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Lemur
05-26-2006, 22:03
This should be a good source for laughs, gasps and lively debate. PCWorld magazine has selected its 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time (http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,125772,00.asp#). I can already tell from the first five entries that I'm going to disagree with quite a few of their candidates ...

1. America Online (1989-2006)

How do we loathe AOL? Let us count the ways. Since America Online emerged from the belly of a BBS called Quantum "PC-Link" in 1989, users have suffered through awful software, inaccessible dial-up numbers, rapacious marketing, in-your-face advertising, questionable billing practices, inexcusably poor customer service, and enough spam to last a lifetime. And all the while, AOL remained more expensive than its major competitors. This lethal combination earned the world's biggest ISP the top spot on our list of bottom feeders.

AOL succeeded initially by targeting newbies, using brute-force marketing techniques. In the 90s you couldn't open a magazine (PC World included) or your mailbox without an AOL disk falling out of it. This carpet-bombing technique yielded big numbers: At its peak, AOL claimed 34 million subscribers worldwide, though it never revealed how many were just using up their free hours.

Once AOL had you in its clutches, escaping was notoriously difficult. Several states sued the service, claiming that it continued to bill customers after they had requested cancellation of their subscriptions. In August 2005, AOL paid a $1.25 million fine to the state of New York and agreed to change its cancellation policies--but the agreement covered only people in New York.

Ultimately the Net itself--which AOL subscribers were finally able to access in 1995-- made the service's shortcomings painfully obvious. Prior to that, though AOL offered plenty of its own online content, it walled off the greater Internet. Once people realized what content was available elsewhere on the Net, they started wondering why they were paying AOL. And as America moved to broadband, many left their sluggish AOL accounts behind. AOL is now busy rebranding itself as a content provider, not an access service.

Though America Online has shown some improvement lately--with better browsers and e-mail tools, fewer obnoxious ads, scads of broadband content, and innovative features such as parental controls--it has never overcome the stigma of being the online service for people who don't know any better.

2. RealNetworks RealPlayer (1999)

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A frustrating inability to play media files--due in part to constantly changing file formats--was only part of Real's problem. RealPlayer also had a disturbing way of making itself a little too much at home on your PC--installing itself as the default media player, taking liberties with your Windows Registry, popping up annoying "messages" that were really just advertisements, and so on.

And some of RealNetworks' habits were even more troubling. For example, shortly after RealJukeBox appeared in 1999, security researcher Richard M. Smith discovered that the software was assigning a unique ID to each user and phoning home with the titles of media files played on it--while failing to disclose any of this in its privacy policy. Turns out that RealPlayer G2, which had been out since the previous year, also broadcast unique IDs. After a tsunami of bad publicity and a handful of lawsuits, Real issued a patch to prevent the software from tracking users' listening habits. But less than a year later, Real was in hot water again for tracking the habits of its RealDownload download-management software customers.

To be fair, RealNetworks deserves credit for offering a free media player and for hanging in there against Microsoft's relentless onslaught. We appreciate the fact that there's an alternative to Windows Media Player; we just wish it were a better one.

3. Syncronys SoftRAM (1995)

Back in 1995, when RAM cost $30 to $50 a megabyte and Windows 95 apps were demanding more and more of it, the idea of "doubling" your system memory by installing a $30 piece of software sounded mighty tempting. The 700,000 users who bought Syncronys's SoftRAM products certainly thought so. Unfortunately, that's not what they got.

It turns out that all SoftRAM really did was expand the size of Windows' hard disk cache--something a moderately savvy user could do without any extra software in about a minute. And even then, the performance boost was negligible. The FTC dubbed Syncronys's claims "false and misleading," and the company was eventually forced to pull the product from the market and issue refunds. After releasing a handful of other bad Windows utilities, the company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 1999. It will not be missed.

4. Microsoft Windows Millennium (2000)

This might be the worst version of Windows ever released--or, at least, since the dark days of Windows 2.0. Windows Millennium Edition (aka Me, or the Mistake Edition) was Microsoft's follow-up to Windows 98 SE for home users. Shortly after Me appeared in late 2000, users reported problems installing it, getting it to run, getting it to work with other hardware or software, and getting it to stop running. Aside from that, Me worked great.

To its credit, Me introduced features later made popular by Windows XP, such as system restore. Unfortunately, it could also restore files you never wanted to see again, like viruses that you'd just deleted. Forget Y2K; this was the real millennium bug.

5. Sony BMG Music CDs (2005)

When you stick a music CD into your computer, you shouldn't have to worry that it will turn your PC into a hacker's plaything. But that's exactly what Sony BMG Music Entertainment's music discs did in 2005. The discs' harebrained copy protection software installed a rootkit that made it invisible even to antispyware or antivirus software. Any moderately clever cyber attacker could then use the same rootkit to hide, say, a keylogger to capture your bank account information, or a remote-access Trojan to turn your PC into a zombie.

Security researcher Dan Kaminsky estimated that more than half a million machines were infected by the rootkit. After first downplaying the problem and then issuing a "fix" that made things worse, Sony BMG offered to refund users' money and replace the faulty discs. Since then, the record company has been sued up the wazoo; a federal court judge recently approved a settlement in the national class action suit. Making your machine totally vulnerable to attacks--isn't that Microsoft's job?

Sir Robin
05-26-2006, 22:58
Number 20: CueCat

Ugh, my wife loved that damn thing for about a week. I was so glad when she stopped using it and I stealthy drove over it with the car.:2thumbsup:

Big King Sanctaphrax
05-26-2006, 23:13
We appreciate the fact that there's an alternative to Windows Media Player; we just wish it were a better one.

