
Things I’m surprised we don’t have yet - helwr
http://slacy.com/blog/2010/02/things-im-surprised-we-dont-have-yet/
======
ErrantX
_Batteries that last for months or years for portable electronics._

That's a multi billion dollar solution if anyone can manage it. Battery tech
has definitely not stagnated - it is just maddeningly hard to progress.

 _Even the most modern car out there (arguably, the latest generation Toyota
Prius) is still a mess of gears, oil, wires, and fairly crappy and old UI
conventions on the inside_

The reason that "mess" has survived relatively unchanged for so long is
simple: it "just works". It works really well and is simple. Changing a
winning formula is tough.

 _Better locks for my home_

We have digital locks at work and they are the biggest pain ever :) again
there is a reason we have keys - they work.

~~~
potatolicious
To add to your point - battery tech (as well as power management tech) _has_
progressed, but we've invented ever more power-hungry devices to match that
progress.

Those 4 AA batteries used to run your Game Boy for a handful of hours -
nowadays a Li-ion battery packk that's half the size of those AA batteries can
keep your Game Boy running for just about indefinitely. Except we no longer
run 8MHz CPUs in our mobiles ;)

~~~
stcredzero
Actually, I bet that there are a _lot_ of people out there who would be jazzed
about a really well implemented 8MHz mobile. Especially if the batteries would
run it for a month.

[http://runagate.noisepages.com/2009/11/8-bit-touch-
sensitive...](http://runagate.noisepages.com/2009/11/8-bit-touch-sensitive-
handheld-avr-homebrew-device-with-iphone-aspirations/)

------
Zak
I don't think electronic locks are especially "better" than old-style
mechanical key locks. They're slightly more convenient, but what happens when
you lose your key and need a new one, at night on a weekend? I had exactly
that experience with a VW transponder key last year, in England. If the local
VW dealer hadn't had an unprogrammed key on hand that they had ordered for
another customer, it might have taken two weeks to get a replacement.

With an old-fashioned mechanical key, I can go to any dealer or most
locksmiths with proof that I'm authorized to use the vehicle and have a new
key cut by code in minutes. I don't find using a mechanical key to open my
house especially inconvenient, and don't see any benefit to a more secure key;
there are weaker points of entry for an intruder.

~~~
frederickcook
I've always thought it would be incredibly convenient to have a remote-unlock
for my front door like my car has. I'm always fumbling with my key while
carrying bags or groceries. It would be nice to unlock the door from my car
before gathering everything. I guess remote garage-door openers remedy this
for most homeowners.

~~~
Semiapies
What would you do during a power-outage?

~~~
dkokelley
That's another thing. Why don't almost all homes come with backup generators?
I doubt it would be difficult to operate in a housing track.

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
Because it's completely unnecessary for most? In the last 7 years I've lived
in city, suburb, and now on a farm. The last time I lost power was about 10
years ago living in the city.

Why should my house come with an expensive item I will most likely never need
and if I _did_ need it, is available within hours?

------
frederickcook
At least a couple of these issues are IP-related:

"Video on demand for everything." The media czars own the copyrights and want
to keep control.

"Batteries that last for months or years for portable electronics." There is
not much "freedom to operate" with battery technologies. I haven't read up on
this in a while, but my understanding of why Toyota had a hybrid that was
head-and-shoulders above other companies was that Panasonic owned the patents
for their batteries, and wouldn't let anyone else come close (except Ford, who
licensed them for the Escape). I don't know as much about small electronics,
but I'm guessing it isn't a much easier area to work in.

~~~
coryrc
Actually, ChevronTexaco owns the patent:

<http://www.ev1.org/chevron.htm>

------
laut
"Why do I still have to carry around a spare tire and jack, jumper cables,
tire chains, etc."

Physics and economics.

You can get run flat tires and a spray to fix small holes in tires, though.
But run flat tires are a compromise and the ride isn't the same as with non-
runflat tires.

