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Scariest tech of 2006, the Holloween list.
Condensed for brevity;
Condensed for brevity;
Sony LiION batteries. PC makers have recalled 9.6 million Sony-made notebook and laptop batteries so far this year for a rare but spectacular tendency to overheat and burst into flames. In money terms, the recalls cost Sony 51 billion yen (about $433 million). In reputation, though, the cost was higher: Sony's reputation for quality went up in flames.
Amazon.com Unbox. "It's slower than a trip to Blockbuster, more expensive than buying the physical DVD, absurdly restrictive on how the consumer uses the movie he or she pays for, delivers lower resolution than a DVD, and requires running a cable from the PC to the TV if you want to watch the movie on something larger than a PC monitor."
Vonage VoIP. Vonage's Voice Over Internet Protocol telephone service periodically goes from great to frightening in less time that it takes Lon Chaney Jr. to become a werewolf.
HP ethics. If the chain of command sees nothing wrong with circumventing the law and violating the privacy of employees, journalists and even its own board members, stealing private phone records, sifting through trash, snooping in e-mails, and even planting spies in a newsroom's janitorial staff … well, I don't know about you, but I'm not sure I'll ever trust an HP PC not to have spy software, trap doors or other spooky features.
Microsoft Vista. If ever an operating system needed the software equivalent of garlic and wolfbane to keep away evil spirits, Microsoft Windows would be it.....
Recording madness. Remember "Reefer Madness," the 1950s scare flick intended to warn teenagers about the danger of marijuana? One puff, and suddenly you're a motorcycle hoodlum. And now, half a century later, comes the Recording Industry Association of America (R.I.A.A.) with its own horror film for teens, called "Campus Downloading."
Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD. Once again, the standards nightmare returns to haunt consumers. The ghost of Betamax is on the loose. Here's the deal, folks: You can spend $50 today for a progressive-scan standard DVD player, and find thousands of DVD discs at Blockbuster or Netflix that will play on it. Or you can spend $500 to $2,000 for a high-definition DVD player - Blu-ray or HD-DVD, one of which might be obsolete in a year or two - and take your pick of a few dozen movies available for that particular hi-def format.
Are the high-definition DVDs so much better that they justify the risk of picking the wrong platform? Maybe, if you're rich and already have an expensive 1080p hi-def TV upon which to screen the trickle of new DVDs. Me, I'll wait for some mad scientist in Japan to create The HD DVD Player With Two Heads, able to play both new HD formats.
Paperless voting machines. After the fiasco of 2000, governments recognized the need for a more reliable system of collecting and counting votes. But out of the laboratory came a sinister new device, the direct recording electronic (DRE) voting machine. Without a paper trail or a reliable way to audit the results, and compounded by the refusal by manufacturers to allow independent software security experts to assess the reliability of the machines, doubts about the fairness of local and national elections will persist.
(NOTE: now it's been discovered that one of the US's major voting machine vendors might have ties to Venezuelas nutjob President Hugo Chavez;
Wonderful....)
Ultra-mobile PC's. These are truly scary little Windows PCs, not small enough to fit in a pocket, not big enough to do useful work, doomed to wander in computing limbo forever.
Nintendo Wii. Just for the name alone.
Most horrible video game of the year: X-MEN The Official Game by Activision. Is it possible for a video game to bore you to death?
The most awful movie so far this year: Stay Alive by Buena Vista Pictures. Plot: a video game becomes deadly, but not as deadly as this stupid movie.
Amazon.com Unbox. "It's slower than a trip to Blockbuster, more expensive than buying the physical DVD, absurdly restrictive on how the consumer uses the movie he or she pays for, delivers lower resolution than a DVD, and requires running a cable from the PC to the TV if you want to watch the movie on something larger than a PC monitor."
Vonage VoIP. Vonage's Voice Over Internet Protocol telephone service periodically goes from great to frightening in less time that it takes Lon Chaney Jr. to become a werewolf.
HP ethics. If the chain of command sees nothing wrong with circumventing the law and violating the privacy of employees, journalists and even its own board members, stealing private phone records, sifting through trash, snooping in e-mails, and even planting spies in a newsroom's janitorial staff … well, I don't know about you, but I'm not sure I'll ever trust an HP PC not to have spy software, trap doors or other spooky features.
Microsoft Vista. If ever an operating system needed the software equivalent of garlic and wolfbane to keep away evil spirits, Microsoft Windows would be it.....
Recording madness. Remember "Reefer Madness," the 1950s scare flick intended to warn teenagers about the danger of marijuana? One puff, and suddenly you're a motorcycle hoodlum. And now, half a century later, comes the Recording Industry Association of America (R.I.A.A.) with its own horror film for teens, called "Campus Downloading."
Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD. Once again, the standards nightmare returns to haunt consumers. The ghost of Betamax is on the loose. Here's the deal, folks: You can spend $50 today for a progressive-scan standard DVD player, and find thousands of DVD discs at Blockbuster or Netflix that will play on it. Or you can spend $500 to $2,000 for a high-definition DVD player - Blu-ray or HD-DVD, one of which might be obsolete in a year or two - and take your pick of a few dozen movies available for that particular hi-def format.
Are the high-definition DVDs so much better that they justify the risk of picking the wrong platform? Maybe, if you're rich and already have an expensive 1080p hi-def TV upon which to screen the trickle of new DVDs. Me, I'll wait for some mad scientist in Japan to create The HD DVD Player With Two Heads, able to play both new HD formats.
Paperless voting machines. After the fiasco of 2000, governments recognized the need for a more reliable system of collecting and counting votes. But out of the laboratory came a sinister new device, the direct recording electronic (DRE) voting machine. Without a paper trail or a reliable way to audit the results, and compounded by the refusal by manufacturers to allow independent software security experts to assess the reliability of the machines, doubts about the fairness of local and national elections will persist.
(NOTE: now it's been discovered that one of the US's major voting machine vendors might have ties to Venezuelas nutjob President Hugo Chavez;
Wonderful....)
Ultra-mobile PC's. These are truly scary little Windows PCs, not small enough to fit in a pocket, not big enough to do useful work, doomed to wander in computing limbo forever.
Nintendo Wii. Just for the name alone.
Most horrible video game of the year: X-MEN The Official Game by Activision. Is it possible for a video game to bore you to death?
The most awful movie so far this year: Stay Alive by Buena Vista Pictures. Plot: a video game becomes deadly, but not as deadly as this stupid movie.
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