Posted on 07/13/2004 12:39:39 PM PDT by YoungHickey
2 hours, 8 minutes ago Add Technology - AFP to My
Yahoo!
FRANKFURT (AFP) - DVDs will be obsolete in 10 years at
the latest, Microsoft boss and founder Bill Gates
(news - web sites) predicted.
Stuck on Tape?
The ultimate guide to digital camcorders, HDTV cameras,
and super-portable video cell phones.
Asked what home entertainment would like in the future,
Gates said that DVD technology would be "obsolete in
10 years at the latest. If you consider that
nowadays we have to carry around film and music on
little silver discs and stick them in the computer,
it's ridiculous," Gates said in comments reproduced
in German in the mass-circulation daily Bild.
"These things can scratch or simply get lost."
Gates' vision of television of the future was: "TV that
will simply show what we want to see, when we want
to see it. When we get home, the home computer will
know who we are from our voice or our face. It will
know what we want to watch, our favourite
programmes, or what the kids shouldn't be allowed to
see."
no, it's Jennie Berntson from TLC's "In-A-Fix"...She's one of the carpenters...
You've hit on the core of my response to this article. Gates better stretch out his timeline if he wants this DVD-destroying technology to be cheap enough for the average slum lord, single mom, college student, etc.
Yes, DVD's and CD's can get scratched, but if you take care of them, they don't.
I like my DVD's and CD's. Am always willing to try a new technology but even though I have CD players and a DVD player, I still have cassette players, and use them.
Well, I'm not out any money on that movie either way. However, iTunes has changed my mind about downloading music, and when they come up with fast enough connections and large enough storage, I could see an iMovie store. Download it and pay for it once; burn it as many times as you want; watch it whenever you want. I never lose a CD, can mix any range or type of song that I want, and with an iPod can download about 30,000 songs and take them with me.
A portable video player with about 800 movies in flash storage would be pretty cool. All it takes is money.
Bob (or actually I think it was "Bob") was supposed to be the next thing after Windows. Came out a bit after Win95, was a super friendly interface with a little animated critter that would do all your tasks for you. Think of it like the Office paperclip, only replacing the entire interface to the OS. It failed miserably, like off the market in weeks miserable failure. Nobody wanted it, nobody liked it, and even if it had been a good idea it didn't work for crap. All around a really bad idea, but the rumor mill says that OKing the project got Bill a wife, so it might not have been a total loss.
How do you know what's on my TV? Are you Big Brother?
When the first C-band satellite dish receivers became available, every antenna had to be licensed. The FCC also mandated the size antennae. Those regulations were stupid, because technology was advancing so fast the newer and smaller antennae dishes outperformed the larger mandated one. Eventually the FCC only require licenses for uplink dishes, and reccommended licenses for commercial installations that needed a guarantee that no one else could build anything that could interfere with its reception (eg. the satellite dishes for cable companies).
Fortunately in the mid 1990s the FCC declined to call DBS satellite broadcasts "broadcasts". If they had been considered "broadcasts", the FCC would have been required to regulate the formats and technology used. By not calling them "broadcasts" the FCC let market forces determine the technology.
Approximately $30,000?
" He said that in the year 2000, when you were watching a movie, you'd be able to push a button on your remote and change the actors around in the roles, or put yourself in the movie as the star. "
This must be a true prediction. How else can you explain Kevin Costner and Whoopi Goldberg movies?
To do that, they would have had to abandon their installed base of users. It's a lot easier to do now when you consider how cheap DVD drives are, but back in the mid to late '70s the machines that would have been made obsolete cost thousands of dollars each in 1970s dollars.
Very, very cool. This is big news! Vey hugh.
I wouldn't have one of those houses if you payed me big money. The problem is, what will the house do when your computer crashes? Will it lock all the doors? Will it unlock all the doors? Will it turn off all power? Will all your food go bad?
Yeah! What happens when my wife and I walk in the door at the same time? Will the television show the Avalanche Hockey Game or Trading Spaces?
Windows is already obsolete! Gates sucks.
This from the genius who basically missed the Internet and had to use his monopoly in operating systems to play catch up.
WOW... Yeah - My dad ~does~ have that album!
Whoa that is really going out on a limb!!!
I can't name a single storage medium since the 8 track that has lasted 10 years without becoming obsolete.
Except paper.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.