At times like this, there's only one thing Microsoft can do: launch a preemptive vaporware response.
Originally slated for release in 1998, Duke Nukem Forever became the most infamous example of vaporware in history.
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Yet for many companies in the industry, it is just vaporware and hype.
So what does vaporware have to do with Carbon Capture and Storage, known by policy wonks as CCS?
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It gives you that warm, fuzzy feeling to know that the hotness you're gazing at is something more than vaporware.
It requires constant vigilance against scam clinics, crooked providers, rogue labs, pill mills, vaporware vendors, and a scuzfest of health care bottom-feeders.
Flying cars have been doing this whole vaporware thing long before Duke Nukem Forever was even a twinkle in 3D Realms' eye.
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The more ambitious, and potentially vaporware bit, is Envizions' hopes for the system as a game development platform and a cloud computing device of sorts.
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If (the conditional is a requirement here) it does, that day will put an end to one of the most infamous cases of vaporware ever.
Originally set for release in the summer of 1998, the game has become game-industry shorthand for vaporware, a product which would never see the light of day.
There was one snag: The system wasn't finished but IBM's aggressive posture had essentially frozen CDC's sales (sounds like the vaporware tactics that Microsoft is often accused of).
The term vaporware has both malign and benign connotations.
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Under most circumstances, we'd label its flagship xPC as vaporware, but there does seem to be progress, which gives us some hope that the modular computer solution will finally be available sometime this year.
For a while, it looked like ASUS' Transformer Book would turn out to be vaporware: after debuting to much fanfare a year ago, it encountered numerous delays, and even missed the crucial holiday shopping season.
But from his perch within the company, it looked like a lot of vaporware wrapped up in fancy Cambridge talk and the kind of accounting tricks managers have engaged in since the dawn of publicly traded stock.
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So is CCS an example of vaporware?
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First came the much-maligned, binocular-like Solid Eye gaming attachment that will ship with Metal Gear Acid 2, then came the now-it's- vaporware-now-it's- real PSP2TV, well, PSP-to-TV adapter, and now we've spotted yet another TV adapter solution, the PSP on TV.
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Having been burned oh so many times by the notorious Phantom from Infinium Labs -- perhaps the most infamous piece of vaporware this side of Duke Nukem Forever -- we're more than a little skeptical of any company that comes out of nowhere to offer a "media entertainment console" targeted at gamers.
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