republic -- we do freely elect our representatives / head of state. There is an electoral college that acts as a check (just as splitting the power into three branches of government, an executive, legislative and judicial branch serves the same purpose) -- but remember when the Constitution was created, no one had even envisioned parties or the power they would have. Think of them like an emergent property of democracy...But no one stood in line at my polling place with an M16 to intimidate me into voting one way. No one threatened my family. No one bribed me. I freely chose to vote the way I did, as did everyone else.
"The people" have an enormous say in what goes on in their daily lives, far more than at any other time in history -- especially if you are a commoner, not rich, not in the priesthood, etc. If you are talking about the national level, of course, remember that your 1 vote is just one of hundreds of millions. At the state level you are 1 of millions. Even in your own community you are 1 of thousands or millions. Of course you should look into banding together with other like-minded people to make your voice heard. Of course you should look in to creative ways to get the word out about whatever issue tickles your fancy.
But "good ol' boy" system -- ha! One good report by 60 Minutes or Dateline and you could get a leader recalled for that. "Pork barrel" = every person's pet project is someone else's pork. Doesn't mean anything. I could call SETI funding pork. Or I could call health care funding pork. Depends on what your priorities are, but you aren't really saying anything substantative here.
The people have very little say in what goes on in government on a daily basis
Nor do they have time. Seriously. Not trolling, just pointing out that with work and school and picking up the kids from daycare and making dinner and watching TV and catching a movie every now and then and soccer and playing Unreal and visiting the grandparents and everything else -- The decisions a unit of government makes is a daily job. We entrust our leaders to make those decisions and if we disagree with them, we elect new ones. The average citizen can not (and will not) inform himself or herself on each and every important issue that comes up, so you can rule out directly voting on everything.
Summary: The US is a democratic republic where the people freely elect their leaders. Parties exist as an emergent property in every democracy seen to date. People today have more say over their political lives than at any time before. And if you can propose something even better, do so! Innovation is great. Pointing at something and calling it crap without suggesting an improvement is childish.
a means for the government to collect a list of 'dissidents'.
I hate to point out the exceptionally obvious, but if you live in the US (or Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Brazil, Japan, South Korea) it is the people who elect and choose "the government". Here in the states, we decided over 225 years ago that we didn't like others telling us what to do with or without our consent. Say what you will about voter turnout, special interest groups and the like... the system in place in nearly the entire western world is one where "the government" is what the people collectively decide upon. There isn't any us vs. them. There is just us.
Or was there some sort of change and I didn't get the memo?
Make their job more difficult, a telemarketer just might quit. Make enough people quit, the industry becomes harder to run. Make it harder to run, it might just go away.
Naaa... all you are really doing here is being a jerk.
It's not like the guy sitting in a giant call center making $7.50/hour as a second job in the evenings really wants to be doing this any more than you want him to be disturbing you. But you want to make his life more miserable, thinking that somehow the supply of single moms, kids who never quite went to college or people trying to earn some extra money because there aren't other jobs out there will magically dry up?
Sorry for the tangent, it's just this misplaced rage -- mistreating the workers who are )*%# upon by the very company whose practices you despise -- seems evidence of mean-spirited sleepwalking.
Reminder: The guy who hands you your big mac is not really McDonalds, the guy who cleans your office bathroom is a human being with a name and just as much a part of your team's effort as any other contractor. And the person interrupting your dinner probably doesn't feel good about it already. I'm all for "do not call" lists. I'm not taking any stand here about the merits, pro or con, of this. I'm just talking about treating people like fellow human beings.
Summary: You can quickly get a telemarketer off the phone without being a jerk.
I can imagine a beautiful, peaceful alien race. Free of crime, war, and violence
I wrote a short story on this subject. When they step foot off of their ship, just like any other visitors to a foreign shore we greet them with open arms. They come in peace... they don't want our oil... They don't want our water...
They want to convert us...
Makes sense if you think about it. Missionaries would be on that first ship, my friends. And if you think the whole Arab vs. Jewish vs. Christian thing that's playing itself out right now looks bad, just imagine an alien religion gaining mass numbers of converts (free technology, free alien schools, nice little carrot there)and the opposition to it...
Summary: Just because they are free of crime, war and violence doesn't mean that those buggers won't spell trouble!
