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

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

#841

Post by myaso »

rajeshp1986 wrote: post #269
Simulacra wrote: post #175

Google Glass. I thought this would become standard, miniaturized, and used in all aspects of life. Perhaps I read Daemon too much, but I was sure Glass would fly

I was hoping that Google Glass will be the next de-facto device/platform which everyone will be using. Feeling so sad a great idea didn't work well. Maybe it was way ahead of time and can be relaunched again.

Likely will happen at some point. It's the next logical extension of consumer devices after the smart phone. It will happen eventually, except there isn't a clear time table as to when. The concept is general purpose enough that interesting things can be done with it.

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

#842

Post by sah2ed »

muzani wrote: post #374
Al-Khwarizmi wrote: post #363

I don't know if this has a name, but... ICQ-like "searchable" instant messaging. Let me explain myself. In the late 90s, there was an IM client called ICQ. For starters, its UI was leaps and bounds ahead of anything to be seen in the next decade, and it had functionality like bots or groups, that has again become widespread a few years ago. But what I'm talking about is the fact that I could look for "female, age bet…

I thought the same thing too. It's quite sad that talking to people is usually limited to dating, and dating has become a domain of Tinder. I remember an era when chat rooms like IRC had thousands of people online at a time. It didn't scale past this, but it was very exciting. Maybe there is a market for something like a real-time Reddit, but it's a lot harder to pull off because there needed to be many people on at…

Real-time Reddit like ChatRoulette ?

https://www.chatroulette.com/

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

#843

Post by bpicolo »

krapp wrote: post #732
gilbetron wrote: post #709

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get it. 3D printing is massive, and is shaping our future. How did it not pan out?

The dream was that 3D printing would replace all manufacturing and distribution. That everyone was going to have a 3D printer in their home, and they would just be able to download patterns from the internet and get whatever they wanted, like replicators from Star Trek.

We're barely over 5 years into it. Scifi takes longer than that

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

#844

Post by SimbaOnSteroids »

ilkan wrote: post #836

Google Glass. IMHO they mistakenly went after the consumer and advertising markets instead of starting with maintenance workers and hobbyists. On a related note, I also expected some mobile computers would be "cyberdecks", embedded in the keyboard. Instead, the computer is the screen.

Glass failed because it was too early for the tech, they needed to be able have the functionality of the the camera they had but make it something you didn't immediately notice. Also the display mechanism needed to be less noticeable as well. What killed Glass was that it made people uncomfortable.

Also glass relaunched in July targeting enterprise applications.

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

#845

Post by [deleted] »

unboxed_type wrote: post #343
laksjd wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But what percentage of systems is actually ONLY implementable using a block-chain-based cryptocurrency? I love decentralisation as much as the next guy but it's not a feature. Apart from the obvious authority-circumvention (both positive and negative), what killer features do these systems have? All the interesting projects I've seen for ethereum rely on Intel SGX to bring ground truth about the real world onto the c…

When you have a need to establish some business procedure between different parties that do not trust each other, smart contracts might be very useful. No other database is able to provide guarantees/features comparable to the public blockchain in that respect. A trust model of most modern databases just do not comply with "everyone trusts noone" principle. About relying on Intel SGX. Yes, blockchain oracle to be tru…

[deleted]

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

#846

Post by Kiro »

AndrewOMartin wrote: post #493
Kiro wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a look at your site and it looks like normal HTML to me, except at the top. How does that help anything?

Many sites are very subtly not normal HTML.

Example from this site?

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

#847

Post by dpcx »

robodale wrote: post #635
bane wrote: post #631

I thought (and still think) the phone as single computing device is going to replace desktops and laptops via some kind of dock of some sort. There's been a few attempts at it by Dell and Microsoft and a few others, but none really satisfactory. I think the most successful to date is the Nintendo Switch.

I thought this as well. I'd love to plug my phone into a laptop-looking-thingy...and instantly have a keyboard, screen, and maybe a battery (to keep the phone charged up).

There actually was an Android based device that did this years ago. 2011/2012, I think; you could connect the phone to an external device that gave you a mouse, keyboard, and screen. The only problem was that the external device was something like $300 on top of the phone.

Edit: https://www.amazon.com/AT-Laptop-Dock-Motorola-ATRIX/dp/B004... - Motorola Atrix Lapdock

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

#848

Post by astura »

doctorsher wrote: post #831
astura wrote: post #723

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just PayPal. I think Discover and American Express both had that feature but killed it off. Bank of America still has it and (IIRC) Chase does too.

Citibank still has this feature as well.

Doh! When I said Chase I actually meant Citibank. Chase doesn't to my knowledge.

In my defense both start with C....

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

#849

Post by bitwize »

retrogradeorbit wrote: post #782
barbs wrote: post #613

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh come on, there's no way you can tell the difference in latency between a mouse of that era and a USB mouse today. Surely there's enough demand in the e-sports scene to lower input latency as much as possible?

Have you actually used a computer from that era for any significant amount of time?

Yes, an Amiga. And it ALWAYS responded instantly to mouse input at least.

A Windows 3.1 PC from that era, not so much :)

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

#850

Post by Jaruzel »

baldfat wrote: post #559
IshKebab wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not surprised DVD-Audio and co failed. Their quality is indistinguishable from CDs despite what audiophiles would have you believe, and by the time they came out MP3 was clearly the future.

> Their quality is indistinguishable from CDs despite what audiophiles would have you believe Well I blame the system. You needed upgraded headphones or speakers. I have $2000 studio monitors when I was an audio engineer and well I can 100% tell you in a blind test I can tell the difference. 95% of the reason why is people don't care about quality audio. It's something about human brains. MP3 sound horrible compared…

> MP3 sound horrible compared to a FLAC and good equipment. Instead people wear Beats Bluetooth Headphones listening to streamed Audio.

A 1000 times this.

High bit rate (FLAC/DVD-Audio/etc.) sounds way better than standard CD Audio, even on mid-range ($3k) kit. Of course you DO need to listen to proper music on it, that uses real instruments[2], instead of all that bump-n-grind poplet-R&B stuff that kids like these days[1].

Modern 'pop' music is also mastered for MP3/Streaming nowadays anyway, so high bit rates of that stuff will never sound good no matter what you play it on.

---

[1] Get off my lawn.

[2] No I don't just mean Classical, but good Rock/Metal also.

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