There were other component hoaxes.

BD-1 Battery Discharger, also had a product spec printed. Marketing actually heard from a customer who wanted samples.

To compliment the Light Emitting Diode (LED), a company offered the Dark Emitting Diode (DED).

Hard to top the WOM though. I actually used that term in a meeting involving computers. Reaction was deer in the headlights from the IT folks. Had to quickly clue them in.

When I became old enough to afford my own music it was just before CDs became available. By then, plastic had replaced vinyl as the medium for records. I owned very few records because the plastic ones were bad out of the package. I once had to return a defective record multiple times, by the fourth time it still was defective and I refused to buy any more.

I have a National Semiconductor application manual on audio circuits that describe the operation of the needle on a record. I can't believe how primitive and vulnerable to damage that technology is.

Never have and never will be a customer of records again. When CDs came along, I embraced them. All my original CDs back to 1985 still work. The few records I owned got lost in my divorce and I do not miss them.

Frankly, all playback media has their thorns. I see no compelling reason to go back to vinyl records. CDs sound good enough to me, and I am into pro audio (not audiophile, there is a difference).

Take a look at AOL. Yahoo. That's where you will be in five years.

80s ads are responsible for the lack of male shoppers at shopping malls because the merchandise in stores appeal predominantly to women.

Really, it all comes down to marketing. The mens' clothing I see in stores have zero appeal to me because women are usually in charge of purchasing at clothing stores and they stock colors and patterns that are too effeminate. Not to hard to see a parallel with computers as they simply LOOK like mens' tools. Next time you see a woman using a palmtop or cellphone, note the accessory(s) that are matched to her wardrobe.

The other reason that Lotus 123 fell out of favor was copy protection. They used a scheme that detected an intentional fault on the floppy disk. You couldn't make a backup because the program would detect the missing fault and refuse to run. Maybe accounting departments could look past that, but engineering departments with daily production reports and new product deliveries critical to the bottom line weren't very comfortable depending on a system with no backup.

Here in divorce-centric NY, they WILL find ways to serve papers on you. Having a GOOD lawyer who knows state law helps. The judicial system doesn't approve of evaders.

When I filed for divorce in NY (I'll be very brief), my master manipulator STBX evaded the servers. She was an ex-deputy of the Sheriff department and learned of papers through the "old boy network". When she was at home she parked the car at an undisclosed location and no one answered the door. She was known to wear wigs for disguise and they could not find her on campus. All the places and events she was known to frequent, she could not be found.

The judge heard testimony from the servers that they were unable to serve papers on her after six months of trying. My lawyer and the judge had never seen a case this bad. At that time, she told me to contact her through her mother. I had a GOOD lawyer and he cited NY state law that in the event that a family member has been designated a contact, then papers can be served on that family member.

My mother-in-law never even knew we were separated and she went through the roof when she got the papers. Then the very next day her lawyer responds, and this timing of events was used in my trial before a very impressed judge.

Without going into details, the whole episode stretched out years longer than it should had for a simple divorce case and the judge cited her intentional abuse of the legal system in his ruling to prolong the process.

Did it end there? Nooooo.... when I found a buyer for the marital residence she refused to sign the papers, in violation of the stipulation. The same judge, with my divorce case fresh in his memory, wanted that broad in his court in two weeks. She was working at a state camp for the summer and I provided precise directions of the location of this camp for the server. Knowing her tactics, he posed as a delivery person carrying a parcel that required her signature. He delivered the parcel - and the papers. She never expected it, and probably forgot that years ago I wrote down those instructions when she called me out to that camp because her car broke down.

Apple codes their iOS so that neither they or law authorities have no backdoor or master key to access any iDevice.

When they approach the owner, he can flip the proverbial middle finger by citing the fifth amendment.

And it's all legal despite any Patriot Act, secret FISA court, or intimidating threats from the NSA.

Apple Computers has announced that their servers have crashed due to the extremely large demand from iDevice customers seeking to download the latest iOS version 8. They're blaming it on some bizarre phenomenon called "the Slashdot effect".

If you read TFA:-

A default feature in Facebook’s mobile app that automatically launches videos in users’ newsfeeds has been blamed for devouring mobile phone users’ data and driving up their cellphone bills.

Nothing to do with browsers.

As of yesterday, my Safari browser was auto-playing videos in FB. That wasn't true a week ago. Time to look into preventative actions and fire off a nastygram to FB.

Liquid nitrogen is an oxygen deficiency hazard. We have kilns at work that operate in the few thousand Fahrenheit range. These kilns are over 200,000 cubic feet. In case of a fire, liquid nitrogen is used to extinguish it by cutting off the oxygen that feeds the fire. The control systems dispense it rapidly enough that it is a human hazard and alarm systems warn to evacuate immediately. You don't want to be around when that stuff dispenses.

Microsoft Messenger got a bad reputation as a target for spim (IM spam). It was enabled up to WINXP SP2 which finally disabled it by default, but by then it was an abandoned protocol because almost all users turned it off in earlier Windows OS to block the spim. It became a ghost town haunted by spammers like most Yahoo groups.

Back in the 1980s, many channels on Cable TV had zero ads.

By the 1990s, every channel had ads. And the cost of Cable TV continued to rise. By 2000 I pulled the plug and swore off broadcast TV. I pay for viewing privileges, not for ads.

I'm not easily convinced anymore when a sales pitch promises ad free content.

We don't need a payment system. We need a whitelist. If I see a new alias I should have the option to peek at your posts prior to adding you to my whitelist. If you're a civil human poster, I add your alias to my whitelist and I look forward to reading your comments. If you're a troll or spammer, I never add you to my whitelist and I never have to waste eyeball on your diatribe or sales pitches again.

When cruise control was new in the 1970s, there was a news story about a guy who wrecked his brand new RV. He said he turned on the cruise control then went to the back of the RV to make a sandwich.

I'm sure there is a big demand for those folks with MCSE certifications - Minesweeper Consultant and Solitaire Expert.