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Vote for 2002's "Best" Vaporware 555

Posted by timothy from the cd-r-handheld-ogg-player dept.
ThatKidYouDid writes "Wired.com is holding a vote for this years best vaporware. My vote definitely goes to the oqo, although I'd still snag one if they ever materialized. What do others really wish could have happened by Xmas?"
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Vote for 2002's "Best" Vaporware More

Vote for 2002's "Best" Vaporware

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  • MS .Net Server (Score:3, Funny)

    by dachang ( 258727 ) on Saturday December 21, 2002 @11:30PM (#4938801)
    My vote goes to .net server.

  • While not 2002's.... UO 2... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by TibbonZero ( 571809 ) <Tibbon&gmail,com> on Saturday December 21, 2002 @11:31PM (#4938807) Homepage Journal
    I would have really liked to see UO ship, or at least release the source... instead of basically firing everyone and burning most of the work for no good reason..

  • Duke Nukem: Forever. 'nuff said.
  • Biggest vaprware: enforcement of the DOJ's MS antitrust settlement.

  • Doom III (Score:2, Interesting)

    by manly_15 ( 447559 )
    I remember when the GeForce 3 came out, and it was supposed to be THE card to run Doom III. Now it's looking like it won't be even close to powerfull enough. While we all know that Doom III will be out eventually, I would say that it's been delayed enough to be considered vapourware. At least we know from the leaked alpha that the game will ROCK :-)

    • Re:Doom III (Score:2, Informative)

      by MrHanky ( 141717 )
      What? Doom III isn't delayed, is it? It's supposed to be out "when it's done". I'd vote, as always, for Daikatana. No, just kidding. That'd be Duke Nukem Forever.

    • Re:Doom III (Score:3, Informative)

      by tbradshaw ( 569563 )
      At least we know from the leaked alpha that the game will ROCK :-)

      If you've played the alpha and it rocks, and you're sure that it will rock when it comes out... how exactly is it vaporware?

      I've had the pleasure of seeing the DOOM 3 theater presentation at QuakeCon 2002, and I can assure you that DOOM 3 is no where near vaporware. It's just so advanced that it's taking a slightly longer development cycle than your typical derived engined game.

      I would probably guess that it's more finished than unfinished at this point. (entirely speculation) And Todd Hollenshead did joke with the crowd at QCon that id wasn't in the habit of showing preview versions of the same game year after year at E3.

      • Re:Doom III (Score:2, Insightful)

        by TeknoDragon ( 17295 )
        "If you've played the alpha and it rocks, and you're sure that it will rock when it comes out... how exactly is it vaporware?" ..... again RTFM

        "As in previous years, software locked in the pre-release, beta-testing stage is considered vaporware, even if it's widely available. It hasn't shipped until it's shrink-wrapped."

        if it counts for .NET server... it counts for Doom III

        and with the paragraph preceeding the one I quoted... sounds like Doom III should be in the top ten.

  • TF2 (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Apreche ( 239272 ) on Saturday December 21, 2002 @11:35PM (#4938828) Homepage Journal
    If there is a piece of vaporware to rule them all it is Team Fortress 2. Check out the website http://tf2.sierra.com. The last time the news on the site was updated was Jan 23, 2001!!! The game has been in the works since 1998!! According to all the official websites TF2 is still in developement/coming soon. Neither Sierra nor Valve has reported that the game is dead. Some version of the game was even demo'd once or twice, which means it was SOMETHING.

    TF2, king of vaporware.
    • Alongside Duke Nukem Forever, or Halo!

      Though Halo got release for XBox, it's still missing from the PC or Mac desktop.

    • Re:TF2 (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Gudlyf ( 544445 ) <<moc.ketsilaer> <ta> <fyldug>> on Sunday December 22, 2002 @01:58AM (#4939330) Homepage Journal
      I actually did some sound effects work for this back when it was originally slated to be a Quake 2 mod by the TF team (before they all joined on with Valve). You can actually still download the MP3 [planetfortress.com] of the sounds all put together, made to sound like one huge battle.

