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I've long imagined something like that: a card-sized (including thickness) full-color display devoted to displaying, say, an entire movie. Given ultra-thin disp

I've long imagined something like that: a card-sized (including thickness) full-color display devoted to displaying, say, an entire movie. Given ultra-thin displays like OLED, dirt cheap storage, and "free" dedicated processing, you could hand out videos like sales brochures or cheap paperbacks. Amazing how technology has advanced.

sbarre 9y ago
Yeah except that would create massive amounts of electronics litter..
- DonHopkins 9y ago
  And Bitcoin doesn't?
  - PhasmaFelis 9y ago
    Who said anything about Bitcoin?
    - DonHopkins 9y ago
      "Massive amounts of electronic litter" and "amazing how technology has advanced" into a mad rush to waste resources and energy reminded me of this fire, and all the obsolete PC's and GPU's and ASIC's and coal power plants littering the landscape due to Bitcoin mining: https://www.coindesk.com/gallery-fire-destroys-thai-bitcoin-mining-facility/ https://www.coindesk.com/gallery-fire-destroys-thai-bitcoin-... https://qz.com/1055126/photos-china-has-one-of-worlds-largest-bitcoin-mines/ https://qz.com/1055126/photos-china-has-one-of-worlds-larges... Bitcoin mining consumes enormous amounts of electricity, which is why miners seek out locations that offer cheap energy. The Ordos mine was set up in 2014, making it China’s oldest large-scale bitcoin mining facility. Bitmain acquired it in 2015. It’s powered by electricity mostly from coal-fired power plants. Its daily electricity bill amounts to $39,000. Bitmain also operates other mines in China’s remote areas, like the mountainous Yunnan province in the south and the autonomous region of Xinjiang in the west. http://fortune.com/2016/11/28/china-build-unnecessary-coal-plants/ http://fortune.com/2016/11/28/china-build-unnecessary-coal-p... Coal is a killer in China. Coal burning and the secondary effects of sulfate and nitrate contribute to almost half of the dangerous air pollutants in China's polluted cities, compared to 20% from car emissions.
      - andrepd 9y ago
        That (i) is absolutely irrelevant to the discussion at hand and (ii) a completely fallacious argument, since Bitcoin mining amounts to less than 0.01% of the world's energy consumption, providing a useful service in return (compare with gold mining, which is actual mindless busywork and consumes way more energy than Bitcoin does.
        will_brown 9y ago
        As you type away your response on a smartphone or computer that contains gold (and other mined precious metals).
        andrepd 9y ago
        The gold used in industry amounts to only 5% of gold mined. The vast majority of gold is not mined for "practical" use.
        semperdark 9y ago
        > less than 0.01% of the world's energy consumption Actually, it's 0.08% and rising. The energy for 1 transaction could power almost 6 U.S. homes for a full day. https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption
        DonHopkins 9y ago
        #Bitcoin enables Chinese entrepreneurs to export coal by burning it and using the energy to mine. — Emin Gün Sirer (@el33th4xor) July 20, 2015 https://www.buybitcoinworldwide.com/mining/china/ https://www.buybitcoinworldwide.com/mining/china/ Gold mining doesn't provide a useful service in return, huh? As will_brown pointed out, Bitcoin isn't a necessary ingredient in smartphones, electronics, jewelry, medicine, dentistry, aerospace, glassmaking, like gold is. http://geology.com/minerals/gold/uses-of-gold.shtml http://geology.com/minerals/gold/uses-of-gold.shtml Forget about US homes: How many homes in underdeveloped countries could one Bitcoin transaction power?
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
- shalmanese 9y ago
  You can already buy single use phone chargers at convenience stores which, while ecologically horrifying, also speaks to how the economics of mass manufacturing work. Then again, are single use phone chargers any more ecologically horrifying than non-rechargeable AA batteries or have they simply been around for much longer and have become mundane.
  - amiga-workbench 9y ago
    I recently saw those, I was shocked by both the price and the fact they were single use, surely a charging port and the extra circuitry would barely touch the BoM? I've got a battery bank integrated into my wallet anyway, so I won't be caught out.
    - grkvlt 9y ago
      Actually, I took apart a similar device, a single-use e-cigarette battery, and it turns out to be identical to the rechargeable version, except on the tiny PCB inside the chip for handling the charging from USB was absent. The battery was the same Li-ion rechargeable, supplied charged up for ~1 days usage. The economics of these cheap electronics are insane...
