Things that they said would never work

recylingbin

1995 - the internet

After two decades online, I'm perplexed. It's not that I haven't had a gas of a good time on the Internet. I've met great people and even caught a hacker or two. But today, I'm uneasy about this most trendy and oversold community. Visionaries see a future of telecommuting workers, interactive libraries and multimedia classrooms. They speak of electronic town meetings and virtual communities. Commerce and business will shift from offices and malls to networks and modems. And the freedom of digital networks will make government more democratic.

Baloney. Do our computer pundits lack all common sense? The truth in no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher and no computer network will change the way government works.

Consider today's online world. The Usenet, a worldwide bulletin board, allows anyone to post messages across the nation. Your word gets out, leapfrogging editors and publishers. Every voice can be heard cheaply and instantly. The result? Every voice is heard. The cacophany more closely resembles citizens band radio, complete with handles, harrasment, and anonymous threats. When most everyone shouts, few listen. How about electronic publishing? Try reading a book on disc. At best, it's an unpleasant chore: the myopic glow of a clunky computer replaces the friendly pages of a book. And you can't tote that laptop to the beach. Yet Nicholas Negroponte, director of the MIT Media Lab, predicts that we'll soon buy books and newspapers straight over the Intenet. Uh, sure.


What the Internet hucksters won't tell you is tht the Internet is one big ocean of unedited data, without any pretense of completeness. Lacking editors, reviewers or critics, the Internet has become a wasteland of unfiltered data. You don't know what to ignore and what's worth reading. Logged onto the World Wide Web, I hunt for the date of the Battle of Trafalgar. Hundreds of files show up, and it takes 15 minutes to unravel them--one's a biography written by an eighth grader, the second is a computer game that doesn't work and the third is an image of a London monument. None answers my question, and my search is periodically interrupted by messages like, "Too many connectios, try again later."

Won't the Internet be useful in governing? Internet addicts clamor for government reports. But when Andy Spano ran for county executive in Westchester County, N.Y., he put every press release and position paper onto a bulletin board. In that affluent county, with plenty of computer companies, how many voters logged in? Fewer than 30. Not a good omen.

Point and click:
Then there are those pushing computers into schools. We're told that multimedia will make schoolwork easy and fun. Students will happily learn from animated characters while taught by expertly tailored software.Who needs teachers when you've got computer-aided education? Bah. These expensive toys are difficult to use in classrooms and require extensive teacher training. Sure, kids love videogames--but think of your own experience: can you recall even one educational filmstrip of decades past? I'll bet you remember the two or three great teachers who made a difference in your life.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/106554

IM0

boards.ie

4zn76tysfajdxp

He's right in a lot of ways.

Luap

Brian Cowan fat lazy wad!

OutlawPete

They said the smoking ban wouldn't work (I should know, I was one of them) ..

Doop

I dont know about all this, but im pretty sure I should be flying around in my hover car by now ..... its 2010 ffs!

K-9

Selling water to the Irish.

I still remember the Late Late Show about Ballygowan.

epgc3fyqirnbsx

communism

oh wait...

brendansmith

E-voting machines

Pygmalion

K-9 wrote: »

Selling water to the Irish.

I still remember the Late Late Show about Ballygowan.

I consider the success of bottled water to be a massive failure on the part of our supposed common sense.

OutlawPete

K-9 wrote: »

Selling water to the Irish.

I still remember the Late Late Show about Ballygowan.

Yup, they laughed.

Plus Boyzone was something else they sniggered at.

Damn woolly jumper brigade.

epgc3fyqirnbsx

polo mints

'I'm going to make more money by giving them less'
Hats off in fairness

The_Minister

Pygmalion wrote: »

I consider the success of bottled water to be a massive failure on the part of our supposed common sense.

I buy it for the bottle and refill it hundreds of times.

brendansmith

The_Minister wrote: »

I buy it for the bottle and refill it hundreds of times.

Genius!! Simply genius!!!

The_Minister

brendansmith wrote: »

Genius!! Simply genius!!!

It just came to me one day.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

Maloney_o9 wrote: »

Brian Cowan fat lazy wad!

I laughed at it, thanked the post, but I removed my thanks when I realised you are from Cork... sorry boiiii :P

OutlawPete

The_Minister wrote: »

It just came to me one day.

Yeah, but I have a shallow sink and when I try to fill it from the tap I have to tilt the bottle and usually then spray the window with water, which then in turn splashes me and my jeans get soaked.

That's always when some hawt babe knocks at the door wanting directions and takes one look at my soaked jeans and presumes I have had accident and so goes and shags some other guy who's home alone.

Then I just have to sit there watching Deal Or No Deal while the nerd from next door has the noisiest sex ever with the damsel in distress.

So, I just tend to buy my water.

Danbo!

OutlawPete wrote: »

Yeah, but I have a shallow sink and when I try to fill it from the tap I have to tilt the bottle and usually then spray the window with water, which then in turn splashes me and my jeans get soaked.

That's always when some hawt babe knocks at the door wanting directions and takes one look at my soaked jeans and presumes I have had accident and so goes and shags some other guy who's home alone.

Then I just have to sit there watching Deal Or No Deal while the nerd from next door has the noisiest sex ever with the damsel in distress.

So, I just tend to buy my water.

Yup, I hate when that happens

Im gonna get a deeper sink, helllloooo ladies :cool:

ROCKMAN

K-9 wrote: »

Selling water to the Irish.

I still remember the Late Late Show about Ballygowan.

Is it true that Guinness where asked to invest at the start and turn down the idea

ScumLord

OutlawPete wrote: »

They said the smoking ban wouldn't work (I should know, I was one of them) ..

In a way they where right about that too, they said people wouldn't mind and the pub wouldn't suffer. They didn't mind going to the off license instead, then they began to see the real cost of going to the pub and didn't go back.

thetonynator

they said house pricies wouldnt fall . . .

alwaysadub

They said television would only last 6 months-that people would get bored of staring at a box.

the_syco

ScumLord wrote: »

In a way they where right about that too, they said people wouldn't mind and the pub wouldn't suffer. They didn't mind going to the off license instead, then they began to see the real cost of going to the pub and didn't go back.

So the **** called for a "family friendly" closing time for the off-licenses... :mad:

Rabies

brendansmith wrote: »

Genius!! Simply genius!!!

There is a business idea in that.

We set up a company to refill people's water bottles with tap water and charge them.

It should work in America or Ireland.

ScumLord

the_syco wrote: »

So the **** called for a "family friendly" closing time for the off-licenses... :mad:

Off licenses are the place for fun for all the family it needs to be child friendly. Oh no wait that's disneyland, off licenses are for adults, I keep forgetting.

Cookie_Monster

Rabies wrote: »

There is a business idea in that.

We set up a company to refill people's water bottles with tap water and charge them.

It should work in America or Ireland.

Nah, Coke already tried that

antodeco

My teachers said I'd never work! Fool on them! Fool on them!! Now I work everyday, get paid little and struggle to pay my way. Fool on th...wait.

EDIT: I wasted a 3000th post for that useless psot