10 Broken Technology Ideas

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Computerworld has posted a list of 10 broken technology ideas. The author lists stuff like flexible keyboards, satellite internet and Web 2.0 as some of the things that are currently broken. What do you think should have made the list?

Sometimes a technology idea is too good to be true. A flexible keyboard, Internet voting and watching feature films on your smart phone are examples. Today, these concepts are still evolving, but they're broken right now. I'll tell you why and what could be done to fix them once and for all.
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I think top <insert number> list of broken, bad or failed items should have made the list.

My problem with the list is that they never fully explain why some of the stuff is broken.

In my opinion 1 & 5 pretty much seem like a similar thing. Both are complaining about small hand held devices. They could have been made into 1 entry instead of making two different points about the same devices.

1) um.. ok, so you don't use them for gaming. The point is?

2) agreed it sucks. Although they forgot to mention the horrible latency making it a bad choice for online gaming or anything that needs to be done with little lag.

3) so google's contact manager sucks. what does that have to do with the rest of them?

4) Their problem is that HP made a tv that uses windows media extender. Makes sense to me, if you are going to sell somebody a windows based machine why not sell them a windows software based tv also. In time they might have more generic software tvs, but they have to start somewhere. And starting with something that most of the non tech people are probably going to be able to use the easist would make sense. And windows based software and a network jack are far easier that some custom software and wifi.

5) I wouldn't watch movies on a small screen, but I also don't have long compute or anything like that where it would be handy to watch a movie on the go without having to haul around a laptop or portable dvd player and movies. So half agree.

6) Web 2.0 isn't a real thing. It is just some term created by marketing people to try to make their sites sound hip and cool to the kids. It is just suppose to describe sites moving toward user created content, not some actual standards used in creating a page such as html 9 or css 20 or php 14 or anything like that.

7) so they aren't at a cheap price point just yet. They are new technology and will take time to come down in cost just like everything else.

8) no sure where they were going here

9) so they don't like web videos, how does that make it broken?

10) agreed, roll up keyboards aren't very good.
 
...has nothing to do with semantics
it has to do with user interfaces (ajax), and user generated content (youtube), and greater/easier user communication (digg)
myspace and facebook being two more good examples
you can also scale back these ideas a little bit, add better security, and you have a enterprise level web applications, which is nearly impossible without web 2.0 technologies

and nothing to do with the likes of amazon
amazon.com is e-commerce store, period. you don't need any web 2.0 technology to make amazon succeed. But, the technologies of web 2.0 makes amazon's content and interface more appealing

what an idiot
 
Top thing broke right now: My pipe to their host. the page won't load all the way for me.
 
This list is just a few of the gadgets and buzzwords that haven't caught on yet...but it doesn't seem comprehensive, and it covers software and hardware randomly...

Why not mention video phones, the Segway, and VR goggles while your at it?
 
11) The device to let me stab people with dumb lists in the face through the internet.
 
KingPariah777 said:
This list is just a few of the gadgets and buzzwords that haven't caught on yet...but it doesn't seem comprehensive, and it covers software and hardware randomly...

Why not mention video phones, the Segway, and VR goggles while your at it?
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Hey, the Segway has found its niche with the X2 Golf.

Similiar tech is used in the iBOT Mobility System: wheelchairs that can 'stand' on two wheels and climb stairs. I've watched the head chef at Celestin in Toronto use one.

Sorry if I brought this thread off on a tangent, but, well, I couldn't resist the segue.
 
He's just plain wrong on many of these: the points he brings up have nothing to do with the real problems with these technologies. What, pray tell, does multitouch display technology have to do with electronic voting? Why doesn't he mention the latency of satellite internet connections? Why would you want the media decoder built into your TV where you can't upgrade it when h.265 comes out? How the hell is one supposed to fit HD video over Bluetooth? Since when does Pageflakes "replace HTML"? How are the prices on e-books supposed to drop if nobody buys them (hint: nobody wants them, because the content costs the same as physical books, and you can't accidentally delete a physical book)?

-1, Troll.
 