- ISL 9y ago
  And a new recycling waste stream.
  - sbarre 9y ago
    Fair enough, as long as that would actually happen. I live in the downtown of a major city and on a weekend morning the amount of flyer/advertising garbage that is strewn across the sidewalks and streets as a result of the previous night's flyering is always depressing. Even now with that all being paper, I'm sure most of it goes to the trash and not to recycling because of how ripped up and soiled it gets.
birdman3131 9y ago
You are missing the one reason this won't happen anytime soon. Battery tech.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- Robotbeat 9y ago
  Lithium-air battery would work. Additionally, you can use a sunlight-readable reflective display, which in principle only needs as much energy as an LCD, which is negligible. ...or imagine a display that includes a photovoltaic panel taking up most of the area of each pixel to power the device using ambient light, with a tiny electronically steerable LED that points in the direction of whoever is watching (and if multiple people are watching, just switch rapidly between them). The display would appear very bright but use so little energy that it could be powered by ambient light. In principle.
zokier 9y ago
Bit like this https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/6lgg5m/received_a_dell_emc_booklet_in_the_mail_with_an/ https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/6lgg5m/received_a...
- felipemnoa 9y ago
  I imagine that we will eventually reach this point: https://giphy.com/gifs/harry-potter-scream-newspaper-883Tl1MmwuTug https://giphy.com/gifs/harry-potter-scream-newspaper-883Tl1M... Fun to imagine that the Harry Potter Universe is really just a bunch of people that have inherited super advanced nano technology from some alien race that long ago arrived as refugees escaping some galactic war that devastated their planet. After millennia they've lost touch with their history and only their access to their old technology remains. Technology that can only be accessed via a DNA marker. This type of technology is able to bend space and time, hence the ability to jump through space.
thanatropism 9y ago
Tangential, but at some point of the last 15 years I thought the music industry might move to distributing what amounts to dedicated MP3 players/USB sticks. The simplest ones would be squares with album covers (shrunk like CD covers have shrunk from vinyl), but artists could get 3D creative. You could wear your music in necklaces or in your belt. People would flock to these things as conspicuous consumption (as they already do with tshirts, pin-buttons, etc) which would offset piracy. All of this is viable and cheaper than ever, but the culture has moved on.
- newbear 9y ago
  Had similar thought ... could be niche thing for stocking stuffers and museum store nicknacks
- michaelbuckbee 9y ago
  I can't even find a picture of one they were such a failure, but there was a time that what you're describing existed for AudioBooks. For a ridiculous markup (I think they were like $80+) you could buy an iPod sized device that held a single audiobook. They were gimmicked up to look like a tiny plastic hardcover with basic nav buttons on the side.
  - lb1lf 9y ago
    Fun, albeit sad fact: In Norway, 99% (quite literally, not exaggerating) of bookstores are owned by the various publishing houses. They've pushed an eBook standard where you buy a dedicated reader, then buy proprietary memory cards in sleeves much like the ones used for compact cassettes - the idea being that people want something tangible, even when buying eBooks. (The cynical among us assume they just invented that tangible bit to have people still come to tangible bookstores, but that is another story) It has not turned out to be a massive success. Cough.
    - thanatropism 9y ago
      Now to a tangent on a tangent. The advantages of the Scandinavian social-welfare systems are well-known. What are some (unrelated to the problem of funding welfare) economic problems faced by Norway? You just cited an interesting one. I remember a story about milk import restrictions, but I could be very mistaken. But anyway, between the effects of oil exports on exchange rates (alternatively, the problems of exchange rate controls), the relatively small domestic market, the limits on land occupation further North, etc. -- the economy of Norway must be fascinating.

sbarre 9y ago

Yeah except that would create massive amounts of electronics litter..

