I've been playing with discussion forum software and reader software since Blue Wave let me download qwk packets from Fidonet nodes. I also used a newsgroup reader on a Dynix server hosted through the library, and I've used newsgroup readers on Windows, FreeBSD, and Linux.

I still think that server-side software using push-pull for text communication (ie, not based on file sharing) has many, many advantages, especially when everything is designed to be platform independent. I don't have to install custom software on to a computer to do something that's simple and intuitive. My beef with many web application developers is that they pick stupid browser-dependent extensions. Locking into proprietary methods only causes headaches.

Sometimes security sacrifices are made in exchange for learning about the attackers. Could this possibly have been an example of this? I know that Nortel is common tech in business and local government, but would this penetration be dangerous to military or defense development?

I have seen web apps that worked quite well. They were all customer service logging apps though. Essentially database pull/push things.

The best ones were all server-side though.

Come to think of it, Slashdot is also a web app in a way, and it used to be pretty much all server-side. Now there's some client-side, but it works fairly well.

It's certainly not impossible to write good web apps, but it requires more capabilities and insight than your average programming mill of a school will churn out. It's easy to code something that functions, it's hard to code something that functions well, intuitively, and reliably. That's always held true though, since the earliest days of computer applications that weren't solely for computer developers.

Irrevelant. High end consumers will still want it.

I personally would be able to see a slight difference as my screen is 100".

Like I said, it'd start with high-end consumers.

More energy research? But how will that impact our fossil-fuel overlords?!

On a serious note, my only real hope is that either patents won't be granted, or else they'll be granted and licensed at essentially no charge to American companies for the advances, and that companies would have to compete based on their efficiency and ability.

Of course, I'm probably living in a pipe dream.

High end consumers have often wanted something unaffordable or unavailable to the masses. In the eighties it was Laserdisc. For a time in the nineties it was DVD, and for while recently it was 1080p Blu-Ray. For awhile it will be 3d Blu-Ray, but that is also coming to the masses.

I predict that movie-theatre-resolution home video will be the next thing. It'll take a few years and will probably start out literally with professional projectors in homes, and then someone will make a high-end consumer-grade version in the same resolution. Eventually TVs will also come in that resolution. Once the videophiles have gotten it and demand slows then the manufacturers will lower prices to get everyone to buy them, reaping the rewards. And the beat goes on.

No, I'm not joking.

I've heard you, and I beg to differ...

That argument has been made for decades and has never been proven. Both are interrelated and innovations in either impact the other.

IMHO, Sony should get back to quality comsumer and commercial products again. Format changes have demonstrated that there is always a new market in media players, and people will spend their money if they think the device will do what they expect.

I see one bully here and the top google result is what I would term "blowback". If I felt sorry for anyone, it would be for his children and anyone else with that name who has nothing to do with it.

When I first read that, I thought you had written "brokeback".

Of course, given proper context...

I'm confident that even with expensive and difficult processes it'll still happen. Look at some of the treatments for Chron's Disease- there's a med that a friend of mine uses that's massively complex and extremely expensive, but allows her to essentially live a normal life. It's thousands of dollars a month, so something half the price could still be very profitable if it still works properly.

Certainly a lot of generics manufacturers might avoid the more complex drugs, but plenty will take a look, and possibly new companies will get in on the act too.