How Dumb Were We In This Decade?

No one can deny that this decade has been great for tech progress.  However, there was some pretty lame stuff too.

Harry McCracken at The Technologizer blog has put together a list of 87 dumb things so that we can’t forget.

He points out that 2000 started on one of the dumbest notes ever.  Remember the dreaded Y2K paranoia that seriously swept not just the nation, but the world?

If ever a decade began dumb, it was this one.* When clocks struck midnight on January 1st and the dreaded Y2K bug turned out to be nothing but a mild irritant, it proved once again that the experts often don’t know what the heck they’re talking about.

From there, he goes on to talk about 87 things that were just really stupid.

I’ve picked a couple to share here:

The 💜 of EU tech

The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!

#7 – Audrey

This is how he describes it:

On October 17th [2000], networking kingpin 3Com unveiled Audrey, a $500 touchscreen “computing appliance” that did battle with rivals such as the I-Opener and Virgin WebPlayer for a market that–inexplicably–didn’t exist: People who wanted to pay about the price of a low-end PC for a machine with a tenth the capabilities.

Yep, that was pretty much a bone-headed product.

#54 The Foleo

At the Wall Street Journal’s D conference in May, Palm founder Jeff Hawkins announces the Foleo, a subnotebook-like “smartphone companion.” Critics say it’s a distraction for the troubled phone maker. In September, Palm says that Foleo is about to ship–and then it changes its mind and kills the project a week later.

What’s amusing about this one is go into any electronics store and you’ll see netbooks prominently displayed for sale. It looks like they scrapped this project two years too early.

Again, that’s only two out of 87 mostly amusing dumb things from 2000 to 2009.  Be sure to check out the rest of the list!