I would in fact argue that the social networks that existed in the 1980s were far more social than the ones that we have now. You didn't have 1 million friends on your BBS, but the ones you had were real friends, and being on a BBS and especially running one required that you had to have more than one working brain cell.
Are you American? Back here in Europe it would be foolish to think nothing is going to change. Ever since the late 80s things have been changing constantly, and not even Western Europe has avoided this.
In Estonia they went from a Soviet bureaucracy to electronic voting in 15 years! Things will change, broaden your horizons.
I live in a pretty stable European country. The basic technology and political landscape hasn't changed significantly for decades.
I still think you're just so used to it that you don't notice.
Decades ago: -Petrol was leaded. -Acid rain was common. -Asbestos was commonly used. -You went to the bank if you wanted to pay something, or used cheques. -Only the rich, or no-one had mobile phones. -There was no www, and no social networks. People wrote letters. -Overseas phonecalls often involved queueing. -Air travel was at a minimum slightly glamorous. -The EU was several treaties younger and much smaller, and required unanimity in decisions. -There
I don't know if you're having difficulty counting, or something. 15 years ago was *1997*, not 1977.
Just to pick a few off your list, in 1997 LRP was more common than leaded petrol, and petrol stations were already phasing it out. By 2000, there was almost nowhere you could get LRP and leaded was gone.
Overseas phone calls haven't required queueing (at least, in reasonably advanced countries) for something like 30 years, not 15.
Back in 1997, pretty nearly everyone I knew had a mobile phone, although GSM cov
I don't know if you're having difficulty counting, or something. 15 years ago was *1997*, not 1977.
Read your own post again:
I live in a pretty stable European country. The basic technology and political landscape hasn't changed significantly for decades.
So 'decades' is what I replied to.
However, I meant what I said about the rate being greater: in the last 15 years we've gone from mobile phones and WWW being growing technologies to today, where you have to use them if you want to be a fully working citizen.
Fifteen years ago Angola was in the midst of civil war and people moved to Portugal for work. Portugal was about to join the euro club, and therefore considered to be doing well. Today Portugal has enormous economic problems, and
But it's not really a big functional change, or a big context shift. I agree that cheap dense memory has made a lot of cool stuff possible - a 1M Sony PSX memory card is the same size as a 16G iPod Nano - but the sort of technology we have hasn't changed for more than 30 years.
Mobile phones have got smaller, and had clever little computers grafted on. They've become cheaper, but the basic principle hasn't changed since the earliest trunked radio systems.
Computers are faster and have typically got more RAM
It's not as different as you seem to think (though I would call it the days of MacOS 8 and Netscape 3.04). Fundamentally, the biggest changes are in terms of content and connectivity. By the late 90s, I was using routers to share dial-up connections over a network, so the only changes there are the hardware/software for the router, network speed, and provider of the line. Floppy disks were largely on their way out by 1997, with various interim solutions failing to take hold and CD-Rs gaining popularity (p
15 years ago, I had dialup, I loved my VCR, and I knew 2 people who had cellphones (and I didn't).
Now, I have broadband, but looking forward to Google Fiber. What's a VCR? And I know 2 people, well, maybe just one, who DOESN'T have a cellphone, and most have smartphones.
15 years ago, I was on DSL, and had my TV hooked up to a HTPC. I had 2 cellphones. Today, I have DSL and my TV is hooked up to a HTPC. I have 1 cellphone (and if my work didn't let me make personal calls on it, I'd have one dual-sim cell).
We did have flash drives back in '97. I had a full size PCMCIA card made by SunDisk (not SanDisk) that I used as additional storage with my laptop. This was before CF cards (then SD) cards became the standard for cameras.
Some things have changed. Instead of E-mail lists and mutt, we have Facebook.
I would say the biggest change would be MP3 players. We had tablets (GriDpads) and other stuff, but MP3 players really didn't get started until after the Rio versus RIAA fight, then definitely when Apple entere
15 years from now... (Score:4, Insightful)
... stuff will be pretty much the same as it is today. Just like stuff today is pretty much like it was 15 years ago.
It's a bit easier to pick up my email on my phone, and my home internet connection is about 100 times faster. That's about it, really.
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15 years ago, you could send emails, and receive it, but most of the communications were done by letters or FAX.
15 years ago, I binned my old fax machine since most of my communications were done via email or IM.
15 years ago, there were not any kind of social network, even the idea.
15 years ago I was active on a number of IRC channels, that were mostly populated by people that I knew from BBSes from years and years before *that*
15 years ago, There were mobiles, but you had to wait by 8PM to call your mother because she is coming to home
15 years ago, I ditched my landline phone because it was more expensive than my GSM mobile - a Nokia 7110.
