Going back to 2000

[WickerBill]

If you could go back to the year 2000, not to change anything or get filthy rich or stop terrorism or anything, but just to see your friends -- what new invention would you take back to amaze them? What changed the way you live this decade?

Is it just me, or has progress slowed? We didn't get true game-changers like the microwave, or the Walkman, the computer or the web, birth control...


"Hey past me, look what I have in the future! I have these light bulbs, which put out light just like your light bulbs, except they're twisty, kinda blue-tinted, and make everything ugly!"

"Hey past me, look what I have in the future! I have a 6cyl car that averages 26mpg instead of your 6cyl heap of crap that only averages 22!"

"Hey past me, lookit my shoes! Air Jordans!"


Sigh.

[Sean Malone]

that's a toughy. I guess my stupid smart phone that I really only use to make calls on and txt. :gomer:

I also guess I'd show them my 52" 1080P flat panel with some BluRay love.

[nrc]

that's a toughy. I guess my stupid smart phone that I really only use to make calls on and txt. :gomer:

I also guess I'd show them my 52" 1080P flat panel with some BluRay love.

eh. most people were expecting HD by then and were already wondering why it was taking so long. My response to that would, "of course you've got that."

I think the progress of HD downloads has been kind of surprising. People would probably find the iPhone and some of the other portable devices pretty cool. But to WB's point, most of it is evolutionary not revolutionary.

See, TiVo was the last great invention. :D

[Don Quixote]

That is depressing. A whole decade where the only progress was smaller ipods, larger hard drives, more pixels on the tv, and unmanned drones. There are some pretty cool hand held gps units that would impress, and XM radio.

[Gnam]

Just a photo. ;)

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/7245/obamaofficialphoto.jpg

[nrc]

That's a "New invention?"

I honestly don't think that too many folks from 2000 would be surprised by a black or woman president. Of course no other meaning for that comment would be appropriate for discussion here.

[Napoleon]

The i-pod (or any mp3 player). I would be gobsmacked if someone showed me the one I have now that has everyone of my zillion CDs on it.

By the way, there are very few true unique game changers in life or for that matter in history. Human history and achievement really is about many people making for the most part small discoveries and incremental steps. I recall reading a story maybe 15 years ago to the effect there were only something like 5 people in history whom you could really say came up with something that really was unique and wasn't already "in the air" (in other words human knowledge had marched up to the achievement in question and at that point it was not a matter of if someone would come up with the next achievement but who would manage to beat everyone to the punch - Darwin comes to mind as the quintissential example). I recall Einstien's General Theory of Relativity was one of the five (but not the Special Theory). Go back in time and snuff out Edison in the crib and you wouldn't change anything.


Your example of the car is a perfect case in point. The first car I bought was in 1979 when I bought a brand new Chevy Citation (and at the time my dad had a 78 Delta 88 and my mom a 76 Chevy Impala. Even though there hasn't been one break through discovery since then automotively autos are hugely better today then they were then, by every metric.

Last point - you really may not be aware of what really groundbreaking advance may have occured during the period since it may be something that simply has not gotten press and it may be years before it is generally understood how big a deal it is. This summer was the 40th anniversiry of "the internet" (ie, first computer to computer long distance communication) and as part of a program I listened to on it they discribed press reports from 1969 about what was considered the next big thing in science and technology and, of course, the internet was no where to be seen.

[G.]

The Shamwow!

[Sean Malone]

My dad forwarded a chain email from his friends about how much life has changed since they were young and the contrast between 1955 and 2009 is mind boggling. But in 2000 I had a wireless home network, a laptop, a cell phone, a large screen TV (wasn't HD though), an MP3 player, DVD player and a black and white hand held GPS unit. In 2009 I have the same things just with better graphics.
I was looking for digital paper, definitely hologram video, maybe some sort of flexible, roll up laptop contraption.

[Easy]

I agree with Nap. The game changers are here they just haven't been developed to where the impact is massive, yet.

