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Maes

Most useless technologies/products?

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How about a Bulletproof Ipod Case?

EDIT:
As cracked.com put it nicely:

"Let us ask you a question: What do you like about your iPod? It's small size? It's sleek, sexy shape? Perhaps you like the way it can fit in your pocket without ripping through and sliding down your leg? Or the fact that people don't give you horrified, repulsed looks every time you pull it out? All of these benefits are lost when you use the Bulletproof iPod Case.

Though we admit it would make a nice blunt weapon if things should turn ugly.
"

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I don't understand why they're making it sound like it will protect your iPod from a bullet. Sure, it might stop a small calibre round from going through it, but the force of impact from any bullet is going to shatter every single thing inside that case.

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On the Slim Clip, will it stand up to the "Will it Blend?" guy's blender?

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Dedicated PC FM radios, in any format. Overpriced for what they do, unless you can get ahold of them for a dime a dozen, and they can programmed to listen to something other than the commercial 88-108 MHz FM band.

These made even less sense back in the 90s, where not everybody had a full-duplex capable soundcard, or even a soundcard with a proper mixer in order to actually hear it without using second set of speakers. Even more pointless today since TV tuner cards can usually tune in to FM radio too, but wtf is it with that trend that PCs should be used for everything, anyway?

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The IF filter's passband is usually way to wide for the two-way services above and below the FM broadcast band.


Image scanner adapter for dot-matrix printers <I'm not making this up> Manufactured by Seymor-Radix, they use a pair of optical fibres mounted on the print-head and an A/D converter to turn a printer that might otherwise be discarded into a low-to-medium resolution greyscale scanner.

Colour kits for dot-matrix printers - interchangable blue, red and yellow ribbon cartridges for people who don't mind printing the same page four times. Mind you - until recently most printer manufacturers adopted a similar design philosopy with their colour lasers, the main difference being you don't have to physically swap cartridges.

Light pens - the novelty of being able to draw on the monitor soon wears off.

HWGuy said:

The LS-120 disk drive. At the time, I thought it was a boon for it to use 1.44 MB floppies as well as its own 120 MB floppies. I hadn't realized at the time Zip drives were far more widespread and damn near nobody used LS-120.

I still use Zip drives for Amiga-PC files transfers.

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Maes said:

The Programme Delivery Control aka as "Video Programming System". which was supposed to allow for ad-free recordings by part of a VCR.

Dunno how popular it was elsewhere, but it was utterly useless in Greece and Italy, since not even major stations (especially private TV stations) implemented it. Thinking about it, they had no incentive: the technology had costs on their side, and it might even void their advertising contracts if they provided a means for skipping ads themselves.


It was quite popular in Germany even though some stations did not implement it. But none skipped the commercial breaks with it.

Same thing for VCR plus codes, although I've seen those in action a few times. Leaving aside the folklore about how hard it is to program a VCR, I've seen very few VCRs actually supporting them and very few TV guides carrying codes for their shows. Which are made moot anyway because of ads.


I think that this was one of the most retarded inventions ever. So it is easier to enter a random number than a meaningful date? Ridiculous!

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Graf Zahl said:

It was quite popular in Germany even though some stations did not implement it. But none skipped the commercial breaks with it.


Then what was it "used" for? O_o

Graf Zahl said:

I think that this was one of the most retarded inventions ever. So it is easier to enter a random number than a meaningful date? Ridiculous!


Perversely, yes and no: of course it makes more sense entering date, channel and time, but the steps to find out how and where do so especially with a VCR without an OSD could be quite complex. IMHO, what actually made it more complex than setting e.g. an alarm clock was that there were more than one timers, not so much the fact that you had to add an additional date and channel.

My old Telefunken VCR had 8 timers which could be programmed on the remote itself (which had its own LCD screen and memory), and then had to be transferred over to the VCR. My current Funai 6-head VCR has a full OSD display for the same task, so it should be easier.

The idea with VHS plus is that you just hit a "VHS plus" button, enter some digits, and you automagically have date, time and channel set for you in one step, instead of 3, 4, or 10 it normally takes. It's much like using a keyboard shortcut instead of going the "logical" way of opening the menus in the right order etc. If you teach somebody that "Ctrl-S" saves but you never show him the File->Save menu and all of its intricacies, it's obvious he'll prefer the shortcut. Same with people that use cut-n-paste keyboard shortcuts, but can't locate the same function on the menu (or viceversa).