Tires are a compromise. In northern Europe many drivers change to winter tires
in the winter and summer tires for the rest of the year. You can have "all
season" tires but they don't have the same grip because they are a compromise.
I don't know how many people use winter tires in the US.

~~~
smlacy
This is the kind of narrow thinking that surprises me. Here are some random
possibilites:

\- Solid urethane or other material tires. \- Some other unpressurized (i.e.
mechanical, rubber, electromechanical) device instead of pneumatics. \- Built
in air compressors into wheels. Alert for a slow leak and keep pumping in air
until you get it fixed. (i.e. like a sump on a ship) \- Built in "fix-a-flat"
type goo dispersal device. \- etc.

Jumper cables? Why doesn't my car have an "emergency electrical jack" that I
can just plug into from a home outlet, tow truck, or other car? Why do I have
to go on about finding batteries, connecting alligator clips, etc. It should
be more like "Connect two devices with emergency electrical cable. Press start
on both devices. Wait for green light. Remove cables. Drive to service
station."

Tire chains? Do you seriously think this is the best solution to getting
temporary cold weather traction? How about (at the least) those Spikes-Spyder
things? (<http://www.spikes-spiders.com/>) That's just the beginning of
innovation that could happen in this space.

~~~
laut
Simple is good. If you make tires more complicated there will be drawbacks.
Expensive and more things to break and go wrong. There are already run-flat
tires and tires with pressure sensors.

The cars are the way they are because it works and it's a proven model. The
basic engine designs live for decades because they work and it's not cheap to
design a new one.

I don't think cars suck. Some brands/models do, but in general I think they
work well. A modern car is very reliable. Much better than the ones from the
beginning of the 1980s.

You can buy a 12V adapter to charge your car battery from a home outlet.

I didn't write I thought tire chains were the best thing for driving in cold
weather. I think winter tires are. Yes, you have to change the tires, but it's
the best solution there is right now.

Those spike spiders seem to add an additional permanent steel hub to your
wheels. This adds unsprung weight to the car which is bad. The bottom line is
that designs are compromises. A feature is not always worth the drawbacks.

------
bendtheblock
Wireless electricity demo at TED...
<http://blog.ted.com/2009/08/wireless_electr.php>

So it's on the horizon. The speaker actually powers a mobile phone as one of
his examples.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
God Bless you Mr. Tesla!

------
abstractbill
_Wireless everything. Why is my A/V receiver such a mess?_

Yes! We moved house recently and setting up our projector, wii and mac-mini so
that the cables didn't look horrific was _way_ too much work. Maybe it's a
bandwidth thing? I suppose wirelessly transmitting video and not interfering
with your neighbors' setups might need quite a significant amount of spectrum?

 _Live events (sports, etc.) could be live-streamed._

Heh. Over the content-owners' dead bodies apparently.

~~~
derobert
HDMI 1.3 delivers 10.2Gbps according to the Wiki, and some simple math says
48-bit 1920x1080@60p is ~6Gbps.

So, that should explain why it can't be wireless.

It can be done over fiber—something the article's author apparently didn't
bother to research as a Googling for "HDMI fiber" finds equipment. "HDMI cat5"
tells me it can be done over CAT5 ("ethernet") cable as well.

~~~
abstractbill
_HDMI 1.3 delivers 10.2Gbps according to the Wiki, and some simple math says
48-bit 1920x1080@60p is ~6Gbps.

So, that should explain why it can't be wireless._

I don't think this math alone shows video can't be wireless ( _all_ TV content
used to be wireless, and many more channels were broadcast that way than I
have close neighbors).

I would guess there's not enough _unused_ spectrum to make it work right now
though.

~~~
derobert
Wireless TV uses a much lower bandwidth, and picture quality, than HDMI
offers. ATSC (current US over the air HDTV standard), for example, delivers
around 18mbps, three orders of magnitude less than HDMI.

SDTV did not use bits, it was analogue (and had even less quality than ATSC).

------
potatolicious
> _"Even the most modern car out there (arguably, the latest generation Toyota
> Prius) is still a mess of gears, oil, wires"_

As someone who majored in mechanical engineering and has worked in the auto
industry before, I take some slight offense to this - IMHO this comment is
incredibly out of touch with just how much cars have improved, even in just
the last decade.

This is about as accurate and insightful as saying "well the web sure hasn't
changed much in the last 10 years, it's still a mess of clickable links and
pages".

If you don't understand "gears, oil, and wires", learn a little about what
you're complaining about before doing so.

------
stcredzero
Displayport would go a long way to doing away with wires. We should be able to
dock our laptops with exactly one cable connection.

The energy density of batteries is dependent on basic chemistry.

The ideas about locks on our houses are pretty key, however.

