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.