What technology would you ditch?

In a similar vein to the 'what technology would you like to see' thread this one is about what existing technology you wish never happened?
Or, for that matter, sink into oblivion?

My vote goes to the Tesco's self-checkout points. An utter royal pain to use!

What should happen
===================
1. You press "START"
2. You scan each item then place it into a bag within the 'bagging area'
3. Repeat until you wish to "PAY NOW"
4. Pay up and go home chuffed to bits knowing that you beat all the other lower life forms queuing at the cashiers counter


What actually happens
==================
1. You press "START" (So far so good)
2. You scan the first item ***wooah

Ok, this is where the wheels start to shake and fall off.
You can't pay for the clothing here mate. Gotta be paid for separately at a proper counter. Right, put that to one side then
next item ..
15 attempts at scanning the item (where is the bloody barcode thing gone? It was here when I picked the tin up)
After getting it to register I follow the next instruction and place the item in the bagging area ...

3. Place item in bagging area!!! ** wooah

Now the machine keeps moaning about not 'seeing' the item in the bagging area and keeps threatening me to PUT IT THERE NOW!
After jumping up and down waving the item around the bagging area the machine finally calms down. Bingo. Next item ..

4. Scan the next *** wooah

Another message about an 'unexpected item' being in the bagging area. By this time 400 shoppers are queuing up watching you making an arse of yourself trying to keep the damn machine happy

Fast forward to next Wednesday evening when the assistant finally comes and helps you finish the shopping task

Sorry, but it's still far quicker to just queue up at a normal checkout counter with a human being!

Digital Rights Management.

Mobile phones. And JML ironing board covers.

Mobile phones here too. (Mostly to stop phone zombies from blocking doorways you're trying to get through while they txt txt txt txt, completely oblivious to the world around them.)

I'd get rid of those stupid electronic signs on motorways that say "FOG".

"Oh thanks for that. I was wondering what all this grey swirly stuff was"

I'd also ditch weather forecasts.

One earlier this year said 2008 was the 4th hottest August since 1850. Might be true, but its all so difficult to tell when you're standing in three bloody feet of floodwater.

On the ditch list: MIDI

Synths, softsynths, effect equipment, you name it, their architecture is all based on that 1983 technology. That's 25 years ago, can you still remember the computers we had back then? MIDI is still here.. :S

Get rid of mobile phones. People need to be more responsible and pay attention to what they are doing, especially when crossing the road or driving. Whatever happened to natural selection, survival of the fittest and all that Darwin stuff? :(

Does a company count? If so, EA.

DRM.

DRM.
Mobile phones.
RFID.
Surveillance cameras.
Spam.
Java.
C.
C++.
Curly braces languages in general. (Although I found C# okay.)
Online updates: It's become almost impossible to use an application without an annoying 'an update is available' message popping up.

Mobile phones, hands down. They're just a wireless leash, and they provide a vehicle for already inconsiderate people to share their inconsiderate ways with everyone around them.

Any TV/Video/DVD/Stereo where full control cannot be granted without the mislaid remote. I HATE that.

Sat navs. Especially when they take you all over the place (on what must be a pre-programmed milk round)

Or, when they say "You are going in the wrong direction. Turn around now"
Doh. You told me to go this way! Besides, I'm on a dual carriageway so turning around now might be a tricky. Hang on ..



ATM machines with tight credit card slots that tease you by going ever-so-slowly when returning your card back (complete with a 'grinding to a halt noise')


Infra-Red remote control needs to be terminated forthwith. Unless you happen to be pointing with laser precision you spend an eternity trying to change the volume/channel/settings

As for EA, Cell phones, MIDI (especially!), and Online updates, I second that. All those things suck.

I would like to somehow limit, but not totally do away with, video games as well. Ever since the ability for games to become ultra realistic and have intense gameplay, it seems that more and more people are wasting their lives away in front of a television. An hour a day is fine... but how many people (especially children) with an XBOX 360 or PS3 play for only an hour a day?

Windows!

Just give them a gentle push. With a cricket bat.

We made it illegal. If it was legal to hit someone with your car, if they were brandishing a cellphone, you'd soon see a difference. Don't shoot the messenger.

What makes you think they're wasting their lives?

Conversely, how many kids of the 80's only played for an hour on their C64? None of them? Yeah pretty much. What are these kids who wasted their youth doing today? Managing positions at high-tech companies. That bloke who wasted his life playing a sweaty game of catch all day? Bagging my groceries.

Bluetooth headsets:
http://xkcd.com/476/

Another vote for DRM, as well as the bagging-session of those self check-outs as mentioned in OP. I'll bag the bloody thing when if I deem it worthy. No, I'm not putting a 24-pack of pop in a bag that won't even hold its own wait. No, I'm not in the mood to press skip bagging just so you can nag me on it again when I scan the next item. Oh hey, two bar codes on this item, I wonder which one is the right one? Oopsie, wrong one, and now I get to wait on someone to do it for me and make the same mistake I did. Bah!