What do you expect? Those Cylon Centurions only have one eye--no depth perception
On the contrary... I can't believe I am such a geek for writing this but... obviously the side to side motion of the red eye would imply a very high degree of depth perception. For depth perception you need visual input from two different sources. Rather than two inputs, aka mammals, they had a continuum of inputs along that bright red track.
Look, mod me as a troll if you want... but someone has got to mod this parent post up! It is true the Standard Oils of their day -- the reasons why the anti-monopoly laws were written -- were far more all-reaching than even the foaming at the mouth Linus lovers ever ascribed to evil Bill and Co. A big segment of the open source movement adopted an intellectually dishonest "Microsoft = monopoly" stance because they didn't believe their product could survive on its own merits in the big ol' nasty 'open market.
Well, guess what? That time is past. The great thing is... the anti-trust case about Microsoft lost its thunder right around the same time open source started proving it could make a profit and stick around for a while. I don't think the merits of the case against Microsoft fundamentally changed. I just think a lot of penguin advocates changed their minds and said, "You know, maybe the case about M$ being a monopoly really is pretty weak... and besides, Linux isn't in danger now anyway..." Hehehe. I know a few people out there like that myself. I bet you do too. Some of you reading this have said exactly that to yourself.
If not...well then, respond to Strudelkugel's question...how is/was M$ a monopoly?
This is only the tip of the iceberg. Any network messaging medium is vulnerable to abuse by spammers. The problem started with Netnews, it continued with e-mail, it's happening now with instant messaging. We need at least high level solution that helps solve the problem regardless of prototcol.
So, how do you get the word to motivate people to act on this mushrooming problem? One way that I can think of is by giving them a new way to think about it. Relate it to something that they understand...
Spam is not junk mail.
Spam is litter on the information superhighway.
Its trash. Pure and simple trash that gets in the way of people communicating with each other. And pretty soon this garbage will be everywhere. On the sides of roads, in the streets, in our driveways. We won't be able to go anywhere because of this TRASH.
Besides...your POSTAL MAILBOX isn't about communication anymore. The only kinds of mail you get in your postal mailbox are BILLS and your MAGAZINES and NEWSLETTERS and CATALOGS. Come on, does anyone send US mail now except for at the holidays? Or to grandma? Except, heck, Grannie's on AOL now, too.
That's what the word SPAM was coined for. (The history of the word is a different topic for a different (overly rehashed) post.) But the fact was, a new word was needed and SPAM arrived to fill the need: To let people know that this wasn't regular junk mail. Pretty much ALL postal mail (besides checks) is junk mail, anyway...
But SPAM is too soft. Too cuddly. SPAM doesn't convey the sense of urgency that is needed...
I think it would be effective if people started calling it for what it is: Trash, Garbage...and most of all...
He was never convicted, but did reach an agreement with the SEC and was fined about $285 K. The article states that his total profit from his dealings were over $800 K, so he did get to keep a huge chunk of his profits.
Let's see... one of the highest federal income tax brackets in the US is at around 35%. Doesn't take a big stretch to assume that the SEC, acting for Uncle Sam, just wanted their cut. 35% of $800K = $280K. (That'd mean they fined him that extra $5000 as a slap on the wrist.) $280K cut for the gov. at a 35% tax rate and $5K for the reminder that this is "bad" = $285K.
Seems just about right all the way around, really.
Obviously I should avoid Minnesota, Utah, and several other states because they elect "spooks."...OK, I'll bite -- Am I running a blank or are you talking paranoid? What Minnesota spook do you refer to?
This happened to me about a month back... not with a bank but with Netflix...
Mod me offtopic if you want, but there is something WEIRD about it. My brother and I have totally different addresses, we haven't lived together in over 12 years now -- and that was back in WI -- and now we even live in different states. I've never had an account at Netflix, never even been on their mailing list...and for some reason, they mailed a DVD with HIS name and account number to MY address and zip code.
Weird.
The only thing we have in common is our SSN being almost identical... but seeing as how I shouldn't even have been in the Netflix DB in the first place, THAT couldn't be it...
Actually, yes, I'd hope so. Or is it out of vogue and too cool to admit things are bad and think about ways to head off real problems while still keeping your head and not buying into the hysteria?
