Posted on 04/04/2007 10:40:49 AM PDT by ShadowAce
try “Xybernaut” the ‘wearable” computer!
I believe the Sony PS3 will be added to this lit when it is all said and done.
Too bad that “white stuff” wasn’t Plaster-of-Paris !!!
That would sure make me Whoopi - :-)
I was an OS/2 Warp beta tester and had a lot of good expectations about it going up against MS Windows. I still know how to crash this 'crashless' operating system by doing nothing more than manipulating the tools IBM gave you to customize your UI. I submitted that bug and they never fixed it.
I'm also pretty sure I can find a dusty old Newton in a box in the garage.
Some of these ideas bombed because the technology wasn’t there, some bombed because the marketing was awful, and some bombed because the idea just sucked.
But the “paperless office” idea will never work because of people and their habits and ideas. We have one supervisor at my company that requires that all her workers print off a copy of every e-mail they recieve so that there is a paper trail of communication.
How can e-mail help cut her paper use when she requires a print our of every e-mail? Well, obviously it can’t. I get route mail daily that could have been sent to me by e-mail. Why? Because some people have to hold a piece of paper in their hand in order for it to be a “memo” or a “report”.
So while a lot of these ideas make me laugh, the failure of the “paperless” office is very sad indeed.
bump
Thanks for this. I teach and do research in information management and always have to tell the ‘kids’ that technology is not always the answer and that newest is not always the best.
I couldn’t get a visual of Bob and did a quick Google search. http://toastytech.com/guis/bob.html has a nice walkthru of the Bob screens and how it was used. I had something similar to this on an old Packard Bell, tho I don’t recall it having a name.
One tool that I thought would take off was the Cuecat. I got one for free and thought it was neat, tho those feelings were mostly based on the press. I’m not sure if, after installing it, I ever actually used it. I would love to get additional info on products while in the store, but that’s the kind of person I am. Apparently others were not so inclined. http://cuecat.com/
Then there was the replacement/enhancement, Betacam SP which used metal tape. And what we use at our station, BetaSX, a digital recording format.
Betamax died because Sony was greedy and wouldn't license the technology to other manufacturers until it was way too late, when they licensed Toshiba to make one model of recorder.
JVC, the owner of the VHS format, would license anybody, including relatively unknown South Korean manufacturers Samsung and Goldstar. They flooded the market with $99 recorders when a Betamax went for $499.
The format wars was won on price, not performance.
Ditto, that. My favorite part of the dotcom bust was the great commercials. The marching band, attacked by wolves; the surgery patient with money out the wazoo and yes, the pets.com sock puppet.
Hey, it also came with a cassette recorder so you could save your basic programs to tape. The only ROM cart I had was the videotex one that I used to connect to CompuServe with.
I like my PS3
(if you have not figured it out by now, I love new tech) :-)
hehe!
unfortunatly SONY has never learned the format wars lessons.
They just repeat the same mistakes hoping for a different result.
I never upgrade. If I build a new machine next year I'll consider Vista.
I used the unit that I purchased (from an infomercial, BTW), for my family, for Xmas '97, almost exclusively for my personal internet access right up until I left to come over here (Iraq), in Jan. of '06.
I spent many an hour on this forum, kicked back in my recliner, with my wireless keyboard and 25" "monitor".
Granted, it won't support alot of video and some audio but it still allows a user to do most everything else on the WWW.
As an "entry level" purchase, which is how it was designed and promoted, I don't think WebTV was a flop at all.
Regards
I kind of liked the Cuecat, too. The Packard-Bell thing was on my first computer. It was called the Packard Bell Navigator and can be seen on the same website where you found Bob.
Ack! Does Ted Danson know you stole his camera??
Yes, yes, of course you’re right. But since Betacam was developed from Betamax, calling Betamax a bust is a bit of a stretch.
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