3D animation. Why? Because I'm biased, and wouldn't mind a return to the days of gaming where it was more about appealing or gritty art styles, and not about how many wrinkles you can render on the character's face then slap a generic pose onto its rig.

I love the self check-out things. The way I check things out is everything is on sale for free that day. If they don't like the way I check groceries, they should pay someone to do it for me.

DRM
Spam email
Internet Authentication
Mobiles
Old grannies - they block more aisles in supermarkets than phone junkies.

The wheel! It was already invented.

Cars. They must be responsible for more deaths directly and indirectly (pollution) than any other technological consumer item. They are generally a blot on the landscape. Thankfully they are slowly being pushed out of the city centres. When they all go electric it will help with both [local] air and noise pollution (but maybe not the alarms in the middle of the night).

The waxy coating of Mini Babybels, we all deserve unhindered access to their delicious Edamy goodness.

Just out of interest why is midi rubbish? it a standard and it works well whats the problem with it?

Are you saying you steal groceries?

We had self check out's in my town for a while, but they all dissappeared, most likely due to my town being full of theiving little sh#@s. I live in Huntingdon BTW.

The self checkouts are horrible at walmart.


"Please scan your items"
*scan*
"Please place your items in the bag"
*in the bag*
"Please place your items in the bag"
*ignore, scan*
"Please place your items in the bag"
*ignore*
"Error, please see the helper's desk for assistance"
"Please place your items in the bag"

DRM
self scan checkouts
mobile phones that allow you to play music without the need for headphones.
biometric passports
poor quality bluetooth devices that accept interference from anything (including cats) and only work within 6 inches of the transmitting device.

And a non-tech one:
It should be made illegal to call something "luxury" anything unless it actually is a luxury. Matchbox sized Luxury apartments for instance. What fool buys them?

*edit*
add to that mobile phones that don't automatically turn themselves off in places like the cinema or a library. When I'm overlord I'm going to add EMP devices to every screen and give a 10 second countdown before firing...

> We had self check out's in my town for a while, but they all dissappeared, most likely due to my town being full of theiving little

They probably stole the machines too!


> No, I'm not putting a 24-pack of pop in a bag that won't even hold its own weight

Oh, those bio-degradable bags which are constructed from recycled tissue paper? Yes, the one's that totally self destruct if you put anything heavier than a postage stamp inside


Horrific yellow Norton packaging. My local PC World must have 90% shelf space dedicated to these
Norton AV
Norton Security
Norton 360
Norton Total solutions
Norton Cleanup
Norton all-in-one heart transplant for absolute beginners
Norton Cake mixing
Norton Wax 'n go

On Saturday night at 3am I had to wait in the freezing cold for 15 minutes because a Lloyds TSB cash machine decided it would crash with my card inside and not resume functioning for 15 minutes. Just as I was about to give up and go home it finally gave me back my card, whose PIN I then changed. (Though I do think it was just a fault)

I now have a cold.

Computers

Let's go back to the tried and tested pen & paper method. :)

Barney

Lets just not stop at computers.Lets add any thing electrical and mechanical.

I would stop all oil and fuel based engines, and replace them with electrical engines. Toyota had a fully working RAV4 car with electrical engine and long distance availabilility, but GM bought the company who manufactured their batteries, because the oil lords saw it as a too dangerous competition.
I wish Saddam would have burned all the oil fields down, but USA stopped him to prevent that the age of electrical engines would start.

The USA company GM produces cars which would fail all standards in the other 349 countries of the world, since they have no catalysator or any means to reduce waste from organic fuel. Why are the people in USA even buying those cars, don't they care at all for their children and the future?

Saddam did in Kuwait.
But burning oil fields is bad for the environment.
And with out oil things would seize up and there would be no plastics.


That's most likely true in the other 349 countries.

The next bit should be in the "What technology would you like to see?" but as it's relevant to the quote above.

I would like to see people living longer (say 200-300 years) and then they would care for their children and the future. Though if people lived longer it would get a bit crowded with all the kids knocking about.

Chronautic adventuring is proving to be quite time consuming. Wish it had never been invented.

Electricity isn't a fuel?

Where do you think electricity (most of it) comes from?

Power stations; which are mostly fuelled by oil or coal. Nuclear, to a lesser extent.

By moving to electric vehicles, all you're doing is shifting the pollution problem from the roads to the power plants.

...that and RAV4's are crap.

I love cars (well, older, cooler cars that don't look like bloated, melted plastic) and petrol/gas engines, but even I have to admit that in terms of pollution, putting it all in one place does mean you only have to concentrate your cleanup/improvement efforts on that one place.

For (overly-simplistic) example, say that today all of the electricity used to run all of the electric cars in a given area comes from one big stinky coal-fired plant. In the future, when you develop the technology to replace this plant with another power source, you instantly cure the pollution problem for all electric cars, rather than having to try and apply a newer, cleaner technology to the millions upon millions of cars already out there.

Um, it's more of a poorly thought out Devil's Advocate thing than anything else, and I do like my selfish 'vroom-vroom/screeeee' action, so I'm just saying...

