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December 21, 2019 6:52 AM Subscribe
The 84 Biggest Flops, Fails, And Dead Dreams Of The Decade In Tech "This is the decade we learned that crowdfunded gadgets can be utter disasters, even if they don’t outright steal your hard-earned cash. It’s the decade of wearables, tablets, drones and burning batteries, and of ridiculous valuations for companies that were really good at hiding how little they actually had to offer. It’s the decade of Google filling up its product graveyard, Apple stubbornly denying obvious missteps, and Microsoft writing off billions of dollars."
50. Android tablets Um, Google might have stopped making theirs, but Samsung’s Galaxy Tab is doing pretty well.
I wouldn’t exactly characterize Google’s acquisition of Fitbit to be indicative of a flop either.
I feel like some of these are “They failed to become the dominant product in their niche, therefore it’s a flop” but plenty of products do just fine in second or third place.
posted by Autumnheart at 7:21 AM on December 21, 2019 [15 favorites]
I wouldn’t exactly characterize Google’s acquisition of Fitbit to be indicative of a flop either.
I feel like some of these are “They failed to become the dominant product in their niche, therefore it’s a flop” but plenty of products do just fine in second or third place.
posted by Autumnheart at 7:21 AM on December 21, 2019 [15 favorites]
The story about Reader and Plus is incomplete. The Reader team was moved to Plus Because they ostensible “got social”, were managed and led by people who not only didn’t “get social” but didn’t even care much for human interaction and Reader was shut down to burn their bridges; the server space line was always nonsense. I’m still mad about it, too. In the end the average length of a Google Plus session was less than five seconds, just long enough for somebody to realize they’d clicked the wrong thing and close it. They burned millions of dollars and killed Reader for _that?_.
posted by mhoye at 7:26 AM on December 21, 2019 [35 favorites]
posted by mhoye at 7:26 AM on December 21, 2019 [35 favorites]
Gah, Google Reader. Too soon. Too soon. Looking back, that was the point when I definitely lost any lingering regard I might once have had regarding the big G.
My own grievance with Kickstarters would be a promised but yet undelivered Einstein on the Beach documentary.
A bold claim:
I don't know what the claims about Apple Maps are about—I get perfectly good and comprehensive public transit information in Denmark.
One thing that is clearly missing from the list is the curved televisions that were attempted foisted on the populace a few years ago. A curved display makes some sense at a desk, but not when you are watching several meters away.
posted by bouvin at 7:31 AM on December 21, 2019 [9 favorites]
My own grievance with Kickstarters would be a promised but yet undelivered Einstein on the Beach documentary.
A bold claim:
Odds are, we’ll still be talking about Game of Thrones in the years to comeYeah, I think not.
I don't know what the claims about Apple Maps are about—I get perfectly good and comprehensive public transit information in Denmark.
One thing that is clearly missing from the list is the curved televisions that were attempted foisted on the populace a few years ago. A curved display makes some sense at a desk, but not when you are watching several meters away.
posted by bouvin at 7:31 AM on December 21, 2019 [9 favorites]
I guess it's a testament to Google's core business model of converting our personal data into money that they have no fewer than eleven products on this list and are still a profitable company. (I mean, I appreciate the experimentation, just not where the cash came from)
posted by gwint at 7:46 AM on December 21, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by gwint at 7:46 AM on December 21, 2019 [2 favorites]
The lacklustre efforts of the NHS to get a nationwide database of patient data surely deserves a place on this list. At least most of these were burning private capital.
posted by biffa at 7:47 AM on December 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by biffa at 7:47 AM on December 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
I don't know what the claims about Apple Maps are about
For me, Apple Maps was a case of getting massively burned at the beginning by bad UI and non-reliable mapping, to the degree that 5+ years later when Apple Maps comes up by mistake, I can't close it down fast enough, it's a form of PTSD.
I've heard that it's better, and I have no doubt it is, but the bar to get me to switch at this point is incredibly high.
posted by jeremias at 7:49 AM on December 21, 2019 [9 favorites]
For me, Apple Maps was a case of getting massively burned at the beginning by bad UI and non-reliable mapping, to the degree that 5+ years later when Apple Maps comes up by mistake, I can't close it down fast enough, it's a form of PTSD.
I've heard that it's better, and I have no doubt it is, but the bar to get me to switch at this point is incredibly high.
posted by jeremias at 7:49 AM on December 21, 2019 [9 favorites]
Oh man, Magic Leap. That trainwreck is very slowly exploding right this minute. About a month ago they had to assign every patent they hold to JP Mogan Chase as loan collateral. Right after that, their CFO abandoned ship with no ready replacement. Now they're trying to raise another 9-digit $$$ funding round.
They're about to blow up like WeWork.
posted by ryanrs at 7:59 AM on December 21, 2019 [5 favorites]
They're about to blow up like WeWork.
posted by ryanrs at 7:59 AM on December 21, 2019 [5 favorites]
If you miss Aereo, there's Locast.org... for now anyway. Downside is, they constantly interrupt your streams with the same ten second clip reminding you they're a nonprofit and begging for a $5/month donation, pledging to stop butting in if you do. But if you pay via PayPal, they have trouble recognizing that so you get the ads anyway. And then if you cancel via PayPal, you get angry emails saying you're failing to pay. So basically, they're not so organized.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:03 AM on December 21, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:03 AM on December 21, 2019 [2 favorites]
Good list but no mention of Lytro's light field camera? The camera that allowed you to adjust focus, depth of field, framing, etc. after you shot a really bad looking image? Which "pivoted" into a camera for the future of cinematography -- same hype -- which "pivoted" into the future of VFX capture, complete with a full on 3D pipeline? Which burned through how many hundreds of millions before going away? Didn't The Verge rave about it?
posted by Dean358 at 8:07 AM on December 21, 2019 [12 favorites]
posted by Dean358 at 8:07 AM on December 21, 2019 [12 favorites]
I was struck by all of the devices that are essentially just computers, but with proprietary software that requires a phone-home to even log onto. Once the service flops, the device itself is useless, and can't even be scavenged for parts. It's depressing to think about all of the time, money, and resources that produced essentially a useless black brick that will eventually go on to sit in a landfill for the rest of its life.