~~~
briansmith
I think DisplayPort will still require another wire for AC power.

~~~
stcredzero
I'm thinking about a DisplayPort successor.

------
mattmaroon
A couple physics classes would explain almost all of these.

~~~
smlacy
Explain? Why do we have HDMI,DVI,RCA,BNC,Optical,Composite,Component,S-Video
etc. in home theater setups? Why not one simple unified cable?

Why don't we have good wireless home entry systems? Does physics explain this?

Why haven't displays followed Moore's law like everything else has?

~~~
mattmaroon
That particular one is more an economics issue. Long story short, it's because
there are many types of components, each of which is made by a hodgepodge of
OEMs and has to interoperate with other components made by any OEM at any time
in the last 20 years. Your TV has to be able to accept your DVD player, Tivo,
VCR, and maybe gaming console, all of which have to also be able to feed audio
out to your receiver.

If all of your devices were made by one company this year, they probably would
(and definitely could) have a universal connector. It would probably be HDMI.

That's untenable because of price. Most people already have most of those
things, and replace them piecemeal over time. I've actually thought about a
startup to make all in ones, but TVs with integrated VCRs and DVD players have
historically been so poorly manufactured that they leave a bad image in
people's minds. It would be like selling a microbrew in aluminum cans. It;s a
superior vessel to what's out there in every way, but because every other beer
in a tin can is swill, serious beer drinkers would assume yours was too.

And, by the way, if you buy a Palm Pre you don't have to plug it in. That's
actually one of my favorite features of it.

~~~
cschneid
Irrelevant to the larger conversation: old chub comes in cans:
<http://www.oskarblues.com/the-brews/old-chub>

As does Fat Tire now.

It's the cool thing to do, since it doesn't take as much energy to move cans
(they're lighter). So it's "Green" beer.

------
dbz
My friend has a keypad to get into his house. It's pretty freaken cool. I'm
super jealous- not going to lie.

~~~
smlacy
Arguably a keypad is worse than a key when it comes to being easy to open.
Think about carrying a heavy load or box. You can (usually) still reach into
your pocket, pull out a key, unlock the door and go inside. It's likely
impossible to key in the keypad while holding the heavy load.

~~~
dbz
I do not understand why that would be so.

With a key you need to use hand eye coordination to stick the key into the
hole and turn with (sometimes) force (and sometimes need to apply pressure to
the door as well).

With a keypad you need to stick out your hand the same length as with a key-
and push a few buttons. I do not believe you are correct.

------
lzm
"My car will unlock itself when I touch it, and will start without me putting
the key in the ignition."

What? I've never heard of such thing. What car does this?

~~~
cschneid
My 2007 Prius has this, it detects the key fob within about 2 feet of the car,
and there's a switch along the inside of the door handle that when you touch
it (and the key is close), it unlocks the car. When I drive, my key never
leaves my pocket, and I never have to push any buttons on my keys (there's a
similar lock button on the handle too).

Also prevents me from ever locking the keys in the car, since... they'd be in
range, and it'd open.

~~~
smlacy
Better yet -- the car senses when the keys are inside and just doesn't lock
the doors. This is the actual behavior. I believe there are 3 sensors on the
outside of the car (2 front doors, 1 on the trunk) and 2 inside the car, one
in the trunk, and one in the dash. The one in the trunk is specifically for
the "you locked your keys in your car" problem.

~~~
cschneid
Right, I glossed over it, but even if you slip the keys in through a slightly
open window, you should still be able to get in.

The prius is like the iphone, it's not a very good car (like the iphone isn't
a very good phone), but everything else is a nice touch that makes it fun to
use.

------
JoeAltmaier
When most folks buys most things by choosing the best price, the cheap stuff
gets cheaper and the better stuff gets more expensive.

------
zeynel1
I think Tesla investigated how to transport electricity without wires but I
don't have any references.

~~~
fnid2
Electricity without wires can be transmitted now.

<http://blog.ted.com/2009/08/wireless_electr.php>

A lot of the other things the OP wants already exist as well. Including
monitors with about 10x more pixels than a 1024x768. Batteries in some devices
can last months or years.

Most of the things that person wants are just too expensive or unnecessary or
beyond the "i'm ready for this" stage of marketability. People don't want all
electric cars. People don't want the expense when other things are "good
enough".

