10 technologies that deserve to die (Go at it)

MSN/Technology Review ^ | 24 Oct 03 | Bruce Sterling

[Old Professer]

Our descendants will stare at those vacuum-shrouded wires as if they were whale-oil lanterns.

Ordinary incandescent light bulbs are not vacuum-shrouded; they are partially evacuated and charged with nitrogen gas to keep out oxygen.

The dim-bulb here sheds much noise and little light.

[Old Professer]

What's it like, having a dark refrigerator and oven?

[Radioactive]

He looks like a Sodomite.

[Old Professer]

Boy, was I ever dissapointed to find out that it was "puns" instead of "guns."

[Aeronaut]

1. Television
2. Radio (sepceially talk radio).
3. Telephones
4. Automobiles
5. Airplanes
6. Heat and air conditioning plants
7. refrigeration
8. Computers/internet
9. Guns/weaponry
10. Oh what the heck, humanity

[Old Professer]

Hell, everyone knows that 2-stroke motorcycles go "Wing-Dinggggg..." and not "Thraggggh."

[Irene Adler]

Do you use flourescent lights?

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

YOU'RE RUINING MY LIFE!!! Now I have to do the cryptoquote in the morning before breakfast.

[.cnI redruM]

That about sums it up. This guy is a luddite.

[lightning]

"Yet we'd be much less likely to wake up one morning to find Paris or Washington missing."

Hmmmmm....let me think about that.

[Old Professer]

But that was from days ago.

[.cnI redruM]

Perhaps he might have really grown the mullet. If not, that's a grat way for Carpet America to get rid of it's scraps.

[Paco]

This is a minitruckmullet: Thought to be extinct in 1994, the minitruckmullet is a rare sighting indeed, usually too wily to be caught on camera. The minitruckmullet has only the bottom part of his hairline on the base of his/her neck long. The preferred attire of this species is Oakley Razorblade sunglasses, a turtleneck shirt with a gold cross and chain (hanging proudly), accompanied by the tight fitting Guess? jeans. The vehicle owned by the minitruckmullet almost always has a lame slogan airbrushed on the tailgate (“u Snooz, U Looz,” “Teal Dream,” etc.) and a “No Fear,” “Fear this,” or Calvin Pissing sticker.

[68 grunt]

This dude can pucker up and kiss my a$$! I feel like a buggy whip should be used on him!

[Prime Choice]

Yikes. Reads like a Neo-Luddite manifesto. Either that, or an addendum to the Unabomber's rambling claptrap.

The gripe about lightbulbs was hilarious. Does the author of that nonsense propose that all business come to a halt at night and on non-sunny days?

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

I don't get the paper everyday. And I usually forget the solution minutes latter. Though I do remember some from twenty years ago that are recycled. "There are two theories on hitting the knuckleball. Unfortunately, neither works. - Charlie Lau.", originally in 1978 and back again recently.

[CIB-173RDABN]

"...catastrophic effects of a single thumbprint or scratch.

---

If you put a thumb print on the disk, wipe it off. If you get a scratch, there are products to remove it (as long as it is not a gouge.

How many know that the information on a DVD (as well as a CD) is under the label, and not on the shiny side.

But even if they were fragile (and they are not) they have brought the cost of buying a movie below what you once paid to rent a tape.

[redhead]

"Bruce Sterling is a science fiction author, journalist, and cultural critic based in Austin, Texas. Also complete idiot."

And obvious Luddite. But he seems to love his computer/word processor...

[Freebird Forever]

I'm really suprised that the eeevil HANDGUN didn't make the list.

Well, he may be out in deep left field, but he is still a Texan.

; )

[JoeBobJr]

I thought sci-fi writers were all libertarians...