The 25 WORST Tech Products Of All Time (so far)

MA-Caver

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CoryKS

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Say what you want about AOL, but I never had to buy 3.5 in. disks in the 90's.
 

Mark Jordan

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How about DivX and Sony eVilla? I think AOL did better than those 2.
 

Senjojutsu

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8 seconds in the microwave for the CD's was entertaining too...
I found a creative usage for all those unsolicited AOL CDs - by stringing them along a cord and hanging them in my garden as an anti-bird mechanism - as in a modern scarecrow.

Thanks Steve Case - BTW OFTEN RATED THE WORST CORPORATE MERGER EVER (AOL & TIME WARNER back in 2000)!

Funny they no longer list (superseded I guess through the ages) the APPLE III Business Computer back during the early 1980s. This dog almost broke the company - back when the Apple IIc & Apple IIe were their mainstays - before the first MACs.

It had an operating system named "SOS" for Sophisticated Operating System and nicknamed "THE SAUCE" - yes I am not making this up.
:barf:
 

Gnarlie

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Any Adobe or Java product, due to their merciless update frequency and inability to coordinate timing wise. Turn on Laptop. *An Adobe update is available - download now?* Yes. *Install now?* Yes. *You must reboot now to complete this update - Reboot Now?* Grr. Save Everything. Yes. Wait for reboot then open everything again, start to work. *A Java Update is available. Download Now?* FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
 

mmartist

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Any Adobe or Java product, due to their merciless update frequency and inability to coordinate timing wise. Turn on Laptop. *An Adobe update is available - download now?* Yes. *Install now?* Yes. *You must reboot now to complete this update - Reboot Now?* Grr. Save Everything. Yes. Wait for reboot then open everything again, start to work. *A Java Update is available. Download Now?* FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

Updates on Linux: "22 Packages need to be updated" -> OK; Meanwhile continue with your work; After the updates are installed just restart the updated apps or log off and on again. And you'll never be forced to stop working, LIKE A BOSS :ultracool
 

Dansolo

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I gotta say that ANYTHING that makes me have to restart Windows on installation or update is awful, especially stuff that has no reason to EVER require a reboot (like Adobe... anything)... Worse about Adobe products is updating them. They put out stupid incremental updates. We've still got Acrobat 7 and 8 licenses at my work and any time they make me stupidly install such an old version, I have to apply 10+ updates separately, and many of the updates require a reboot. I end up having to reboot 3-5 times.


My most hated tech companies: Apple, Apple, Apple, Apple, Apple, Oracle, and Adobe.
 
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mmartist

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My most hated tech companies: Apple, Apple, Apple, Apple, Apple, Oracle, and Adobe.

I have to say that Oracle have one product that do a great job. I'm talking about MySQL. In fact it IS NOT invented by Oracle, but now they own it so it makes the product theirs.
Anyway you forgot to mention Apple, Apple and... maybe Apple :)
 

Dansolo

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I have to say that Oracle have one product that do a great job. I'm talking about MySQL. In fact it IS NOT invented by Oracle, but now they own it so it makes the product theirs.
Anyway you forgot to mention Apple, Apple and... maybe Apple :)

Not a fan of MySQL, either. PostgreSQL is better in my opinion. I liked some of the Sun stuff they inherited. I run an Illumian server which is a descendant of Solaris (Solaris->OpenSolaris->Illumos+Debian->Illumian, to be specific). And I'm not a hater of Java, though it's not my language of choice. Also like VirtualBox. But Oracle as a company is terrible for all the lawsuits that I never support, and Larry Ellison is a douche. Right up there with the late SJ.
 

mmartist

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Absolutely agree about Oracle. About PostgreSQL and MySQL, both have their cons and pros..
 

Sukerkin

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Missed this thread when it was first posted, I am unhappy to say. Reading through the thumbnails of some of the nasties that have graced the field of software raised a wry smile of memory {Yeah, computer hardware pun attack! :D}.

I learned databases on dBase IV, so I owe it some nod of thanks as it was knowledge of database software that lead me to my present job {SCADA engineer (in simple terms making electrical substations work using remote operations systems)}. dBase IV was terrible tho' - mind you some days, when a database is suffering from what we call Trigger Rot, I don't think SQL is any better :lol:
 

Senjojutsu

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...I learned databases on dBase IV, so I owe it some nod of thanks as it was knowledge of database software that lead me to my present job {SCADA engineer (in simple terms making electrical substations work using remote operations systems)}. dBase IV was terrible tho' - mind you some days, when a database is suffering from what we call Trigger Rot, I don't think SQL is any better :lol:
:barf:
Ahhhhhhhhh DBASE IV 1.0 - and the memory floodgates open of being a cocooned new parent watching Miami Vice on Friday nights and then ZZ Top, 38 Special, A Flock of Seagulls and Bruce Springsteen videos et al. on a Cable TV channel called MTV or up late night on weekend nights as music videos played on several other channels such as NBC, USA Network... etc... etc.. etc... instead of learning coding.

Somewhere in personal storage I know I have a book called "PC Road Kill" that detailed the shooting stars of the early PC/DOS days - as in they lit up the sky as they were vaporizing into NOTHINGNESS.

For better or worse here is the write-up on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashton-Tate

Their Multi-Mate word processor was the first one I ever learned.

THEY OWNED THE PC DATABASE MARKET with dBase III+ - top of the heap, a crown jewel and then... on to the junkyard of PC history.

After their fall being sold to Borland and faced the headman's axe - many former employees for several years went to industry teckie conferences wearing a lapel badge with the word FATE; as in Former Ashton-Tate Employee.
 

Supra Vijai

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Officially 1% of the internet users still browse with IE6 :)

sadly that is my work, IE6 is still the default browser on the systems and the tech guys wouldn't let us install anything different until about 2 months ago when they caved and installed Firefox - still outdated though!!! All I can say is thank God for the ability to load stuff up off a USB drive
 

gregtca

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Well since its my job , what about windows B.S.D error codes like 0x0000007B , try and find an answer to that in win 2k , xp, vista or win7 the world might run on windows , but if it was a car no body would ever buy one !!!imagine buying a car and then replacing 1/2of it when a service pack came out !, oh did I mention IE9 , oh for the days of win98 & ie5, not to mention windows updates , gee luv computers , no more paper , save time , Facebook , I'm stopping here or I will never end ,

Regards

greg
 

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