September 17, 2001

2:02 PM

Browsing the results of Time's "Worst Ideas of the 20th Century" poll (Daryl Hall's solo career, Ugandan Space Program) made me wonder whether we've got a candidate for the next one already: (more...)
posted by luser (24 comments total)

…how about, “paying airport security minimum wage”?
posted by luser at 2:05 PM on September 17, 2001

The personal family car is the 20th Century's major Bad Idea, the way chattel slavery was the Bad Idea of the 19th Century -- the idea that has lots of very attractive features and worms its way so deeply into society that you can't uproot it without destroying everything.
posted by Allen Varney at 2:08 PM on September 17, 2001

Allen Varney: Come on out, Palegirl, we know you're in there!

But WTF? How can anyone think that aerosol cheese is a bad idea? How else are you going to fill your mouth with the creamy-smooth cheddar flavor???

(mmmmmm...whipped cheese.....)
posted by davidmsc at 2:19 PM on September 17, 2001

IBM not buying DOS outright...
posted by machaus at 2:22 PM on September 17, 2001

Linux people wasting their time hating microsoft rather than developing and promoting applications for the common household user.
posted by adnanbwp at 2:26 PM on September 17, 2001

Macintosh not suing the pants off of Microsoft for crapping up a GUI.

(Ooooh, everytime I get all Mac-Happy, some Linux person has to come up and out-cool me...)
posted by ColdChef at 2:29 PM on September 17, 2001

Oh, wait! What about Hands Across America?

(Though, I DID think that would have been so cool if it had worked.)
posted by ColdChef at 2:34 PM on September 17, 2001

Does anyone have a link or information on the The Ugandan Space Program? I can't seem to find anything...
posted by geoff. at 2:39 PM on September 17, 2001

airport security do get minimum wage, don't they?

selling bill gates that spiffy spreadsheet they made.
posted by Mossy at 2:39 PM on September 17, 2001

Seriously: Apple not licensing its OS for use on other vendors' hardware.
posted by jpoulos at 2:41 PM on September 17, 2001

er, I think you guys are giving computer interfaces more credit than they deserve.

so, anyone else wondering what happened to the rest of this guy's statement? where's the "(more...)"?
posted by kevspace at 2:44 PM on September 17, 2001

Um, wouldn't the Apple licensing issue be from the last century?
posted by gloege at 2:45 PM on September 17, 2001

Apple suing Microsoft for stealing the GUI? How about Xerox not suing Apple for said offense?
posted by linux at 2:47 PM on September 17, 2001

Apple suing Microsoft for stealing the GUI? How about Xerox not suing Apple for said offense?

Oh. Well...but...you see...uhhhhh...

Dammit. I see your point.

(grumble, grumble, grumble)
posted by ColdChef at 3:16 PM on September 17, 2001

yah, i can see spandex in plus sizes would be pretty bad.
posted by moz at 3:34 PM on September 17, 2001

How about Xerox not suing Apple for said offense?

Kinda hard to do that after you've signed it all away...
posted by kindall at 3:42 PM on September 17, 2001

kevspace: the following (the first comment in the thread) was luser's "(more)": …how about, “paying airport security minimum wage”?
posted by msacheson at 3:59 PM on September 17, 2001

7.98% That Teensy Programming Decision That Led to the Y2K Bug

There wasn't some world-wide commitee to purposely make some OS's screw up in Y2k. It was a waste of memory to write software back when with the full date.

The upgrade was inevitable, blame business for not demanding complaint software before 1999.
posted by skallas at 4:13 PM on September 17, 2001

these people make an art of it.
posted by asok at 4:41 PM on September 17, 2001

"I think I'm going to stop doing the TV show and concentrate on my movie career."
- Shelley Long & David Caruso

or

Dick and Mac McDonald sell their share of the McDonald's restaurant business to Ray Kroc for $3million, in 1960.
posted by Grum at 5:08 PM on September 17, 2001

Spandex in plus sizes? WTF? I would have been in trouble without it when I was pregnant.

Was that supposed to be funny?
posted by gnomeloaf at 5:18 PM on September 17, 2001

(Thos who don't remember history...) Apple did sue Microsoft, and Xerox did sue Apple.

I'm impressed that "The Designated Hitter Rule" and "Telemarketing" both rated so high -- those would have been my picks.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 6:02 PM on September 17, 2001

It's been suggested that the Y2K bug actually ended up saving mone, when you look at the cost of memory in the early days.
posted by Chrysostom at 11:01 AM on September 18, 2001

sure - spandex, now that's an answer to all our problems.
posted by Mihaly at 3:55 PM on September 18, 2001