Also, it will mean that the driver, passengers and anyone else walking/cycling/sitting nearby don't have to breathe undiluted particulates (or whatever). Surely that's a good thing?

Obviously its better for health reasons, but not necessarily better environmentally.

Wow, and I thought I was the only one who despised mobile phones... DOWN WITH THE CELL PHONES!!

The only technology I would like to ditch is all devices which come with some kind of bluetooth neuro-transmitter which automatically disables the user's brain the second the device is powered on.

Bah!

I'm going to go out in public today, and text many many people, just to spite you all.

...........go out where??

i despise blue tooth hands free kits
A> they make you look like a plonker (cue the same xkcd link)
B> a true story captain dickhead as i oftimes refer to him as proved a point to himself by calling me on his blue tooth whilst in the showers of the local swimming pool his head wrapped with cling film (sadly not covering his mouth) keeping said device dry under the shower
i wondered what was going on interferance wise (running water in an echoing room) then his phone hanging nearby got wet and frizzled out :)) he and the bluetooth sadly remained unscathed

Is it not something you do very often then?

What did they expect from the town to feature as the cover picture of the publication "Britain's Worst Towns". I live there too, or very close too - I moved out to Brampton a few months back and my quality of life has improved immeasureably :).

If it's Huntingdon UK you're in, and I assume it is as you mention the thieving little sh#@s, fancy drinks? I'm taken, odd, and not your type - but i'm up for harmless natter about geek stuff.

"I'm taken, odd, and not your type - but i'm up for harmless natter about geek stuff. "

Wasn't it nice before the whole world became homofobic and a guy could just say 'WTF, i love Atari too, we should be friends and hang out' without anyone thinking it was some homo-erotic slang to ask another guy out on a date :)

On topic: mp3 players

In the Netherlands it doesn't matter what who did in a traffic accident, if it's between a car and a bicycle, the car driver has a minimum of 50% guild automaticly. Man, with mp3 players around the bicycle riders aside from not seeing you now don't hear you. You see those traffic signs there? you need to stop for cars comming from the roundabout. Now look what you did to the hood of my car. Your blood is corroding my paintjob you inconcidered prick.

lolz.

*hides the fact she is a cyclist and listens to music whilst talking on her pocket mounted cycle-phone.*

Ooooooo...
"Banshee and Andy_mc sitting in a tree... G.double E.K.I.N.G"
<edited for correctness>

A tree? Meh, I say we should concrete over the world and do away with all this green stuff that puts pollens into the air.

Ha, sorry, didn't know you are a female.
Damn, i thought i had such a good joke.

You did, I also happen to be a left wing liberal tree hugging dyke who played with trucks as a kid :)

Ah, i'm a right wing liberal animal hugging vegetarian hetrosexual who played a lot with transformers, lego and Atari.

If only people would introduce themselfs more like this, everything would be so much simpler.
Though, the meaning of left wing/right wing thing seems to differ per country. I'm defined as right wing because i want a small government with low taxes and less socialism where as in the US you seem to need to be against abortion, euthenesia and legalisation of canabis before you are right wing. Very confusing. I thought being a liberal meant giving the choice to people themself but appartly thats not the case everywhere.

Oh.... i'll stop, this very offtopic. Sorry, it's also very Friday at the office here :)

Gah!!! Another Blitz coder living close to my town! I won't hear of such things! Last time I met other Blitzers I had to go to a dingy little pub in Doncaster (this is going back a few years mind).

Banshee, yes, it's the Huntingdon in the UK I live near, I'm actually just over the bridge in the neighbouring town. But I did go to school in your little village many years back. Nice place.

Oh I know the place you meen, so you're a posh bastard then. :)

Well click me dev diary link to see what you'd be in for, then if you think you can stomach me i'm good for drinks down the Queen Vic (behind the fire station - oh that sounds dirty doesnt it!) to talk about Blitz, computing, quantum mechanics and 10th dimensional theory, and I quite like motor racing too, oh and jammy dodgers. I love jammy dodgers.

You keep a dev diary on youtube! Me too!!! btw, I know the Vic pub, but the ceiling's too low for me to cope with , so I end up down the samuel pepys normally.

Apologies to all other members here for this private chat in the middle of this thread. It's just that I hadn't thought another person with brains existed in my county.

p.s. I have studied basic quantum theory and went to a Stephen Hawking lecture about multidimentional space, but didn't really get it ;-P Jammie dodgers are fine, but I have to eat the whole pack so I'm no good for sharing...

I never bought brains, I lost interest in the Thunderbirds long before there was memorabilia available.


That's good, it meant you understood what was being said! If you dont suffer brain melt thinking about the higher dimensions, or getting to grips with string theory, then you havnt taken everything in.

Having met and argued with him, I conclude that Hawkings is more interested in making himself sound clever (which confuses the hell out of me) than actually being clever. This video is about the best explanation i've found of dimension space ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkxieS-6WuA ), though I think it's a bit misleading in defining what the various dimensions actually are.


aye, the only way I could possibly share is with one of those double blister family packs, that way you could eat half a blister before I got onto your one!