Bubble memory.
Josephson junction.
Ask HN: What tech were you convinced would take the world by storm but didn't?
751–760 of 1001 posts
Re: Ask HN: What tech were you convinced would take the world by storm but didn't?
#752Earlier quoted context omitted.
GWT was quite complex. You had to write a lot of code for achieving very little. There also was a huge impedance mismatch between Java and JavaScript at the time. Nowadays you can write decent functional code in Java but back then you needed anonymous classes for that.
That's true, but while it was difficult back then to write functional code in Java (now solved), it was difficult back then to write class-based object-oriented code in Javascript (now solved).
If you go into JS classes assuming they work at all like Java/C++ classes... you’ll have a bad time.
They’re just sugar around protypical object-oriented code.
Re: Ask HN: What tech were you convinced would take the world by storm but didn't?
#753Paypal used to have this feature that allowed you to install a browser add-on and you could generate a CC number on the fly that was good for either one time use or recurring use (for subscription services). This feature served two primary purposes: 1) to be able to pay using PayPal on sites that didn't support it 2) to help prevent against fraud which was becoming a massive problem at the time. If the number was sto…
This tech is available and extremely well-implemented via Final Card. I use it and have numbers stored for probably 50 sites/services/etc. Anything where I put a card in online.
So next time my card gets compromised because I used it in a restaurant (seems to happen regularly) then none of those have to be reset. Just get a new "physical" card and go on my merry way. Many hours saved.
Re: Ask HN: What tech were you convinced would take the world by storm but didn't?
#754Google Wave had so many potential routes to usability as a kind of collaborative scratch pad.
Google Keep and the now-very-good Google Docs collaborating is what we really needed all along, I guess.
Re: Ask HN: What tech were you convinced would take the world by storm but didn't?
#755Earlier quoted context omitted.
I, personally, felt that Audiogalaxy was the hallmark program from this era. It was the most surefire way to get the songs you were looking for and discover plenty more in the process. You'd set the music folder you wanted to share (there was no opting out) and so long as you had the program open your files were available for download by other users. The program operated like an always on satellite torrent program wi…
Soulseek is still alive with the same system. The program does not make you share anything but users can disable sharing files with users who don't share files. At least in 2012-14 Soulseek was very popular with extremely niche and obscure music fans (stuff not even on What.cd!). Not sure how it is now.
Underground electronic music lovers heavily use soulseek to this day.
Re: Ask HN: What tech were you convinced would take the world by storm but didn't?
#756Paypal used to have this feature that allowed you to install a browser add-on and you could generate a CC number on the fly that was good for either one time use or recurring use (for subscription services). This feature served two primary purposes: 1) to be able to pay using PayPal on sites that didn't support it 2) to help prevent against fraud which was becoming a massive problem at the time. If the number was sto…
Isn't this what Apple pay basically does?
Sort of, you just have a single number but it’s different from your regular cc#
Re: Ask HN: What tech were you convinced would take the world by storm but didn't?
#757Palm/HP/LG WebOS - JavaScript based os a few years ahead of it's time in mobile form.
Came here to vote for this. I even published an app to their store during the ~2 weeks it looked like HP was going to throw their weight behind the TouchPad. It was really ahead of its time and most of its major metaphors can be found in the surviving mobile OSes. Just wish the web-centric development model survived as well. I have WebOS on my LG TV now. It sucks.
I'm curious as to why you think WebOS on your TV sucks? I too have it and am content with it. To be fair, though, I don't have any other smart TV OS experience to compare it to.
I really enjoyed the HP Touchpad with WeBOS but there were some rendering issues with it that I noticed when going to certain websites. My father in law got me one during the flash sale as he worked at OfficeMax Corporate at the time and had access. For ~$60 it wasn't too bad at all.
Re: Ask HN: What tech were you convinced would take the world by storm but didn't?
#758Paypal used to have this feature that allowed you to install a browser add-on and you could generate a CC number on the fly that was good for either one time use or recurring use (for subscription services). This feature served two primary purposes: 1) to be able to pay using PayPal on sites that didn't support it 2) to help prevent against fraud which was becoming a massive problem at the time. If the number was sto…
I’d suggest you look at what we built at Final. Getfinal.com
We took a hard deep look at a massive stagnant industry (credit cards) and use experience and features as differentiators
Re: Ask HN: What tech were you convinced would take the world by storm but didn't?
#759Windows Phone 7 :(
I really liked aspects of my Windows Phone but there were other things that just drove me crazy. It would lock up when I was on a call and I wouldn't be able to do anything. I'd have to pull the battery in order to get it back to a usable state. The speakers were terribly soft too, I couldn't hear my phone ring if it fell under the couch. I absolutely loved the live tiles though.
Re: Ask HN: What tech were you convinced would take the world by storm but didn't?
#760GWT. To create client-side web apps, rather than writing Javascript, write Java and have it transpiled to Javascript. Java has IDEs, isn't a new language to learn (like Dart), has static type checking, support for refactoring in the IDEs, etc. GWT could do tree shaking, obfuscation, etc. You could write your server code in Java, and "call" remote server methods from your client code, "passing" Java objects transparen…
In addition to the ones mentioned, another issue with GWT was that the differences in browser JS environments were much more salient in 2006 (IE6 was still a massively popular browser) and browser development tools were limited. If your script didn't work, debugging was likely difficult.