Posted on 03/18/2017 6:04:20 PM PDT by upchuck
Complete article here: http://www.kiplinger.com/slideshow/business/T057-S001-7-things-that-will-soon-disappear/index.html
Quick list:
1. Keys - Keys, at least in the sense of a piece of brass cut to a specific shape, are going away.
2. Blackouts - Frustrating power outages that leave people with fridges full of ruined food are on their way out as our electrical grid becomes increasingly intelligent – and resilient.
3. Fast-food workers - Burger-flippers have targets on their backs as fast-food executives are eager to replace them with machines, particularly as minimum wages in a variety of states are set to rise to $15.
4. The clutch pedal - Every year it seems that an additional car model loses the manual transmission option. Even the Ford F-150 pickup truck can’t be purchased with a stick anymore.
5. College textbooks - By the end of this decade, digital formats for tablets and e-readers will displace physical books for assigned reading on college campuses. K–12 schools won’t be far behind, though they’ll mostly stick with larger computers as their platform of choice.
6. Dial-up Internet - According to a study from the Pew Foundation, only 3% of U.S. households went online via a dial-up connection in 2013. Thirteen years before that, only 3% had broadband (Today, 70% have home broadband). Massive federal spending on broadband initiatives, passed during the last recession to encourage economic recovery, has helped considerably.
7. The plow - Modern farmers have little use for it. It provides a deep tillage that turns up too much soil, encouraging erosion because the plow leaves no plant material on the surface to stop wind and rain water from carrying the soil away. It also requires a huge amount of diesel fuel to plow, compared with other tillage methods, cutting into farmers' profits. The final straw: It releases more carbon dioxide into the air than other tillage methods.
8. Your neighborhood mail collection box - The amount of mail people are sending is plummeting, down 57% from 2004 to 2015 for stamped first-class pieces. So, around the country, the U.S. Postal Service has been cutting back on those iconic blue collection boxes. The number has fallen by more than half since the mid 1980s. Since it costs time and fuel for mail carriers to stop by each one, the USPS monitors usage and pulls out boxes that don't see enough traffic.
9. Your privacy - If you are online, you had better assume that you already have no privacy and act accordingly. Every mouse click and keystroke is tracked, logged and potentially analyzed and eventually used by Web site product managers, marketers, hackers and others. To use most services, users have to opt-in to lengthy terms and conditions that allow their data to be crunched by all sorts of actors.
10. The incandescent lightbulb - No, government energy cops are not coming for your bulbs. But the traditional incandescent lightbulb that traces its roots back to Thomas Edison is definitely on its way out. As of January 1, 2014, the manufacture and importation of 40- to 100-watt incandescent bulbs became illegal in the U.S., part of a much broader effort to get Americans to use less electricity.
It will happen more often in the next 10 yrs.
Power Quality and Internet of Things compromise one another as much as they help each other.
I have a cell phone, but it is almost ALWAYS turned completely off. We need it when there is a power outage and the REAL phone is out. Otherwise, I only use a landline.
I bet that there are many people like us, out there.
They’re typical Jeep products.
The Willys is the closest to roadworthy and the CJ7 us a long term thing.
Parts are murder and being a working person who goes to the office doesn’t help.
16. Raoul Castro.
I not quite sure about Keith Richards though...
5.56mm
“I was talking about the list, what was also talked about on this thread, and what you predicted.”
I will repeat the relevant item on the list. An electronic fob is NOT a piece of brass cut to a specific shape.
Again, I am not making predictions. I am talking about my ‘now’.
1. Keys - Keys, at least in the sense of a piece of brass cut to a specific shape, are going away.
“Call me a Luddite, I don’t care, reading a book, a REAL BOOK, is better than reading on a machine ( iPad and phone, or anything else that they may dream up ),”
Before a trip I can check out several books and albums and they are available on both my tablet and phone.
eBooks can be blue-toothed to my car system. Can you get your wife to read your book to you while you are cruising down the interstate?
Though few people have them now, new "smart houses", supposedly allow one to not only turn on heat, air conditioning, lights, and yes, even unlock doors, prior to the owner reaching the house. I have no idea if this really works/works well, or not. But the opener is still a KEY!
“A key is a key is a key is a key...no matter what it is made out of, nor how it is shaped.”
The author defined a ‘key’. A keyfob does NOT fit his definition.
” But the opener is still a KEY! “
NO. It is a switch!
If I want to hear a story, my spouse would read it to me. But driving needs concentration and I am NOT a big proponent of distractions, whilst driving.
Nor do I ever "listen" to books. I READ THEM!
As I said in another post, I own and have read books that are NOT available on any modern device and probably never shall be. Two, in particular, are extremely special, in that one is about the Court of Emperor Franz Joseph of Hungary. The first owner of that book, was a member of his Court and wrote in the book, refuting some of the parts of it and in other parts, wrote of her own observations re what was being described. The woman left the book to my great grandmother, which is how I have it.
The second book, which belonged to my mother, who bought it second hand, is a First Edition of W.S. Gilbert's BAB BALLADS". In the front of the books, the original owner had cut out and pasted into it, the obits, from many different newspaper, of Sir William's obits.
Lots of luck replicating this, in ANY way, using an eBook or whatever else there is! LOL
Also....when listening to a book ( which I haven't ever done and why I'm now asking this question ), what do they do about footnotes? Do they read them out loud, in the middle of a sentence, or what, when you listen to someone reading the book?
What about books that are from other countries? Can you get books that were written and printed in South Africa, the UK, etc.? What about long out of print books?
What about older things that are opened or locked with a key? Will everyone be made, by law, to throw such things away? If not...there will ALWAYS be keys!
An "opener" only OPENS something. A KEY does both; opens and locks things.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAWN.
“Also....when listening to a book ( which I haven’t ever done and why I’m now asking this question ), what do they do about footnotes?”
I can’t say 100% but generally footnotes are spoken after a punctionation and typically at the end of a sentence.
“nopardons to TexasGator
What about locking? LOL
An “opener” only OPENS something. A KEY does both; opens and locks things. “
YOU used ‘opener’ not me.
“Lots of luck replicating this, in ANY way, using an eBook or whatever else there is! LOL “
I have all my family photos on my phone. Complete with all the old names, etc., written on the front and back.
>>Power Quality and Internet of Things compromise one another as much as they help each other.
How do they do that?
YUCK...no thanks.
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