...one thing I should have added to my trollish sounding post above...
So what? Well, just because you think that "the same logic could be applied" to so many other things doesn't mean that a lot of average, reasonable people won't come to the conclusion above. Other people will pose the scenario ("...if this is a big security hole, then the terrorists could exploit it, too...") -- and they will present their own solutions to this problem. Once a problem is pointed out -- and people really start to perceive it as a problem -- people want answers... quick.
I'd say if anyone in the tech community has creative, non-intrusive, technical solutions to the holes that obviously exist in the credit card/online credit card number database model, now would be the time to start getting them talked about...
Just think of all the plastic explosives terrorists could create with 2.2 million credit cards!
I know I'm going to be modded as a troll for this, but...
So we know that some terrorists were devoted enough to the cause of causing chaos that they actually enrolled themselves in flight school to learn how to do what they did. Is it that much of a stretch to think that they aren't aware that it is possible to steal credit cards numbers off the Internet? And do you think that by devoting the same amount of time to googling and reading some paint-by-numbers script kiddie how-to-steal-credit-cards blog someone dedicated to doing "very bad things" couldn't find a way to pull something like this off?
I'm not sure why everyone chose to mod the parent post as Funny. I find the prospect of Very Angry People stealing millions of credit cards quite frightening, myself...
Nice... somebody actually wasted mod points to mod my parent comment a troll but didn't even have the courage/imagination to post anonymously saying what they disagreed with...
What amazes me is that the Department of Homeland Security seems to be a much bigger beauracracy than any of the agencies that it is "swallowing", yet it's being built by an administration that sells itself as anti-big-government.{Emphasis added by me}
Correction... it is being built by an administration that sold itself as anti-big-government. See, there was this thing that happened called 9/11 and a lot of people shifted their positions on a lot of things. Its not like this is a big secret and its not like you are going to inspire outrage or shock by pointing out that DHS is big government.
...Seriously, I swear half the people on/. have at least a mild case of Asperger's Syndrome.
One of the things that I love about my Palm and has made it into something I couldn't live without it my fold-up stowaway keyboard. Fast text entry is very important. I don't want to have to press the numeric keypad to enter text. Period.
I think that the parent was a beautifully worded post and deserves every one of its +5 mod points...
...but...
We have tens of millions of people working in the IT sector now. And it isn't as though no work is being done. Sure, we haven't developed what we thought we would develop back in the 70s... but we've made huge strides in other directions that we didn't even dream of then...
Cellular phones, wireless networks, wireless everything, the web, MP3, DVDs, digital photography, the human genome project, DNA fingerprinting, ebooks, ATMs, laptops...
Some of the problems we thought we could solve turn out to be really tricky things that our current ways of computing have trouble tackling. Other things -- like the very short grocery list above (which I would LOVE to see others reply and expand upon!) -- are everywhere today and were near unimaginable in the 70s.
Computers aren't magic. They won't solve every problem. They are very well suited for solving specific kinds of problems. We are just discovering together what those kinds of problems are...
Slashdot Mirror
"If you tell a lie long enough, the people will believe it. The greater the lie, the more people will believe it". Adolph Hitler, and I may be mistaken on the exact wording..
Sigh... strike two.
It wasn't Stalin nor was it Hitler (though if this were horseshoes, you'd get points for being in the ballpark, technos)... Joseph Goebbels, of Nazi Minister of Propaganda fame, was gracious enough to leave the world the depressing insight: if a lie is repeated often enough and long enough, it will come to be perceived as truth.
Sidenote: A simple search into Google before posting can clear up so many offtopic threads.
Sidenote Two: You might consider choosing less genocidal sources when selecting a quotation to bolster your point...
Maybe this is the real reason MS wants Linux eliminated, because it keeps hackers sharp.
Or maybe MS doesn't really want Linux eliminated but doesn't really mind the perception that it wants Linux eliminated, because it keeps hackers sharp.
Not only is this a repost, but the date smack at the top of the ABC News article says Dec 27.
Maybe it should be called Olds for Nerds. Stuff that mattered.
