The past tells a tale.....

[PMoshay]

I know this is a bit off topic, but it's also very on topic as well.....

True Quotes

Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."

-- Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949
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"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."

-- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943
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"I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with
the best people,and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that
won't last out the year."

-- The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957
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"But what ... is it good for?"

-- Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968,
commenting on the microchip
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"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."

-- Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp.,1977
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"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a
means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us."

-- Western Union internal memo, 1876
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"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay
for a message sent to nobody in particular?"

-- David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s
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"The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better
than a 'C,' the idea must be feasible."

-- A Yale Univ. management professor in response to Fred Smith's
paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.)
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"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?"

-- H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927
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"I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary Cooper."

-- Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in "Gone With The Wind"
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"A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say
America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make."

-- Response to Debbi Fields' idea of starting Mrs. Fields' Cookies
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"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out."

-- Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962
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"If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment. The
literature was full of examples that said you can't do this."

-- Spencer Silver on work that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M "Post-It" Notepads
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"So we went to Atari and said, 'Hey, we've got this amazing thing even
built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or
we'll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we'll come
work for you.' And they said, "No." So then we went to Hewlett-Packard,
and they said, 'Hey, we don't need you. You haven't got through college yet.'"

-- Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari
and HP interested in his and Steve Wozniak's personal computer.
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"Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and reaction
and the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react.
He seems to lack the basic knowledge ladled out daily in high schools."

-- 1921 New York Times editorial about Robert Goddard's revolutionary rocket work.
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"You want to have consistent and uniform muscle development across all of
your muscles? It can't be done. It's just a fact of life. You just have to
accept inconsistent muscle development as an unalterable condition of
weight training."

-- Response to Arthur Jones, who solved the "unsolvable" problem by inventing Nautilus
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"Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy."

-- Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859.
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"Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau."

-- Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929
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"Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value."

-- Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre
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"Everything that can be invented has been invented."

-- Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, US Office of Patents, 1899
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"Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction."

-- Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872
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"The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the
intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon."

-- Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, Surgeon-Extraordinary to Queen Victoria, 1873
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"640K ought to be enough memory for anybody."

Bill Gates, 1981

[jmusic]

Pretty interesting stuff, P.

-J

[tzujan]

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"I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with
the best people,and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that
won't last out the year."

-- The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957
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Similar to what I... um, I mean others said about Rap!

[Allan Speers]

"Mixing 'in the box' can never sound as good as using an analog mixer."

-Various "experts" on the internet.

[pk_hat]

"Reason is but a toy, created for 15 year olds to churn out meaningless electronic dance tracks from their bedrooms"


Poor souls with their eyes wide shut.....

[s2n]

"Tape is dead"
- Digidesign

[Kenny Gioia]

Great thread Pete.

Just to flip it around:

There will never be a Native system that can compete with the dedicated DSP system of Pro Tools.

If you think about it. Pro Tools is one of the only systems that still use dedicated DSP's. Everything else became obsolete. Even video is mostly native.

[Kenny Gioia]

"Tape is dead"
- Digidesign

That's silly. I still use tape to wrap Christmas presents.

[stereo type]

The band I was a member of in my youth had a saying everytime we went to a music store or bought a new house console,

"Hey! This is ALL we'll EVER need!"

[auxsend1]

How about these? (my predictions of statements that will sound ridiculous in 20 years)

Music in surround is as advanced as it's going to get.

We'll never be able to make music without actually putting hands on faders and knobs (real or virtual ones).

We'll always be limited by track count, processing power, and bandwidth.

The difference in sound after analog-digital and digital-analog conversions will always be audible.

Digital emulations will never completely capture the sound of outboard gear, analog tape, guitar amps, etc, etc.