posted by codacorolla at 8:08 AM on December 21, 2019 [20 favorites]
posted by codacorolla at 8:08 AM on December 21, 2019 [20 favorites]
At least the failed launch of Apple Maps came with consequences — Scott Forstall was booted out for it, and he was in line to take Jobs' former position. Can't think of many high-placed execs at the other companies who were removed. If anything, other tech companies seem to help their execs keep failing upwards, so long as the money keeps flowing in from somewhere.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 8:10 AM on December 21, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 8:10 AM on December 21, 2019 [3 favorites]
71. The Google Barge:
Alas, it was not to be. The company hadn’t obtained the proper permits to dock the barges near San Francisco. Then the coast guard stepped in with pesky fire safety concerns and the project was effectively killed. It turns out, the barges had about 5,000 gallons of fuel on board and no good way to ensure they wouldn’t go up in flames.
Confused tech bros:
"What are these 'regulations' you speak of?"
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 8:15 AM on December 21, 2019 [15 favorites]
Alas, it was not to be. The company hadn’t obtained the proper permits to dock the barges near San Francisco. Then the coast guard stepped in with pesky fire safety concerns and the project was effectively killed. It turns out, the barges had about 5,000 gallons of fuel on board and no good way to ensure they wouldn’t go up in flames.
Confused tech bros:
"What are these 'regulations' you speak of?"
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 8:15 AM on December 21, 2019 [15 favorites]
I'm surprised there isn't a category, or a bunch of entries, for 'smart home' products.
posted by sexyrobot at 8:27 AM on December 21, 2019 [7 favorites]
posted by sexyrobot at 8:27 AM on December 21, 2019 [7 favorites]
As someone who's always enjoyed a good disaster movie, I can't help but enjoy this list. Haven't made it all the way through yet, but I'll be very disappointed if VR everything isn't right up near the top. It failed big in 1991 or thereabouts, I hope to see its continued failure. What's wrong with actual reality? (other than everything that's wrong with everything, of course, but that's just the bad stuff)
posted by philip-random at 8:29 AM on December 21, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by philip-random at 8:29 AM on December 21, 2019 [2 favorites]
Oh man, Magic Leap
I’ve tried this hardware, though, and I’ve gotta say it is absolutely amazing technology. Once you’ve tried it, it’s not hard to understand why people think it’s the future.
posted by mhoye at 8:34 AM on December 21, 2019
I’ve tried this hardware, though, and I’ve gotta say it is absolutely amazing technology. Once you’ve tried it, it’s not hard to understand why people think it’s the future.
posted by mhoye at 8:34 AM on December 21, 2019
hahaha capitalism
hahahah billions of dollars
hahaha thousands of tons of plastic and millions of tons of co2 hahahaha
hahaha hundreds of thousands of people's productive working life-years
hahaha we spent our time as a species doing this
hhahahaha we had nothing better to do
hahah
ha
h
posted by lalochezia at 8:39 AM on December 21, 2019 [67 favorites]
hahahah billions of dollars
hahaha thousands of tons of plastic and millions of tons of co2 hahahaha
hahaha hundreds of thousands of people's productive working life-years
hahaha we spent our time as a species doing this
hhahahaha we had nothing better to do
hahah
ha
h
posted by lalochezia at 8:39 AM on December 21, 2019 [67 favorites]
Haven't made it all the way through yet, but I'll be very disappointed if VR everything isn't right up near the top.
VR is having its best year in history thanks to the Oculus Quest and the PSVR. It's still a niche but it's expanding fast. Of course, Facebook and Sony can probably find a way to screw it up during the next decade.
posted by Memo at 8:46 AM on December 21, 2019 [3 favorites]
VR is having its best year in history thanks to the Oculus Quest and the PSVR. It's still a niche but it's expanding fast. Of course, Facebook and Sony can probably find a way to screw it up during the next decade.
posted by Memo at 8:46 AM on December 21, 2019 [3 favorites]
I'd bet anything that in the decade retrospective in 2029 VR will still be"almost there"
posted by octothorpe at 8:54 AM on December 21, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by octothorpe at 8:54 AM on December 21, 2019 [5 favorites]
No VR hardware is at acceptable quality levels, though. Varjo has the best VR display I've seen. I haven't paid much attention to mixed reality AR since my application doesn't need that. But none of it is consumer-ready at this point. Give it another 3-10 years, then it'll be cool.
And I'm not saying that it's entirely Magic Leap's "fault" that they haven't made the tech work. But man, there was a lot of smoke and mirrors with their early demos. They raised $2.6b and hired something like 1500 employees on that hype. And so far they have sold just 6,000 units for $2k/ea.
They're gonna leave a big crater.
posted by ryanrs at 8:57 AM on December 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
And I'm not saying that it's entirely Magic Leap's "fault" that they haven't made the tech work. But man, there was a lot of smoke and mirrors with their early demos. They raised $2.6b and hired something like 1500 employees on that hype. And so far they have sold just 6,000 units for $2k/ea.
They're gonna leave a big crater.
posted by ryanrs at 8:57 AM on December 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
Apple Maps is definitely way better than at launch and continues to improve. They seem committed to doing it, as expensive as it is to collect new map data. I'm glad Apple's in the mix because there are only a few real competitors.
Google Messaging finally has a ray of hope, at least with Android and RCS Messaging. That's their iMessage-equivalent for Android. The rollout has been rocky because of carriers, but it's a truly federated system and seems to be reasonable. They just turned it on for the US whether your carrier cooperates or not.
healthcare.gov is a cheap shot, missing the rest of the story. It definitely was bad at launch, incredibly bad. But the Obama Administration fixed it, and fixed it more the next year, and the next. And it works well now. And it's saved a lot of people's lives. Literally, like 10,000s of Americans are alive because they were able to get health insurance via the website. It's doing OK even now despite the GOP's every effort to sabotage it.
