Using a fixed gear bike in Seattle would be asinine, agreed. Within a relatively flat city, they make a lot of sense, however, and they're practically ideal for running short (< 3 mi, say) errands. They're mechanically simple and require practically no maintenance.
To push the analogy further, some of the buzz around couchDB reminds me of people obsessed with scaling (racing) without either any real understanding of algorithms (being in shape) or any chance of actually needing it (actually competing). That starts to sound more like a road cyclist with an expensive garage ornament, though... Fixed gear bikes are perhaps more like SQLite than couchDB, in that sense. They're actually really useful on a smaller scale.
I see where you're coming from on the hipster bit, just nitpicking.
To push the analogy further, some of the buzz around couchDB reminds me of people obsessed with scaling (racing) without either any real understanding of algorithms (being in shape) or any chance of actually needing it (actually competing). That starts to sound more like a road cyclist with an expensive garage ornament, though... Fixed gear bikes are perhaps more like SQLite than couchDB, in that sense. They're actually really useful on a smaller scale.
I see where you're coming from on the hipster bit, just nitpicking.