The Top 21 Tech Flops

PetManimal writes "Whatever happened to Digital Audio Tape? Or Circuit City's DIVX program? Or IBM's PCjr. and the PS/1? Computerworld's list of 21 biggest tech flops is an amusing trip down the memory lane of tech failures. Some are obvious (Apple Newton), while others are obscure (Warner Communications' QUBE). Strangely, Y2K didn't make the list."

Comments

Re:Why would Y2K make the list?

[funkdancer]

What's this bullshit with car maintenance. They tell me I have to spend $250 every 6 months, and I do it, and my car STILL doesn't brake down or have any issues. Bloody rip off.

Re:Print Version

[BlueCollarCamel]

Apparently you have to actually check the box for it to work...

Speech recognition

[vivaoporto]

From TFA:

Over the years, Bill Gates (among others) has repeatedly predicted that speech recognition will be a major form of input, but it hasn't happened yet.

That's not true. I'm posting this comment using a Windows Vista speech recognition software and Dear Aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all.

FTFA - learn binary please

[guruevi]

Quote: proving once again that in the warped universe of techno-hype, one plus one can equal zero.

In the techno universe, we do binary, and 1 plus 1 will always yield 0 with a 1 in the overflow bin.

But Microsoft Bob had an amazing effect

[stox]

It got Bill Gates laid, and a wife. That, alone, was worth the cost of development.

Re:Lisa was a step, not a bomb

[bitt3n]

Lisa was a step, not a bomb

so it was a bomb that people stepped on. let's compromise and call it a landmine.

Bob really sucked

[EmbeddedJanitor]

Bob had a very interesting attitude towards security, since tightened up a bit with XP and Vista. Type in the wrong password three times and a help message popped up "You seem to be having problems remembering your password. Would you like to pick another one?"

Bob was, however by far the most innovative UI MS ever produced. It just innovated in a direction that nobody wanted to go!