What is Digg?153 Comments
- barbobot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+38The Macintosh uses an experimental pointing device called a 'mouse'. There is no evidence that people want to use these things.
* San Francisco Examiner, February 1984
John C. Dvorak - dgritsko, on 10/12/2007, -0/+30@ Sturmur
"Tradgedy is when I cut my finger, Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die"- Mel Brooks - JustMatt, on 10/28/2007, -1/+27"They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist-"
That was the best one. I love it, especially because it doesn't really fit with the others. Most of them are predictions about the future, say the next 50 or 100 years. This was a prediction of a matter of seconds. Hilarious though. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18Just one minor nitpick:
"«Sensible and responsible women do not want to vote.»
Grover Cleveland, U.S. President, 1905."
President Cleveland said SENSIBLE and RESPONSIBLE women do not want to vote. He didn't say anything about the VAST MAJORITY of women. - dgritsko, on 10/28/2007, -0/+17wow, great digg! really interesting stuff.
makes you wonder though... what kind of stuff are people saying today that will be completely and totally innacurate in just a few short decades? - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15"No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame." - CmdrTaco on the iPod, 10/23/01
http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/23/1816257&tid=107 - bonyicecream, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15my fave: «Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?»
H. M. Warner, co-founder of Warner Brothers, 1927. - loveandrockets, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14Tragedy Time = Comedy Gold! "But how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?" --Too soon?
- TenebrousX, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11«Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.»
Irving Fisher, economics professor at Yale University, 1929.
ahaha
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This is awesome! - griz, on 10/12/2007, -4/+14What about..."640k should be enough for anybody."???
- mikm, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9Because it's not profitable.
- iTorrey, on 10/12/2007, -3/+11I don't think that Krushchev was wrong.
He was also quoted as saying that they would destroy America from within. This is the The Ten Planks of the
Communist Manifesto. Seems like they are going to win in the end afterall
1. Abolition of private property and the application of all rent to public purpose.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels (see crime/terrorist bill from 1997 or the patriot act)
5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly. (federal reserve anyone?)
6. Centralization of the means of communication and transportation in the hands of the State
7. Extention of factories and instruments of production owned by the State, the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
8. Equal liablity of all to labor. Establishment of Industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the population over the country.
10. Free education for all children in government schools. Abolition of children's factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, etc. etc. - tonicboy, on 10/28/2007, -13/+21You're right. Iraq is full of weapons of mass destruction now that we're there.
- aamer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8he said he never said that:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/biztech/gatesivu.htm - lickmygiggle, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Anyone else notice how "Lord Kelvin" is quoted on there at least 4 times?
He was REAL optimistic about the future. - b04155, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7«I see no good reasons why the views given in this volume should shock the religious sensibilities of anyone.»
Charles Darwin, in the foreword to his book, The Origin of Species, 1869.
how is that a bad prediction, he did say "no GOOD reasons why...", not just any dumbass reason pulled out of their asses. - AndrewMayne, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Darwin was right, "no *good* reason" being the operative phrase. And the patent office claim about everything being invented is complete bunk. The head of the patent office ever said that.
- rabid_monkey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5LOL at this quote below> WTF? Couldn't they go faster than 15 mph back then? This speed is easily surpassed on let's say a bicycle fer crying out loud!
___________________________
# «Dear Mr. President: The canal system of this country is being threatened by a new form of transportation known as 'railroads' ... As you may well know, Mr. President, 'railroad' carriages are pulled at the enormous speed of 15 miles per hour by 'engines' which, in addition to endangering life and limb of passengers, roar and snort their way through the countryside, setting fire to crops, scaring the livestock and frightening women and children. The Almighty certainly never intended that people should travel at such breakneck speed.»
Martin Van Buren, Governor of New York, 1830(?). - fiendlama, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5web 2.0 is a passing fad ;-)
- BlindIrishman, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Amazing how ignorant people can be sometimes
"«A rocket will never be able to leave the Earth's atmosphere.»
New York Times, 1936."
No wonder the russians beat us! - Wolfboy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5that "640k" statement is said to be an urban legend.
- Durinthal, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5When was Bush considered an expert at anything?
- Fraghappy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6"Capitalist production begets, with the inexorability of a law of nature, its own negation." --Karl Marx
I actually agree with him here--he was referring to the unregulated, free market capitalism around the turn of the century. Guess what happened? Production soared, demand decreased, and we hit the Great Depression. FDR comes along and creates social programs and pushes for economic regulations. - rodball, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5By 1972 a large majority of a group of leading glacial-epoch experts at a conference agreed that "the natural end of our warm epoch is undoubtedly near"
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_cooling#1970s_Awareness)
Now, on to global *warming* - shortcircuit13, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4The primary reason that nuclear reactors are currently not in widespread is not due to cost or safety.
In fact, nuclear reactors cost many times less than coal-fired or natural gas power plants per megawatt-hour.
The reason nuclear reactors are not in widespsread use is two-fold.
1. PR: After the sensational Chernobyl and Three Mile Island incidents, not many people want to live within ten miles of a "nuke."
2. Flexibility: energy needs, even across large power grids, are very liquid. They can change very quickly. As of now, there is no way to store and delay-release excess generated power. This means that power plants must match production to demand very quickly. Nuclear power plants offer little flexibility in this respect. In addition, powering up a nuclear reactor takes upwards of a seven days, while coal-fired power plants can go from cold-start to full output in 4 days, and natural gas power plants can be at full output within 36 hours.
