Article

2007-07-24 -Short Attention Span Theater-

Top 10 Worst Technology Achievements over the last 40 Years

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Posted by Delphi 2007-07-24 11:15|| || Front Page|| [2 views ] Top

#1 1) The newton was ahead of it's time. The paradigm shift it required has not yet happened.

2) The PC Jr was good for the little kids. (Ghostbusters and Honeybee and Mouser) I still got a working one with the printer sidebar and 640k of ram, NEC processor, wireless keyboard and IBM CGA monitor. (Its been on the shelf since 1989) Paid $500 new for the thing... someday it will be worth $10. Youngest kid used to worship it by inserting coins. Repair was shake the coins out.

Iridium -- main problem was not understanding physics and marketplace.
All those steerable antennas would throw them off orbit so they became fly by joy-stick. Should have used phased array antennas to talk to neighbor sats. Signal does not penetrate hillsides with pine trees (or much of anything) requiring large handsets.
Market analysis was very faulty. Evolutionary history even more troubling and a direct sign post to Motorola's current troubled times.
A corporate Prez and renegade division that did not listen to the corporate and Land Mobile R&D (now both MotLabs) advice. Bush Sr. deeply involved as orig plan was to launch with MX missiles. Oops...

VR - gives a large percentage of the public massive headaches and nausea. That needs to be understood before VR can progress.

Posted by 3dc 2007-07-24 13:49|| 2007-07-24 13:49|| Front Page Top

#2 New Coke

Posted by danking_70 2007-07-24 14:19|| 2007-07-24 14:19|| Front Page Top

#3 Actually, 640kb RAM on the PC Jr was an enormous amount of memory compared to the original PC - 16kb or 64kb standard, not enough to run DOS 1.0.

Posted by phil_b 2007-07-24 15:54|| 2007-07-24 15:54|| Front Page Top

#4 I am surprised Windows operating environment and all the problems, crashes, spam etc. it has generated wasn't mentioned.

Posted by Jack is Back!">Jack is Back! 2007-07-24 16:29|| 2007-07-24 16:29|| Front Page Top

#5 3dc: VR - gives a large percentage of the public massive headaches and nausea. That needs to be understood before VR can progress.

Absolutely. I don't care how realistic the images are, I can't immerse myself for more than a few seconds before my balance goes haywire.

Posted by xbalanke 2007-07-24 17:05|| 2007-07-24 17:05|| Front Page Top

#6 I'd like to find whoever invented the term "Paperless Office" and drag them through thumbtacks then dip them in rubbing alcohol.

New Coke

As an odd converse to New Cokewhich had to be the most monumental case of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"I'd like to suggest 7^UP's slogan of "Never had it, never will".

Pause to consider how a simple advertising campaign costing less than some ten million dollars or so managed to fragment the marketing stratagies of Coca Cola, Pepsi and almost every other major cola producer except Jolt. Suddenly, each of them had to create new recipes, packaging, advertising and shelf space for caffeine-free products.

The makers of 7^UP did not have to introduce a single new product, alter its packaging or do anything but release a PR script. This had to be one of the most leveraged marketing campaigns in the history of advertising. Coca Cola and the other manufacturers probably lost untold millions of dollars in the scramble to realign their products.

Posted by Zenster">Zenster 2007-07-24 19:09|| 2007-07-24 19:09|| Front Page Top

#7 Zima - the worst thing to happen to maltose, ever.

Posted by no mo uro 2007-07-24 20:47|| 2007-07-24 20:47|| Front Page Top

#8 8-track format tapes.

Posted by Mike 2007-07-24 22:12|| 2007-07-24 22:12|| Front Page Top

#9 Beta video tapes.

I used to work at Woolworths years ago, I remember the first Laser Video Disks being sold. 8" plus inches in diameter. You could server a medium size turkey on them.

Posted by Delphi 2007-07-24 22:38|| 2007-07-24 22:38|| Front Page Top

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