It's called Winamp.

I agree on ME. I found out a while back that a friend of mine was running it, and was laughing for about half an hour.

edyzmedieval
05-27-2006, 11:34
:laugh4:

Nice top. :balloon2:

Rodion Romanovich
05-27-2006, 12:12
Yes to **** with RealPlayer! Someone submitted my email address to get to donwload the free RealPlayer, since then I've been plauged with their newsletter. Trying to unsubscribe that damn spam 10 times didn't help! If they don't stop spamming my email address I'll start hoping their company goes bancrupt, if that's the only way their spamming of me can stop!

edyzmedieval
05-27-2006, 16:12
AOL and RealPlayer are really a crap load.

I remember being spammed with AOL software when I had a 166MHZ computer(about 5 years ago!!!). :dizzy2:

Mikeus Caesar
05-27-2006, 20:46
#18, the IBM 'deathstar'. I still have one of them in my PC, it finally failed after four years, and is now sitting unused, waiting to be taken out and replaced. It was my D: Drive...

I also have another 'deathstar', unmercifully (and slowly) being taken apart so that i can examine it's innards, somewhere in my room.

EDIT: Doesn't the .Org occasionally get a spam attack of AOL pop-ups? I remember the last one being about two months ago.

discovery1
05-27-2006, 23:41
Few products literally stink, but this one did--or at least it would have, had it progressed beyond the prototype stage.

In 2001, DigiScents unveiled the iSmell, a shark-fin-shaped gizmo that plugged into your PC's USB port and wafted appropriate scents as you surfed smell-enabled Web sites--say, perfume as you were browsing Chanel.com, or cheese doodles at Frito-Lay.com. But skeptical users turned up their noses at the idea, making the iSmell the ultimate in vaporware.

WHAT! That is utterly absurd. :laugh4: :laugh4: :laugh4:

orangat
05-28-2006, 02:30
1. AOL - nuff said
2. realplayer - bloated piece of spyware - use real alternative
3. Softram - total scamware in either version for win3.1 or win95, aptly named placeboware by reviewers
4. WindowsME - pretty buggy, definitely a downgrade from win98se

hoom
05-28-2006, 03:33
The internet enabled toaster.
Not sure if it ever actually got to market after the fridge bombed though.

KukriKhan
05-28-2006, 13:46
My candidate for:

#26: Peapod.com, a grocery shopping and delivery service. It actually worked for a few months - we used it. But management burnt thru several million VC bucks like a sailor on shore leave, before they figured out just how expensive "last mile" delivery services are, and adjusted their prices accordingly. Then customers stayed away in droves. Pity.

caravel
05-31-2006, 11:05
#18, the IBM 'deathstar'. I still have one of them in my PC, it finally failed after four years, and is now sitting unused, waiting to be taken out and replaced. It was my D: Drive...

I also have another 'deathstar', unmercifully (and slowly) being taken apart so that i can examine it's innards, somewhere in my room.

EDIT: Doesn't the .Org occasionally get a spam attack of AOL pop-ups? I remember the last one being about two months ago.

I still have a 60GXP hanging around. It basically clicks and powers down after a bout 10 minutes, then it repeatedly tries to start up again before giving up altogether.

As to the AOL, Real, IE6, ME etc, I couldn't agree more. Junk products.

(The MAC "puck" mice were horrible as well.)

doc_bean
05-31-2006, 21:25
Philips cd-i was pretty bad.

Lemur
05-31-2006, 21:31
As much as it shames me to admit it, I bought one of the original 3DO's. I thought it was my portal into a gaming and multimedia future. Yes, it's true, the lemur is a schmuck.

(Although I really enjoyed playing Road Rash and Star Command on it ...)

hoom
05-31-2006, 23:24
HDCP is a good candidate for #1 I think.

fatsheep
06-01-2006, 01:37
I totally agree with their top pick. AOL sucks! :furious3:

LeftEyeNine
06-01-2006, 10:56
Not so well-known but there is an electronic music composer program series called Dane eJay which was all about easy drag&drop samples, import yours and arrange your tune. However they released such a crappy version Dance eJay 7 that they had to release a document to tell about the way to import your samples..That summarizes it all.

By the way, I can't disagree with Real Player indeed, worst stuff PC world ever seen.

hoom
06-03-2006, 02:33
I dunno, I really liked the way that the Real Player library worked.
Also it had a good fast ripper.

With a good firewall it didn't phone home.

Divine Wind
06-03-2006, 04:09
AOL was my first ever ISP, how embarrasing...and yes it was bloody awful. I had a 56k modem, but would only connect at around 8k. It was difficult to even connect to MSN messenger...GAH!

Realplayer is a plague. I just did a check on my PC and i didnt even realise i had it, but oh yes...it was there.

naut
06-03-2006, 13:27
I have an AOL CD in my house, I use it as a couster for drinks.

Funny site though :laugh4:

Mikeus Caesar
06-03-2006, 17:10
Realplayer is a plague. I just did a check on my PC and i didnt even realise i had it, but oh yes...it was there.

I noticed that i had Realplayer on my PC a week ago, wiped it off the face of the Earth. My PC runs slightly quicker now.

On a side note, at the time of writing this, you have exactly 1000 posts.

BDC
06-04-2006, 14:36
RealPlayer has its uses.

I always make sure I disable all of its services and refuse to register though.