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Maes said:

Then what was it "used" for? O_o

Skipping the show, of course!

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MikeRS said:

Skipping the show, of course!


VPS in reverse? As is "record anything and everything but the show aired on date XX/XX/XX at time YY:YY on channel ZZ"?

Wow, that would be useless indeed (and raises interesting metaphysical questions as to how they would implement it). About as useful as a COMEFROM statement in programming.

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Since when can't you simply do push ups on the ground, on the floor, etc.?

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Maes said:

Then what was it "used" for? O_o



The main use was to ensure to tape what you want to tape, even if the show is delayed. For that it worked quite well.

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Graf Zahl said:

The main use was to ensure to tape what you want to tape, even if the show is delayed. For that it worked quite well.


Hmm...the "VPS" feature on my old Telefunken VHS said that it looked for a special signal that allowed it to discern between desired shows and ads (which didn't have the signal, so recording paused during those).

Still, a PITA for stations to implement/bother programming correctly, and then again, the hell they cared if you taped some ads along with a show. Thus, I always planned ahead when recording, by allowing 30 minutes of extra recording time for each "good" hour of recorded show, when I couldn't manually oversee the recording.

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Jodwin said:

Since when can't you simply do push ups on the ground, on the floor, etc.?


Apparently, from the day it proved too rough and tough for a "Navy SEALS platoon commander" to handle.

Well, such is the way of the world. Not everyone can be as tough as the elite PASKAL unit. Tough shit, cookie pus.

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In my opinion the most useless things are as follows:
1. USB Flash drives. They have never worked for me. And I don't mean I can't use them, I mean they break within the first week of ownership be it from static, washing, snapping, or snow-blowing. Lets go back to floppies or ZIP disks already. Optical media is fine, but I hate when I have to use 4GB disc for some 20k file that I want to destroy as soon as possible (school projects).
2. Touchpads: worst pointing device ever made. They are always insensitive, unresponsive (well the wrong response more than not responding), or otherwise painful to use. Everyone should use a trackpoint.
3. Digital distribution. I'll take a hard copy or not buy something at all. My ability to use what I buy 30 years from now should not be limited by if the server still exists. I know some are DRM free and can be written to CD, but why not just sell a pressed CD.
4. Flash cards. No one really has the ability to read them without using their camera or something. And even then the chances they can read your format is slim. Fortunately SD has more or less become a standard so this has been limited, but seriously how many format do there need to be?
5. Wireless networking. In fact just about anything that is wireless doesn't work. I don't know why people like it so much. Particularly the people who use wireless to connect to some device sitting in a range of 5 ft.

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Blzut3 said:

Stuff about USB drives and Flash cards


Dunno how bad an experience you had with USB storage, but it surely beats any currently available alternative in storage, speed and price. Having one break from static or from snow/washing etc. indicate that you need "ruggedized" or even mil-spec ones, or that you're just too clumsy. Most busted and corrupted USB drives I've seen resulted from not properly "safely disabling" them before disconnecting. To your point however, I've seen a lot of busted MP3 players for no apparent reason.

If we went back to floppies, ZIP drives and packet written CDs/DVDs, you'd soon see why we moved on. Fully agree on the 20k on a DVD thing though...or 1 MB on a CD: stupid waste of media and money. I'd happily use floppy disks for sneaking files under 1 MB, if only you could find decent floppies that don't give read errors after 3 reads today. CD-RW are only a partial answer, as authoring a disc is always slower than just dragging files on it, and multisession/packet writing suck ass for compatibility.

About flash cards...yeah, there used to be a crapload of formats, but things have pretty much standardized: SD for most devices, Memory Sticks for anything made by Sony/Matsushita, x-D cards for some Olympus cameras and that's about it. MMC is practically compatible with SD, while smartmedia and compactflash are pretty much out of the market. So unless you buy a Sony device, SD will do. And universal card readers are dirt cheap, even LIDL sells them by now.

Fully agree on the wireless thing. I can't even stand those "wireless bluetooth headphones". Great. So you pay for a POS that needs its own battery (and some models can cost more than a new cell phone!) and eliminates the need for using a 50 cm cord between your phone and your ear, or even using the phone as it is. Where do I sign up?

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Maes said:

If we went back to floppies, ZIP drives and packet written CDs/DVDs, you'd soon see why we moved on.

