Every tech downturn has a silver lining

Post by bryanrasmussen » Tue, May 26, 2020, 5:09 AM UTC

esoterica wrote: post #18

gkoberger wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think, for the sake of this article, you could consider Slack a household name. It doesn't mean everyone has heard of it, it just means "well-known". It's a publicly traded company, and I'd say the average person (especially in America) likely knows what it is. I guess I don't really watch many movies that delve into 21st-century office communication, but I imagine if I did their chat app would be modeled after Sla…

I think the average white collar worker at a company with a trendy software stack knows what slack is, but that’s like 5% of the population. The average American definitely does not know what Slack is.

Post by User23 » Tue, May 26, 2020, 5:24 AM UTC

bawolff wrote: post #7

gkoberger wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would be better worded as "Slack, co-founded by Stewart Butterfield, might be a household name today, but in 2001[...]"

Slack is certainly more well known than its founder, but neither are household names unless you live in silicon valley. As an example, have you ever watched a movie where someone uses slack? I haven't. Have you ever seen a movie where someone uses google (or some rebranded website that's obviously a google stand-in)? Of course you have. That's what a household name is. Edit: also if it was rephrased that way the rest…

Post by yomly » Tue, May 26, 2020, 5:29 AM UTC

jordanthoms wrote: post #21

bawolff wrote: post #17

> My bet is always-on broadband. Virtual worlds, digital entertainment, gaming …. None of it would be possible without broadband. Today, we have about 100-250 Mbps in most modern homes. In some places, you can get a gigabit per second. Now imagine what we could do if, in ten years, we all have 10 gigabits per second in our homes, and we have in-home networks that are fast and fat. Hmm. Kind of an interesting take. I…

I'd settle for IP-based video conferencing that actually works, 100% of the time. As far as I can tell the major issues with that now are more from WiFi - Bufferbloat is particularly bad there and interference causes small dropouts (run a ping to a local router in the background for a while, and you'll probably see jitter eventually). It's pretty noticeable here in New Zealand where most people are now on fiber conne…

Post by [deleted] » Tue, May 26, 2020, 5:43 AM UTC

troughway wrote: post #11

After scrolling about 200vh or so for no good reason. >I remember feeling under a pall of gloom, going about with a dark cloud over my soul and tears in my eyes. A little bit melodramatic, but okay. >The disparity between America’s haves and have-nots has been laid bare. The inefficiency of our legislators has made us the laughing stock of the planet (so much so that an opinion writer at the Irish Times even felt pit…

Post by TomMarius » Tue, May 26, 2020, 6:13 AM UTC

bawolff wrote: post #17

> My bet is always-on broadband. Virtual worlds, digital entertainment, gaming …. None of it would be possible without broadband. Today, we have about 100-250 Mbps in most modern homes. In some places, you can get a gigabit per second. Now imagine what we could do if, in ten years, we all have 10 gigabits per second in our homes, and we have in-home networks that are fast and fat. Hmm. Kind of an interesting take. I…