Well, not to split hairs with you, but this isn't exactly an "either/or" thing. The U.S.A. is a democratic republic -- we do freely elect our representatives / head of state. There is an electoral college that acts as a check (just as splitting the power into three branches of government, an executive, legislative and judicial branch serves the same purpose) -- but remember when the Constitution was created, no one had even envisioned parties or the power they would have. Think of them like an emergent property of democracy...But no one stood in line at my polling place with an M16 to intimidate me into voting one way. No one threatened my family. No one bribed me. I freely chose to vote the way I did, as did everyone else.
"The people" have an enormous say in what goes on in their daily lives, far more than at any other time in history -- especially if you are a commoner, not rich, not in the priesthood, etc. If you are talking about the national level, of course, remember that your 1 vote is just one of hundreds of millions. At the state level you are 1 of millions. Even in your own community you are 1 of thousands or millions. Of course you should look into banding together with other like-minded people to make your voice heard. Of course you should look in to creative ways to get the word out about whatever issue tickles your fancy.
But "good ol' boy" system -- ha! One good report by 60 Minutes or Dateline and you could get a leader recalled for that. "Pork barrel" = every person's pet project is someone else's pork. Doesn't mean anything. I could call SETI funding pork. Or I could call health care funding pork. Depends on what your priorities are, but you aren't really saying anything substantative here.
The people have very little say in what goes on in government on a daily basis
Nor do they have time. Seriously. Not trolling, just pointing out that with work and school and picking up the kids from daycare and making dinner and watching TV and catching a movie every now and then and soccer and playing Unreal and visiting the grandparents and everything else -- The decisions a unit of government makes is a daily job. We entrust our leaders to make those decisions and if we disagree with them, we elect new ones. The average citizen can not (and will not) inform himself or herself on each and every important issue that comes up, so you can rule out directly voting on everything.
Summary: The US is a democratic republic where the people freely elect their leaders. Parties exist as an emergent property in every democracy seen to date. People today have more say over their political lives than at any time before. And if you can propose something even better, do so! Innovation is great. Pointing at something and calling it crap without suggesting an improvement is childish.
a means for the government to collect a list of 'dissidents'.
I hate to point out the exceptionally obvious, but if you live in the US (or Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Brazil, Japan, South Korea) it is the people who elect and choose "the government". Here in the states, we decided over 225 years ago that we didn't like others telling us what to do with or without our consent. Say what you will about voter turnout, special interest groups and the like... the system in place in nearly the entire western world is one where "the government" is what the people collectively decide upon. There isn't any us vs. them. There is just us.
Or was there some sort of change and I didn't get the memo?
Make their job more difficult, a telemarketer just might quit. Make enough people quit, the industry becomes harder to run. Make it harder to run, it might just go away.
Naaa... all you are really doing here is being a jerk.
It's not like the guy sitting in a giant call center making $7.50/hour as a second job in the evenings really wants to be doing this any more than you want him to be disturbing you. But you want to make his life more miserable, thinking that somehow the supply of single moms, kids who never quite went to college or people trying to earn some extra money because there aren't other jobs out there will magically dry up?
Sorry for the tangent, it's just this misplaced rage -- mistreating the workers who are )*%# upon by the very company whose practices you despise -- seems evidence of mean-spirited sleepwalking.
Reminder: The guy who hands you your big mac is not really McDonalds, the guy who cleans your office bathroom is a human being with a name and just as much a part of your team's effort as any other contractor. And the person interrupting your dinner probably doesn't feel good about it already. I'm all for "do not call" lists. I'm not taking any stand here about the merits, pro or con, of this. I'm just talking about treating people like fellow human beings.
Summary: You can quickly get a telemarketer off the phone without being a jerk.
I can imagine a beautiful, peaceful alien race. Free of crime, war, and violence
I wrote a short story on this subject. When they step foot off of their ship, just like any other visitors to a foreign shore we greet them with open arms. They come in peace... they don't want our oil... They don't want our water...
They want to convert us...
Makes sense if you think about it. Missionaries would be on that first ship, my friends. And if you think the whole Arab vs. Jewish vs. Christian thing that's playing itself out right now looks bad, just imagine an alien religion gaining mass numbers of converts (free technology, free alien schools, nice little carrot there)and the opposition to it...
Summary: Just because they are free of crime, war and violence doesn't mean that those buggers won't spell trouble!
