Rant What realistic invention or break through would total reinvigorate computing?

Large capacity, cheap SSD for the masses

 

I think this is the most realistic and desired computational upgrade for most of us. It's pretty depressing how slowly prices has crawled downwards on SSD's, if large capacity (100GB+) drives dont become a serious alternative to a decent mechanical drive by the end of this year (so around £120-150, comparing to a Velociraptor for example) i'll be fairly disappointed....

 

I'd love an SSD but they're just to expensive at the moment and considering it's a bottle neck in most PC you would think they would want to sell alot at a low price, rather than a few at a high price. But I guess that's the way of the bleeding edge of computing power

 

Aye, I actually did stump out for a 32GB Patriot drive.... then I realised, before it even arriving at my door, that using a tiny SSD just to improve boot and shutdown times (something I only do 1-2 a night) was absolutely pointless.

That drive has an RMA number on it now.

Anyways, I just thought of something else. After seeing the news that a camera manufacture is releasing a camera with wi-fi I was thinking, why cant we replace the god damn awful USB standard entirely with wi-fi? I'd love for wi-fi to be a standard on motherboards so I can plonk my phone/MP3 player/camera on the desk, hit sync and have them instantly connected... another example is having a wi-fi TV, sounds ridiculous but think about being able to film something on your camcorder, get home and stream it onto the TV without having to find the HDMI cable (which is no doubt stashed in a drawer with a dozen other USB/mini USB/propriety cables), or stream music from the PC straight into the home surround sound setup.


Basically make data transfer cables redundant. I'm fed up with losing them, not knowing what old ones belong to so having to keep them "just in case", trying to reach round the back of the TV/PC to plug them in and every other damn manufacture having their own version of god damn mini-usb that is only just different enough so that you need to get every god damn cable out to find the right one.

 

Or a few standard cables. One for audio, one for video, one for data...... and one or two standard connection for each (instead of USB mess of types)

 

+1 to SSD's

what's the point of having a processor that can do insane amounts of calculations if you can't read/write the data fast enough to keep up?

 

Well I know it's a bit far off but surely the hyper reliable biologically integrated computer system that takes your thought processes and converts them into commands to control your PC or say, turn the lights or the kettle on in the house or unlock the car open the door or boot and start her up ready for you with your unique encrypted security code to get in and drive off(manually of coarse, I mean where's the fun in auto drive?). I wouldn't say it's lazy but it would sure save time throughout the day. The possibilities are endless(and the problems implementing and servicing it I suppose).

 

Room temperature super-conductive materials.


/Thread

 

wet ware implants.

 

I'm sure they can work carbon nanotubes in somehow.

 

Internet 0

 

death to social networking, i would love to see twitter, facebook and myspace plus any other crap like that disappear! All it is, is a means to perve on old friends, and gloat at everyone that hasn't as well as you.

I think he biggest break through will be wide spread wifi connections that are secure and free, but that will never happen as nothing is free.

 

+1 to graphene technologies.

 

+1 to neural interfacing.

Not too terribly far away, has plenty of applications. Would remove the need for peripherals and pesky GUIs. Only problem is things get dicey when you start messing too much with outside interaction with one's brain. Figure out how to make electronic impulses of happiness and you've found the world's best drug.

 

Nuclear Fusion being Productive -> An end to any energy worries

Fusion power, this is the biggest thing on the horizon. Quantum computing has its place for particular problems however its application in many many fields is limited given the way they work (anything you need addition or subtraction for, for example, would be entirely limiting on a pure QC). Some of the biological computing tech looks promising though, such as "DNA Computers", or at least from hat I have read about them (admittedly I know alot less about them than QC's).

In terms of computing id say AI will be the next big thing, true ability for a computer to "think" for itself. I cant imagine what will happen from it, and tbh maybe nothing will come of it, but id love to see how it pans out.

Neural interfacing I could give or take, I dont want to write things too fast- means I have to spend more time working ;-)

edit: Room temperature super-conductive materials would be a very very big leap in the hardware front, good call!
edit2: social networking will never die as too many people have friends worldwide these days. The fact that you can perv on people is an added bonus

 

Superconductive materials would deffo be a step forward but I think we're more likely to see a step forward in silicon based technologies rather than graphene.

 

+1 for neural interfaces.

I'd also like to add a +1 to the standardization of cables. I'd also like everyone to quit whining about wireless this that and the other.

 

A friend of mine has a pinch of those in a test tube somewhere. I never quite grasped what was special about them, or what they could do.

 

+1

although it is like the holy grail of solid-state physics

it would completely revolutionise every single industry

 

hoverboards.