Poor will.i.am. The article isn't wrong about him. Android tablets either, although arguably the whole tablet market is not what folks were hoping.
posted by Nelson at 9:05 AM on December 21, 2019 [9 favorites]
Google Messaging finally has a ray of hope, at least with Android and RCS Messaging. That's their iMessage-equivalent for Android. The rollout has been rocky because of carriers, but it's a truly federated system and seems to be reasonable. They just turned it on for the US whether your carrier cooperates or not.
healthcare.gov is a cheap shot, missing the rest of the story. It definitely was bad at launch, incredibly bad. But the Obama Administration fixed it, and fixed it more the next year, and the next. And it works well now. And it's saved a lot of people's lives. Literally, like 10,000s of Americans are alive because they were able to get health insurance via the website. It's doing OK even now despite the GOP's every effort to sabotage it.
Poor will.i.am. The article isn't wrong about him. Android tablets either, although arguably the whole tablet market is not what folks were hoping.
posted by Nelson at 9:05 AM on December 21, 2019 [9 favorites]
I went to a talk given by the team that worked on fixing healthcare.gov after its launch. One thing that stuck with me - the team talked about some heartbreaking usage stats they saw, like 200x300px flip phones accessing the system, over and over patiently, in the middle of the night. Agreed that it's an odd inclusion.
posted by bring a tuba to a knife fight at 9:29 AM on December 21, 2019 [24 favorites]
posted by bring a tuba to a knife fight at 9:29 AM on December 21, 2019 [24 favorites]
Yeah, I think the problem with tablets is that phone screen resolution got much better in the non flagship phones. I used to use a nexus 9 pretty extensively for reading pdfs, but these days my phone is just fine... Or I print it if it's one where I'm going to want notes in the margins...
...
Meanwhile, Healthcare.gov's recovery was due to effectively rapid response from people in the tech industry who cared. And led to the cessation of the us digital service, which is still plugging away at improving massive legacy problems in the VA and immigration. (And more recently the DoD, from what I hear.) I feel like it's one of the better counterpoints to loltechbros... People really want to build good shit that improves lives. But, capitalism, I guess.
posted by kaibutsu at 9:30 AM on December 21, 2019 [10 favorites]
...
Meanwhile, Healthcare.gov's recovery was due to effectively rapid response from people in the tech industry who cared. And led to the cessation of the us digital service, which is still plugging away at improving massive legacy problems in the VA and immigration. (And more recently the DoD, from what I hear.) I feel like it's one of the better counterpoints to loltechbros... People really want to build good shit that improves lives. But, capitalism, I guess.
posted by kaibutsu at 9:30 AM on December 21, 2019 [10 favorites]
I'd argue that #1 wasn't a flop at all. It achieved its goals, earning its investors billions of dollars from a small investment. It might be symbolic of the true biggest flop of this decade, the promise that all this tech would benefit humanity, helping people share ideas and build a better, freer society, etc. But the Verge doesn't go there, so.
posted by Tsuga at 9:30 AM on December 21, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by Tsuga at 9:30 AM on December 21, 2019 [3 favorites]
One of the biggest tech fails of the decade is that there is nothing bitcoin-related in this list.
posted by oulipian at 9:30 AM on December 21, 2019 [26 favorites]
posted by oulipian at 9:30 AM on December 21, 2019 [26 favorites]
The [RCS] rollout has been rocky because of carriers, but it's a truly federated system and seems to be reasonable.
No E2E encryption in 2019? It's hot garbage.
84. GOOGLE NEXUS Q
The Nexus Q was a failure on its own, but seen as part of the evolution that led to the Chromecast, it wasn't so bad. Google made the right call in not releasing it to the public in quantity, went back to the drawing board, and made a smaller/better/cheaper version which sold like crazy. And ultimately set the form factor for other HDMI media "dongles" that live behind your TV rather than in front of it, as the Rokus and other STBs did up to that point. Viewed as a sort of prototype, it deserves some credit. The company just got ahead of themselves in trying to release it to users, and set an absurd pricepoint that was an order of magnitude high.
I am sorta sad that "ominous black sphere" didn't become the default form factor for new living room media devices, though. I mean seriously, that thing looked like it belonged on the bottom of an RQ-170 Sentinel.
82. APPLE WATCH EDITION
The fact that this flopped shows that there's hope for humanity yet. Not much, but some.
12. COOLEST COOLER
This one is interesting because it didn't flop because of the technology, but because the guy running the business seemingly didn't know what the fuck he was doing. It's hard to judge incompetence vs. malice, but it's not a good look at any rate. Personally, I'm a lot judgier of the products that fail for "business reasons" than the ones that fail because they tried to push the engineering too hard and couldn't make it work. The latter is at least trying, it's taking a risk, which means sometimes you fail. Understandable. But there's nothing particularly new or cutting edge about running a business manufacturing coolers in China and selling them in America. If you can't pull that off, you're just in the wrong line of work.
posted by Kadin2048 at 9:32 AM on December 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
No E2E encryption in 2019? It's hot garbage.
84. GOOGLE NEXUS Q
The Nexus Q was a failure on its own, but seen as part of the evolution that led to the Chromecast, it wasn't so bad. Google made the right call in not releasing it to the public in quantity, went back to the drawing board, and made a smaller/better/cheaper version which sold like crazy. And ultimately set the form factor for other HDMI media "dongles" that live behind your TV rather than in front of it, as the Rokus and other STBs did up to that point. Viewed as a sort of prototype, it deserves some credit. The company just got ahead of themselves in trying to release it to users, and set an absurd pricepoint that was an order of magnitude high.
I am sorta sad that "ominous black sphere" didn't become the default form factor for new living room media devices, though. I mean seriously, that thing looked like it belonged on the bottom of an RQ-170 Sentinel.
82. APPLE WATCH EDITION
The fact that this flopped shows that there's hope for humanity yet. Not much, but some.