In fact, sociopaths are a minority
Sort of a tautologous statement, wouldn't you say? I mean, once they are in the majority, then their behavior is called custom right?
How did you know I had a naked poster of Andrew Carneggie on my bedroom wall?
You too? I've got the full set: Rockefeller, Ford, Getty. I've even got one of Howard Hughes...he's so dreamy!
Write
Travel photographer
2nd grade teacher -- (most of 'em learn to read that year!)
Coffee Shop owner
Farmer
TV Producer
Epidemiologist
Face painting
Inventor
Cyrptologist
Waste Management
Priest/Nun
Billionaire Industrialist (*Very late 1800s retro, too!)
Aerobics Instructor
Car Sales
Secret Shopper
Home Day Care
What do you expect? Those Cylon Centurions only have one eye--no depth perception
On the contrary... I can't believe I am such a geek for writing this but... obviously the side to side motion of the red eye would imply a very high degree of depth perception. For depth perception you need visual input from two different sources. Rather than two inputs, aka mammals, they had a continuum of inputs along that bright red track.
Duh.
Think some...thing from Earth will go get it before it gets to the next local star?
You're darn right someone will! Just imagine what it would go for on eBay!!!
Again, how is/was M$ a monopoly?
Look, mod me as a troll if you want... but someone has got to mod this parent post up! It is true the Standard Oils of their day -- the reasons why the anti-monopoly laws were written -- were far more all-reaching than even the foaming at the mouth Linus lovers ever ascribed to evil Bill and Co. A big segment of the open source movement adopted an intellectually dishonest "Microsoft = monopoly" stance because they didn't believe their product could survive on its own merits in the big ol' nasty 'open market.
Well, guess what? That time is past. The great thing is... the anti-trust case about Microsoft lost its thunder right around the same time open source started proving it could make a profit and stick around for a while. I don't think the merits of the case against Microsoft fundamentally changed. I just think a lot of penguin advocates changed their minds and said, "You know, maybe the case about M$ being a monopoly really is pretty weak... and besides, Linux isn't in danger now anyway..." Hehehe. I know a few people out there like that myself. I bet you do too. Some of you reading this have said exactly that to yourself.
If not...well then, respond to Strudelkugel's question...how is/was M$ a monopoly?
This is only the tip of the iceberg. Any network messaging medium is vulnerable to abuse by spammers. The problem started with Netnews, it continued with e-mail, it's happening now with instant messaging. We need at least high level solution that helps solve the problem regardless of prototcol.
...and most of all...
So, how do you get the word to motivate people to act on this mushrooming problem? One way that I can think of is by giving them a new way to think about it. Relate it to something that they understand...
Spam is not junk mail.
Spam is litter on the information superhighway.
Its trash. Pure and simple trash that gets in the way of people communicating with each other. And pretty soon this garbage will be everywhere. On the sides of roads, in the streets, in our driveways. We won't be able to go anywhere because of this TRASH.
Besides...your POSTAL MAILBOX isn't about communication anymore. The only kinds of mail you get in your postal mailbox are BILLS and your MAGAZINES and NEWSLETTERS and CATALOGS. Come on, does anyone send US mail now except for at the holidays? Or to grandma? Except, heck, Grannie's on AOL now, too.
That's what the word SPAM was coined for. (The history of the word is a different topic for a different (overly rehashed) post.) But the fact was, a new word was needed and SPAM arrived to fill the need: To let people know that this wasn't regular junk mail. Pretty much ALL postal mail (besides checks) is junk mail, anyway...
But SPAM is too soft. Too cuddly. SPAM doesn't convey the sense of urgency that is needed...
I think it would be effective if people started calling it for what it is: Trash, Garbage
Pollution!
He was never convicted, but did reach an agreement with the SEC and was fined about $285 K. The article states that his total profit from his dealings were over $800 K, so he did get to keep a huge chunk of his profits.
Let's see... one of the highest federal income tax brackets in the US is at around 35%. Doesn't take a big stretch to assume that the SEC, acting for Uncle Sam, just wanted their cut. 35% of $800K = $280K. (That'd mean they fined him that extra $5000 as a slap on the wrist.) $280K cut for the gov. at a 35% tax rate and $5K for the reminder that this is "bad" = $285K.
