What tech is becoming redundant next?

[synaesthesia]

5 1/2" floppy drives. It's about time I had to stop doing my 2TB backups on those, it's getting quite tiring. The first backup I started in 2011 should be about due to finish in the next few months.

[tmcd35]

5 1/2" floppy drives. It's about time I had to stop doing my 2TB backups on those, it's getting quite tiring. The first backup I started in 2011 should be about due to finish in the next few months.

 

See you should have invested in double sided disks and a drive with two read heads (saves having to manually flip them). You might have been done by now

[Pottsey]

Rasterization graphics cards and graphics are possible on the way out. Soon we will have ray tracing in mobiles which at first will most likely be a hybrid between rasterization and ray tracing. Over time (years) ray tracing should fully replace rasterization. Once people see how good it is in mobile I assume there will be a bigger push for it in desktop computers. It’s a crazy world we live in when mobiles will in ways have better graphics then desktop computers.

 

Cables partly. Speakers for example will move to wireless. Anything that’s not connect to the internet will become redundant although this will take years as people hang on. Everything from fridges to coffee mugs even house front doors will get connected.

Edited May 2, 2014 by Pottsey

[Michael]

I think fibre would take off at a faster rate if it were easier to terminate. Most of us probably can terminate CAT5, but not fibre and it's the same with the big telecoms too. As above, BT and Virgin mostly operate FTTC, so the last few metres to your house is still copper.

 

The biggest issue (someone needs to find a solution to) is if FTTH was introduced mainstream, how can this be done without requiring an engineer to terminate the connection in someone's home? This is extremely costly and time consuming, plus it means every pavement in the country would need to be dug up to patch in the fibre.

[sparkeh]

Everything from fridges to coffee mugs will get connected.

...and do what when they are connected?

[Michael]

An IP friendly fridge yes, but a mug? Not sure about that - unless it changed colour or something like a screensaver

 

I should patent that idea....

[jallsop]

I'm going to be contentious here I know, but i don't want to see the demise of VGA for a while yet. Reason, as an international school with BYOD, we have kids bring laptops and BD players etc from all over the world,and we've had hells own problems with HDMI HDCP issues from multiple region and 0 region players and disks. It's not entirely legal here to buy HDMI kit without HDCP and the fines for businesses can be massive. VGA is the one way we have round this. DVI just didn't take off in CH.

[Michael]

I don't think DVI took off anywhere really. It was quickly superseded by HDMI. Smaller and with support for audio, it's no contest really!

[tmcd35]

Rasterization graphics cards and graphics are possible on the way out. Soon we will have ray tracing in mobiles which at first will most likely be a hybrid between rasterization and ray tracing. Over time (years) ray tracing should fully replace rasterization.

 

Maybe not. I looked into this just after the PS4 was announced. Trying to work out why it didn't have ray tracing as I thought it made logical sense. Turns out GPU's are so advanced now with things like CUDA programing, it can be pretty much done in software. That, and the number of polygons being shifted on screen, etc, means traditional graphics cards have caught up to a point were it can actually be quiet hard to see the difference. I think ray tracing is the preserve of higher end CAD and that's about it.

 

Everything from fridges to coffee mugs even house front doors will get connected.

 

...and do what when they are connected?

 

Send constant reminders to my iPhone that my coffee has cooled by 0.01 degree, or the milk is half full and 3 days out of date.

Edited May 2, 2014 by tmcd35

[Andrew_C]

They're bringing out a USB C connector, which is symmetrical like the Thunderbolt connector, so cant see USB dissappearing any time soon

I'lll bet good money that they ****it up so we still have to have a drawer full of assorted cables.

[sparkeh]

Virgin mostly operate FTTC

*pedant mode*

Virgin is actually Fibre to the Node using Hybrid fibre-coaxial but yeah its copper and the cost of replacing all that copper with fibre just isn't justifiable (at the moment).

[Pottsey]

...and do what when they are connected?

Food will come with little tags on which feed back to the fridge which feed back to whatever IoT device you wear from a watch to tablet. Popups will appear saying this food is now out of date, your low on xx get ready to buy.

 

Mugs will have mini screens on with heath monitors connected to sensors so you can monitor your babies if you do not have a baby stream news about share prices over breakfast perhaps.

Front doors will have embed camera linked to tablets or IoT devices. There will be so many changes over the next 10 years with IoT that the past 10 years will seem slow and quite in comparison.