12. COOLEST COOLER
This one is interesting because it didn't flop because of the technology, but because the guy running the business seemingly didn't know what the fuck he was doing. It's hard to judge incompetence vs. malice, but it's not a good look at any rate. Personally, I'm a lot judgier of the products that fail for "business reasons" than the ones that fail because they tried to push the engineering too hard and couldn't make it work. The latter is at least trying, it's taking a risk, which means sometimes you fail. Understandable. But there's nothing particularly new or cutting edge about running a business manufacturing coolers in China and selling them in America. If you can't pull that off, you're just in the wrong line of work.
posted by Kadin2048 at 9:32 AM on December 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
Also, perhaps a little Canada-specific, but the ongoing Phoenix Pay System debacle is absolutely worthy of this list.
posted by oulipian at 9:33 AM on December 21, 2019 [14 favorites]
posted by oulipian at 9:33 AM on December 21, 2019 [14 favorites]
I’ve tried Magic Leap and was massively disappointed. It’s lightyears from being a consumer product, the “demo” videos were incredibly misleading (like many AR demos) and every journalist involved in hyping it up ought to be ashamed of themselves.
posted by adrianhon at 9:44 AM on December 21, 2019
posted by adrianhon at 9:44 AM on December 21, 2019
Magic Leap's rise and ongoing downfall both stem from it being a completely marketing-driven product.
posted by Pyry at 10:00 AM on December 21, 2019
posted by Pyry at 10:00 AM on December 21, 2019
yeah, not a good decade for Mac hardware offerings. When my two Macs offed themselves in 2014/2015 I was underwhelmed by my options, so much so I bit the bullet on hackintoshing & haven't looked back (much).
The current Mac Pro is a pivot in the right direction, but doubt we'll get the IIcx version of it before the ARM singularity arrives.
current PC I put together 2 years ago is running 10.15.2 great, after I swapped out the 1070Ti for a decent-enough RX-5700 replacement.
Which reminds me, Nvidia RTX series could perhaps be on this list.
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 10:04 AM on December 21, 2019
The current Mac Pro is a pivot in the right direction, but doubt we'll get the IIcx version of it before the ARM singularity arrives.
current PC I put together 2 years ago is running 10.15.2 great, after I swapped out the 1070Ti for a decent-enough RX-5700 replacement.
Which reminds me, Nvidia RTX series could perhaps be on this list.
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 10:04 AM on December 21, 2019
The company claims it’s providing internet to 18 metropolitan areas, but it’s been juicing those numbers since 2016, when it started counting Webpass cities where it’s wiring apartment buildings instead of homes.
Ummm....
65. The attempt to phase out incandescent light bulbs
I can't remember the last time I saw an incandescent bulb. And compact florescent are quickly going to same way. A few months ago the city came to my home (at least, I think it's a home) and replaced any bulb that wasn't an LED with an LED. Free.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 10:13 AM on December 21, 2019 [11 favorites]
Ummm....
65. The attempt to phase out incandescent light bulbs
I can't remember the last time I saw an incandescent bulb. And compact florescent are quickly going to same way. A few months ago the city came to my home (at least, I think it's a home) and replaced any bulb that wasn't an LED with an LED. Free.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 10:13 AM on December 21, 2019 [11 favorites]
One of the biggest tech fails of the decade is that there is nothing bitcoin-related in this list.
Buttcoin was a huge success. At making people laugh at Bitcoin.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 10:23 AM on December 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
Buttcoin was a huge success. At making people laugh at Bitcoin.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 10:23 AM on December 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
82. APPLE WATCH EDITION
How was that a flop? Did Apple lose a single dollar making or selling them? How many millions in earned media did a $17,000 product buy them? Did consumers abandon the Apple Watch platform because the initial flagship model was an outrageous, ostentatious gimmick? Did another company go on to dominate the smartwatch market?
When the watch came out people compared it to Rolex and Dick Tracey instead of a disposable Casio that cost $600 that didn't have enough batteries to make it through the day. It was a marketing stunt, and it worked.
posted by peeedro at 10:29 AM on December 21, 2019 [9 favorites]
How was that a flop? Did Apple lose a single dollar making or selling them? How many millions in earned media did a $17,000 product buy them? Did consumers abandon the Apple Watch platform because the initial flagship model was an outrageous, ostentatious gimmick? Did another company go on to dominate the smartwatch market?
When the watch came out people compared it to Rolex and Dick Tracey instead of a disposable Casio that cost $600 that didn't have enough batteries to make it through the day. It was a marketing stunt, and it worked.
posted by peeedro at 10:29 AM on December 21, 2019 [9 favorites]
The inclusion of the two media items on here (Justice League and GOT's finale) are fairly bizarre. I guess the intent is that both films really hobbled the overall franchise-universe-endless-media-empire ambitions of their respective creators, despite earning millions of dollars in the process?
posted by codacorolla at 10:38 AM on December 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by codacorolla at 10:38 AM on December 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
And the Fyre Festival? Commercial real estate company WeWork?
The Steam Machine seems to show a misunderstanding - Valve didn't have a great need to license the Steam brand for gaming PCs, they had a great need to establish "Linux gaming" as at least something more than Freeciv and Tux Racer, an insurance policy and deterrent against Microsoft jamming up Steam on Windows. That seems to have been accomplished.
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 10:53 AM on December 21, 2019 [2 favorites]
The Steam Machine seems to show a misunderstanding - Valve didn't have a great need to license the Steam brand for gaming PCs, they had a great need to establish "Linux gaming" as at least something more than Freeciv and Tux Racer, an insurance policy and deterrent against Microsoft jamming up Steam on Windows. That seems to have been accomplished.
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 10:53 AM on December 21, 2019 [2 favorites]
I think the media content and Fyre Festival made the list because they relied heavily on tech, which...ok. Fyre Festival was only able to occur because people were duped via a very convincing Instagram campaign.
posted by Young Kullervo at 10:55 AM on December 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Young Kullervo at 10:55 AM on December 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
How is the :CueCat not on this list? I know it’s from the year 2000 but it deserves to be in every decade’s worst tech flop list, in perpetuity.
For me, Apple Maps was a case of getting massively burned at the beginning by bad UI and non-reliable mapping, to the degree that 5+ years later when Apple Maps comes up by mistake, I can't close it down fast enough, it's a form of PTSD.
