Dr. Dobb's Journal September, 2005
It's only a matter of time until Dr. Jekyll changes into Mr. Hyde, a dumb idea turns into a zillion dollars, and an Apple Macintosh runs on an Intel CPU. But then on second glance, it looks like time has proved all these true. Okay, try on these it's-only-a-matter-of-time scenarios:
Video baseball will replace real baseball. Naw, never happen. There's nothing like the smell of fresh-cut grass, the crack of the ball leaving the bat, and an $8 hotdog washed down with a $10 beer. Ah, actually it has happened. This past summer, the first two innings of a minor-league baseball game between the Kansas City (KS) T-Bones and the Schaumburg (IL) Flyers were played, well, virtually. Instead of professional ballplayers taking the field, two opposing video gamers, selected in a month-long competition sponsored by CompUSA, settled into recliner chairs at home plate, then proceeded to spit, scratch, pitch, hit, and field it out on the 16×24 foot CommunityAmerica Ballpark video board using EA Sports MVP Baseball 2005 software and X-Box hardware. After the first two innings, the real players took the field, picking up the lineups, scores, and statistics from the video gamers. For the box score, see http://www.tbonesbaseball.com/.
Wireless communication systems will go nuts. Get outta here! Some of technology's best and brightest are on the wireless bandwagon. Except for a few security problems, there's nothing at all that can go wrong. Right? Okay, you've convinced me, but you might try selling this to homeowners who live near U.S. military facilities. It seems that an $800-million program to upgrade military communications systems is causing some ups-and-downs for nearby residential automatic garage-door-opening systems. As it turns out, garage-door-opener manufacturers, with the permission of the FCC, have for years been operating on an unlicensed basis in the 390-MHz frequency band reserved for military radios. This hasn't been a problem until recently, as new higher powered military radios have begun jamming low-power door-openers. Depending on the nearby terrain and who you believe, homes anywhere from 25 to 50 miles can be affected. Meanwhile the FCC is recommending homeowners lengthen their antenna, buy a new transmitter/receiver that operates on a different frequency, or sell their homes. (All right, I made up that last suggestion.) For more information, see http://www.dasma.com/PDF/Publications/TechDataSheets/OperatorElectronics/TDS374.pdf.
E-mail spam will go away. There's no one more than me who hopes it's only a matter of time before e-mail spam disappears—and books like the recently released Ending Spam: Bayesian Content Filtering and the Art of Statistical Language Classification, by anti-spam expert Jonathan Zdziarski (not to mention DDJ articles such as John Graham-Cumming's May 2005 "Naïve Bayesian Text Classification") will help make this happen. I first heard about Zdziarski's book in an e-mail from the book's distributor. Then I heard about it again in another e-mail from the distributor, then in another e-mail, and another, and...sigh—you get the idea. If it walks like a can of Spam and tastes like a can of Spam, it darn well must be spam. Maybe it is more than a matter of time before spam goes away.
Artificial intelligence will replace medical doctors. I hope not, at least not anytime soon. Still, AI is making in-roads into the medical information community. The Physician Point of View, an intelligent enterprise portal developed by DataGlider (http://www.dataglider.com/), is a system that does the leg-work for doctors by tracking down information they need to treat patients. According to a DataGlider spokesperson, doctors report that previous information systems, which took up to 200 mouse clicks to return specific information, now require no clicks at all—the information is automatically presented via portlets.
The word "McDigital" will be listed in the Oxford English Dictionary. Sad to say, but it's probably going to happen. Looking to attract "a younger, hipper [but presumably not thinner] clientele," McDonald's is turning to technology. Forget about food. The fast-food purveyor wants us to use its kiosks inside the golden arches to burn CDs, download ringtones, surf the Web, and print photos. Wi-Fi will be available, along with large-screen TVs and cashless payment systems. At the heart of this new high-tech McDonald's is the "Blaze Net" system, implemented by Digital Transaction Machines (http://www.dtmachines.com/), which is also capable of distributing videos, mobile games, tickets, and whatnot. Jeez, what's next—"Happy Meals for Geeks"? It's only a matter of time.