“Everything old is new again;
everything under the sun
All of our fears come true again,
recycle, reuse, resent and refuse,
our parent’s ideals and views“
— Bare Naked Ladies, Everything Old is New Again (album: Maybe You Should Drive)
Right now, it’s about 100 degrees outside. Fortunately, I live in an area where this type of hot weather is unusual. But the heat got me thinking about what’s “hot” in the world of computing. Unfortunately, the things that are considered hot right now in the world of technology are things that I think are annoying at best and stupid at worst.
Web 2.0
Am I the only person who thinks this hyped-up term is completely meaningless? People are constantly talking about adding “Web 2.0 features” to their Web sites. The fact that Web 2.0 is only sort of lamely defined is one problem. But after a lot of hemming and hawing, it seems Web 2.0 usually includes “social networking” with “user generated content” like discussion boards.
Hello? Have these people been under a rock for the last 25 years or so? Discussion boards have been around for ages. Using their 1200-baud modems, people were chatting it up online long before there were cutesy animated smileys. A guy I worked with in the early nineties had been running a BBS (bulletin board system; i.e., what they used to call discussion boards) for bicycle enthusiasts for years by the time I met him. It was old news back then.
Another supposed Web 2.0 feature is the ability to add comments to articles. Now, after reading a well thought out article by a writer, you are treated to a back and forth “conversation” that is largely filled with inane drivel from every low-life with a computer. Plus, when blogs started making revenue, inevitably spam followed. The comment spam problem is now so bad that you have to put CAPTCHA on every contact form everywhere. Many blogs (including ours) have comments completely disabled. Spammers kill conversation once again.
Shrinking Technology
Speaking of conversation, trying to turn a cell phone into a computer is a stupid idea. Cell phones are great if you have an emergency and need to call for help. They are convenient if you are away from home and need to talk to someone. (But not from within your car; I think cell phone use while driving should be outlawed.) One thing a cell phone is not good for is surfing the Internet, unless you are really desperate. It’s like using pliers to turn a screw. You can do it, but it’s tedious and painful. A screwdriver works much better.
Using the wrong tool for the job is why I think text messaging is equally stupid. I can’t believe there are people getting repetitive stress injuries from text messaging. How dumb are they? Why don’t they just pick up the cell phone and talk, or go home and use a real keyboard?
The bottom line is that I hope the venture capitalists who invested in the “Dot Com” boom and got financially wasted during the subsequent crash are being a little more circumspect this time around in their investing. There has to be a market for useful, innovative Web sites and products for people who actually value using the right tool for a job.
Rehashing and renaming old technology, or changing its size is not innovation. It’s just a bunch of the same old “me-too” hype that some of us are really tired of hearing.