A few years ago I had to drive from New Jersey to Vermont, and used Google Maps on my iPhone to navigate. Google Maps chewed through my phone’s battery (I didn’t have a car charger) and made the phone hot to the touch. For the drive back I used the hated Apple Maps instead. The phone stayed cool and the battery didn’t go into the red. At that point I decided that a worse mapping experience was preferable to a better map app that kills my phone dead.
posted by ejs at 11:15 AM on December 21, 2019 [5 favorites]
For me, Apple Maps was a case of getting massively burned at the beginning by bad UI and non-reliable mapping, to the degree that 5+ years later when Apple Maps comes up by mistake, I can't close it down fast enough, it's a form of PTSD.
A few years ago I had to drive from New Jersey to Vermont, and used Google Maps on my iPhone to navigate. Google Maps chewed through my phone’s battery (I didn’t have a car charger) and made the phone hot to the touch. For the drive back I used the hated Apple Maps instead. The phone stayed cool and the battery didn’t go into the red. At that point I decided that a worse mapping experience was preferable to a better map app that kills my phone dead.
posted by ejs at 11:15 AM on December 21, 2019 [5 favorites]
Interesting list with some stuff that I wouldn't have thought of as "failures", along with some stuff that I knew was going to be there.
Now I want to see one from the 00's, gotta be some hilariously outdated things on that one.
Anecdotally, I was going over some old drives that I found in a box left over from my move last year, and found this. Who knew it would still be relevant in TYOOL 2019?
posted by Sphinx at 11:27 AM on December 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
Now I want to see one from the 00's, gotta be some hilariously outdated things on that one.
Anecdotally, I was going over some old drives that I found in a box left over from my move last year, and found this. Who knew it would still be relevant in TYOOL 2019?
posted by Sphinx at 11:27 AM on December 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
>> when it started counting Webpass cities where it’s wiring apartment buildings instead of homes.
> Ummm....
Awkward phrasing, but an important distinction when you're talking about being an ISP. The new idea of google fiber was to bring very cheap fiber internet to single family homes. Serving larger properties like business parks, schools, and yes, apartment buildings, isn't especially innovative. Generally those larger installations can already get fast fiber connectivity from existing ISPs.
posted by ryanrs at 11:35 AM on December 21, 2019
> Ummm....
Awkward phrasing, but an important distinction when you're talking about being an ISP. The new idea of google fiber was to bring very cheap fiber internet to single family homes. Serving larger properties like business parks, schools, and yes, apartment buildings, isn't especially innovative. Generally those larger installations can already get fast fiber connectivity from existing ISPs.
posted by ryanrs at 11:35 AM on December 21, 2019
The new idea of google fiber was to bring very cheap fiber internet to single family homes.
If I live on my own in a flat, that's a single family home! Not a single family building, not a single family house, but absolutely a single family home. Just lots of them in the same building.
posted by Dysk at 12:01 PM on December 21, 2019 [2 favorites]
If I live on my own in a flat, that's a single family home! Not a single family building, not a single family house, but absolutely a single family home. Just lots of them in the same building.
posted by Dysk at 12:01 PM on December 21, 2019 [2 favorites]
This is perhaps a derail, but the distinction is that apartment buildings are typically wired "Fiber to the Premises" (FTTP) rather than "Fiber to the Home" (FTTH). Big difference—with FTTH each subscriber gets a piece of fiber that terminates at their actual dwelling unit. But that's not how apartment buildings get wired, because actually pulling fiber inside an already-built building is generally considered prohibitive. Instead, you just bring fiber to a central point in the building and depend on some much more bandwidth-limited technology to do the "last mile" to each unit. Sometimes it's MoCA over CATV wiring, sometimes it's a DSL-like system over copper phone, sometimes it's Ethernet if the building is new enough. Except for switched Ethernet, you often end up sharing bandwidth between subscribers, e.g. MoCA on coax is a 1Gb/s (at least in most versions that have been deployed to my knowledge) shared medium for everyone hanging off that strand of coax.
With true FTTH there's no "last mile" on some non-fiber technology and the fiber connection isn't shared with anyone else. You have the entire bandwidth of that piece of fiber to yourself, so the potential bandwidth is really, really high. You could do FTTH inside apartment buildings, and I bet in more forward-thinking places it probably happens, but it would be expensive. (Also there's no reason why FTTP has to suck; if it's done right you could still have very favorable speeds. E.g. if you bring fiber to a wiring closet on each floor and then run individual GigE or 1Gb MoCA channels to each unit, that'd be pretty slick. But if you only drag the fiber to one place in a large building it tends to be pretty crummy. And bonus, you probably have no choice of ISP.)
Where it becomes slightly dishonest is counting everyone in an apartment building that's wired FTTP as though they're individual FTTH subscribers.
I don't think they are taking a dig at apartment dwellers, although the wording was awkward. It's a technical difference in how those types of deployments are typically conducted.
posted by Kadin2048 at 12:15 PM on December 21, 2019 [9 favorites]
With true FTTH there's no "last mile" on some non-fiber technology and the fiber connection isn't shared with anyone else. You have the entire bandwidth of that piece of fiber to yourself, so the potential bandwidth is really, really high. You could do FTTH inside apartment buildings, and I bet in more forward-thinking places it probably happens, but it would be expensive. (Also there's no reason why FTTP has to suck; if it's done right you could still have very favorable speeds. E.g. if you bring fiber to a wiring closet on each floor and then run individual GigE or 1Gb MoCA channels to each unit, that'd be pretty slick. But if you only drag the fiber to one place in a large building it tends to be pretty crummy. And bonus, you probably have no choice of ISP.)
Where it becomes slightly dishonest is counting everyone in an apartment building that's wired FTTP as though they're individual FTTH subscribers.
I don't think they are taking a dig at apartment dwellers, although the wording was awkward. It's a technical difference in how those types of deployments are typically conducted.
posted by Kadin2048 at 12:15 PM on December 21, 2019 [9 favorites]
Now I want to see one from the 00's, gotta be some hilariously outdated things on that one.