DonHopkins 9y ago
And Bitcoin doesn't?
- PhasmaFelis 9y ago
  Who said anything about Bitcoin?
  - DonHopkins 9y ago
    "Massive amounts of electronic litter" and "amazing how technology has advanced" into a mad rush to waste resources and energy reminded me of this fire, and all the obsolete PC's and GPU's and ASIC's and coal power plants littering the landscape due to Bitcoin mining: https://www.coindesk.com/gallery-fire-destroys-thai-bitcoin-mining-facility/ https://www.coindesk.com/gallery-fire-destroys-thai-bitcoin-... https://qz.com/1055126/photos-china-has-one-of-worlds-largest-bitcoin-mines/ https://qz.com/1055126/photos-china-has-one-of-worlds-larges... Bitcoin mining consumes enormous amounts of electricity, which is why miners seek out locations that offer cheap energy. The Ordos mine was set up in 2014, making it China’s oldest large-scale bitcoin mining facility. Bitmain acquired it in 2015. It’s powered by electricity mostly from coal-fired power plants. Its daily electricity bill amounts to $39,000. Bitmain also operates other mines in China’s remote areas, like the mountainous Yunnan province in the south and the autonomous region of Xinjiang in the west. http://fortune.com/2016/11/28/china-build-unnecessary-coal-plants/ http://fortune.com/2016/11/28/china-build-unnecessary-coal-p... Coal is a killer in China. Coal burning and the secondary effects of sulfate and nitrate contribute to almost half of the dangerous air pollutants in China's polluted cities, compared to 20% from car emissions.
    - andrepd 9y ago
      That (i) is absolutely irrelevant to the discussion at hand and (ii) a completely fallacious argument, since Bitcoin mining amounts to less than 0.01% of the world's energy consumption, providing a useful service in return (compare with gold mining, which is actual mindless busywork and consumes way more energy than Bitcoin does.
      - will_brown 9y ago
        As you type away your response on a smartphone or computer that contains gold (and other mined precious metals).
        andrepd 9y ago
        The gold used in industry amounts to only 5% of gold mined. The vast majority of gold is not mined for "practical" use.
      - semperdark 9y ago
        > less than 0.01% of the world's energy consumption Actually, it's 0.08% and rising. The energy for 1 transaction could power almost 6 U.S. homes for a full day. https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption
        DonHopkins 9y ago
        #Bitcoin enables Chinese entrepreneurs to export coal by burning it and using the energy to mine. — Emin Gün Sirer (@el33th4xor) July 20, 2015 https://www.buybitcoinworldwide.com/mining/china/ https://www.buybitcoinworldwide.com/mining/china/ Gold mining doesn't provide a useful service in return, huh? As will_brown pointed out, Bitcoin isn't a necessary ingredient in smartphones, electronics, jewelry, medicine, dentistry, aerospace, glassmaking, like gold is. http://geology.com/minerals/gold/uses-of-gold.shtml http://geology.com/minerals/gold/uses-of-gold.shtml Forget about US homes: How many homes in underdeveloped countries could one Bitcoin transaction power?
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
shalmanese 9y ago
You can already buy single use phone chargers at convenience stores which, while ecologically horrifying, also speaks to how the economics of mass manufacturing work. Then again, are single use phone chargers any more ecologically horrifying than non-rechargeable AA batteries or have they simply been around for much longer and have become mundane.
- amiga-workbench 9y ago
  I recently saw those, I was shocked by both the price and the fact they were single use, surely a charging port and the extra circuitry would barely touch the BoM? I've got a battery bank integrated into my wallet anyway, so I won't be caught out.
  - grkvlt 9y ago
    Actually, I took apart a similar device, a single-use e-cigarette battery, and it turns out to be identical to the rechargeable version, except on the tiny PCB inside the chip for handling the charging from USB was absent. The battery was the same Li-ion rechargeable, supplied charged up for ~1 days usage. The economics of these cheap electronics are insane...
ISL 9y ago
And a new recycling waste stream.
- sbarre 9y ago
  Fair enough, as long as that would actually happen. I live in the downtown of a major city and on a weekend morning the amount of flyer/advertising garbage that is strewn across the sidewalks and streets as a result of the previous night's flyering is always depressing. Even now with that all being paper, I'm sure most of it goes to the trash and not to recycling because of how ripped up and soiled it gets.