1. Completley disagree, sounds more like Apple fanboism.
2. Completely disagree, guess what writer.... a cable modem also uses a Coax cable!! Who would have thunk. Keep in mind, Sattelite internet is heavily used... just because you are stuck with your little consumer device, don't bash it.
3. More Apple fanboism. Contact managers are still leading in use with business persons.
4. Disagree. You get a varieity of media steaming "adapters" that does not just "extend" to the PC
5. Disagree. This editor used personal taste to influence a technology. I find that video on my PDA (remote TV) is useful and awesome. Bluetooth is a novelty that doesnt' get used? Damn, what an ostritch!
6. Disagree
7. Disagree. Lmao at Unreliable Wikipedia comment, most likley more reliable than this authors personal oppinions.
8. Disagree. This guy has no idea that a lot of people are currently using the internet for various of voting systems including political systems.
9. Video blogs are not suited for the web? But they are for Sattelite? lol
10. More Apple mumbojumbo..... Disagree. The Author replaced a tiny foldable keyboard in favor of an entire desktop keyboard/mouse combo.... I'd love to see him travel with that.
 
unhappy_mage said:
He's just plain wrong on many of these: the points he brings up have nothing to do with the real problems with these technologies. What, pray tell, does multitouch display technology have to do with electronic voting? Why doesn't he mention the latency of satellite internet connections? Why would you want the media decoder built into your TV where you can't upgrade it when h.265 comes out? How the hell is one supposed to fit HD video over Bluetooth? Since when does Pageflakes "replace HTML"? How are the prices on e-books supposed to drop if nobody buys them (hint: nobody wants them, because the content costs the same as physical books, and you can't accidentally delete a physical book)?

-1, Troll.
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Agreed. The author uses his personal opinions to base an entire article on failing technologies as if it were a fact. He's quite off base on nearly all of his points, if not all.
 
srangara said:
Hey, the Segway has found its niche with the X2 Golf.

Similiar tech is used in the iBOT Mobility System: wheelchairs that can 'stand' on two wheels and climb stairs. I've watched the head chef at Celestin in Toronto use one.

Sorry if I brought this thread off on a tangent, but, well, I couldn't resist the segue.
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orz....
 
That lazer keyboard listed as a replacement for the foldup one looks pretty awesome. No tactile response, but wouldnt be bad given the portability of the thing. Doesnt seem practical until the cost is lower (they have it listed as 170 euros).
 
So he hates Sat Internet because the equiptment uses coax cable that has to be installed? Ummm so does that mean he hates cable modem technology also since it uses coax cables also? Doesn't FIOS from Verizon use coax cable at some point in the home?

So I guess someone invents brainwave broadband, this guy will hate high-speed internet access..

Like everyone has been saying this guy is an idiot..
 
Ockie said:
Agreed. The author uses his personal opinions to base an entire article on failing technologies as if it were a fact. He's quite off base on nearly all of his points, if not all.
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That is how all these list are though. They all use their own personal opinion to declare that technology is broken or failing and claim it as fact.

The moment I see one of these list posted I know it is going to be off base and completely wrong in most regards.

While everyone is entitled to their own opinion, I think these guys need to just stop it with these bull shit list. Although I guess they do give us all something to rip apart to point out the flaws of. :)
 
Couldn't read through the crap past the satellites.. only complaining about the ISPs and cable but that's not the basic flaw of the technology.

The big technological problem is that the currently used satellites are geostationary, which creates a minimum ping of about 1/4 second one way, and 1/2 second if it's bidirectional.
Which limits it's effective use to big downloads only. (even normal websurfing will drive you mad)
The idiot would probably have noticed this if he actually had used it once.

The only way to fix this is to build a big cluster in lower orbit, which would make reception much easier and reduce the ping to a few ms. But unfortunately noone seems to like to putting the needed 60+ satellites in place without being sure about return on investment..
 
Idiot:
Also, the required antenna is bigger than a wheel rim, but there's no reason it couldn't be reduced to a size that works with your laptop.
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the satellite orbit is the reason it can't be reduced much in size and installation..
 
i just skimmed it, and i counted no fewer than five separate mentions of the iphone. im surprised vista wasnt an honorable mention :rolleyes:.
 
Loki008 said:
I dont know about that, sat phones only have a bar the size of a half candy bar or so
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And a much smaller data rate than what I'd consider acceptable. Uncompressed voice data is 64kbits, and more like 8 with compression.
 
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