      Once they got bought out by Valve, I got paid for the work I did and that was the last I saw/heard about the game really. Looking back at it now though, I hope they really don't use my old sounds, as they're quite dated and admitedly amateur.

      At one point, while I was working on the last version [planetfortress.com] of TF released for QuakeWorld (remember that?), Robin of TF had me take a look at a first run of TF2 for Quake2. I actually think I have that still laying around here on an old CD somewhere.

    • Re:TF2 (Score:4, Funny)

      by DeathPenguin ( 449875 ) on Sunday December 22, 2002 @02:02AM (#4939344)
      Haha, how's this [sierra.com] for hype? They have "awards" for TF2 posted already!

  • Non-Computer Related Nominations... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by dagg ( 153577 ) on Saturday December 21, 2002 @11:35PM (#4938829) Journal
    Three non-computer related nominations...
    • Al Gore re-running for president - everyone thought that was going to come out this year, but it was canceled.
    • Iraq War - how long have we been waiting for this to happen? Maybe it'll come out next year?
    • "Friends" final season - they just announced today there was another season. The cancelling is vaporware.
  • Duke Nukem 4 Ever.

    That trailer looked like a finished, kick ass game, wonder whats taking them so long...

  • The Segway (Score:2, Interesting)

    by spike2131 ( 468840 )
    While they allegedly exist, I have yet to actually see one on the street.

    And yet Amazon promises to deliver them any month now...

  • SlashCode That can...... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Chris_Stankowitz ( 612232 ) on Saturday December 21, 2002 @11:38PM (#4938842)
    Auto-Mod-Down 1) In Soviet Russia Vaporware....... 2) Beowulf Cluster of Vaporware 3) Idea, Vaporware, ???, Profit 4) AND THIS POST!

  • GNU/Hurd (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 21, 2002 @11:40PM (#4938853)
    22 years of empty promises... now *that* is a winner!

    • Re:GNU/Hurd (Score:3, Funny)

      by slaker ( 53818 )
      Dude, what the hell do you expect when they're using Intercal [tuxedo.org] as their base dev platform?

      Guess I'd better watch out. One of the two surviving Hurd developers might have mod points. :)
  • I really want one :)
  • the idea that the music industry would get with the program and market a huge selection of unrestricted quality digital music files online at a reasonable price. Oops sorry, that's snake oil.
  • MS Bob XP

  • The Economy (Score:5, Funny)

    by DAldredge ( 2353 ) <SlashdotEmail@GMail.Com> on Saturday December 21, 2002 @11:42PM (#4938868) Journal
    Recovery of the American Economy.

  • simple (Score:3, Funny)

    by napoleonin ( 548802 ) on Saturday December 21, 2002 @11:44PM (#4938878)
    employment?
  • Augmented Reality. I'm stuck with my imagination until then. Oh, and I still have to type this message on a keyboard.

  • 100:1 Compression Baby!!! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 21, 2002 @11:47PM (#4938899)
    Remember Zeosync made that huge fuss claiming 100:1 compression on random data?

    Many news agencies like Reuters ran with it and as usual Shanon proved them wrong (try www.zeosync.com hehe)

    If only they had read the newsgroup compression FAQ they would have saved time and all that investor money (they had over $10 million at one point I believe).

    Anyhow I thought that was the best vaporware... if only it could have been true ;(

  • Games... (Score:3)

    by Orne ( 144925 ) on Saturday December 21, 2002 @11:49PM (#4938903) Homepage
    I dunno, how about...

    Master of Orion 3 [quicksilver.com], since 2001... no, Nov 2002, December 4th... Maybe January?

    Shadowbane [shadowbane.com], a MMORPG without all that pesky RPG stuff

    SimCity 4 [ea.com], delayed 'till January. "It's in 3D, trust us", except you can't swivel the camera

  • Soviet Russian Linux Distro? (Score:4, Funny)

    by TibbonZero ( 571809 ) <Tibbon&gmail,com> on Saturday December 21, 2002 @11:50PM (#4938906) Homepage Journal
    Never came out.. but Soviet Russia was mentioned a few too many times...