Concretely, there are few statistically dangerous safety issues, and nuclear power plants turn much more profit than coal and natural gas. It's the PR and output inflexibility that kills their partical popularity. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I think lump1 has a really good point, but is probably being modded down for the war relation. If I lived back in the time where nuclear, rockets, robots, and moon landings indicated where we were headed in the future, I'd be suprised too that we don't have flying cars, a moon base, and people still have coal furnaces. We've got the internet, computers, cell phones, color tv, and other gadgets, but I think we could have done better. There weren't many major contributions in the infrustructure, the actual way of life, other than the internet and cell phones, and more incurable diseases.
- AdamCo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4haha, I agree, I enjoy that one and how right he was, no one wants to hear actors talk.
- ashbrahma, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7The last one was good by Gen.. Tommy Franks about WMD:)
- BlindIrishman, on 10/28/2007, -1/+5My dear fellow, you've missed the best bits! Scroll down some more! (you missed more than half of them)
- rcomegys, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3«Capitalist production begets, with the inexorability of a law of nature, its own negation.»
Karl Marx.
I don't think this is a bad prediction... it hasn't been proven that capitalism will last. - modian, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Henry: What do you think you're doing?! Get down!
Indy: Dad, we're well out of range! - Ratteler, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Nah. He was pretty much spot on. We were NEVER a democracy. We were a republic. By 1950 the purchase of political power by lobbyists and the power elites quest to own our actual senate and congress seats was pretty much entrenched.
The 60's was huge party to get people used to the new paradign. Complain about problem, sacrifice rights and money to those who claim to want to fix it, and wait until you forget.
The power of "Yes" politics. Let people tire them self out complaining and tell them "yes". They go home happy and stay quite for a while instead of putting you up against the wall and shoot you.
If they rabble again a little you put the with "We're studying the problem for the best solution." Followed by "Were implementing a solution, but it takes time and we need more tax money."
The greatest achievement in "democracy" to date has been the Internet. But it's sole political power is it's ability to embarrass the power structure by informing the masses. Until the masses reclaims a level of force that can be applied to government, the Internet is a neutered form of Democracy. - thewise1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I still don't have my damned flying car.
- jasqwerty, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Who lived, worked, invented, and died in AMERICA. Nice try though.
- acontorer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3"Our country has deliberately undertaken a great social and economic experiment, noble in motive and far reaching in purpose. -– Herbert Hoover, on Prohibition, 1928." Actually, this was a very accurate prediction -- he called it an experiment, which meant there was some risk of failure, as opposed to others who thought it was bound to work. He was right on.
- tidu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3"«The world potential market for copying machines is 5000 at most.»
IBM, to the eventual founders of Xerox, saying the photocopier had no market large enough to justify production, 1959. "
Proven by Office Space. - NiLeS, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4"They specifically cherry-picked the pessimistic ones"
Of course they did. Would you digg/read a whole article on "The US will put a man on the moon by the end of the decade" and the like? - mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Wow.. those British were quick to disregard all radical American inventions..
- Orangutan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3This guys greatgrandson or whatever was in my class at school and he talked about this occasionally. i never really believed him but now i do. wow. the rest of this is so funny, but only in retrospect.
- newevilmind, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3also
"In 2 years SPAM will be a thing of the past" - Bill Gates 2003 - zerovertex, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I would expect to see alot more quotes from John C Dvorak. and yes, I saw the one commented above. It was great.
- QuorumCall, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Man, Lord Kelvin couldn't predict his way out of a wet paper bag.
- jwhicks727, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3«This antitrust thing will blow over.»
Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft.
This isn't a bad prediction. The antitrust thing did blow over. Microsoft is still huge, they still package IE with Windows, and Bill Gates is still rich. - Osjpr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3What's politically motivated is your "no digg", based on 1 prediction out of 87. I can't emphasize that enough. Furthermore, it is true. Tommy Franks was full of hot air. Maybe he knew, maybe he didn't, or maybe both, but it sure was wrong.
- acontorer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3This is a good question, and I don't know why people anti-digged it. In short it's because nuclear power turned out to be many times more expensive than expected. When it was first tried, people were naive about what it would take to make a nuclear plant safe. That's where much of the expense comes from. Future designs (such as the "pebble bed" reactor) may be safer and more practical, but still pretty expensive.
In other words, it's pretty hard to stoke up the chain-reaction monster enough to generate gigawatts of power, yet still be sure it won't break its cage. - Diseage, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3In a way though, he was right. I'm sure at the time there wasn't much indication that atomic power could be wielded. But he was right about the shattering of the atom part.
- williamhelmick, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3hindsight is 20/20. if anything, these quotes should remind us to take any prediction we hear with a rather large grain of salt.
- xocomil, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3It is interesting to me that many people who argue against WMDs have never seen these pictures:
http://www.snopes.com/photos/military/sandplanes.asp
I don't know if they are there, but these MiGs were buried in the sand in hopes that we wouldn't find them. Who knows what else is hidden in the sand or transported to Syria. I realize that the war is unpopular, but there are many interesting things that have been discovered about Saddam Hussein and his war machine that go unreported. I'm really interested in a story that I don't hear much about on the news, but really opened my eyes regarding our relationship with the Soviet Union. They gave Mr. Hussein our entire battle plan before we even invaded, but that isn't as interesting as who the next American Idol will be. - Phoenyx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2...and we still haven't figured out a good way to take care of the nuclear waste.
- crapiolio, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Democracy will be dead by 1950.
There is no true democracy to start with. -
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