That said, the new wireless electricity systems are pretty cool if not quite ready for mass production/consumption.

witricity.com

[miatanut]

That's a "New invention?"

I honestly don't think that too many folks from 2000 would be surprised by a black or woman president. Of course no other meaning for that comment would be appropriate for discussion here.

A woman president by 2010, maybe, but I didn't expect a black man president in my lifetime, and I expect to live another 30 years.

[miatanut]

"Hey past me, look what I have in the future! I have these light bulbs, which put out light just like your light bulbs, except they're twisty, kinda blue-tinted, and make everything ugly!"

Sigh.

What kind are you buying? I have put them side-by-side in frosted globe type fixtures and people couldn't tell me which side the incad was on. Most of the cheap Chinese ones don't give the CRI on the box, but a 2700K with a decent (84 or better) CRI is hard to tell from incad once you diffuse it or bounce it.

LIFI is the one that is really going to kick ***, though:
lTGsM9pplUs
Now it's just available for high-end commercial LCD projectors and roadway lighting, and starting to move into warehouse lighting, but they will get the scale and the cost down to where it will be the standard light source.

[Sean Malone]

I agree with Nap. The game changers are here they just haven't been developed to where the impact is massive, yet.

That said, the new wireless electricity systems are pretty cool if not quite ready for mass production/consumption.

witricity.com

They've finally got Tesla's ideas to work? ;)

[TKGAngel]

The growth of Google from simple search engine to mega brand. They now have about 70% of all internet searches, own YouTube (which did anyone in 2000 think how much internet video would explode?), have developed their own browser, email, doc system and have completely revolutionized marketing with their pay-per-click AdWords program. Not to mention they're the "Kleenex" or "Xerox" of the search world.

ETA: the rapid growth of social media. We've come a long way from AOL chat rooms and message boards.

On a personal level, I'm glad I left dialup behind for broadband and now have wireless with a laptop. It's like hearing purple and seeing wind. :)

[TrueBrit]

A 10" Netbook with built in webcam that allows me to video-call my parents in the UK from the USA for zero dollars and zero cents and a hard-drive 61 times larger than my 2000 desktop.

A Black President. (Never thought that would happen in my lifetime...I figured a woman would be first, and thank Dog it hasn't been either of the two that came close...)

Hybrid cars in mass production.

The Slap-Chop and the Snuggie...;)

[Napoleon]

That said, the new wireless electricity systems are pretty cool if not quite ready for mass production/consumption.

I have been reading up on various alternative energy sources recently (wind, solar,etc.) and I was actually surprised to run into a discussion (actually serious, not one of these BS we can engineer ourselves out of anything discussions) that mentioned putting solar arrays in orbit where they would work 24 hours a day and beam power back down to earth. Blew me away that something like that really could work.



They've finally got Tesla's ideas to work? ;)

I had forgotten how that was one of his big attempted breakthroughs.

I guess this is off topic somewhat, but it is something I was going to post during the summer but never got around to it, but it goes with the "everything old is new again" Sean was getting at (and I guess is the exact opposite of WB's original point) and me bringing up solar energy, but has anyone heard of/had experience with Stirling Engines (see links below). I heard them described as "external combustion engines" and they have been proposed as a way to convert the sun into motion which would power a generator. The technology has been around at the fringes for something like 150 some years but it is now something getting a new look.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stirling_engine

http://www.stirlingengine.com/

[dando]

Sadly I was into WiFi, DVRs, Netflix and MP3 players before 2K. Not much in the way of innovention over the past decade would amaze past me outside of the iPhone. Now if you would have showed me how the split worked out.... :saywhat: :mad:

Then there's that whole Bret Favre is still the bestest QB evar today as well as back in 2K... :p :gomer:

-Kevin

[oddlycalm]

Sadly I was into WiFi, DVRs, Netflix and MP3 players before 2K.
Word. My favorite new device is the Intel X-25M SSD primary drive on my new box, but solid state drives existed in 2000. HDTV was a decade late here and Japan has had 3G wireless for an age. Incremental innovations at best over the last decade.

