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Raw Bytes Computer News KPBX FM 91.1 Radio National Public Radio Network Frank Delaney Producer Broadcast on Wednesday Morning 7:35 AM During Morning Edition Support Public Radio ! The Theater Of the Mind |
In computer news this week 02/18/2009 The worst computer products of all time .... The personal computer industry has had some really bad products introduced since it began in 1975. Here’s a partial PC World list of some of what they considered to be the worst: #1 – America online – users have suffered through awful software, inaccessible dial-up numbers, in-your-face advertising, questionable billing practices, inexcusably poor customer service, and enough spam to last a lifetime. And all the while, AOL remained more expensive than its major competitors. This lethal combination earned the world's biggest ISP the top spot on our list of bottom feeders. #2 – Real networks real player - A frustrating inability to play media files--due in part to constantly changing file formats--was only part of Real's problem. To me personally it was almost as bad as a computer virus in the way it would automatically download to your pc and take over everything. Anytime I see it on a client computer they usually don’t know it’s there and what it does. 3. Syncronys SoftRAMBack in 1995, when RAM cost $50 a megabyte and Windows 95 apps were demanding more of it, the idea of "doubling" your system memory by installing a $30 piece of software sounded mighty tempting. Unfortunately, It turns out that all SoftRAM really did was expand the size of Windows' hard disk cache--something a moderately savvy user could do without any extra software in about a minute. And then, the performance boost was negligible. The FTC dubbed Syncronys's claims "false and misleading," and the company filed bankruptcy in 1999. 4. Microsoft Windows Millennium (2000)
7. Microsoft Bob (1995)
Designed as a "social" interface for Windows 3.1, Bob featured a living room filled with clickable objects, and a series of cartoon "helpers" like Chaos the Cat and Scuzz the Rat that walked you through a small suite of applications. And did they deliberately make Bob's smiley face logo look like Bill Gates, or was that just an accident? 8. Microsoft Internet Explorer 6
Is it a coincidence that 3 Microsoft products are listed in the top 10 worst of all time? |
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For Raw Bytes This is Frank Delaney (C) 2009 MTA Micro
Technology Associates http://www.mtamicro.com/kpbx.html PO Box 31522 Spokane, Wa 99223-1522 (509)624-7230 |
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This
might be the worst version of Windows ever released 
No list
of the worst of the worst would be complete without Windows' idiot cousin,
Bob. 
A virtual