Seeing why we moved on would require having moved on myself. ;)

Also, I have had about 5 USB flash drives and all of them are broken. Well the one that snapped still works, but it's really difficult to plug in.

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Blzut3 said:
they break within the first week of ownership be it from static, washing, snapping, or snow-blowing


I don't think you're supposed to wash them or take them out in the snow. I've had three USB drives and haven't had any break, one is even six years old. However I have seen people that had drives become corrupt weeks after buying them. It's like any other recordable media, I've had bad batches of CD-Rs and floppies.

Also as others have pointed out, anything ordered from a TV commercial is guaranteed crap. My family bought one of those plastic pasta strainers. The problem was that after you strain it, the high temperature warps/melts the plastic. We couldn't use it the second time and had to throw it out.

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Blzut3 said:

In my opinion the most useless things are as follows:

Wow. And I thought I had a contrary-to-norm opinion of the world. All of those things are awesome!

Most laptops and pre-built PCs come with card readers these days. WiFi originally was a crap technology, but it has improved over time. It does ok for residential internet access, but sucks for serious reliable data transfer.

The trackpoint (aka: clitmouse) is probably one of the worst, unintuitive pointing devices ever made. Not to mention those ridiculous replaceable rubber caps that go sticky within months. I think mice-replacements are alot better without consumables.

And maybe stop exposing your USB thumb drives to water? Cheap media is unreliable, but I've always bought good brand-name stuff which gets good reviews in transfer speed, and have never had a drive die yet.

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Blzut3 said:

3. Digital distribution. My ability to use what I buy 30 years from now should not be limited by if the server still exists.

Then there's DD's bastard half-brother - Product Activation <shudder>. I'm still trying to work out how to migrate my MusicMatch Plus account to a new setup. :(

5. Wireless networking. In fact just about anything that is wireless doesn't work. I don't know why people like it so much. Particularly the people who use wireless to connect to some device sitting in a range of 5 ft.

I couldn't care less for wireless mice, keyboards or headsets but would be lost without my access point. Cat 5 cable isn't recommended for outdoor use and hiring a contractor to bury the stuff point-to-point - let alone wire the house - is prohibitive, that's the main reason I went wireless. The technology works well enough so long as you're willing to work within it's shortcomings. In my case the major problem is congestion - I've gone from having the only access point in the neighbourhood to using directional antennas to minimise interference from the neighbours.

If I could lay my hands on some cheap optical fibre network cards I'd dig the cable trenches with my bare hands.

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Blzut3 said:

In my opinion the most useless things are as follows:


Ouch!

1. USB Flash drives. They have never worked for me. And I don't mean I can't use them, I mean they break within the first week of ownership be it from static, washing, snapping, or snow-blowing. Lets go back to floppies or ZIP disks already. Optical media is fine, but I hate when I have to use 4GB disc for some 20k file that I want to destroy as soon as possible (school projects).


Personally, I'm glad that these shitty disk formats are dying. They are slow, unreliable and just a pain to use.

2. Touchpads: worst pointing device ever made. They are always insensitive, unresponsive (well the wrong response more than not responding), or otherwise painful to use. Everyone should use a trackpoint.


Can't say much about touchpads. I never used them. But a trackpoint? Thank you, but no, thank you!

3. Digital distribution. I'll take a hard copy or not buy something at all. My ability to use what I buy 30 years from now should not be limited by if the server still exists. I know some are DRM free and can be written to CD, but why not just sell a pressed CD.


Concerning DRM I agree. DRM-polluted merchandise is an absolute no-go for me (unless it's easily circumvented (*cough - iTunes - cough*).) But what's so bad about DRM-free offers? It allows me to get some stuff I wouldn't have a chance to purchase normally. Just imagine one of those CDs with 10 songs of which only one is good. Why buy the whole thing when you can get what you like for far less money?

4. Flash cards. No one really has the ability to read them without using their camera or something. And even then the chances they can read your format is slim. Fortunately SD has more or less become a standard so this has been limited, but seriously how many format do there need to be?


As many as there are manufacturers. :D Normally most will die a slow and costly death for their inventors. That's business.
Still, yet another good example of how the lack of standards can ruin an idea.

5. Wireless networking. In fact just about anything that is wireless doesn't work. I don't know why people like it so much. Particularly the people who use wireless to connect to some device sitting in a range of 5 ft.


