the 25 worst electronic gadgets of the past 30 years

LibertyCabbage · Post by **LibertyCabbage** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 10:00 am

boop-boop-beep-boop-boop-beep-boop-boop-beep-boop.

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eeeeee-EEEEEEE-eeeeeee, heeeeyyyy-youuuu-UUUUU-SCHHHHHhhhhh.... SCHHHHHHhhhhh.... bzzt, SCHHHHhhhhh, SCHhhhhhh......

schhhhhh.....

schhhhhh.....

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Dr Legostar · Post by **Dr Legostar** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 10:01 am

i always liked pointing out that those AOL commercials had bad grammar, they always said "there's never been a better time to join AOL" when it should have been "there's never been a GOOD time to join AOL."

Terotrous · Post by **Terotrous** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 10:04 am

I had the IOmega Zip drive too. It always worked well for me. 100 meg floppy disks? What's not to like about that?

I never had any of the reported data loss issues in all the years I had it. Normal floppy disks were far more prone to error.

Post by **Kisai** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 10:16 am

Uhhh AOL BOUGHT all the online services (I know they bought compuserv, and I know compuserv bought someone else...)

Anyway other than real player, I've not had to touch any of that junk.

I usually wound up "breaking" real player in some way ... even current versions if I absolutely-cant-listen-to-it-with-anything-else. Sometimes I could listen to stuff, sometimes I had to click through a mess of boxes... I usually just 'installed it' and then only click on links, forget the real player configuration, forget registering, forget paying for it, nobody should pay for crap products.

Rock_dash · Post by **Rock_dash** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 11:17 am

There was a zip drive on the refurbished compy we bought my mom. We never even used that thing and it was a pain in the ass. All I wanted to do was delete the desktop shortcut for it, and it wouldn't let me. I'd delete it, and at the next restart, it would be back. I finally ended up unplugging the thing from the inside, but I left it in the case because I didn't have something to plug the space it would have left in the front of the case.

Also, comet cursors. I had the same problem TM did, with stupid people installing it in middle school because they thought it was 'cool'. Same with Bonzi Buddy.

Col · Post by **Col** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 11:19 am

I'm another one who never had problems with the zip disks and found them to be pretty useful. If it had to be on the list, it should be farther back.

MixedMyth · Post by **MixedMyth** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 11:22 am

They use AOL dial up at work.

It hurts meeeeeeeee.

RobertBlake · Post by **RobertBlake** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 12:20 pm

theSuburbanLetdown wrote:AOL introduced the internet to the masses. Too bad about the crap interface and shadey busniess practices. My mom had a hell of a time cancelling our old account a few years back.

Yeah. Something like $25 a month for crappy service, too. Although, they've lowered the price to $14.95, but it still isn't any better.

Siabur · Post by **Siabur** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 3:15 pm

legostargalactica wrote:yes, once they have you, they never let go. You basically have to cancel the credit card you're paying with.

I've done that. And they still sent me bills.

I've never had a problem with any zip drives and two of them are 12 years old.

Most of the items on that list are why I use only macs.

Dr Legostar · Post by **Dr Legostar** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 4:11 pm

Col wrote:I'm another one who never had problems with the zip disks and found them to be pretty useful. If it had to be on the list, it should be farther back.

we still use zip drives at work, there are some computers in the department that you can't get information off of or onto any other way.

Col · Post by **Col** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 4:43 pm

legostargalactica wrote:
Col wrote:I'm another one who never had problems with the zip disks and found them to be pretty useful. If it had to be on the list, it should be farther back.
we still use zip drives at work, there are some computers in the department that you can't get information off of or onto any other way.

Yeah, same with us. I don't really see them going anywhere anytime soon, despite Apple not putting zip drives into their computers anymore.

[geoduck] · Post by **[geoduck]** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 7:22 pm

I'm a regular Zip drive user; I store backups of my comic on both Zip and CD. When Zips work, they work great, but yes, I have had one die on me. (Fortunately it was old one that I didn't really need anymore..)

Another advantage of Zips is that you can always get cheap blanks on eBay..

McDuffies · Post by **McDuffies** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 7:59 pm

OBS wrote:Real player is just an on-going battle against humanity.

I honestly don't know how the author of that article can cite Real Player's saving grace as "an alternative to WMP". What?! Just because you equate the word 'alternative' with being better than mainstream products doesn't mean it is. I'm sure just saying the word 'alternative' makes the author feel like he's championed a victory against that awful Microsoft and "the machine". Somewhat similar to people think they are doing when they listen to 'alternative music' or eat 'alternative foods' or get filled up with crap from 'alternative news outletts'.

Alternative (anything) does not mean it's a better product.

I totally didn't read article that way. Competition is a good thing in industry, and I read the "alternative" comment as in it's good that there is more than one such product in the market, because even if alternative is bad, that still has it's benefits in big picture.
I don't think he meant the world "alternative" as oposite to "mainstream". I think he meant it simply as "other". I also felt that "Alternative" was meant with just a pinch of sarcasm, too, being that in the same sentence he anknowledges what crappy alternative it is.
He says nowhere that Real Player is better than Windows player. In fact, he spends a few paragraphs stating how awful it is, and even in the same sentence, he bothers to restate that.