VR (yes the standalone/PC systems or the one which you can have with your phone). I have the feeling it's dying already because most non geeks are not really interested into it. It's like 3D TV of 2017.
Ask HN: What tech were you convinced would take the world by storm but didn't?
561–570 of 1001 posts
Re: Ask HN: What tech were you convinced would take the world by storm but didn't?
#562VR (yes the standalone/PC systems or the one which you can have with your phone). I have the feeling it's dying already because most non geeks are not really interested into it. It's like 3D TV of 2017.
It's not just that non-geeks aren't really interested; it's that it has a whole bunch of barriers as well for those that are interested.
1. You need a reasonably powerful PC or PS4 ($$$) 2. You need the VR kit itself ($$) 3. You need space to use it 4. You need to be physically able to use it 5. You need a lack of motion sickness, etc. 6. There's bugger all games at the moment 7. Probably something else I've not thought of
Re: Ask HN: What tech were you convinced would take the world by storm but didn't?
#563Earlier quoted context omitted.
Around 2010 I assumed it would a matter of a couple of years until we were reading comic books on our Kindle Color ink tablets.
Still waiting on that E-Ink phone that lasts a month between charges.
I bought a Motorola F3 phone like 10 years ago for relatives.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_Fone
E-ink display, good for elder people, you can drop it from 100 feets height, or run a tank over it, drop it in a pool. It will survive.
Re: Ask HN: What tech were you convinced would take the world by storm but didn't?
#564OpenGL: For a brief, glorious period, we had the promise of a truly cross-platform general-purpose graphics API. Then Microsoft began its relentless assault on it, ran its tried-and-true 1990s playbook on it and eventually FUDded it into irrelevance on the Windows platform. For a short while, it at least held up as a Linux/Mac solution, and survived on Windows as a second-class citizen. For the last few years, howeve…
OpenGL is the basis of computer graphics on Andriod and Linux and works well on Windows. So it is fairly universal these day. It does work well. There are always new proprietary APIs to compete with OpenGL and they usually jump ahead but then OpenGL slowly but surely consumes them.
Re: Ask HN: What tech were you convinced would take the world by storm but didn't?
#565Asynchronous circuits:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asynchronous_circuit
I was convinced that we were going to enter a new phase of computing, where the processor wasn't stuck at the speed of its slowest component.
Re: Ask HN: What tech were you convinced would take the world by storm but didn't?
#566Earlier quoted context omitted.
+1. Even if they could be distinguished, it would be only in top HiFi setups. Most people (me included) listened with shitty car stereos, portable players with terrible DACs and cheap headphones.
Yeap. Portable and free (because stolen) trumped quality. That's something the music industry still hasn't recovered from.
As someone who use to have a SMALL Recording studio. We are in the best music business times for small indie bands. More people can support themselves through kickstarter like programs. Two of my bands traveled the world and were on MTV (Back when they played videos). The most one band made was $7,000 per person and they traveled to Europe and Australia/NZ. I never made a dime. They posted on Kickstarter 6 years after they stopped touring and got $50,000 in one week and $65,000 by the time it was done. Their album was awesome because they all just took breaks from their jobs and got it done.
BIG Music Business sucks and the slow death to the Pop Music Industry. http://brandsplusmusic.blogspot.com/2011/02/death-of-pop-mus...
Re: Ask HN: What tech were you convinced would take the world by storm but didn't?
#567Fractal Image Compression. Way better than JPEG in the mid-1990s but patents + expensive restrictive licenses left it pretty much dead in the water as a result.
Re: Ask HN: What tech were you convinced would take the world by storm but didn't?
#568VR (yes the standalone/PC systems or the one which you can have with your phone). I have the feeling it's dying already because most non geeks are not really interested into it. It's like 3D TV of 2017.
a lot of geeks are also not into it: it is advertised as giving you more degrees of freedom and immersion, but VR gives you half the features of these degrees (free hand movements! looking around wherever you please!) and feels limiting because it cannot offer you the other half (proper free movement, you're tied down by cables, have to set up your room for it, etc.)
Also, after a short while, you stop seeing "3D" as it is because your brain abstracts it all away anyways and will draw a similar 3D experience out of a moving 2D image and a proper stereoscopic one.
(not to mention that the price is pretty off the charts too)
Re: Ask HN: What tech were you convinced would take the world by storm but didn't?
#569Earlier quoted context omitted.
Who wants to wear a VR headset for hours on end?
Yeah, I think it makes a very poignant statement about the potential of VR headsets when VR enthusiasts don't want to use them. SLers are the real deal, people like zuck just don't get it. Too many people have dismissed SL foolishly. Glad it survived and proved them mostly wrong.
>Too many people have dismissed SL foolishly. Glad it survived and proved them mostly wrong.
I dunno, ten years ago a lot of people were predicting that Second Life would be the Next Big Thing, and assuring me that I should really be buying up Second Life real estate with my hard-earned real-world money because soon it'd be worth a lot more.
Second Life has survived, but it certainly hasn't gone mainstream. It's just another weird corner of the internet with its own community, and good luck to 'em.
Re: Ask HN: What tech were you convinced would take the world by storm but didn't?
#570xhtml: it's just a good idea, IMO.