Less of a dystopian wealth-inequality driving nightmare for one thing.
Ask HN: 90s programmers, what did you expect the future of tech to look like?
71–80 of 469 posts
Re: Ask HN: 90s programmers, what did you expect the future of tech to look like?
#72Definitely thought that consumer software (the thing sold in boxes on store shelves) would continue to get bigger as a category rather than die out completely. Anyone remember that famous photo of the guy jumping with joy after snagging a launch copy of Windows 95? No one knew what the internet really was and what it would become. Not Bill Gates, not anyone else. Developers believed that processing power, RAM, storag…
Re: Ask HN: 90s programmers, what did you expect the future of tech to look like?
#73I used to work in the telecom world back then. I would have thought that by 2021 the meticulously-architected ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) standard would have replaced the ancient TCP/IP protocol. Nope. Then I would be wrong again, because I would have thought IPv6 would be everywhere...
Re: Ask HN: 90s programmers, what did you expect the future of tech to look like?
#74Definitely did not predict Javascript.
Re: Ask HN: 90s programmers, what did you expect the future of tech to look like?
#75I always expected/hoped for more diversity in the CPU space. Instead, the alternatives sorta died one by one. (After learning how hard semiconductor factories are to build/revamp this was maybe foreseeable.) Did anybody have 5 Ghz as the "max" cpu frequency on their bingo cards? Actually, I remember touring an Intel fab. around 99/00. The guide (an engineer) was pretty sold they were "going to soon max out silicon fo…
Re: Ask HN: 90s programmers, what did you expect the future of tech to look like?
#76I always expected/hoped for more diversity in the CPU space. Instead, the alternatives sorta died one by one. (After learning how hard semiconductor factories are to build/revamp this was maybe foreseeable.) Did anybody have 5 Ghz as the "max" cpu frequency on their bingo cards? Actually, I remember touring an Intel fab. around 99/00. The guide (an engineer) was pretty sold they were "going to soon max out silicon fo…
Re: Ask HN: 90s programmers, what did you expect the future of tech to look like?
#77Calls us fools, but we thought Linux on the desktop would happen. I guess it finally did, in a way, with chromebooks.
> chromebooks Huh, that's a name I haven't heard in a while. WSL, on the other hand...
Re: Ask HN: 90s programmers, what did you expect the future of tech to look like?
#78I really believed computers would make people smarter, better informed, able to make more rational decisions. They'd understand and trust science more, make better political decisions. We even had a slogan for it: "computers are bicycles for the mind": https://www.brainpickings.org/2011/12/21/steve-jobs-bicycle-... I was so naive...
Re: Ask HN: 90s programmers, what did you expect the future of tech to look like?
#79faster horses. win32 applications, linux gui applications. java applets for rich UIs for websites (javascript was a joke).