[Michael]

You're right, but never really understood the difference - other than coaxial cabling instead of RJ11, and there's still a cab...

[Pottsey]

Maybe not. I looked into this just after the PS4 was announced. Trying to work out why it didn't have ray tracing as I thought it made logical sense. Turns out GPU's are so advanced now with things like CUDA programing, it can be pretty much done in software. That, and the number of polygons being shifted on screen, etc, means traditional graphics cards have caught up to a point were it can actually be quiet hard to see the difference. I think ray tracing is the preserve of higher end CAD and that's about it.

Ray tracing will become a major part of mobiles over the next year ish. The cost savings alone make it worth while for app devs.

 

Areas like lights and shadows can massively benefit from ray tracing. Not only does it save developers large amounts of money and man hours but it looks better for the end users. AMD and NVidia refusal to adapt ray tracing has left us in the crazy position where mobiles have overtaken desktops GPU in graphics and technology (will do soon that is). I have some links to tech videos that show how shadows for example are light years better with ray tracing, easier to implant and look better. The way forward is most likely to start with a hybrid of the two.

 

EDIT: I wouldn't be surprised if I am wrong and rasterization stays as a hybrid along side ray tracing.

Edited May 2, 2014 by Pottsey

[CraigM]

I was so annoyed 2 years ago when we did our last PC refresh - the Intel DB75EN board came with a Parallel port(!) as well as a hybrid PS/2 port. The 5 series boards we had 2 years before that was completely legacy free - no IDE, no floppy, nothing legacy. I honestly hope that all these old ports die for once and for all, VGA included. Nothing worse that running a 20M VGA cable to a projector, then getting soft fuzzy images in return. Thankfully, all our new projectors are including HDMI.

 

Serial ports are a pain as well. Wish all my HP switches did RJ-45 to USB directly, or USB to Micro USB like some of their latest models.

[Andrew_C]

Trouble is, whan you ditch a port / standard, somewhere along the line you'll have a perfectly good bit of kit that you can no longer connect, or have to use external adaptors. We are struggling with SmartBoards at the moment. Old ones to be sure, but when we get them going, they do the job. But the serial ports? What a PITA!

[free780]

Can printers be labelled as legacy equipment? A pdf does the same job without trees dying.

[localzuk]

Can printers be labelled as legacy equipment? A pdf does the same job without trees dying.

 

Doubt it. Reading paper is a lot easier than reading a screen. Not to mention all the bureaucracy that has to be generated for various legal reasons. Then add in many people's lack of access to technology, and paper printouts are a necessity.

[featured_spectre]

Can printers be labelled as legacy equipment? A pdf does the same job without trees dying.

 

Nope. I work in a law office. In a given month some 100k letters get printed, not to mention any documents required on top. It's a printing nightmare. Lol.

[HTCPCP]

I still use PS/2 over USB. Simple reason is it works with my KVM switch and at home I can turn my PC on with a PS/2 keyboard but you can only wake it from a USB keyboard. As for the future, I see inkjet printers going down that route quite soon. More and more people are moving towards Laser printers for home use, based on the price. You can buy a colour Laser for less than £100, and for £150 you can get a colour laser with scanner/copier functions!

[newpersn]

I can remember my first all in one inkjet.... HP PSC 1215, My dad had the one before. Used to get away with refilling the cartridges up.

[tekins]

I still use PS/2 over USB. Simple reason is it works with my KVM switch and at home I can turn my PC on with a PS/2 keyboard but you can only wake it from a USB keyboard. As for the future, I see inkjet printers going down that route quite soon. More and more people are moving towards Laser printers for home use, based on the price. You can buy a colour Laser for less than £100, and for £150 you can get a colour laser with scanner/copier functions!

 

I see things going the other way, Inkjet technology has improved over the last couple of years, with HP doing 50+ ppm printers, we have one here and it's fab. 9200 page black ink and 6600 of colour for less than £250, not bad at all (apart from the annoying screen that'll get ripped off in a day if put near the little darlings)

[ICTDirect_Dave]

I see things going the other way, Inkjet technology has improved over the last couple of years, with HP doing 50+ ppm printers, we have one here and it's fab. 9200 page black ink and 6600 of colour for less than £250, not bad at all (apart from the annoying screen that'll get ripped off in a day if put near the little darlings)

 

I'm sure there was a chap from Epson at the edugeek conf a couple of years back (2012?) talking about how far ink technology had come and that they planned to compete with lasers again. It was interesting (but I forgot most of it)