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Top 10 tech we miss
By Rafe Needleman
Technology evolves. Good technologies and products usually survive; poor ones usually go extinct. But not all of the technologies and tech products that have swirled down the drain of the tech gene pool deserved their fate. Here are some big, and some small, ideas that we thought we'd have with us forever, but that unfortunately have gone the way of the dodo.
1. Manned space exploration
It's been 33 years since humans have set foot on the moon or journeyed beyond the close orbit of the Earth. In other words, we've stopped exploring. Sure, robotic spaceships and Mars rovers are adding to our knowledge of the universe, but the last people to explore the final frontier are past retirement age--and so are the engineers who put them there. In other words, next time we go into space, we're going to have to retrain people from scratch. There may be no firsthand knowledge of what it's like to be in space or to build a space vehicle. This is progress?
2. Kozmo.com
At the height of the dot-com bubble, you could get a candy bar delivered to your door for the price of...a candy bar. Kozmo, an online store and delivery service, promised fast, friendly delivery of almost anything: a DVD rental, a bag of groceries, or just a single pack of gum. It was incredibly convenient and a heck of a bargain. It was also too good to be true. The cost of the small-time deliveries contributed to the demise of this great idea.
3. Napster
This is the one that started it all: The peer-to-peer network let you share your music collection with anybody in the world, and more importantly, get all the world's music tracks downloaded to your computer. The only problem: Sharing digital assets this way was decreed to be illegal, which was not helped by the fact that on the original Napster, you couldn't pay for music even if you wanted to. Napster was summarily shut down by the authorities. The brand has since been resurrected as a paid music site. It's not the same.
4. The Concorde
Many of us thought that one day, when we were millionaires, we'd take a jaunt around the world on the supersonic jet. If you're still waiting for fortune to knock on your door, you're too late: the Concorde stopped flying in 2003, victim of economic factors and the aftermath of its only fatal crash. It's ironic that as aeronautical technology has moved ever forward, the only supersonic aircraft the public could fly on has been retired. Now all of us, rich and poor alike, have to obey the pedestrian speed limit of sound.
5. GM's EV1
Even today's superclean hybrid cars are still polluters--their electric batteries are recharged by small gas engines. But up until 2003, you could lease a true zero-emission electric car from General Motors: the EV1. It was a science-fiction car of the first order, and it looked it--all swoopy lines and space-egg aerodynamics. None were made available for sale. When the leases on the EV1s expired, GM recalled the cars, over the ardent objections of many of the lessees, who protested, begged, and lobbied GM to let them buy their vehicles. GM would not relent, and, citing concerns over liability and parts availability, even took to crushing some of these high-tech marvels to keep them off the road.
6. The original Palm Pilot
Introduced in 1994, the original Pilot was a model of simplicity. It was an excellent pocket calendar and address book, and it synchronized sufficiently well with a desktop computer to make it a solid PC companion. With so many new Palm Pilots shipping today, why do we miss the original? Because the 1.0 Pilot never crashed. Its simplicity was its blessing. You'd think that after 11 years, this is the one feature that we'd keep.
7. Good keyboards
Once upon a time, using a computer was a loud, tactile affair. The keyboards on early IBM PCs were heavy, had a great feel, and made a satisfying clacking noise when you typed, thanks to the expensive "buckling spring" design for the switches. They could also take a beating, which was important for people who were making the transition from pounding on manual typewriters. Nobody ships a PC with a good keyboard anymore, although you can still get IBM-style keyboards from Unicomp.
8. Wires
Try to buy communications equipment today--it's all wireless. Wireless networks, cellular phones, Bluetooth headsets. We say, bring back wires. Wired communications are faster, cheaper, and less prone to interference and don't need batteries. Want to make a clear phone call? Pick up an ordinary telephone with a good old coiled handset cord. Want really fast networking? Use wired Ethernet for a gigabit a second. We like portability, but our lust for cord-free technology has gone too far.
9. LPs
This is an argument for the ages. Many music lovers say the analog technology of vinyl records, where sound waves are recorded as bumps and waves in the record groove, provides a more authentic, warmer sound than the digital recording technologies of CDs and MP3s. Today, LPs are the province of music collectors and scratch artists. Many people still have substantial collections of LPs and no way to play them. Our recommendation: record your prized LPs to digital files while you still have a working record player. You won't be able to completely capture the analog sound, but at least you'll preserve the memories of this ancient technology.
10. The Newton
When Apple gets things right, it's spectacular (think iPod), but when the company messes up, it's a hoot. The first popular pen-based PDA, the Apple Newton, was big, expensive, and too smart for its britches. Early models tried to interpret handwriting with often amusing results, making words out of users' scrawls that often combined into surreal "Newton Poetry." We miss the Newton because what it thought we meant was often far more interesting than what we were really trying to say.
