Tag: technology

I saw a note from someone recently that reminded me of Policy-Based Management. This was (is?) a technology in SQL Server that I thought might have great potential. I even had a few presentations on the subject, but sadly I’ve rarely seen anyone implement it. I’m sure some do, but I think for me, this is dead technology.

There have been other tech items from which I’ve been turned off or abandoned over the years. It seems in SQL Server, we have some tech that even Microsoft has abandoned and doesn’t put any development resources into improving.

This week, I’m asking if you have technology that’s dead to you. It could be in the SQL Server or Microsoft Data Platform, or it could be elsewhere. Let us know in the discussion below.

I have often moved on from some technology to something newer or better, but that’s not because the old software was dead to me, but rather because I found something better.

However, I have abandoned some things. Database Mirroring is something I see as dead, as does Microsoft. I think for me, any source control system other than Git is dead to me, though maybe that’s more because Git has proven to be better (and ubiquitous). I’d say that I find most multi-platform messaging clients dead to me, mostly because they can’t keep up or implement good interfaces that work across many places. At least not in a way that makes sense for me. I’d say these days, digital cameras (and video cameras) are dead to me as a casual snapper who can live with a phone.

I’m sure there are other dead technologies that you’re just annoyed with or think don’t (or can’t) meet your needs. There are likely many more which didn’t keep up with you over time, which you wouldn’t have abandoned if they had just improved a bit.

Let us know today what you think.

Steve Jones

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Note, podcasts are only available for a limited time online.

There was an article on the worst technology of 2022 from the MIT Technology Review. I was hoping to get some sense of what was really useful or failure-prone technology, but it seems that the article delves into decisions on how to run technology or policy more than the actual technology.

The list is here, with my short comments on those that might apply as actual technology items:

• The FTX meltdown – no
• The fentanyl crisis – no
• a pig heart to human transplant – maybe. A biotech attempt that didn’t work
• the issues with zero covid in China – policy, not tech
• Twitter rules – no
• Ticketmaster system meltdown – this counts
• Meta’s Galactica – definitely among the worst

Many of these seem more about decisions made in how a platform or technology is used, rather than the merits of the system. The FTX thing was less even technology and more a scam using software that likely worked as intended.

For the best technology, I find many lists that delve into gadgets. Those can be fun and certainly might feel like they change how you use technology. From that list, I know that mobiles and headphones can be exciting, but these always feel incremental to me. I actually have preferred seeing how cheap mid-range headphones have become. I do think the rings measuring health instead of a watch-like device is a little innovative. Tablets, laptops, and TVs, meh.

In terms of innovative tech, this is quite a list. Shooting a probe at an asteroid is amazing engineering. A personalized info board, seen differently by many different people is fascinating, though a bit creepy. The DALL-E 2 image generator was certainly incredibly tech, albeit controversial. The 3D-printed ear is amazing as well.

The world of technology for many of us (frameworks, languages, software, hardware) changes so fast. Vendors have shrunk their lifecycles as they move to a DevOps style of working, which creates pressure on us to keep up, or at least be able to learn quickly as versions change. We certainly don’t want to work on the worst technology, and maybe not the best because it changes fast. Instead, we need to pick and choose those items that are relevant to those that hire us to get things done.

Steve Jones

Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher, Spotify, or iTunes.

The world of technology has undergone an amazing revolution in my lifetime. Things that I thought were incredible in my youth have come and gone in the world. I’m sure that there were dramatic changes in technology across lots of other generations, but I wonder if they were as dramatic for others as they feel for me.

As I watch older movies, I’m amazed at the evolutions. I was watching an older sitcom recently and saw someone using a cordless phone. While we have these cordless mobile devices, there was a time when having a phone in my house that wasn’t tethered to a spot on the wall was incredible. And I haven’t seen one of these in years.

My Mother worked in real estate and getting an answering machine was critical technology for growing her business. These were essential in every home for a long time (along with call waiting). First tape-based, then SSD, but now these devices are really gone and exist in the cloud. Now you get voice mail and call waiting on a mobile device. Does anyone have an answering machine anymore? For that matter, are there still public phones? I’ve seen a few booths in my travels, but they seem to be mostly standing as tourist attractions for pictures or repurposed as small libraries or wi-fi hotspots.

One of my big career steps was working with an import company that lived off faxes. When I was there, we went from a single computer-based fax service to upgraded multi-line fax add-in boards with not only digital fax reception but the OCR of the actual recipient to email the images to the appropriate department. It was an amazing job where I learned a lot about imaging and large-scale storage of data. I know there are companies that still have fax machines, but emailing images around seems to have overtaken this in much of the world.

We still have mainframes and lots of older applications, but one piece of software I expected to see around was Lotus Notes. I know some people might still use it, but IBM doesn’t support it. They’ve outsourced. I guess a lot of software I used early in my career is gone: Ami Pro, WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3, and more.

Maybe one interesting device my wife loved was a Palm Pilot. There were lots of PDAs for a while, but the advances in mobile phones completely did away with that category of devices. I’m actually still amazed that Blackberry couldn’t survive the transition to screen-based devices. For a time it felt like everyone in business carried one around.

Hard disks and tape changers seem to be fading, though I’m sure someone still uses them. Anyone bought a tape drive for their personal or business use anytime in the last few years? Or for that matter, do you still use CDs or floppy disks anymore? VHS tapes? Dot-matrix printers?

What about a modem? The sound of a modem connecting was both amazing for me as a young man and an annoying sound early in my career. Same for pagers. I loved getting one but hated carrying it. While there might be these devices in use somewhere, for the most part this technology has been removed from our lives.

Perhaps one of my favorite devices, which came late and died quickly, was the iPod. I had a few digital music players, but they were hard to manage. The iPod was revolutionary, and I had quite a few over the years. I still have a waterproof Shuffle I use when I swim, but for the most part, these devices are just memories.

What tech do you miss, or remember fondly? Or perhaps, what old tech do you still work with that you enjoy?

Steve Jones

Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher, Spotify, or iTunes.