There has been a real slowdown in tech development IMO, much of it caused by the same investment banks that put us in the current mess. They were the ones behind the IPO's of companies with vaporware products and negative revenue streams that led to the tech bubble and it's subsequent burst.

Adding to that has been 9yrs of inflexible student visa policy denying us innovation from outside. A lot of the most innovative ideas and companies have come from foreign transplants.

oc

[dando]

A lot of the most innovative ideas and companies have come from foreign transplants.

oc

Yup. Well put, MIMITW. :D We've been outsourcing so heavily over the past 5+ years, those transplants are staying home rather than trying to come here. *sigh* :shakehead One wonders where we would be today w/o the likes of a Werner von Braun to lead the space race. :saywhat:

-Kevin

[nissan gtp]

No inventions, but I'd go to more CART races. :\

[nrc]

I would ride in on a Segway.

"Look past self, this is the future of transportation. Everyone rides them in the future. They have changed the world. <snicker>"

[Indy]

You guys are forgetting the Dallara/Honda. :gomer:

[Sean Malone]

I would ride in on a Segway.

"Look past self, this is the future of transportation. Everyone rides them in the future. They have changed the world. <snicker>"

LOL! Segway...biggest let down ever. I still believe in the conspiracy theory that 'IT' was something truly life changing and they were forced to roll out the Segway at the last minute. Hey, in this mundane world...all I got are conspiracy theories. :D

I did read in the local paper that our sheriffs office just allocated 27K for a dozen Segways for the pier patrol, yes it included a picture of a cop...on a Segway...with the worlds biggest grin. :D

[Andrew Longman]

Enterprise systems and suooly chain advancements

Legions of back office workers have seen their jobs disappeaedr and leaning out the supply/value chain and managing information around it has become a greens fee in nearly every industry. You by a candy bar at Walmart and within hours the folks at Mars in Hackettstown know how much candy to make tomorrow and ship to Walmart. And they know how much commodities to buy and if you bought it on a credit card or used a Walmart discount card they know that you prefer Snickers over Mars bars and that you also like to buy CDs and toys.

And those costs savings have been largely passed on to the consumer.

Something else that has gotten big in the last nine years... Identity theft

[datachicane]

I can't say I'm using any technogeekery that I wasn't using ten years ago, and I've actually dropped a bit (media server controlled by RF mouse hooked up through multiple 2.4ghz AV relays to multiple TVs and stereos, for example- a handful of WDTVs do the same thing cheaper and more simply).

One thing that has had an impact, while not a new technology, is how much cheaper that old technology is. Ten years ago I had to pick and choose what got to live on the media server and what got archived to optical, and now everything lives on a handful of cheap TB drives with room to spare. Under $100 a TB? That would have blown my mind.

[Sean Malone]

Enterprise systems and suooly chain advancements

Legions of back office workers have seen their jobs disappeaedr and leaning out the supply/value chain and managing information around it has become a greens fee in nearly every industry. You by a candy bar at Walmart and within hours the folks at Mars in Hackettstown know how much candy to make tomorrow and ship to Walmart. And they know how much commodities to buy and if you bought it on a credit card or used a Walmart discount card they know that you prefer Snickers over Mars bars and that you also like to buy CDs and toys.

And those costs savings have been largely passed on to the consumer.

Something else that has gotten big in the last nine years... Identity theft

On a smaller scale, past self would have been surprised by how legitimized open source has become. The company I work for went with Ruby on Rails, an open source web solution, after they learned that Disney had done so. I saw a report just yesterday on how local governments were saving 'millions' of dollars a year by using Google products. $0 vs $millions makes the bean counters convulse in strange ways.

