PCWorld Magazine just published the Top 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time. The list is pretty impressive and accurate. Just to comment on a few of my personal favorites:

1) AOL – Yes, oh, yes. I was an early adopter of AOL and I learned to hate it in pretty quick order. I dropped it just before security went through the floor. Bottom line: get a real ISP.

4) Windows ME – Gach. They tried to pretty up Win98 and repackage it. Still bloatware that was not ready for primetime.

7) Microsoft Bob – Almost as annoying as Clippy the Office Assistant. Speaking of which, Clippy should have been on that list. Bob was Microsoft’s attempt to put a happy face on a bad computer experience.

17) Apple Macintosh Portable – In the dark days before laptops there were portables. This was an early edition and it was also known as the “Luggable” because it was so darn heavy. Before LCDs these beasts had small CRTs which meant a lot of weight and power. Huge batteries with short lifetime.

Take a look, it is an interesting list. I think they should have included the Dot Com Bubble, the 386SX and (as mentioned above) Clippy.