Brian The Dog on 7/10/2010 at 16:20
demagogue, I think those may be true but you'll be waiting a loooooong time for some of them. Getting rid of books, for instance, just isn't going to happen, CDs (or something similar) will still be around in 50 years time, and some newspapers (e.g. the Sun here in the UK, although the quality of the journalism is arguable :) ) still sell really well. I agree that the Post Office may well fold in about 30 years, there's already bit arguments here in the UK on how to fund it since it's making a loss.
Aja on 7/10/2010 at 23:57
Music is not dying, what a ridiculous claim to make
Aja on 7/10/2010 at 23:57
okay the music "industry" maybe, but who gives a shit about that
demagogue on 8/10/2010 at 00:38
Yeah, that was at the top of my "want to tweak" list. Because, on the other hand, indie music makers (and film makers, game makers, artists, etc) have a better opportunity IMO to get their creative works out now than ever before. I think there's actually a renaissance of really great stuff out there going on right now, but it's going on in little places you have to dig up and find, and if anything it's freed up the mainstream to go to shit and not look back (though personally I think it's just as good/bad as it's ever been). But if anything, I see it as a great segregation of quality and fodder going on, not the disappearance of either.
Shug on 8/10/2010 at 00:52
The timeline may be slightly off, but it's accurate regarding future profitability of the post office and newspapers / magazines.
I'm slightly dubious that books will die out, e-readers have a long way to go before they crush physical volumes. Most people will have bookshelves in their house for a long time to come, and will probably end up with a split between the two.
The music part is a bit of scaremongering - 40% of music sales are old artists?!?! Oh my god, you mean only a majority of music being sold is new music?
For most people, traditional TV probably can't die fast enough.
ZylonBane on 8/10/2010 at 01:11
Quote Posted by Shug
For most people, traditional TV probably can't die fast enough.
Food Network says fuck you.
Brian The Dog on 8/10/2010 at 11:15
Two other things on that list may well happen but in about 20-30 years maybe. One is the landline telephone. They may go in about 20 years, but for now, you need the landline to connect to the internet (here in the UK, mobile telephone operators are selling mobile broadband, but it'll be a fair few years before they get to consistently 10Mb/s).
The other is cheques. They're supposed to be being phased out here in the UK, but the downturn in their usage has stalled, and they're a convenient way of sending money to someone when you don't know their bank account number. I agree they'll disappear, but probably in about 20 years rather than the the originally mooted 10.
(Rather amusingly, I read, I think in (
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Too-Big-Fail-Inside-Battle/dp/1846142385/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1286536385&sr=1-7) this book, that a US bank was bailed out quickly and that was paid for by cheque, they struggled to write the correct number of zeros on the cheque...)
demagogue on 8/10/2010 at 14:25
Not counting regular bills and things like that, I think I've only used a check like one time in the last 6+ months to actually buy something big... And then they wait 2 months to deposit it and it fucks up my whole accounting I had going (I just assumed they deposited it a month ago and I had 100s more dollars than I thought). It's just annoying to remember that it's not an instant form of payment and you sometimes have to leave money suspended for possibly months at a time to deal with them.
gunsmoke on 9/10/2010 at 19:55
Quote Posted by Subjective Effect
One of the irritating things I'm finding at the moment is the the failure of the internet to find me high street retailers of stuff. This week I've been after electric cigarettes and that 6-in-1 Utili-Key Multi-tool thing. But I don't want to buy them online since I'm going to London on Saturday and could pick stuff up since I'll be in central.
But if I search for these things all I find are online retailers. Perhaps I'm searching wrong but I can't seem to find a physical shop that sells them. And this isn't the first time it's happened. Yes, I may actually be
online looking stuff up but come on...
Sub, I include my postal code in my search and have no problem finding brick and mortar stores. I have no idea how Britain works, however.
