5 Web Predictions That Were WAY Off!

It is always fun to read something like this, where someone goes out on the limb and takes the risk of looking really, really foolish by making some sort of prediction of the future. We should do this to all those astrologers as well!

But in this case, these were all predictions, often by well-known individuals, about the future of the web. We all know Bill Gates (who is on this list) have made several boo-boos in his tenure as Microsoft CEO. But this Clifford Stoll guy! He made so many predictions that were so way off, no one should put any more credibility on what this guy has to say! I mean, really!

Fifteen years before plunging ad revenues forced its owners to sell Newsweek for $1, the magazine published an anti-Web screed from cybersecurity expert, astronomer and author Clifford Stoll. He called the Web "a wasteland of unfiltered data", and complained that reliable voices were being drowned out by the rabble.

"The truth is no online database will replace your daily newspaper," he wrote.

"Nicholas Negroponte, director of the MIT Media Lab, predicts that we'll soon buy books and newspapers straight over the Internet," Stoll added. "Uh, sure."

But there's more!

We return to Stoll for this last one. He managed to get a staggering amount wrong in just a few hundred words. He also scoffed at the idea of "virtual communities", doubted the Web could have practical applications for government, and wondered how anyone could get any research done in the maze of online information.

But with regards to retail, he thought the lack of human contact would doom the Web as a sales medium. The evidence? His local mall "does more business in an afternoon than the entire Internet handles in a month."

The only thing missing from this article is a followup interview of all the characters involved. I'd like to ask Bill Gates what he thinks of the SPAM activity now and why he got it so wrong. And definitely, I'd like to hear from this Stoll fella on how he could have been THAT wrong THAT many times?

Zz.

US Postal Service SUCKS!

... and they wonder why they keep losing money.

Here's a friendly advice for anyone who's about to file a change of address: DO NOT DO THIS ON THE USPS WEBSITE! You might as well not file a change of address - it is that ineffective.

I moved to a new house and decided to file a change of address on the USPS website. I got all the confirmation number, and even got a letter from the USPS with coupons that I've checked.

Guess what? 2 weeks on and I had received NO forwarding mail at all! A check with our former landlord indicated that the mail person had been returning all of our mail back to sender since there were no forwarding address on record! We made a phone call to the USPS customer service, and she couldn't find ANY record of a change of address request, even when we cited our confirmation number! It's as if we never filed anything, and everything we entered on the web just went POOF!

Note that this happened for BOTH of us, and we did this on separate days too. I have no idea what mail we missed that never got forwarded. We refiled our change of address with the customer service person on the phone, but hey, who knows if THAT would get through as well!

This is a joke! And I'm not taking this lying down. I have all the documents printed out that indicated that we did file for a change of address online, and that they screwed up big time. I'm going to write a complaint to the Postmaster General and ask for my $1 back! They charged $1 on a credit card to verify your identity online. And yes, I want my damn $1 back because it did NOTHING and I'm royally pissed!

I've had mail being delivered 2 weeks late, and other poor services that I'm willing to overlook. But this is just plain stupid. You promised a service, and even with all the technology, you have morons running it. I'm not sure how many people have been taken in with their website, but I certainly will make sure enough people know about this. It may not do much to change their stupidity, but I certainly won't just sit here and take this. They lied, and did not provide the service that they promised!


Zz.

Tired of Phony Psychics?

I had a chuckle when I read the title for a Google web advertisement for a psychic website. It asked "Tired of Phony Psychics?"

Isn't that like thieves asking "Are you tired of being robbed by amateur thieves? Well now, you can be robbed by professional thieves!"

I feel so much better now.

Zz.