Because some people loathe cables. I'm happy with my wireless keyboard/mouse and my phone, BTW. No cable gets ever stuck anymore, making work a lot more comfortable.

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GreyGhost said:

I've gone from having the only access point in the neighbourhood to using directional antennas to minimise interference from the neighbours.


Get something like NetStumbler and do a wireless survey. Basically, sit there changing the wireless channel on your AP, watch the signal strength of your SSID change at the connecting node. Stick with the channel that provides the best coverage. There are about 12 wireless channels one can use, though manufacturers tend to stick to three major ones by default. Maybe you can find one that doesn't interfere so badly with the surrounding APs. This made a massive difference in the last CBD apartment I lived in.

All forms of DRM are crap and should be outlawed.

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Graf Zahl said:

Personally, I'm glad that these shitty disk formats are dying. They are slow, unreliable and just a pain to use.

I still have data on my ZIP disks well over a week after putting the data on them, but maybe that's just me. I still don't understand how people can use USB drives without them breaking, but I do know this is an argument I can not win.

Graf Zahl said:

Concerning DRM I agree. DRM-polluted merchandise is an absolute no-go for me (unless it's easily circumvented (*cough - iTunes - cough*).) But what's so bad about DRM-free offers? It allows me to get some stuff I wouldn't have a chance to purchase normally. Just imagine one of those CDs with 10 songs of which only one is good. Why buy the whole thing when you can get what you like for far less money?

The single song thing is a common point I see, but I recently found the counter-argument: most of the songs I hear considered to be "good" are released as singles. Which if I'm not mistaken are released at a lower price than the full album.

Though a big problem with digital distribution, how do you resale something purchased with digital distribution? Right, you can't. So this means any thing bought through digital distribution has a value of $0.00, which is what I'm willing to pay for it.

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Blzut3 said:

The single song thing is a common point I see, but I recently found the counter-argument: most of the songs I hear considered to be "good" are released as singles. Which if I'm not mistaken are released at a lower price than the full album.


Yes, a single costs €5 but for the single song I only have to pay €0.99. Some price difference!


Though a big problem with digital distribution, how do you resale something purchased with digital distribution? Right, you can't. So this means any thing bought through digital distribution has a value of $0.00, which is what I'm willing to pay for it.


That's only valid if you don't factor in resale loss. None of the stuff I bought online so far was available in a form that would have cost me less, even if I had resold the CDs right after ripping the songs off them.

Of course for full albums, I always buy CDs. Digital downloads for that are pretty much useless.

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The "no resale" quality also equates such purchases to services. Compare going to a live show. You can't sell your place in the audience once you've seen the show.

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myk said:

The "no resale" quality also equates such purchases to services.



While we are at that, how about e-books?

To me they are an utterly useless product:

- you can't resell them
- you can't properly copy them
- you can't even print them!
- most of the time they cost the same as a printed version

Why should I ever pay the same price for a DRM-polluted file that can't be used properly when I can get the same book for the same price in a form that is both more user friendly and has a higher value?

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the iron hitman said:

The Internet could be one...


It would be more correct to say that it's a fervid breeding ground for tons of useless and transitory technologies, but it's far from being a failure or useless per-se. If anything, it rendered previous local or wide networking technologies useless or obsolete (usenet, BBSes, minitel, videotel etc.)

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TrackPoints are awesome, but only from IBM/Lenovo. The HP/Dell/Fujitsu/whatever versions pale in comparison.

It really, really pains me that all these stupid netbooks try to cram an awful touchpad on the surface when the correct solution for space-constrained mousing is clearly a TrackPoint!

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Super Jamie said:

Get something like NetStumbler and do a wireless survey. Basically, sit there changing the wireless channel on your AP, watch the signal strength of your SSID change at the connecting node. Stick with the channel that provides the best coverage. There are about 12 wireless channels one can use, though manufacturers tend to stick to three major ones by default. Maybe you can find one that doesn't interfere so badly with the surrounding APs. This made a massive difference in the last CBD apartment I lived in.

NetStumbler helps - however - with channels at 5MHz intervals and 22MHz of separation required to prevent signal overlap, getting away from the neighbours becomes impossible when four or five fire up their access points. That's where directional antennas come into their own, attenuating signals that are outside the line of fire and SHOUTING DOWN THE OTHERS. I suspect some neighbours are moving upstairs to the 5GHz band since things have been getting quieter.

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