  • Vapourware... (Score:5, Funny)

    by TrevorB ( 57780 ) on Saturday December 21, 2002 @11:52PM (#4938914) Homepage
    The new feature of slashcode to cut down on duplicate stories...

    Post this early, funny. Post this late, redundant... better click submit now...

  • Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Saturday December 21, 2002 @11:52PM (#4938917)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • QuarkXPress for Mac OS X (Score:5, Insightful)

    by phillymjs ( 234426 ) <slashdot@stanTWAINgo.org minus author> on Saturday December 21, 2002 @11:54PM (#4938923) Homepage Journal
    I actually submitted this one to Wired last week when they originally posted the request for submissions.

    Those fuckwits at Quark have been pissing on their customers for years, and now they're making my life harder because I have to deal with supporting the Classic environment instead of being able to make a clean break to OS X.

    I've heard that this way-overdue version of XPress has been the final straw for many of Quark's customers, and they're finally dropping XPress for Adobe InDesign. Quark's customer-hostility has done more to sell copies of InDesign than anything dreamed up by the folks in Marketing at Adobe.

    ~Philly

  • Son of Star Wars Missile Program (Score:3, Insightful)

    by happyhippy ( 526970 ) on Saturday December 21, 2002 @11:55PM (#4938931)
    Itll disappear in a couple of years when the govt cant get any more PR out of it for TWAT

  • Hammer (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Rebel Patriot ( 540101 ) on Sunday December 22, 2002 @12:00AM (#4938946) Journal
    While vaporware is generally thought of as software, what about hardware? I'd say AMD's Hammer not coming out this year was the biggest vaporware of the year.
  • Sorry mates

    But my vote goes for NWN on linux.

    They stated that they'd have linux support ASAP. But with the recent events I wonder if they even knew what they were talking about. My gut feeling is that they stated linux support just to generate PR.

    I don't mean to sound ungrateful, nor do I want to sound 'mean' in anyway. But this has become one of those I'll believe it when I see it sort things

    Sunny Dubey

  • Flying Cars? (Score:5, Funny)

    by TibbonZero ( 571809 ) <Tibbon&gmail,com> on Sunday December 22, 2002 @12:02AM (#4938954) Homepage Journal
    I'm still holding my breath on flying cars...

  • Vaporware ... (Score:4, Funny)

    by SuperDuG ( 134989 ) <<kt.celce> <ta> <eb>> on Sunday December 22, 2002 @12:02AM (#4938956) Homepage Journal
    ... a RMS approved completely free operating system with nothing but GNU tools/kernel/etc.

    ... an actual gaming system based on linux.

    ... a crash proof secure windows distro.

    ... peace on earth

    so many to choose from ... so so many. I know HURD will never reach full developement (no one will dump linux to do something new), 3D in linux sucks hence why there are no games for linux, crash proof windows that is secure (MS always promises and always fails horribly, and well peace on earth and good will towards men (not so long as we got a war mongers running america ...)

  • No contest... (Score:3, Redundant)

    by gregwbrooks ( 512319 ) <gregb AT west-third DOT net> on Sunday December 22, 2002 @12:07AM (#4938973)
    Best vaporware of the past year? Economic recovery.

  • needs? (Score:5, Funny)

    by squarefish ( 561836 ) on Sunday December 22, 2002 @12:07AM (#4938974)
    What do others really wish could have happened by Xmas?

    this being /. and all, I was thinking sex would be the #1 answer and might say I'm surprised it's not here.

    • Re:needs? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Timmeh ( 555676 ) on Sunday December 22, 2002 @03:37AM (#4939599)
      I wonder how well the geek-virgin stereotype holds up to the myth, or if it just gets thrown around because we like to poke fun at ourselves. I'd like to see this slashdot poll:

      Are you a virgin?

      • Yes
      • No
      • I'm keeping my virginty for Cowboy Neal you insensitve cold!
  • Oh never mind, HL Blue Shift was satisfying.

