The 25 worst Tech products of all time

[RedjackRyan]

http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/artic...72,pg,1,00.asp

[DaveM]

Who could possibly forget the Apple III, IIgs, and Lisa? Not to mention the Atari ST? Or the Commodore PET and VIC-20? Or (my personal favorite) the Sinclair (later Timex-Sinclair) ZX-80? No, it did not take a licking and keep on ticking.

One could probably make a list of far more than 25 DOS-based "IBM compatibles" that weren't.

Oh, and how about Hewlett-Packard scientific calculators, with their delightful Reverse Polish Notation (honestly, that's what it's called!)?

If one expands the tech horizon to include things that are not ocmputer-related, there are always two of my favorites: 8-track tape players and quadraphonic stereo.

[Bat]

Oh, and how about Hewlett-Packard scientific calculators, with their delightful Reverse Polish Notation (honestly, that's what it's called!)?

I had one, and absolutely Loved reverse Polish...so logical and so fast, very little room for error, and no stopping between types of calculations. It was very smart, and I have never learned to work the conventional types nearly as easily nor as accurately as reverse Polish. It takes a little getting used to in the beginning, but afterwards, you wonder why anyone would do it any other way. ..jmho, of course.

[Marcia Drummergal]

As soon as I saw Dave post about the "reverse-Polish" calculator, I KNEW Bat would respond to it! She still misses that calculator!!

Marcia

[DaveM]

I believe they're still available...if not, there is of course always eBay....

[Eva]

Ha! The Iomega Zipdrive. I have one and luckily it works just fine...

Eva

[DaveM]

I, too, have a ZIP drive, which I bought back when 6 megs when a BIG HD and external HDs weren't available yet. I can't remember the last time I used it, and I doubt I could even backup my e-mail Inbox on one disk any more.

Still, it's a use for the parallel port....

[Kathleen Brogan]

What about the Recovac? The machine that you placed your Lps in to clean, and the static it caused put the original as well as brand new dirt and dust onto your vinyl. Well, it's true they said the worst technology, not the worst archeology!

[DaveM]

Most likely any K-Tel or Ronco product would be more than worthy, but you have to draw the line somewhere.

I still feel for everyone who got a Veg-o-Matic as a wedding gift. And then presumably had to use it when the giver was visiting.

[MadMusician]

Back when CD players first came out - I went out and bought a multiple disc Sony player. But I didn't trust it. I heard that DAT players would take over the market but we all had to wait for the price to come down. So I waited...

I never liked the sound quality of cassettes, they didn't make 8-tracks and I was having trouble finding albums. If I wanted to buy anything new, I was out of luck. So I finally broke down and bought the player along with a few CD's to get me started.

Playing the same album (Anita Baker), my ex-husband and I took turns flipping the switch between vinyl and CD while the other had their back turned. We both agreed that the LP was better sounding.

I didn't want to get stuck with music in more formats that would become obsolete so I returned the CD player and gave away the CD's.