The Verge wasn't started until 2011 but I found this one from Cheatsheet.
20. Zune
posted by octothorpe at 12:15 PM on December 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
The Verge wasn't started until 2011 but I found this one from Cheatsheet.
20. Zune
posted by octothorpe at 12:15 PM on December 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
82. Apple Watch Edition. But not many people could be convinced to spend up to $17,000 on a wearable that would be obsolete in a handful of years.
It suddenly occurs to me that with a price like that, you should have been able to take the damn thing back to Apple and get the guts replaced with the new innards for the next ten years or so. They’d probably still make a profit on the things.
posted by egypturnash at 12:20 PM on December 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
It suddenly occurs to me that with a price like that, you should have been able to take the damn thing back to Apple and get the guts replaced with the new innards for the next ten years or so. They’d probably still make a profit on the things.
posted by egypturnash at 12:20 PM on December 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
The CueCat entry: Introduced in 2000, the CueCat was a plastic cat with an infrared sensor. You’d plug it in to your computer’s PS2 port and scan barcodes to go to a related website. Digital Convergence, the company behind CueCat, mailed them to subscribers of magazines like Wired, and the technology was hailed as a revolution — until it was discovered that the device was collecting information on its users. Hackers posted instructions on how to keep the device from sending data back to Digital Convergence, and the company threatened to sue those hackers. The device never really took off, in part because it was tethered to your computer, unlike the QR code scanners we all have on our smartphones.
1.) They actually nailed QR codes, which are sort of shitty in themselves, but are saved from being a modern failure by a few actually useful edge cases. The point of it being a tethered device is fair enough, but I don't think the basic idea is as completely stupid as people would say.
2.) The idea of anyone being upset by datacollecting through advertising is unfortunately pretty quaint at this point. I assume the price of any app on my phones is existing as a data profile in a server somewhere.
RIP CueCat, you are survived by things many times worse.
posted by codacorolla at 12:22 PM on December 21, 2019 [12 favorites]
1.) They actually nailed QR codes, which are sort of shitty in themselves, but are saved from being a modern failure by a few actually useful edge cases. The point of it being a tethered device is fair enough, but I don't think the basic idea is as completely stupid as people would say.
2.) The idea of anyone being upset by datacollecting through advertising is unfortunately pretty quaint at this point. I assume the price of any app on my phones is existing as a data profile in a server somewhere.
RIP CueCat, you are survived by things many times worse.
posted by codacorolla at 12:22 PM on December 21, 2019 [12 favorites]
Thanks for the clarification Kadin2048. In fairness, the article isn't just awkwardly written, it's terrible - it doesn't mention FTTH at all. It literally says:
The company claims it’s providing internet to 18 metropolitan areas, but it’s been juicing those numbers since 2016, when it started counting Webpass cities where it’s wiring apartment buildings instead of homes.
FTTP still counts as "providing Internet".
posted by Dysk at 12:38 PM on December 21, 2019
The company claims it’s providing internet to 18 metropolitan areas, but it’s been juicing those numbers since 2016, when it started counting Webpass cities where it’s wiring apartment buildings instead of homes.
FTTP still counts as "providing Internet".
posted by Dysk at 12:38 PM on December 21, 2019
The 2010s in tech were the 1990s in tech, just in beautiful high-definition 4K for clarity.
As alluded to upthread: silly and wasteful, a lot of so-called innovations were. May have advanced collective conversations, but not by much.
posted by JoeXIII007 at 1:12 PM on December 21, 2019 [2 favorites]
As alluded to upthread: silly and wasteful, a lot of so-called innovations were. May have advanced collective conversations, but not by much.
posted by JoeXIII007 at 1:12 PM on December 21, 2019 [2 favorites]
Here’s what you need to know about Verizon’s Go90 service: it was a streaming service that wanted to give subscribers access to films and TV shows, but focus on the social aspect. This included leaning into Tumblr, a site that isn’t really a social network anymore.
Never heard about Go90. What makes Tumblr "not really a social network anymore?"
I mean. It's dying, since last year's purge, but it's dying slowly. It does the social part of social networking just fine. It's damn near opaque to outsiders due to the horrifically useless search function and niche-community meme tropes, but... not sure where it fails at "social network" as opposed to "business platform."
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 1:50 PM on December 21, 2019 [3 favorites]
Never heard about Go90. What makes Tumblr "not really a social network anymore?"
I mean. It's dying, since last year's purge, but it's dying slowly. It does the social part of social networking just fine. It's damn near opaque to outsiders due to the horrifically useless search function and niche-community meme tropes, but... not sure where it fails at "social network" as opposed to "business platform."
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 1:50 PM on December 21, 2019 [3 favorites]
Voting systems are a technology, right?
Referendums.
/British
posted by alasdair at 2:22 PM on December 21, 2019 [7 favorites]
Referendums.
/British
posted by alasdair at 2:22 PM on December 21, 2019 [7 favorites]
It's damn near opaque to outsiders due to the horrifically useless search function and niche-community meme tropes, but... not sure where it fails at "social network" as opposed to "business platform."
You sort of answered your own question. I tried to puzzle out how to use Tumblr a couple times and bounced off. It's not really an effective social network if there's a steep learning curve to use it.
posted by octothorpe at 2:40 PM on December 21, 2019
You sort of answered your own question. I tried to puzzle out how to use Tumblr a couple times and bounced off. It's not really an effective social network if there's a steep learning curve to use it.
posted by octothorpe at 2:40 PM on December 21, 2019
Nearly three and a half years after opening its doors the public, you would be hard pressed to name a single person who ever became famous because of a following they built on Google+
Fuck these people. G+ was magnificent and until they shat it up with the youtube integration, was generally not user hostile. "You couldn't get famous there" triggers so much old guy rage in me, like the be-all and end-all of any social technology is to generate and facilitate celebrity and that's not even fucking questioned. Fuck
posted by Sauce Trough at 2:54 PM on December 21, 2019 [23 favorites]
Fuck these people. G+ was magnificent and until they shat it up with the youtube integration, was generally not user hostile. "You couldn't get famous there" triggers so much old guy rage in me, like the be-all and end-all of any social technology is to generate and facilitate celebrity and that's not even fucking questioned. Fuck
posted by Sauce Trough at 2:54 PM on December 21, 2019 [23 favorites]
I would've kept a slot for motion-smoothing TVs. Especially the too-good-to-be-true huge-screen bargains from the big box stores that claim they have a setting to turn smoothing off, which never works.
