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

Honestly, I think there are a lot of suggestions here for things that would benefit the people suggesting them. How about something really great? What about some kind of cultural revolution or the invention of new diplomatic practices that reduce friction between warring nations? If people worked instead of killing each other their economy would grow, the standard of living would improve and new technologies would emerge.

Perhaps even an agrarian revolution. The invention of new farming practices to help third world nations increase their crop yield densities is perfectly realistic. It's happened in many developed nations, the poorer countries just need a helping hand.

I'm working on it, ok. Actually, I'm on bit-tech when I should be doing my lit-review...

That looks really awesome.

 

Skynet.

 

Low Cost NAND - Super fast SSDs for all!

 

That would be great but agrarian practices don't really have an effect on the tech industry.

 

HA, I obviously didn't read the title of the thread properly. Well, that's embarrassing.

 

The cloud at home

Not a real revolution really, a program or an os can do it easy. At my house we need about 4 pc's 2 of which must be gaming capable, I think there should be workhorse at to do all the work and simple cheap nodes. Could even be used with other devices such as tv's and the sort I think with the combined budget we'd get a better system then current slower 4 individual pc's

 

+1 to room temperature superconductors.
I'll add in more advanced memory materials, similar to which we have now, but able to revert into several different(and predetermined) shapes, possibly with different properties, eg, shape 1 is an electrical insulator, shape 2 functions as a high density capacitor, etc.

NB, almost forgot. Aritifical Intelligence, probably not Turing beaters but programs that are instead outstanding in a certain field, more akin to autistics and compusive/obsessives than standard human personalities.

 

A way of reducing the price of computers to make them real competition to consoles for most people, then an xbox live system without all of the lairy teenagers.

 

Batteries, batteries, batteries!

We're all going mobile, and the processing power is just about there to enable your average iPhone to run music + web browsing + background skype/msn/GPS.... but just watch that battery drain!

If battery tech went 'smaller' and 'lasted longer', I think we'd see loads more happening with our little gadgets than we currently do...

Oh, and how about decent 3G coverage while we're at it... kthx

 

What's really needed re: computers for the masses is a retailer that actually does gaming machines. You can easily build a half-decent gaming rig for £300, but you have to DIY. Assemblers like Dell only offer stupidly overpriced, out of date 'gaming rigs', counting on buyer ignorance about what makes a good gaming machine to sell them. If another Dell came along and made cheap gaming rigs, it'd open up the market bigtime.

 

It already exists, it existed before the PC did.

And how would that be a break through and reinvigorate computing? Another company making cheap gaming rigs/beige boxes. It's been done at least twice now.

 

+1 to cheap nand flash.

+1 to more power for mobile devices without sacrificing sizr and weight.

+1 to 3G coverage.

annnnd +1 to the cloud computing idea in general (which is not all that far off if you use your google-fu )

"bit-tech.net - predicting the future of the computer industry, one post at a time"

 

Or if Dell stopped milking the Alienware cow and actually put out a decent product at a reasonable price.

One of their desktops offers dual GTS240s in SLI. Now maybe I'm missing something but that sounds like a whole lot of driver overhead slowing down performance on two already lack-luster cards. I question if you'd really get decent performance compared to say, a single 285 or a shiney new 5000 series Radeon.

Also, "Crank the processor speed to unseen levels — up to an incredible 3.6GHz depending on the processor" yeah, feel free to laugh. If that's "incredible" then I don't want to know the 4.2's people are pulling from their i7 920s is. I'm guessing at a mix of Rapture and a second Genesis! *edit: 3.6Ghz is with the i7 975 Extreme Edition, which is an extra $1,200. The 920 comes at 3.2

Or my favorite, "You can access many of the core components without any tools for fast upgrades." ...I should be able to access every core component with two thumb screws and a side panel. Not to mention what can only be called cheap sex appeal: "Rear Entry - Use the chassis's last louver, towards the rear of the system, as the handle for opening the case for upgrades and service." that's right boys, get ready for a little rear entry on your cases!

And last but not least, "Eliminate distractions with high-performance CPU liquid cooling" Corsair H50 owners, I have good news... you now qualify as high-performance liquid cooling owners.

 

Not exactly, since every beige box you can buy atm relies on a passively cooled PoS or on intregrated graphics. My point was, a reseller sticking decent mid-range gaming hardware into these beige pieces of crap would make them worth buying for gaming. A lot of people I know would pay a £100 overhead to get a medium-range gaming machine without having to build it themselves, which could still leave the price tag around £400. Budget gaming machines are a viable, needed market and nobody's tried it yet. That's how it would be a breakthrough.

 

2 things. Gaming computers are a fraction of the market. And a break through means a sudden leap in knowledge or technology. Budget gaming computers is hardly a breakthrough that will change how humanity interacts with technology. It just means cheap ass teeenagers get cheap ass gaming rigs. There are 100s of embryonic technologies out there that have the potential to fundamentally change how we access information, who we get that information to, and how it can better the lives of millions; you pick cheap gaming rigs. *sigh*

 

Quit being an argumentative arse, we're just talking past each other because we have different understandings of the OP question and of terminology. To me, a breakthrough is something that makes a ton of money for someone and makes things easier/more fun for a lot of bored white kids.

You know, like the fleshlight.

That was a breakthrough.

 

I smell a case mod coming on. A true revolution! Love your PC like never before

 

Quick straw poll: Who will order the mini-ITX version? Anyone?