One the other hand...in 2000 we were on Windows 2000. In 2009 we're on Windows XP with no change on the horizon. :gomer:

[chop456]

The color-changing beer can. I honestly don't know how I made it through life without it.

[extramundane]

Tiger Woods' little black book. :gomer:

[Easy]

A 2008 Champ Car season schedule.

:yuck:

[FTG]

That's a "New invention?"

I honestly don't think that too many folks from 2000 would be surprised by a black or woman president. Of course no other meaning for that comment would be appropriate for discussion here.

I'm still shocked.

[RaceGrrl]

Roomba and its pal, Scooba.

[Gnam]

A copy of PhotoShop. Used to be a picture was considered pretty good evidence: Soviet missiles in Cuba, Moon landing, etc. Now everything is a potential hoax or least not 100% real.

[nrc]

Thread closing in 3, 2, 1.....

:shakehead

-Kevin

Fixed it. No more political commentary in this thread or I'll go back to 2000 and have Laguna delete your posts from 7th Gear. :irked:

[Sean Malone]

Well this isn't a 'life changer' for all, but it was for me... prior and up to 2005 I did all of my music recording sessions in a pro studio, spending thousands of dollars a couple times ever year. Considerable money for a hobbyist (especially one who has other hobby's too :)). Starting in '98/'99 I toyed with a few consumer level PC interfaces to no avail. The latency between instrument and software was too large for anything beyond gimmick, really, and the professional solutions were waaaaaay too expensive for your average home studio (sound cards alone costing $10000). USB 1.o couldn't throughput fast enough, CPU's couldn't process fast enough, hard drives couldn't hold enough and machines typically didn't have enough RAM.

Around 2003/4 the stars started to align...Digidesign, the makers of the pro standard in digital recording, start selling consumer level interface products with ZERO latency. PC's were getting less expensive but with much faster processing...RAM became dirt cheap, same with disc space, oh, and we now had an OS that could support USB 2.0 and IEEE 1394. The icing on the cake is that for the cost of a single typical full studio project, you could put together a home studio with, and here's the ultimate importance, the SAME RESULTS sound wise!!!!

And if I may have expected that evolution to occur back in 2000, I would have been blown away by what is referred to as 'amp modeling' software. In 2000, I never would have beleived that developers could EVER duplicate, so that even a professional, or a true audiophile can't tell the difference between an actual Vox AC-30 mic'ed with an SM 75 and software emulation. Simply astounding.
I have an amp modeling software product called Pod Farm from Line 6 that includes 78 amp models, 24 speaker cabinets that range from vintage Fender Deluxe's and Marshal Super Lead with 'jumped' channels, to modern Soldano's and Mesa Boogies. Not to mention the 97 stompbox effects, all (amps, cabs and effects) can be mixed and matched. I have it all at the click of the mouse on my freekin' laptop!!!! Every time I load it up I'm amazed that it is possible.

I have about 5K invested in my home studio, not including my laptop or guitars (but it does include the cost of all other periphrials, such as $600 condenser mic, tube pre-amps, ribbon tweeter studio monitors, stands etc) and I'm producing results I would have only dreamed about just 9 years ago. Results every bit as good, if not better than the local 'pro studios' as I have more time to perfect sounds instead of watching the clock. In the next few years the costs will continue to drop. I'm already seeing decent reviews for good quality condenser mics (non Chinese).

For those interested, Todd Rundgren recorded his 2008 record 'Arena' on his laptop using the same Line 6 amp models I have.