Too bad my kids were born in the 90s. If I was a generation younger I could see raising kids exclusively on motion smoothing, and then when they're in their late 20s find an old-school TV, watch a DVD at 24/30 fps playback and get their unadulterated opinions. But that might involve keeping them out of theaters too. Maybe you can find a good deal on a Skinner box on craigslist.
Meanwhile, for me and everyone I talk to, those TVs turn films into bad soap operas or those bad catch-a-predator documentaries.
posted by morspin at 2:57 PM on December 21, 2019 [8 favorites]
Too bad my kids were born in the 90s. If I was a generation younger I could see raising kids exclusively on motion smoothing, and then when they're in their late 20s find an old-school TV, watch a DVD at 24/30 fps playback and get their unadulterated opinions. But that might involve keeping them out of theaters too. Maybe you can find a good deal on a Skinner box on craigslist.
Meanwhile, for me and everyone I talk to, those TVs turn films into bad soap operas or those bad catch-a-predator documentaries.
posted by morspin at 2:57 PM on December 21, 2019 [8 favorites]
I would put electronic voting machines on this list.
posted by Brocktoon at 3:33 PM on December 21, 2019 [7 favorites]
posted by Brocktoon at 3:33 PM on December 21, 2019 [7 favorites]
(If you think $17k is a lot for a high-end watch, you don’t know high-end watches.)
posted by mhoye at 4:37 PM on December 21, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by mhoye at 4:37 PM on December 21, 2019 [5 favorites]
I'm not in the high-end watch market but I'm guessing the a Rollex doesn't have an end-of-life support date.
posted by octothorpe at 4:59 PM on December 21, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by octothorpe at 4:59 PM on December 21, 2019 [3 favorites]
QR codes are not niche in Asia, they're ubiquitous tech everywhere.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 5:21 PM on December 21, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 5:21 PM on December 21, 2019 [2 favorites]
I've never actually figured out what to do with a QR code so I just ignore them. I assume there's an app that will scan them but I'm not sure what one.
posted by octothorpe at 5:50 PM on December 21, 2019
posted by octothorpe at 5:50 PM on December 21, 2019
I assume there's an app that will scan them but I'm not sure what one.
Your cell-phone camera will do just fine. (It's an Easter-egg feature, I guess.)
posted by sjswitzer at 6:02 PM on December 21, 2019
Your cell-phone camera will do just fine. (It's an Easter-egg feature, I guess.)
posted by sjswitzer at 6:02 PM on December 21, 2019
Good list, but needs more Tronc, Autonomy, and Google Wave.
posted by euphorb at 6:50 PM on December 21, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by euphorb at 6:50 PM on December 21, 2019 [2 favorites]
yeah, not a good decade for Mac hardware offerings. When my two Macs offed themselves in 2014/2015 I was underwhelmed by my options, so much so I bit the bullet on hackintoshing & haven't looked back (much).
posted by Heywood Mogroot III
––––––––––
2014/15 was not a good time to be buying (new) Apple desktops.
If I was a lot younger and not dealing with serious chronic health issues, I would be hacking merrily away.
But I just don't have the time and energy for it anymore. At some point that starts to clearly outweigh the benefits of saving relatively modest amounts of money.
Particularly when, as in my case, computing power needs are minor. All I need is enough GPU grunt to handle 4K @ 60Hz, and the occasional video transcode (from TV recordings, or disc rips), and even bottom range comps are handling that stuff okay these days.
posted by Pouteria at 7:34 PM on December 21, 2019
posted by Heywood Mogroot III
––––––––––
2014/15 was not a good time to be buying (new) Apple desktops.
If I was a lot younger and not dealing with serious chronic health issues, I would be hacking merrily away.
But I just don't have the time and energy for it anymore. At some point that starts to clearly outweigh the benefits of saving relatively modest amounts of money.
Particularly when, as in my case, computing power needs are minor. All I need is enough GPU grunt to handle 4K @ 60Hz, and the occasional video transcode (from TV recordings, or disc rips), and even bottom range comps are handling that stuff okay these days.
posted by Pouteria at 7:34 PM on December 21, 2019
I'm with peeedro. If, as per the article, Apple sold 'in the low tens of thousands' of a $10k watch that probably cost a couple of hundred bucks to make, isn't that a vast amount of money?
Yeah, sure, the whole "we've noticed that the billionaire class is getting out of hand, and our response was to cater to that" thing is awful, but the article seems to be describing a multi-million dollar profit.
posted by pompomtom at 10:28 PM on December 21, 2019
Yeah, sure, the whole "we've noticed that the billionaire class is getting out of hand, and our response was to cater to that" thing is awful, but the article seems to be describing a multi-million dollar profit.
posted by pompomtom at 10:28 PM on December 21, 2019
Peeple seems like a no-brainier for this list (previously).
posted by sugar and confetti at 8:48 AM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by sugar and confetti at 8:48 AM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
Probably not appropriate for a listicle like the OP, but I think this was a decade of conceptual failure, not just technological failure.
Some notable flops:
News. The very concept of news failed us. We entered the decade with a number of ways of receiving information about the world, and every single one of them has failed us. To the point where the very idea of a fact is now heavily under fire. Ironically, the most innovative thing to come out of this space was the ultra-low-tech paywalling of reputable news sources like WaPo and NYT, which, hey, paying for a service, wow, what a concept. It's almost as if that's what nearly every successful business in the history of the world has done.
Security. Again, the very concept of. The OP kinda touched on this with entries on privacy and the Equifax breach, but those merely scratch the surface. It's probably the most important thing that even smart people don't speak intelligently on. We're still stuck with this War Games mentality that hacking means a really smart dude with L33T hacking skills, when the reality more closely resembles standard con-artist practices. The DNC email hack was a straight-up phishing attack, essentially social engineering at its core. And now we have Trump.