birdman3131 9y ago

You are missing the one reason this won't happen anytime soon. Battery tech.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
Robotbeat 9y ago
Lithium-air battery would work. Additionally, you can use a sunlight-readable reflective display, which in principle only needs as much energy as an LCD, which is negligible. ...or imagine a display that includes a photovoltaic panel taking up most of the area of each pixel to power the device using ambient light, with a tiny electronically steerable LED that points in the direction of whoever is watching (and if multiple people are watching, just switch rapidly between them). The display would appear very bright but use so little energy that it could be powered by ambient light. In principle.

zokier 9y ago

Bit like this https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/6lgg5m/received_a_dell_emc_booklet_in_the_mail_with_an/ https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/6lgg5m/received_a...

felipemnoa 9y ago
I imagine that we will eventually reach this point: https://giphy.com/gifs/harry-potter-scream-newspaper-883Tl1MmwuTug https://giphy.com/gifs/harry-potter-scream-newspaper-883Tl1M... Fun to imagine that the Harry Potter Universe is really just a bunch of people that have inherited super advanced nano technology from some alien race that long ago arrived as refugees escaping some galactic war that devastated their planet. After millennia they've lost touch with their history and only their access to their old technology remains. Technology that can only be accessed via a DNA marker. This type of technology is able to bend space and time, hence the ability to jump through space.

thanatropism 9y ago

Tangential, but at some point of the last 15 years I thought the music industry might move to distributing what amounts to dedicated MP3 players/USB sticks. The simplest ones would be squares with album covers (shrunk like CD covers have shrunk from vinyl), but artists could get 3D creative. You could wear your music in necklaces or in your belt. People would flock to these things as conspicuous consumption (as they already do with tshirts, pin-buttons, etc) which would offset piracy. All of this is viable and cheaper than ever, but the culture has moved on.

newbear 9y ago
Had similar thought ... could be niche thing for stocking stuffers and museum store nicknacks
michaelbuckbee 9y ago
I can't even find a picture of one they were such a failure, but there was a time that what you're describing existed for AudioBooks. For a ridiculous markup (I think they were like $80+) you could buy an iPod sized device that held a single audiobook. They were gimmicked up to look like a tiny plastic hardcover with basic nav buttons on the side.
- lb1lf 9y ago
  Fun, albeit sad fact: In Norway, 99% (quite literally, not exaggerating) of bookstores are owned by the various publishing houses. They've pushed an eBook standard where you buy a dedicated reader, then buy proprietary memory cards in sleeves much like the ones used for compact cassettes - the idea being that people want something tangible, even when buying eBooks. (The cynical among us assume they just invented that tangible bit to have people still come to tangible bookstores, but that is another story) It has not turned out to be a massive success. Cough.
  - thanatropism 9y ago
    Now to a tangent on a tangent. The advantages of the Scandinavian social-welfare systems are well-known. What are some (unrelated to the problem of funding welfare) economic problems faced by Norway? You just cited an interesting one. I remember a story about milk import restrictions, but I could be very mistaken. But anyway, between the effects of oil exports on exchange rates (alternatively, the problems of exchange rate controls), the relatively small domestic market, the limits on land occupation further North, etc. -- the economy of Norway must be fascinating.