DVDs will be obsolete in 10 years: Bill Gates

AFP ^

[YoungHickey]

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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."

[danneskjold]

[Guillermo]

Obsolete doesn't mean disappearing.

It simply means there is something more advanced and efficient.

[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.

[elfman2]

"DVD's might become obsolete but local storage of media probably won't."

And even DVDs won’t be "obsolete" in just 10 years. Legacy maybe, but not obsolete.

[Hatteras]

I'll check but the last time I looked my dad still had his stereo console cabinet in the living room. I believe the turntable was still in working order. Stashed alongside was an album rack filled with Perry Como records, my mom's favorite.

[Lurking in Kansas]

LOL!

Thanks for the warning. I think I'd better pass on this one, Bill...

[MississippiMan]

I still have a PRIMO Betamax machine, the Sony flagship SL-HF900.

I was in the consumer electronics business in the height of the VHS vs. Betamax war. I was pro-Beta and sold literally hundreds of Betamax machines in that town. I bet they still cuss me.

MM

[discostu]

Record players have made a bit of a comeback recently. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000708FX/qid=1089748528/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/102-1963620-4116166?v=glance&s=electronics&n=507846

That's just one, there's plenty more, I like the classic styling, I've seen a couple at Bed Bath and Beyond also.

[Sloth]

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."

My computer will sigh and say, "Nothing's on. Again."

[spoiler2]

"There's a big difference between surveillance and convenience"

Not really, when surveillance becomes so convenient, thanks to almost inexhaustible computer memory!

[snarkpup]

I hope someone's keeping a hard copy of what's going on in the world. Between format wars and planned obsolescence, it may be all historians of the future have to go on when looking back at this era.

I've heard this is already happening in some areas, like data from early space missions that is now unusable because no compatible equipment exists anymore.

[WKB]

Zager and Evans

"In The Year 2525 (Exordium & Terminus)"

Reached #1 07-12-69 on the Billboard Charts


In the year 2525
If man is still alive
If woman can survive
They may find........

In the year 3535
Ain't gonna need to tell the truth, tell no lies
Everything you think, do, or say
Is in the pill you took today

In the year 4545
Ain't gonna need your teeth, won't need your eyes
You won't find a thing to chew
Nobody's gonna look at you

In the year 5555
Your arms are hanging limp at your sides
Your legs got nothing to do
Some machine, doing that for you

In the year 6565
Ain't gonna need no husband, won't need no wife
You'll pick your son, pick your daughter too
From the bottom of a long glass tube

In the year 7510
If God's a comin' he ought to make it by then
Maybe he'll look around himself and say
``Guess it's time for the Judgement day''

In the year 8510
God's gonna shake his mighty head
He'll either say ``I'm pleased where man has been''
Or tear it down and start again

In the year 9595
I'm kinda wondering if man's gonna be alive
He's taken everything this old earth can give
And he ain't put back nothing...

Now it's been 10,000 years
Man has cried a billion tears
For what he never knew
Now man's reign is through
But through the eternal night
The twinkling of starlight
So very far away
Maybe it's only yesterday...

In the year 2525
If man is still alive
If woman can survive
They may find.......

[Hatteras]

No Way!!! Where did you find that?! The only pic I was able to find was a head shot from the TLC Site.

FHM? I'll be back later...

[Rebelbase]

"people will really never need a computer in their house... "

There are a lot of folks who still don't have a computer in their house.

[Area51]

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."

---

Ya right Bill, and if you keep Data Mining with the government you'll have access to every bit of data there is on me and the other 300 million Americans. Including but not limited to any conversations we have to others via any electronicly transmitted medium, medical, legal, educational, credit history, purchasing tendencies, latest transactions, bank accounts, 401K, 501(c) etc, balances.

Just think of the power that puts in some dweeb that doesn't like you.

I bet he masterbates while watching Movies like Gattica or The Net.

[YoungHickey]

Not me.. I'd be watching Home Improvement, The Simpsons, and Aqua Teen Hunger Force all day.

[Calvin Locke]

Try making a business office paperless...

I d/l books from the Gutenberg site to my PDA. I still prefer books, though. A lot more comfortable in bed or on the couch.

[freedumb2003]

How is it going to know what I want to watch when even I don't know?

I just installed DirectTv (which I love -- especially since I was able to flush the cable Monopoly) and I got TiVo (which I really, really love). But, when I 1st got it, it started auto-recording really wierd stuff, like old Japanese movies. I called the support line and they said the box was trying to record things it thought I would like.

I turned off that feature as fast as I could. The idea of predictive technology (outside of an Elevator) bugs me. The arrogance is worse than the annoyance.

[Puddleglum]

This is right about the same time that I will be able to teleport myself to and from work, my hover-craft will fold up into a brief case and all my food will be in the form of a capsule.

And I will work in a bubble city underwater or else on the Moon.

[weegee]

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."

That is exactly the point. The industry doesn't want you to have permanent copies of these programs (film, video, music). This is why you are prohibited by the DMCA (DCMA?) from making what should be legal backup copies.

Selling you Sgt. Pepper's 20 times is a money making proposition.

I don't think that DVDs should spin while you watch a movie, I think that they should cache all of the data to a hard drive which is a much more efficient way than reading it with a laser (certainly more data can be stored). The industry considers this a "threat" to the safety of "their" data. I bought it, let me watch it how I want.