From PC World online, December 20 - http://www.pcworld.com/printable/article/id,128265/printable.html
Here’s the top 10 of their list of the top 21 technology (and technology company) screwups in 2006 along with a comment or two from me.
- Flaming notebook batteries - thankfully, none of my notebook batteries were on the recall list.
- The HP corporate spying scandal - yikes. Who’s watching?
- Electronic voting machines in the US - I used my first touch screen voting computer this year. I noted at least 12 user interface and usability issues just in my 15 minutes of voting. I wish I could have taken pictures of the screens, the machine, and the set up. I took notes after voting and will blog about it someday.
- Windows not in our Christmas stockings - At least some new computers come with a coupon for free Windows Vista when it is available.
- Stolen laptop computers containing personal databases - while I didn’t receive any notifications about any compromised information (but maybe I just didn’t get notified). I did have someone empty my checking account via something called an ACH (automated clearing house). My bank helped create a new account for me and after I filled out and signed some forms, the reimbursed me the amount stolen.
- You Tube Boobs - faux pas with microphones and cameras left on. We had a few incidents on Developer Network TV and Radio - mostly me not realizing that the microphones were on instead of muted. Nothing has appeared on YouTube so far.
- Play Station 3 late, expensive, and incompatible - but I must admit, after playing with one that the graphics and speed are wonderful.
- Apple shipping some iPods with the RavMonE trojan - I have an old iPod Photo and an iPod Shuffle. I didn’t have any problems and love both of them.
- Google employees blogging without adult supervision - blogging is the latest wild new fontier. There’s going to be a few hiccups and we all need some adult supervision from time to time. At least we (developers) are still allowed to be "kids in the candy store too".
- RIAA Boy Scout activity patch for peer to peer file-sharing work (and some tracking of illegial file sharing too) - I wonder if we should start giving out activity patches at CodeGear for developer activities?
I hope you survived any screwups in your world in 2006. If you want to share any gems, just comment on this blog entry 
Looking forward to 2007 after a few days off.
David I
{ 1 } Comments
From the rest of the 21 tech screwups that you haven’t mentioned I personally laughed the most at the "Windows: Genuinely Disadvantaged".
It seems that this act brought Microsoft nothing but its (illegal) users’ anger. I think that if someone intended to buy a legal copy of Microsoft product - s/he would have backed off very quickly after their "not clever" (I am trying to be polite and missed the word stupid) act.
A friend of mine experienced the Windows Genuine Advantage problem and 5 minutes after that he had a solution to it that he downloaded from internet.
Windows piracy IS bad and though I don’t feel very good paying for a product that others use for free, I do believe that WGA is certainly not the way.
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