Wired News 2006 Vaporware Awards 215
silentounce writes "Wired News has released the winners of its 9th annual Wired News Vaporware Awards. I won't list any of them in the summary because I don't want to spoil anyone's surprise. They have some interesting entries, one that is more a concept of a product than an actual product. I'm not sure how you can claim something is vaporware if it hasn't even been given a specific name or a developer yet, but apparently they think they can. "
Nothing for you to see here. Please move along (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Nothing for you to see here. Please move along (Score:4, Funny)
As always, you-know-who is #1 (Score:5, Interesting)
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that is an awsome list.
Those are just fun statistics
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Vaporware (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Vaporware (Score:5, Funny)
Old jokes never tire on Slashdot, you insensitive clod!
Re:Vaporware (Score:5, Funny)
Old jokes never tire on Slashdot, you insensitive clod!
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That's pretty much a capsule definition of the internet!
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2. Reply with older joke
3. ???
4. Profit!
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By the way I still want to play Team Fortress II.
Re:Vaporware (Score:5, Informative)
The original TF2 was scrapped around the same time as HL2 started dev, but that was because they just compleatly restarted the project based on Source.
Re:Vaporware (Score:5, Funny)
They really are still working on it. Sometime in the near future they're going to release a demo and set a firm shipping date. We'll all play the demo and it'll so rad everyone will have a video game induced orgasm and toss out all their copies of the now obsolete Halo. The day before the actual release Jesus will return and send everyone off to their just reward, meaning no one will ever actually get to play the damn thing since video games are way to evil to be allowed in Heaven and way to fun to be allowed in Hell.
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A380 is not vaporware... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:A380 is not vaporware... (Score:4, Interesting)
The X-33 flew as well, but that was total vaporware. Until someone accepts delivery of an A380, it will remain as vaporware as Airbus continues to delay shipments in order to "work out the bugs".
Re:A380 is not vaporware... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:A380 is not vaporware... (Score:4, Informative)
The A380 is not vapourware - its in production, the delays are due to production problems and not technical issues with the concept itself. Infact, the A380 delays are the perfect example of incompatabilities in IT based projects - different parts were designed with different versions of the CATIA system, leading to problems with the wiring bundles that Airbus are sorting out now.
Airlines also disagree with you - two airlines (Singapore and Qantas) placed followon orders to their originals this year, even before they had the first one delivered, so that says something about confidence in the aircraft.
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You're correct. I was confusing the hydrogen tank explosion as having happened during the scheduled 1999 test flight. Replace X-33 with the DC-X, however, and you have the same result.
Again, I wouldnt class the DC-X as vapourware either - it flew, it was a prototype and it was cancelled by NASA. McDonald Douglas made no extravagant claims about its operation or production, it was cancelled by NASA after the prototype crashed and it was deemed a replacement would put the project overbudget.
Production delays are still delays. Until the first fully operational craft is delivered to a customer, it is still vaporware. I have no doubt that it will happen eventually, but that doesn't stop the vapor phase from occurring.
And I still disagree with you - classing an aircraft that has received its type certification from the two most stringent aviation bodies in the world as vapourware is pushing the term somewhat.
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Production of huge jetliner bogged down with delays and national rivalries
By David Greising
Chicago Tribune
HAMBURG, Germany - In Airbus' sprawling Hamburg plant, one of modern industry's biggest meltdowns, lies a tale of two airplane-production hangars and two countries, Germany and France.
Nearly 600 people should be hard at work in the key production hangar here, where Airbus planned to assemble the giant sections of the world's largest passenger airplane, the A380. Instead
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By that definition (Score:2)
Likewise I'm sure that DNF exists in some form, I'm sure that they haven't just been doing nothing all this time. However it's not out, and thus is vapour.
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And the saga has been going on long enough to be compare with Duke Nukem, especially since no one seriously expected the next version. The A380 should have been delivered mid 2005. Now 8 months later they have apparently have a delivery of date of late 2007, with full production apparently delayed until
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Duke (Score:4, Funny)
Move along. Next article.
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It already has ONE a lifetime achievement award!
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Re:Duke (Score:4, Funny)
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Airbus A380 (Score:5, Insightful)
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Vapored (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes there's a prototype for the A380. There's also a demo for Spore. But until Airbus figures out how to insert those 300 miles of wiring, the prototype is meaningless. Without any wiring, a jetliner is just a ... I want to say "big doorstop" but somehow that's not right.
You do sort of have a point. "Vaporware" originally described products that never got beyond the Breathless Announcement, and were usually created solely to stifle interest in competing products. Only one or two products on the Wired list
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Yes there's a prototype for the A380.
It may be a screwed up project, but its far from vapourware.
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Yes there's a prototype for the A380. There's also a demo for Spore. But until Airbus figures out how to insert those 300 miles of wiring, the prototype is meaningless. Without any wiring, a jetliner is just a ... I want to say "big doorstop" but somehow that's not right.
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Prototypes can do without on-board entertainment systems while production machines cannot. Imagine flying to Singapore without Julia Roberts! The horrors!!
A380 (Score:2)
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The A380 is just on perpetual back order.
