Overhyped Innovations (was Re: OS's In ROM's (was: Re: Mac Classic prob (wa

You forgot optical media. Back when hd's were just a few hundred meg, optical media, specifically MO, was touted as being our only hope of breaking the 1GB barrier in a cost effective manner. Then there is always interactive tv. Or CASE tools. Or the battle of the buses, MCA vs. EISA. To a lesser extent RISC. I think a few people have mis-read what you said. You state "innovations that never quite caught on the way they _were_supposed_to". Not that those innovations aren't still around and doing well, it's just that they didn't become the "new paradigm" that their inventors (and/or the press) were originally touting. Pen based computers are an excellent (and recent) example. Back when the first units were coming out, the pen was going to become the input device of choice for all computers, that is if you believed the hype being spewed out by the computing press. I do however don't necessarily agree about touch screens. Mainly because I don't ever remember it being that overly hyped (not that it wasn't, I just don't remember) or anyone thinking that it would become something more than what it really was. George