Eugen RochkoMar 10, 2023
If Meta is really working on a new ActivityPub-powered social network, I see it as a very positive signal overall--my personal feelings towards Meta notwithstanding. For one, it's validation for our entire ecosystem from the biggest player. It also tells me that they don't see themselves as strong enough to keep users locked inside their walled garden anymore. It means the tide is really turning for interoperable social media, and that's always been the goal.
Show threadChris TrottierMar 10, 2023

@Gargron My thoughts exactly. They see the future and they know it's not walled gardens.

More to the point, just because they're Meta doesn't mean they'll be successful.

Kodak was an early adopter of digital cameras, but they went bankrupt.

Why? Because they just couldn't leave film photography behind.

Show threadmike805
@atomicpoet @Gargron Kodak just didn't have any advantages in digital cameras. They did not excel at making CCD chips. Or flash memory. Or lenses. They excelled in making FILM - the one thing you no longer needed. Kodak going into digital cameras was like the USPS going into email - they had no special advantage there.
Mar 11, 2023 at 5:11amWeb
Show threadChris TrottierMar 11, 2023
@mike805 @Gargron They had first mover advantage with digital cameras. Kodak invented them.
Show threadmike805Mar 11, 2023

@atomicpoet @Gargron yes their lab built a big box with a tape deck as I recall. I think AT&T invented the CCD camera for their Picturephone. They probably thought like everyone else that it would never match film for quality.

Of course the digital camera manufacturers have a problem now because phone cameras are good enough for most things.

Xerox should have owned office computing too. Western Union should have owned telephones - the first telephone calls were made over their lines after all.

Show threadmike805Mar 11, 2023

@atomicpoet @Gargron I have a book on steam power here. In the late 19th-early 20th century there were many companies making steam powered land vehicles, most for hauling heavy loads. https://150case.com/ here is an outstanding example - most were not that big.

Not one is a modern car or truck maker. A basic technological change almost always results in a new crop of companies, even if the new tech does the same thing as the old tech.

THE LEGENDARY 150 HP CASE -

The 150 Case is the largest steam traction engine ever produced. Built originally in 1905, zero of them ever lived on - until recreated in scratch in 2018 by Kory Anderson.