  • the matrix reloaded? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by jefdiesel ( 633290 ) on Sunday December 22, 2002 @12:09AM (#4938986)
    sure i know the vampire queen's pilot was smoked out after a big week in the sun, but this movie was due out a while ago..
    wasn't it?

  • Digial film (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Chazmati ( 214538 ) on Sunday December 22, 2002 @12:10AM (#4938990)
    Silicon Film Technologies [siliconfilm.com] should be on there, hands down. They won in 2000 or so. You'd think after two more years they'd find a way to make this work.

    It's vapor, but it could be the road to digital for people with high-quality 35mm SLR cameras. Everyone wants to go digital for the convenience, the instant feedback on the shot, the uh, privacy of not going through a photo lab, etc. There must be over a million people with SLR's of higher optical quality than most of today's point-and-shoot digitals.

    In fact, I can't imagine why this hasn't flown. I don't think anyone else has beaten them to the punch, and it seems technically feasible. Maybe they can't get the sensor thin enough to close the camera back?
  • Slashdot's Radio section! No update since June 29th!

    Awhile back I posted (the /. search? Does that box DO anything?) a good use for it - review new music and bands (RIAA free!?) and links to free mp3 downloads.

    Perhaps we can teach a old dead dog new tricks...I sure would like to hear what other /.ers are listening to.

  • GNU/Hurd (Score:3, Redundant)

    by KAMiKAZOW ( 455500 ) <kamikazow@hotmail.com> on Sunday December 22, 2002 @12:16AM (#4939006)
    Vaporware since 20 years. Not even "Duke Nukem Forever in Development" can beat GNU/Hurd.

  • Gotta be Duke Nukem Forever (Score:5, Funny)

    by hoser ( 95281 ) on Sunday December 22, 2002 @12:16AM (#4939007) Journal
    Yeah, it's made the list before, but it deserves to be on there again. We've been waiting for this game since:

    - Clinton was president.
    - The Spice Girls were popular.
    - Princess Diana was alive.
    - Tony Soprano was a twinkle in David Chase's eye.
    - Yahoo was a good search engine.
    - The X-Files was on, and it was worth watching.

    It's been a long, long time since Duke Nukem Forever was announced. 3DRealms should get an award for most vapourous software ever.
  • Since he turned 64 this year (he termed it getting a "bit" older :) he'd better get it published soon!

    • Re:Next TAOCP volume from Knuth? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by bedessen ( 411686 ) on Sunday December 22, 2002 @02:16AM (#4939396) Journal
      Knuth is a guy who likes to plan ahead. On his web site [stanford.edu] he states that Volume 4 (of The Art Of Computer Programming) will be ready in 2007, and Vol. 5 will be published in 2009. He then goes on to describe how he plans to rewrite Vols. 1-3 after he finishes 5. Finally after that, "God willing" he says, he plans to write Vol. 6 (context-free languages) and Vol. 7 (Compiler Techniques.) We're talking probably 10-20 years into the future here, certainly what I'd call long-term planning.

  • How about.... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by KAMiKAZOW ( 455500 ) <kamikazow@hotmail.com> on Sunday December 22, 2002 @12:23AM (#4939025)
    Osama Bin Laden?

  • Girlfriend 1.0 (Score:5, Funny)

    by Alethes ( 533985 ) on Sunday December 22, 2002 @12:25AM (#4939031)
    Lots of guys are still waiting for this.

  • MOO3 (Score:2)

    by IanA ( 260196 )
    Master of Orion 3 being pushed back to past Christmas was a pretty big disappointment.

  • Cheap, large, flat-panel display technologies (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Animats ( 122034 ) on Sunday December 22, 2002 @12:47AM (#4939110) Homepage
    We keep hearing about technologies for making low-cost, large flat panel displays. But either they don't work, or they don't stay cheap if made large. There's been talk for years about "printing transistors", "organic light emitting diodes", "E-Ink", and similar concepts. So far, none of these technologies have progressed beyond the prototype or tiny screen level.