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Vaporware? (Score:2, Insightful)
So many of those products may be "lateware" but not vaporware. Hell, even Duke Nukem may be out some day AFAIK.
Re:Vaporware? (Score:4, Funny)
Aww come on, now you're pushing it, man!
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Due to the lack of clairvoyance in the media industry, it's hard to tell beforehand which products will never be released. So the working definition of vaporware is a product that was promised a certain time, but wasn't release. Many delayed products get canned, som
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Thus in modern terms, it is considered "correct" to use vapourware for a product that has not been delivered according to promises. Especially if new promises are continually made and broken. i.e. "Battlecruiser 3000AD was vapourw
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I think the motivation for this "modern" view is partially political. It has allowed Vista to be labled as vaporware even though there was really no doubt that MS was going to release it eventually.
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Seriously, products that are announced for years without any measurable progress to show that there is actually something being done to get them to gold status deserve the award. I'm not so sure about the A380, and maybe Vista didn't really qualify either. But there are hands-down examples that deserve that award, like DNF. It might ship, finally, one day, after the apocalyp
True Vaporware (Score:2)
TLF
I like ruining surprises (Score:5, Informative)
Runner up.. (Score:2)
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They slipped a little on the technical preview, but work is progressing. There's a lot on the plate to get to KDE4--mainly under the hood to port everything over to QT4. However, I understand this will open the door for more cross-platform KDE apps (KOffice, Konqueror, etc. running natively in Windows & OSX). They're aiming for a mid-2007 release, but there's still a ways to go and I wouldn't be surprised if it slipped to late '07/ear
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Duke Nukem vs. Windows Vista for MIA Award... (Score:2, Insightful)
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Misread (Score:3, Funny)
I bet it would sell....
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A Sybian controlled like Alek's Christmas lights [komar.org]. That would rule, until it gets Slashdotted and the porn stars start dying.
Probably best for this one to be a hoax...
Windows Media Player for Linux? (Score:3, Insightful)
As I wrote before here, WMP for Linux was meant as a strategic move to scare content owners away from the open-sourcing of Real Networks' player and codecs, by promising WMP-based DRM for the Linux market. It seemed to work, but rather than go to WMP (which had technical issues as shown by early BootlegTV downloads from the DGM record label (King Crimson)), they held off until iTunes set the new DRM standard. M$'s been behind ever since.
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DNF (Score:2)
I can see the meme already: "This is what DNF should have been" for new game demos....
Evolution - NOT (Score:2, Interesting)
Evolution is defined as unguided. The above is a description of Intelligent Design, not evolution. The player is essentially the god of a universe built via Theistic Evolution, and every game play decision is a mi
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And that is a game how? And it is "loosely" based on evolution, things you eat and how you behave determine some of the outcomes. Obviously it's more complex than that, but it is not just entirely designing. With your l
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just have some way for the creatures to develope based on what problems they encountered. No it would not be "real" evoloution, but it would be awsome to watch.
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I'd feel like playing WoW again...
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There are Gods of War, Gods of Harvest, Thunder Gods, why not a God of Evolution? Try tossing that into an Intelligent Design argument. That oughta stir that argument up.
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Evolution is defined as unguided. The above is a description of Intelligent Design, not evolution.
Geez. Don't be so dogmatic. ;-)
Silly argument (Score:2)
Why are you using the term "theistic evolution" after having redefined evolution to be exclusive of theistic influence? Your argument has just been made to fall flat on its face by your own use of the adjective "theistic" to describe a form of "evolution" in what would be an oxymoron under your terms.
There's absolutely nothing wron
Qualified Terms (Score:2)
Because terms are qualified to create new terms - often opposed in meaning to the original word. The unqualified word "evolution" usually refers to a mix of natural selection and macro evolution - with perha
Palm OS? (Score:2)
Please stop... (Score:2, Insightful)
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Skype on Symbian (Score:2)
Skype + Sybian = Teledildonics?
Cartman found it... (Score:2)
C'monnnn, C'monnnnn...
It's a cointoss (Score:2)
SED made it, but not OLED (Score:2)
Wrong Aircraft (Score:5, Insightful)
Tivo Should Earn Special Award... (Score:2)
Worse, those new HiDef Tivos don't even support TivoToGo for Windows - so they've actually managed to go backwards in the past year.
Me, bitter? Nah...
DNF should not be on the list (Score:2, Funny)
How about the final spec for 802.11n, the blazing-fast new Wi-Fi? While many hoped to see it finalized this year, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers has been saying not to expect anything until January 2007. No false promises, no Vaporware Award.
Then about Duke: The company still has a message on its website saying that the game will be released "when it's done."
It doesn't sound like they'
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2) The Duke Nukem page didn't ALWAYS say "when it's done." They switched it to that after pushing back the release date about 4 times. It still counts.
Meanwhile in Barcelona (Score:2)
Wired FUD against SED (Score:2)
An easy Google search 'toshiba sed release' gives press releases from last February and March [toshiba.co.jp] pushing the release date back to Q4'07. There's nothing in the October press releases about SED [toshiba.co.jp].
But that doesn't make as interesting a story, I guess. You'd think this was a simple mistake except it's so easy to fact-check.
What's happening in July 2007 is they're supposed to start mass production of the tubes. But you won't
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