The Speculist: The Future is Waiting

[Note: This entry is staying at the top for a while, until everyone gets the chance to try out the new Future Prediction website and it starts to take on a life of its own.]

NEWER UPDATE: Ning is back. Here's an interesting prediction, seemingly related to this entry.

UPDATE: As of 7:45 AM Mountain time, Ning is still down, even though we're well past midnight pacific time -- the promised deadline for being back up and running. Stay tuned.

OLDER UPDATE: Now the predictions are starting to trickle in. New predictions range from the thought-provoking to the vastly unlikely, the practical and discussion-worthy, and the downright creepy. Plus, at least one takes us to new heights, transcending imagination and inspiration. Moreover, a self-proclaimed gleeful sociopath is getting in on the fun. Who's next?

Hey, I thought you people were interested in the future. We're getting no action on our new Future Prediction website. None. Zip. A few brave souls the first couple of days and then total radio silence.

<nagging> Night and day, day and night, work my fingers to the bone trying to give you all a nice place to talk about the future and this is the thanks I get? Well, I just hope you're all proud of yourselves. </nagging>

Background information here. The Prediction site itself is here.

For those who inquired about my special <nagging> tag -- that's just the tip of the iceberg. Let's hope I don't have to use any of these:

<rant>

Comments

Part of that might be that the site doesn't work very well. It's *very* slow loading and/or completely broken. As in, after a full minute trying to get all the predictions, I gave up. And before you ask, no, I'm not on a 1200 baud modem or anything. 1-3mb/sec cable modem and a dual G5 mac for me.

Posted by: Jim Strickland | June 21, 2006 12:44 PM

Well, Jim, I'm just plain disappointed. You could have gone with fire, flood, earthquake, but your excuse is that it doesn't work?

No points for originality, I'm afraid.

But seriously. In an attempt to "recreate the problem" as they say in tech support circles, I experienced a similar lag in getting the All Predictions page to load. I can't figure out what the problem there is -- must be a Ning thing! However, I refreshed the page and tried again and then it loaded just fine.

BTW, if you ever do get that page to load, it takes you to an index of topics, which you can use to drill down to various predictions. If you want to see a larger list of predictions, click on Most Viewed.

Sorry for the problems. Thanks a lot for giving it a go. I'll try to see what's behind the delays.

Posted by: Phil Bowermaster | June 21, 2006 01:07 PM

Hey Phil, I've run into a different problem. I click 'rate' on predictions I know I haven't yet rated, and it just gives me the rating without giving me the chance to add my own.

Posted by: MattShultz | June 21, 2006 09:57 PM

Matt --

Are you sure you're logged into Ning? Ratings are the one activity that require a Ning account.

Posted by: Phil Bowermaster | June 22, 2006 08:05 AM

My favorite Grandpa Simpson moment was when he was a Sprawl-Mart greeter and got buried by the avalance of garden gnomes:

Grampa: "Someone's gotta greet the customers."
Homer: "Ah, they'll be fine."
Grampa: "No, they're helpless without a greeting. Look at 'em."

[Customers wondering around in circles, walking into the wall, etc.]

Granda: "Make me proud...or at least less ashamed."

Posted by: Stephen Gordon | June 22, 2006 08:45 AM

Stephen --

Some good stuff here. My personal favorite is the one about wearing an onion in his belt (second page.)

Posted by: Phil Bowermaster | June 22, 2006 09:43 AM

http://www.blog.speculist.com/archives/000832.html

Toldjaso.

Posted by: Acksiom | June 23, 2006 01:15 AM

The Speculist

Live to see it.

The Future is Waiting

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