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DVDs will be obsolete in 10 years: Bill Gates
AFP ^

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."


TOPICS: Announcements; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 8tracksrule; billgates; cd; compactdisc; dvd; eighttracktapes; lovemy8track; microsoft; stillusingmybetamax; vcr; video; videoplayer
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To: varon

no, it's Jennie Berntson from TLC's "In-A-Fix"...She's one of the carpenters...


141 posted on 07/13/2004 1:44:43 PM PDT by danneskjold ("Somebody is behind this..." - George Soros)
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To: Rebelbase

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.


142 posted on 07/13/2004 1:45:17 PM PDT by GretchenM (A country is a terrible thing to waste. Vote Republican.)
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To: KellyAdmirer
I'd rather pay once at the store for a copy than have to pay coin every time I want to watch "Apocalypse Now."

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.

143 posted on 07/13/2004 1:45:51 PM PDT by Richard Kimball (We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men are ready to do violence on our behalf)
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To: stands2reason

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.


144 posted on 07/13/2004 1:46:24 PM PDT by discostu (Gravity is a harsh mistress)
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To: Hatteras

How do you know what's on my TV? Are you Big Brother?


145 posted on 07/13/2004 1:47:39 PM PDT by michaelt
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To: KarlInOhio; MississippiMan
They would probably have tried to put video on vinyl disks. RCA did market such a video disk system in the late seventies and early eighties, but they eventually abondoned it around 1985. Fortunately the FCC had no jurisdictio over video recording technology; however, prior to the Reagan administration they over-regulated every technology that was involved in transmitting or broadcasting video signals.

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.

146 posted on 07/13/2004 1:50:10 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative (Do not remove this tag under penalty of law.)
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To: Richard Kimball
and with an iPod can download about 30,000 songs and take them with me.

Approximately $30,000?

147 posted on 07/13/2004 1:51:54 PM PDT by cinFLA
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To: MississippiMan

" 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?


148 posted on 07/13/2004 1:53:43 PM PDT by WOSG (Peace through Victory! Iraq victory, W victory, American victory!)
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To: KellyAdmirer
I never understood why Sony couldn't just make their tapes, you know, bigger and capture a billion-dollar market.

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.

149 posted on 07/13/2004 1:54:04 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative (Do not remove this tag under penalty of law.)
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To: theFIRMbss

Very, very cool. This is big news! Vey hugh.


150 posted on 07/13/2004 1:56:04 PM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts (May the wings of Liberty never lose so much as a feather.)
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To: Arkinsaw

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?


151 posted on 07/13/2004 2:04:45 PM PDT by NathanR (Santiago!)
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To: YoungHickey
"TV that will simply show what we want to see, when we want to see it."

"At least I don't have to watch another so-called reality show again."

This is terrible. Your TV is forcing you to watch reality shows now?
152 posted on 07/13/2004 2:09:43 PM PDT by monday
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To: Dog Gone

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?


153 posted on 07/13/2004 2:11:10 PM PDT by Hat-Trick (Do you trust a government that cannot trust you with guns?)
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To: YoungHickey

Windows is already obsolete! Gates sucks.


154 posted on 07/13/2004 2:11:53 PM PDT by Astronaut
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To: YoungHickey
Bill Gates is no visionary genius. The skills that got him to where he is today have more to do with sneakiness, outright dishonesty, ruthlessness, and clubbing his enemies into submission.
155 posted on 07/13/2004 2:22:24 PM PDT by atomicpossum (I give up! Entropy, you win!)
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To: Rebelbase
Didn't everyone's Dad have this album?


156 posted on 07/13/2004 2:23:00 PM PDT by stands2reason (Kerry/Edwards: TERRORISTS FLEE FROM BETTER HAIR!!!)
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To: YoungHickey

This from the genius who basically missed the Internet and had to use his monopoly in operating systems to play catch up.


157 posted on 07/13/2004 2:24:48 PM PDT by xkaydet65 (" You have never tasted freedom my friend, else you would know, it is purchased not with gold, but w)
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To: stands2reason; Ramius; ecurbh

WOW... Yeah - My dad ~does~ have that album!


158 posted on 07/13/2004 2:25:57 PM PDT by HairOfTheDog (~*-,._.,-*~Loves her hubbit~*-,._.,-*~)
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To: monday
"TV that will simply show what we want to see, when we want to see it." "At least I don't have to watch another so-called reality show again." This is terrible. Your TV is forcing you to watch reality shows now?

I was wondering if anyone was going to catch that. Should've known better.
159 posted on 07/13/2004 2:26:57 PM PDT by YoungHickey ("Ye shall know the truth, and it shall make you mad" --Aldous Huxley)
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To: YoungHickey

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.


160 posted on 07/13/2004 2:30:27 PM PDT by Pylot
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