Seems just about right all the way around, really.
Pffffft... You have got to be kidding.
...and for a second there I thought someone knew something...
For one, he wasn't a real seal.
Also, the guy was hostile to government, reporters, conventions, or authority of any kind except for his own.
Obviously I should avoid Minnesota, Utah, and several other states because they elect "spooks." ...OK, I'll bite -- Am I running a blank or are you talking paranoid? What Minnesota spook do you refer to?
-U
This happened to me about a month back... not with a bank but with Netflix...
...and for some reason, they mailed a DVD with HIS name and account number to MY address and zip code.
Mod me offtopic if you want, but there is something WEIRD about it. My brother and I have totally different addresses, we haven't lived together in over 12 years now -- and that was back in WI -- and now we even live in different states. I've never had an account at Netflix, never even been on their mailing list
Weird.
The only thing we have in common is our SSN being almost identical... but seeing as how I shouldn't even have been in the Netflix DB in the first place, THAT couldn't be it...
Hmmmmm..........
Actually, yes, I'd hope so. Or is it out of vogue and too cool to admit things are bad and think about ways to head off real problems while still keeping your head and not buying into the hysteria?
...one thing I should have added to my trollish sounding post above...
So what? Well, just because you think that "the same logic could be applied" to so many other things doesn't mean that a lot of average, reasonable people won't come to the conclusion above. Other people will pose the scenario ("...if this is a big security hole, then the terrorists could exploit it, too...") -- and they will present their own solutions to this problem. Once a problem is pointed out -- and people really start to perceive it as a problem -- people want answers... quick.
I'd say if anyone in the tech community has creative, non-intrusive, technical solutions to the holes that obviously exist in the credit card/online credit card number database model, now would be the time to start getting them talked about...
Just think of all the plastic explosives terrorists could create with 2.2 million credit cards!
I know I'm going to be modded as a troll for this, but...
So we know that some terrorists were devoted enough to the cause of causing chaos that they actually enrolled themselves in flight school to learn how to do what they did. Is it that much of a stretch to think that they aren't aware that it is possible to steal credit cards numbers off the Internet? And do you think that by devoting the same amount of time to googling and reading some paint-by-numbers script kiddie how-to-steal-credit-cards blog someone dedicated to doing "very bad things" couldn't find a way to pull something like this off?
I'm not sure why everyone chose to mod the parent post as Funny. I find the prospect of Very Angry People stealing millions of credit cards quite frightening, myself...
Nice ... somebody actually wasted mod points to mod my parent comment a troll but didn't even have the courage/imagination to post anonymously saying what they disagreed with...
What amazes me is that the Department of Homeland Security seems to be a much bigger beauracracy than any of the agencies that it is "swallowing", yet it's being built by an administration that sells itself as anti-big-government. {Emphasis added by me}
...Seriously, I swear half the people on /. have at least a mild case of Asperger's Syndrome.
Correction... it is being built by an administration that sold itself as anti-big-government. See, there was this thing that happened called 9/11 and a lot of people shifted their positions on a lot of things. Its not like this is a big secret and its not like you are going to inspire outrage or shock by pointing out that DHS is big government.
One of the things that I love about my Palm and has made it into something I couldn't live without it my fold-up stowaway keyboard. Fast text entry is very important. I don't want to have to press the numeric keypad to enter text. Period.
Will these phones have a keyboard attachment?
I think that the parent was a beautifully worded post and deserves every one of its +5 mod points...
...but...
We have tens of millions of people working in the IT sector now. And it isn't as though no work is being done. Sure, we haven't developed what we thought we would develop back in the 70s... but we've made huge strides in other directions that we didn't even dream of then...
Cellular phones, wireless networks, wireless everything, the web, MP3, DVDs, digital photography, the human genome project, DNA fingerprinting, ebooks, ATMs, laptops...
Some of the problems we thought we could solve turn out to be really tricky things that our current ways of computing have trouble tackling. Other things -- like the very short grocery list above (which I would LOVE to see others reply and expand upon!) -- are everywhere today and were near unimaginable in the 70s.
Computers aren't magic. They won't solve every problem. They are very well suited for solving specific kinds of problems. We are just discovering together what those kinds of problems are...