It always amuses me when people proclaim a rising technology as not just promising, but the way of the future that will inevitably take over. Anybody can see that’s the way things are heading, they say. No use fighting it. Don’t question the certainty of the forthcoming tech revolution, you Luddite! It’s a sea change, resistance is futile, get on board now or be swept away on the flood waters of progress.
What a load of bollocks.
What really surprises me is when people who are old enough to know better join in with this sort of thing. Those of us who have been around a while have seen many “inevitable” technological revolutions dry up and fizzle out, some more than once. It gets old.
Remember a few short years ago when touchscreens were going to be part of everybody’s desktop setup as ubiquitous as the mouse? I do, but I also remembered touchscreens on desktop computers failing in the 80s for the exact same ergonomic reasons they went nowhere this time around (thanks for the lesson, HP). That’s why none of the monitors I bought in the last few years have had touchscreens, and I’ve yet to see a single desktop touchscreen in active use.
Next off the rank is VR. Some of the people who were around when virtual reality failed the first time are somehow now convinced it’s now The Next Big Thing, despite the reasons it failed originally remaining stubbornly in place. No, in three years’ time you’re not going to be holding site meetings in your office wearing a silly pair of goggles and bumping into the coffee machine. Really, you’re not. It didn’t happen in 1990 and it won’t happen in 2020 either.
Here are a couple of things I enjoyed reading recently.
- Music Content – Giant 200-CD ‘Mozart 225’ Box Set is a Surprisingly Hot Seller
- Music Technology – Value of vinyl sales overtakes digital downloads in the UK
To celebrate, I went out and bought a gramophone, I mean, turntable. I’m happy to report that I still haven’t parted with a single cent for online music. That’s so yesterday.
Next time somebody tries to tell you something like, “The whole software industry is moving to the rental model, all software will be sold that way soon, there will be no avoiding it,” please refer them to paragraph two above.
But VR will take over for things like gaming and viewing project models. The funny thing is Autodesk is so unprepared for it. You would think the industry leader for 3D construction model viewing (Navisworks) would have had it on their radar and have working prototype ability, but instead they tell you to pull your model into Unity gaming engine. That is not easy. Reminds me of their Spark 3d printing marketing effort thing where the suddenly become the 3d printing industry experts. They contribute nothing the audience they market to cares about. I think it impresses themselves though.
VR will take over for gaming and viewing project models to the same extent it did the first time round in the 80s.
VR might look better now but it’s still the same stupid thing attached to your head.