By Rafe Needleman
Technology evolves. Good technologies and products usually survive; poor ones usually go extinct. But not all of the technologies and tech products that have swirled down the drain of the tech gene pool deserved their fate. Here are some big, and some small, ideas that we thought we'd have with us forever, but that unfortunately have gone the way of the dodo.
1. Manned space exploration
It's been 33 years since humans have set foot on the moon or journeyed beyond the close orbit of the Earth. In other words, we've stopped exploring. Sure, robotic spaceships and Mars rovers are adding to our knowledge of the universe, but the last people to explore the final frontier are past retirement age--and so are the engineers who put them there. In other words, next time we go into space, we're going to have to retrain people from scratch. There may be no firsthand knowledge of what it's like to be in space or to build a space vehicle. This is progress?
2. Kozmo.com
At the height of the dot-com bubble, you could get a candy bar delivered to your door for the price of...a candy bar. Kozmo, an online store and delivery service, promised fast, friendly delivery of almost anything: a DVD rental, a bag of groceries, or just a single pack of gum. It was incredibly convenient and a heck of a bargain. It was also too good to be true. The cost of the small-time deliveries contributed to the demise of this great idea.
3. Napster
This is the one that started it all: The peer-to-peer network let you share your music collection with anybody in the world, and more importantly, get all the world's music tracks downloaded to your computer. The only problem: Sharing digital assets this way was decreed to be illegal, which was not helped by the fact that on the original Napster, you couldn't pay for music even if you wanted to. Napster was summarily shut down by the authorities. The brand has since been resurrected as a paid music site. It's not the same.
4. The Concorde
Many of us thought that one day, when we were millionaires, we'd take a jaunt around the world on the supersonic jet. If you're still waiting for fortune to knock on your door, you're too late: the Concorde stopped flying in 2003, victim of economic factors and the aftermath of its only fatal crash. It's ironic that as aeronautical technology has moved ever forward, the only supersonic aircraft the public could fly on has been retired. Now all of us, rich and poor alike, have to obey the pedestrian speed limit of sound.
5. GM's EV1
Even today's superclean hybrid cars are still polluters--their electric batteries are recharged by small gas engines. But up until 2003, you could lease a true zero-emission electric car from General Motors: the EV1. It was a science-fiction car of the first order, and it looked it--all swoopy lines and space-egg aerodynamics. None were made available for sale. When the leases on the EV1s expired, GM recalled the cars, over the ardent objections of many of the lessees, who protested, begged, and lobbied GM to let them buy their vehicles. GM would not relent, and, citing concerns over liability and parts availability, even took to crushing some of these high-tech marvels to keep them off the road.
6. The original Palm Pilot
Introduced in 1994, the original Pilot was a model of simplicity. It was an excellent pocket calendar and address book, and it synchronized sufficiently well with a desktop computer to make it a solid PC companion. With so many new Palm Pilots shipping today, why do we miss the original? Because the 1.0 Pilot never crashed. Its simplicity was its blessing. You'd think that after 11 years, this is the one feature that we'd keep.
7. Good keyboards
Once upon a time, using a computer was a loud, tactile affair. The keyboards on early IBM PCs were heavy, had a great feel, and made a satisfying clacking noise when you typed, thanks to the expensive "buckling spring" design for the switches. They could also take a beating, which was important for people who were making the transition from pounding on manual typewriters. Nobody ships a PC with a good keyboard anymore, although you can still get IBM-style keyboards from Unicomp.
8. Wires
Try to buy communications equipment today--it's all wireless. Wireless networks, cellular phones, Bluetooth headsets. We say, bring back wires. Wired communications are faster, cheaper, and less prone to interference and don't need batteries. Want to make a clear phone call? Pick up an ordinary telephone with a good old coiled handset cord. Want really fast networking? Use wired Ethernet for a gigabit a second. We like portability, but our lust for cord-free technology has gone too far.
9. LPs
This is an argument for the ages. Many music lovers say the analog technology of vinyl records, where sound waves are recorded as bumps and waves in the record groove, provides a more authentic, warmer sound than the digital recording technologies of CDs and MP3s. Today, LPs are the province of music collectors and scratch artists. Many people still have substantial collections of LPs and no way to play them. Our recommendation: record your prized LPs to digital files while you still have a working record player. You won't be able to completely capture the analog sound, but at least you'll preserve the memories of this ancient technology.
10. The Newton
When Apple gets things right, it's spectacular (think iPod), but when the company messes up, it's a hoot. The first popular pen-based PDA, the Apple Newton, was big, expensive, and too smart for its britches. Early models tried to interpret handwriting with often amusing results, making words out of users' scrawls that often combined into surreal "Newton Poetry." We miss the Newton because what it thought we meant was often far more interesting than what we were really trying to say.
