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Last
month (last year?) I said that I would make my predictions for
the coming year. But you know what? Making predictions is hard.
It's especially hard if you are trying to predict things that
will happen in the future. So, since I'm late getting this done
and my predictions from last year didn't pan out all that well,
I've decided to switch tactics. Here are the things I wish I
could predict for the coming year:
- SPAM will taper off into insignificance
after a change in the email protocol that includes a means to
positively identify the sender.
- The music and movie industries
will start reasonably priced online services where music and
movies can be downloaded and viewed on a variety of devices.
- In a fit of intelligent thinking,
Congress will repeal the USA Patriot Act and work to ensure our
rights to privacy.
- Congress will repeal the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act restoring our rights to use the music
and movies we have legally purchased.
- IBM will release OS/2 and its source
code to the open source community.
- Competition among high-speed Inernet
service providers will become so intense that speeds increase,
availability becomes universal, and prices drop.
- As part of the final verdict in
the appeals trial of Norwegian programmer Jon Johansen, the Motion
Picture Association of America (MPAA), will be forced to apologize
to Mr. Johansen and reimburse him for all legal costs.
- The European Union will hold Microsoft
accountable for its monopolistic practices where the U.S. judicial
system failed.
- Microsoft will realize that their
customers are the users and not the music and movie industry.
- Linux will become a viable alternative
to Windows on the desktop.
Ok, there you have it. Ten things
I wish would happen in 2004. These are not necessarily the Top
Ten, but these are more or less the first ten things that popped
up. Send me the items from your list that I missed.
Happy New Year everyone and have
a great ski season!
Jim Scheef
dacsprez@dacs.org
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Presidential
Ramblings