[Ankf00]

napster :gomer:

[oddlycalm]

In 2000, I never would have beleived that developers could EVER duplicate, so that even a professional, or a true audiophile can't tell the difference between an actual Vox AC-30 mic'ed with an SM 75 and software emulation. Simply astounding.
You're right Sean, in 2000 we were dicking around with Jim Dunlop's Jerry Donohue stomp box that could do a reasonable approximation of a few different amps but the cabinet voicings weren't there at all. Best sound it had was a HIWATT stack. I had a Voodoo Valve rack box that wasn't even that good; it had 200 settings and all of them sounded phony and processed. There was no convincing digital effect that could replicate a tape echo, plate echo or a Leslie. If you wanted a '59 Bassman sound you had a buy one or buy a faithful reproduction from Mark Baier at Victoria. If you wanted an AC30 with Top Boost you had to find one or beg Ken Fisher to build you a Trainwreck for $$$.

The irony is that a lot of people I know spent the entire 80's and 90's buying and studying every circuit and component in the old Fender, Vox, Marshall and Dumble amps and just when they got it all figured out to where they could reproduce them faithfully and get those sweet vintage voicings digital emulations arrived...

Now digital modeling can make any old guitar sound like my old mongrel glide Strat that has a Teisco Del Ray pickup in the neck position and a Rickie lap steel pickup in the bridge position played through a Space Echo and Phase 90 into a brown '63 Princeton without having to find, build or buy any of it.

The recording equipment was more evolutionary as you said, but I'm sure it's real nice to have.

oc

[WickerBill]

napster :gomer:

oh crap, you're right, things were BETTER back then.

[Sean Malone]

You're right Sean, in 2000 we were dicking around with Jim Dunlop's Jerry Donohue stomp box that could do a reasonable approximation of a few different amps but the cabinet voicings weren't there at all. Best sound it had was a HIWATT stack. I had a Voodoo Valve rack box that wasn't even that good; it had 200 settings and all of them sounded phony and processed. There was no convincing digital effect that could replicate a tape echo, plate echo or a Leslie. If you wanted a '59 Bassman sound you had a buy one or buy a faithful reproduction from Mark Baier at Victoria. If you wanted an AC30 with Top Boost you had to find one or beg Ken Fisher to build you a Trainwreck for $$$.

The irony is that a lot of people I know spent the entire 80's and 90's buying and studying every circuit and component in the old Fender, Vox, Marshall and Dumble amps and just when they got it all figured out to where they could reproduce them faithfully and get those sweet vintage voicings digital emulations arrived...

Now digital modeling can make any old guitar sound like my old mongrel glide Strat that has a Teisco Del Ray pickup in the neck position and a Rickie lap steel pickup in the bridge position played through a Space Echo and Phase 90 into a brown '63 Princeton without having to find, build or buy any of it.

The recording equipment was more evolutionary as you said, but I'm sure it's real nice to have.

oc

Cool post OC! The first good quality emulator I heard was around 2001 when my buddy who owns a studio introduced his rack mounted POD to me. It was jaw dropping at the time..."hey it's a Les Paul through a Marshal!!", "hey it's a tele' through a Fender Deluxe!". But it was no where near what they produce today, and in side by side comparisons I pretty sure I could pick the real over the virtual, even with today's emulators (at least my ego says i could). But in my opnion, when the tracks are laid down...since there are so many recording variables, anyone would be hard pressed to say "no, that isn't a real amp".
Digidesign's 'Eleven' rack is all the rage this year. I've played with the plugin version which uses identical models and it is impressive. You can really 'feel' the speaker dynamics, as if you are really plugging into a true over driven tube amp. No effects though which is why I go the POD route. I enjoy playing with all of the stomp boxes.

[extramundane]

Now digital modeling can make any old guitar sound like my old mongrel glide Strat that has a Teisco Del Ray pickup in the neck position and a Rickie lap steel pickup in the bridge position played through a Space Echo and Phase 90 into a brown '63 Princeton without having to find, build or buy any of it.

<insert the sound of Steve Albini screaming at the monitor and throwing vintage mics>

[oddlycalm]

But in my opnion, when the tracks are laid down...since there are so many recording variables, anyone would be hard pressed to say "no, that isn't a real amp".
So, Photoshop for guitar...?:cool: If I was still playing I'm sure I'd have it all.

oc