15 years ago, your kids ride the bikes when they return from school and played outside
I don't have children, so I can't comment. Most of my friend's children walk or cycle to school, and get to play outside.
15 years ago, you were going to the cinema on mondays and comment the movie with your friends
I get a nice deal from my phone provider, so these days I tend to go on Wednesdays.
15 years ago, you ask for an IT repair if your computer just stops working
15 years ago, if my computer stopped working I would plug in the soldering iron. These days, I plug in the hot air rework station.
Nothing has changed, nothing is going to change.
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Are you American? Back here in Europe it would be foolish to think nothing is going to change. Ever since the late 80s things have been changing constantly, and not even Western Europe has avoided this.
In Estonia they went from a Soviet bureaucracy to electronic voting in 15 years! Things will change, broaden your horizons.
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I live in a pretty stable European country. The basic technology and political landscape hasn't changed significantly for decades.
You guys had quite a time of it in the early 90s to early 2000s, though.
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I live in a pretty stable European country. The basic technology and political landscape hasn't changed significantly for decades.
I still think you're just so used to it that you don't notice.
Decades ago:
-Petrol was leaded.
-Acid rain was common.
-Asbestos was commonly used.
-You went to the bank if you wanted to pay something, or used cheques.
-Only the rich, or no-one had mobile phones.
-There was no www, and no social networks. People wrote letters.
-Overseas phonecalls often involved queueing.
-Air travel was at a minimum slightly glamorous.
-The EU was several treaties younger and much smaller, and required unanimity in decisions.
-There
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I don't know if you're having difficulty counting, or something. 15 years ago was *1997*, not 1977.
Just to pick a few off your list, in 1997 LRP was more common than leaded petrol, and petrol stations were already phasing it out. By 2000, there was almost nowhere you could get LRP and leaded was gone.
Overseas phone calls haven't required queueing (at least, in reasonably advanced countries) for something like 30 years, not 15.
Back in 1997, pretty nearly everyone I knew had a mobile phone, although GSM cov
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know if you're having difficulty counting, or something. 15 years ago was *1997*, not 1977.
Read your own post again:
I live in a pretty stable European country. The basic technology and political landscape hasn't changed significantly for decades.
So 'decades' is what I replied to.
However, I meant what I said about the rate being greater: in the last 15 years we've gone from mobile phones and WWW being growing technologies to today, where you have to use them if you want to be a fully working citizen.
Fifteen years ago Angola was in the midst of civil war and people moved to Portugal for work. Portugal was about to join the euro club, and therefore considered to be doing well. Today Portugal has enormous economic problems, and
Re: (Score:2)
But it's not really a big functional change, or a big context shift. I agree that cheap dense memory has made a lot of cool stuff possible - a 1M Sony PSX memory card is the same size as a 16G iPod Nano - but the sort of technology we have hasn't changed for more than 30 years.
Mobile phones have got smaller, and had clever little computers grafted on. They've become cheaper, but the basic principle hasn't changed since the earliest trunked radio systems.
Computers are faster and have typically got more RAM
Re: (Score:2)
It's not as different as you seem to think (though I would call it the days of MacOS 8 and Netscape 3.04). Fundamentally, the biggest changes are in terms of content and connectivity. By the late 90s, I was using routers to share dial-up connections over a network, so the only changes there are the hardware/software for the router, network speed, and provider of the line. Floppy disks were largely on their way out by 1997, with various interim solutions failing to take hold and CD-Rs gaining popularity (p
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15 years ago, I had dialup, I loved my VCR, and I knew 2 people who had cellphones (and I didn't).
Now, I have broadband, but looking forward to Google Fiber. What's a VCR? And I know 2 people, well, maybe just one, who DOESN'T have a cellphone, and most have smartphones.
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We did have flash drives back in '97. I had a full size PCMCIA card made by SunDisk (not SanDisk) that I used as additional storage with my laptop. This was before CF cards (then SD) cards became the standard for cameras.
Some things have changed. Instead of E-mail lists and mutt, we have Facebook.
I would say the biggest change would be MP3 players. We had tablets (GriDpads) and other stuff, but MP3 players really didn't get started until after the Rio versus RIAA fight, then definitely when Apple entere
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Consider this scenario from 1990 to 2005. You probably wouldn't have had a phone or e-mail at the beginning of that period. Or internet.
Considering the future is interesting, all ideas are welcome (except flying cars, he didn't mention the massive worldwide oil shortages either...).