Top 10 Technology Mistakes
For a fun read, the Australian magazine PC Authority has published a list of the top technology mistakes, and our hometown heroes clock in at number 10 with ... Microsoft Windows ME.
Not Vista?
Seriously, in the ranks of colossal mistakes, ME was pretty bad, and the authors make a convincing case why ME deserves to be on the list. Next to ME, Vista's problems were somewhat triffling. Software incompatibilities? Check. Frequent crashes? Check. Software restore to fix a malware-corrupted PC which restores the malware too? Check and mate. As the writers point out, Windows XP got such a warm welcome because it allowed many ME users to uninstall the thing. Vista never looked so good.
Another project with Northwest roots comes in at number 4: Iridium, the plan to build a global-spanning satellite cell phone network that was bankrolled by Craig McCaw, among many other investors who never saw their money. (Iridium did, in fact, launch, but in a much reduced capacity, and only after a bankruptcy filing).
But neither Microsoft nor Iridium come as bad off as the top-ranking losers on the list: Intel (at nos. 1 and 3), and Sony (nos. 2 and 7), with representations by Apple, IBM and Facebook.
For kicks, my personal favorite garnered only an honorable mention: The Mars Climate Orbiter, doomed to a fiery death after NASA engineers forgot to convert to metric. We've been centimetering forward ever since.
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