> 5G is interesting because it will bring a huge increase in wireless bandwidth that we don’t really need.
640K of RAM…
Why do I do this to myself? Bob's first predictions for 2018 – I, Cringely
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Re: Why do I do this to myself? Bob's first predictions for 2018 – I, Cringely
#32> 5G is interesting because it will bring a huge increase in wireless bandwidth that we don’t really need. 640K of RAM…
Correct. We (users) don't need that bandwidth. Advertisers and social media companies who consume us and market us as a product to be sold needs that bandwidth.
Re: Why do I do this to myself? Bob's first predictions for 2018 – I, Cringely
#33> 5G is interesting because it will bring a huge increase in wireless bandwidth that we don’t really need. 640K of RAM…
Correct. We (users) don't need that bandwidth. Advertisers and social media companies who consume us and market us as a product to be sold needs that bandwidth.
They'll be marketing all this "useless" bandwidth to consumers too, in the first place.
Re: Why do I do this to myself? Bob's first predictions for 2018 – I, Cringely
#34I've wondered for years now, who is the woman in the image with Cringely? Partner, coauthor, wife, daughter, model? (To be clear, I don't want someone to DOX her, just curious as to her relationship to Cringely's web site.)
(In no way trying to impact the perception of submitted text - just honestly asking for context.) I have a better question - who is Cringely ? It's the first time I hear of him. Is he some SV celebrity?
Short answer: no one knows. He, or someone using that identity, has been hanging around technology media since the dim mists of time. Sometimes insightful, but no good information on whether that is pure chance or not exists.
Long answer: https://www.cringely.com/bout-bob/
Re: Why do I do this to myself? Bob's first predictions for 2018 – I, Cringely
#35"All the mobile carriers will begin rolling-out 5G wireless networking in 2018, though only about 22 percent of the country will be covered by the end of this year."
22% by population or by geographical area? (Yes, I think I'm funny.)
What exactly are the details of 5G? My understanding was of lots of short-range, very smart antennas. Which would require some kind of backbone, probably wireline, right? And which those of us who do not live in major metropolitan areas probably shouldn't expect to see, ever.
Re: Why do I do this to myself? Bob's first predictions for 2018 – I, Cringely
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
(In no way trying to impact the perception of submitted text - just honestly asking for context.) I have a better question - who is Cringely ? It's the first time I hear of him. Is he some SV celebrity?
It's actually a neat story. Infoworld magazine made their authors write under pen names to prevent them from building up personal brand and moving to different publications. Mark Stephens built up a following under the Cringely name then left in a financial dispute and wanted to keep the name. There was a lawsuit, for a while there were two people writing as Cringely. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_X._Cringely
> Infoworld magazine made their authors write under pen names
More specifically, a number of tech pubs at the time ran sort of industry insider columns written under pen games. This was partly for practical reasons--they were sort of tech gossip columns and it worked better for the writer's real name not to be widely known. But you're right that it also allowed the magazines to rotate through writers. Another one was Spencer F. Katt at PC Week. There was also a longtime one in a DEC trade magazine although I forget the column's name there.
ADDED: A long time ago, Wired ran a profile on Stephens/Cringely: https://www.wired.com/1998/12/cringely/
Re: Why do I do this to myself? Bob's first predictions for 2018 – I, Cringely
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Short story: he was a big deal back in the day, has had a couple pretty big stories but these days he's much less influential. Now he blogs very infrequently, largely concentrating on his slightly-creepy obsession with IBM. The fact that he so easily gets duped by scammers pretending to be Google[1] and then actually blogs about it is quite indicative of how far his finger is from the pulse of technology. So, no, you…
His essays have been submitted 40 times as HN stories in the last two years (most with more than one person submitting). I have gotten useful insights from all that I have read. If you are going to be so dismissive you might at least give us your recommendations for who has a better bird's eye view of current technology.
I think he's reasonable enough although he doesn't write a lot. The world has changed to the degree that it's probably hard to point to a generalist weekly writer who is the equivalent of the columnists at the old weekly computer magazines. Today, you tend to get writers who are more specialized in AWS, IoT, virtualization, cloud, or whatever. And most of them are consultants, vendors, etc. rather than full-time journalists.
Re: Why do I do this to myself? Bob's first predictions for 2018 – I, Cringely
#38I've wondered for years now, who is the woman in the image with Cringely? Partner, coauthor, wife, daughter, model? (To be clear, I don't want someone to DOX her, just curious as to her relationship to Cringely's web site.)
That's his wife, he mentioned it in one of his posts years ago. Sorry I can't find it but I read it originally as I have followed him going back to Mac-the-knife days in MacWeek.
Re: Why do I do this to myself? Bob's first predictions for 2018 – I, Cringely
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
(In no way trying to impact the perception of submitted text - just honestly asking for context.) I have a better question - who is Cringely ? It's the first time I hear of him. Is he some SV celebrity?
I'd only heard of him years ago because he made a TV programme about self-building a plane [1], which I think ended up with him building a kit rather than designing it from scratch. I found him amusing when watching it, although I don't know anyone else who has seen it, and info on it seems scarce. I'd wager it was shown on Channel 4 here in the UK, but I could just be making most of it up! [1] - http://www.imdb.com/…
I remember this documentary. It basicly chronicled him setting out too design and build his own airplane which devolved into chaos. It was kind of painfull too watch. In the end he had too purchase a kit plane and get outside help building it too simply have a show that ending in some form of success. An interesting example of how projects can go wrong. I can't remember the name of it though...
Re: Why do I do this to myself? Bob's first predictions for 2018 – I, Cringely
#40> 5G is interesting because it will bring a huge increase in wireless bandwidth that we don’t really need. 640K of RAM…
Correct. We (users) don't need that bandwidth. Advertisers and social media companies who consume us and market us as a product to be sold needs that bandwidth.
Don't be such a cynic. If you think the differentiator between 1G broadband and a 56k dial-up is ad bloat you're crazy. Significant bandwidth increases enable applications that weren't possible before.
I want that bandwidth to do cool things. And there's nothing stopping you from doing cool things with it either.