Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What tech were you convinced would take the world by storm but didn't?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

281–290 of 1001 posts

Re: Ask HN: What tech were you convinced would take the world by storm but didn't?

#282

Post by d3ckard »

qilo wrote: post #236

Large OLED panels everywhere: TVs, monitors, laptops, etc. There was a lot of excitement, once blue color longevity issues were solved, how it is easier and thus cheaper to manufacture, how soon it'll outcompete LCD. 20 years later still waiting.

That one is just becoming true I guess.

Re: Ask HN: What tech were you convinced would take the world by storm but didn't?

#283

Post by mseebach »

Animats wrote: post #92

Virtual worlds. The "metaverse" of Snow Crash. "Snow Crash", the TV series, has been green-lighted by Amazon. That may drum up more interest. Second Life comes close. They've had a working system for over a decade and have with adequate solutions to most of the problems. But it's hard to use, and not that many people are interested.

I doubt that the physical manifestation of the metaverse (you "plug in" and navigate in a virtual 3D-world, especially one that requires you to transport yourself around) will happen, it's simply not very compelling. What we do have, which is very similar to the substance, if not the aesthetic manifestation, of the metaverse, are online communities. Everybody and their mothers on Facebook, specialized trade communities like HN, "dark web" for drugs, weapons, hitmen and 0-day exploits (this, especially, sounds like that metaverse-bar in Snowcrash) and encrypted chat apps for insurgents/terrorists.

But you don't need to put on VR helmet and you don't need a fibre and you don't need to ride a VR motorcycle to get to HN, but on the other hand, you can hang out in multiple bars simultaneously from a tiny, wireless multiverse terminal that you carry in your pocket everywhere. In many ways, we're far beyond the metaverse imagined in Snowcrash.

Re: Ask HN: What tech were you convinced would take the world by storm but didn't?

#284

Post by b0rsuk »

Separate screen for touching on the back of the mobile device.

I forgot how the device was called, but there was a Blackberry or similar device that didn't have your oily fingers smearing the very screen you're trying to interact with. You didn't obscure the display with fingers. Instead, the touch-sensitive rectangle was on the back of the device, and cursor was displayed on front side, in the spot corresponding to the spot you touched.

Re: Ask HN: What tech were you convinced would take the world by storm but didn't?

#286

Post by api »

wbl wrote: post #76

Nuclear power. Carbon free. Reliable. No waste if you reprocess. Cheap fuel.

Three things are killing it:

It is exponentially harder to finance a few huge super costly projects than loads of small ones.

It has a high "PITA factor." That stands for pain in the you know what. A high PITA factor means there is a very long tail of non obvious problems that compound and multiply. It looks much better on paper than in real life because on paper that stuff doesn't show up.

An exponential is now in place for solar and storage. It would not surprise me if almost all energy outside aviation and a few heavy industry applications is solar and batteries by 2050.

Re: Ask HN: What tech were you convinced would take the world by storm but didn't?

#288

Post by toyg »

tnitsche wrote: post #123

Mobile/Micro payments. There is still no friction free solution, where I would be sure, my mother could use it.

Looking at how micropayments literally devastated the gaming experience, I’m not sure I really want this to happen. It’s become a synonym of “nickel & dime”. Imagine going to a website, reading 50% of a long article, then being told mid-way that you have to pay 0.99 to continue. Want to see pictures? Another 0.99. Post a comment? 0.99. Reply to a comment? 0.99. Then you go to a chat site, want to chat with more than one friend per day? 0.99. In the same chat? 0.99. With emojis? 0.99. With animated gifs? 0.99. And so on and so forth, at every. Single. Step.

Re: Ask HN: What tech were you convinced would take the world by storm but didn't?

#289

Post by netsharc »

toyg wrote: post #277
swyx wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it died when the word "Glasshole" was coined.

It had everything to do with recording. People wouldn’t mind people flaunting weird gadgetry, but the feeling of being recorded was too creepy. It didn’t help that a lot of early adopters were very creepy to start with. It could have revolutionised journalism, and I still think we will eventually get something like it once the tech is really invisible, but the social aspect will take ages to sort out.

Maybe in 15 years... toddlers nowadays have so many smartphone cameras being pointed at them for their mom's Instasnapbooktwit feed, they will probably grow up being used to have lenses pointed at them.
Post reply on HN