    Since the market for this technology would be huge (all TV sets, for starters) if it worked and was cheaper than CRTs, it's the premiere vaporware technology. Nothing else actually promoted as Real Soon Now has similar volume potential.

  • Vaporware-like (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Devil's BSD ( 562630 ) on Sunday December 22, 2002 @12:48AM (#4939115) Homepage
    The all-time best vaporware, IMHO, is fusion power. In 1950, the experts were saying that we would have self-sustained, controlled fusion reactions on Earth within 50 years. 50 years later, the new deadline is 2050. Curious, isn't it?
  • How long has it been sice AOL bought out ICQ, yet we still have both ICQ #'s and AOL login names, and still a seperate messenger for each? How long will it be before these two finally become one, never mind having a single, unified messaging format that we can all use without having to either install one special client to handle all the different servers (i.e., Everybuddy, Trillian, etc.), or run seperate clients for each? ANd I'm not talking about something like Jabber.

  • Last Year's Vaporware: Materialized (Score:5, Funny)

    by fo0bar ( 261207 ) on Sunday December 22, 2002 @01:02AM (#4939173)
    It should be noted that out of the 10 items listed by Wired for the 2001 Vaporware list, the following have materialized:

    * 3G wireless networks (Although not what we were promised. I have a 3G phone from sprint, but cannot do things like video on demand)
    * Photoshop for OS X
    * Warcraft III
    * Duke Nukem Forever

    Err, wait, never mind on the last one.

    • Just because Sprint calls it 3G... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by wilson_c ( 322811 ) on Sunday December 22, 2002 @02:21AM (#4939410)
      ...doesn't mean it is.

      The reason your Sprint "3G" phone can't handle 3G features like video is that it isn't 3G. Sprint is using interim technology that the rest of the world refers to a "2.5G" - it offers some of the features of 3G while still building on a second generation base. Since 3G has been hyped so much, Sprint just decided to piggyback their inferior technology by calling it 3G.

  • oqo is real (Score:3, Insightful)

    by cd_Csc ( 151701 ) on Sunday December 22, 2002 @01:11AM (#4939202) Homepage
    I met with the oqo guys at the last Pocket PC Summit (in Hollywood at the end of October). They let me play with their device and it was pretty neat. After some small talk, they let on that the reason we haven't seen these in the consumer market yet is because that isn't their business plan. Their business plan is to get bought up by some large company (Microsoft and Intel were mentioned as potential canditates) and retire. Unfortunately, they forgot to check first on whether or not corresponded with the strategy of any potential buyer. So sadly it appears that while these devices are *real*, we won't be seeing them on store shelves.

  • The .Net "Revolution" (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Drakker ( 89038 ) on Sunday December 22, 2002 @01:44AM (#4939291) Homepage Journal
    Yes, .Net is coming! Is it a revolution? Not at all, we're going back to the good old mainframes.

    Beside, 99% of their architecture isnt even ready.

    • Interesting? hardly, it is however getting a wee bit annoying that people are seen as insightful just cause they whine about .Net.
      If you don't like .Net on techincal merit, fine. If you don't like it cause MS made it, fine. But quit whining about it just because you don't understand it and you're too lazy to pick up some books.

      .Net has been compared to most modern languages/runtimes/architectures/strategies in a ".Net is just xxx with yyy!" way, sorry, it is nothing like those.
      Yes it is similar to J2EE, not Java, J2EE, but not many other things, so please stop the comparisons if you don't know what you're talking about.

      99% of their architecture isn't ready, pray tell what that refers to?

  • Linux stampede, MS death (Score:4, Interesting)

    by NineNine ( 235196 ) on Sunday December 22, 2002 @10:01AM (#4940150)
    I nominate the stampede of users rushing away from Windows to some flavor of Linux. Every other article here is something like, "Company x is installing Linux on xxx,xxx boxes!! Linux is winning! So, how much longer do you think Microsoft will be around?" Yet somehow, this hasn't even begun to happen.

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