Happiness. An essential understanding of what makes people happy. More stuff and more choice doesn't make people happy. A world that maximizes the opportunity for FOMO is a world where everyone feels shitty, lonely, and miserable, even if they have everything a human could ask for.
Counterculture. Pretty much died when the command of a cultural bottleneck ceased to be remotely possible. Now even your least hip friend stands a chance of being exposed to obscure crate-digger fare -- which is cool, don't get me wrong. And yet music, or really any cultural product at all, has ceased to present an opportunity to foment or express genuine rebellion.
Conceptualizing wealth. Cue Chris Rock, "I'm not talking about money, I'm talking about wealth." For all the talk of the 1%, we still have no idea how to conceptualize that much power, and really nobody has adequately stepped up to the task of portraying it to the masses. As evidenced by : nobody really being mad enough about it. Yet.
posted by panama joe at 12:22 PM on December 22, 2019 [11 favorites]
Some notable flops:
News. The very concept of news failed us. We entered the decade with a number of ways of receiving information about the world, and every single one of them has failed us. To the point where the very idea of a fact is now heavily under fire. Ironically, the most innovative thing to come out of this space was the ultra-low-tech paywalling of reputable news sources like WaPo and NYT, which, hey, paying for a service, wow, what a concept. It's almost as if that's what nearly every successful business in the history of the world has done.
Security. Again, the very concept of. The OP kinda touched on this with entries on privacy and the Equifax breach, but those merely scratch the surface. It's probably the most important thing that even smart people don't speak intelligently on. We're still stuck with this War Games mentality that hacking means a really smart dude with L33T hacking skills, when the reality more closely resembles standard con-artist practices. The DNC email hack was a straight-up phishing attack, essentially social engineering at its core. And now we have Trump.
Happiness. An essential understanding of what makes people happy. More stuff and more choice doesn't make people happy. A world that maximizes the opportunity for FOMO is a world where everyone feels shitty, lonely, and miserable, even if they have everything a human could ask for.
Counterculture. Pretty much died when the command of a cultural bottleneck ceased to be remotely possible. Now even your least hip friend stands a chance of being exposed to obscure crate-digger fare -- which is cool, don't get me wrong. And yet music, or really any cultural product at all, has ceased to present an opportunity to foment or express genuine rebellion.
Conceptualizing wealth. Cue Chris Rock, "I'm not talking about money, I'm talking about wealth." For all the talk of the 1%, we still have no idea how to conceptualize that much power, and really nobody has adequately stepped up to the task of portraying it to the masses. As evidenced by : nobody really being mad enough about it. Yet.
posted by panama joe at 12:22 PM on December 22, 2019 [11 favorites]
I think the media content and Fyre Festival made the list because they relied heavily on tech, which...ok. Fyre Festival was only able to occur because people were duped via a very convincing Instagram campaign.
Wasn't the Fyre Festival created at least in part to hype the Fyre app, with which you could supposedly book musical artists on the level of Beyonce and whatnot? (Never mind pesky little things like exclusive long-term contracts that said artists have with big management agencies, etc.)
posted by gtrwolf at 4:07 PM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
Wasn't the Fyre Festival created at least in part to hype the Fyre app, with which you could supposedly book musical artists on the level of Beyonce and whatnot? (Never mind pesky little things like exclusive long-term contracts that said artists have with big management agencies, etc.)
posted by gtrwolf at 4:07 PM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
The Boeing Max 737 should have made this list
posted by nikaspark at 12:07 AM on December 23, 2019 [7 favorites]
posted by nikaspark at 12:07 AM on December 23, 2019 [7 favorites]
paying for a service, wow, what a concept. It's almost as if that's what nearly every successful business in the history of the world has done.
Television was completely free to the consumer for a long time, as was radio before it. And magazines and newspapers have historically made most of their money from advertising, not subscriptions or newsstand sales. The idea that advertising revenue could support content creatiion isn't ridiculous, it's just that currently it's mostly supporting YouTube videos rather than overseas news bureaus.
posted by Umami Dearest at 12:54 AM on December 23, 2019 [2 favorites]
Television was completely free to the consumer for a long time, as was radio before it. And magazines and newspapers have historically made most of their money from advertising, not subscriptions or newsstand sales. The idea that advertising revenue could support content creatiion isn't ridiculous, it's just that currently it's mostly supporting YouTube videos rather than overseas news bureaus.
posted by Umami Dearest at 12:54 AM on December 23, 2019 [2 favorites]
I tried to puzzle out how to use Tumblr a couple times and bounced off. It's not really an effective social network if there's a steep learning curve to use it.
Using tumblr is a lot like having conversations in a rave while the sprinklers are going off over half the stage. I mean. You can *have* serious talks, but that takes practice and experience. Mostly you can see a whole lot of "lookit lookit lookit" at either very shiny pretty things or very outrageous horrific things.
It's not easy to get used to, but then, neither are cocktail parties, and nobody says those aren't social venues because most people don't want to be there and wouldn't know what to do if they were.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 10:46 AM on December 23, 2019 [1 favorite]
Using tumblr is a lot like having conversations in a rave while the sprinklers are going off over half the stage. I mean. You can *have* serious talks, but that takes practice and experience. Mostly you can see a whole lot of "lookit lookit lookit" at either very shiny pretty things or very outrageous horrific things.
It's not easy to get used to, but then, neither are cocktail parties, and nobody says those aren't social venues because most people don't want to be there and wouldn't know what to do if they were.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 10:46 AM on December 23, 2019 [1 favorite]
39. Microsoft KinectEvery so often I have a chance to interact with one of these. It's part of a science outreach installation at a big museum. In this case it's essentially a single-purpose device, with software designed and operated entirely by people with techy PhDs. (Which doesn't mean a whole lot. . . but, usually indicates at least slightly above-average computer literacy.) The interface is meant to let you do a very limited number of things: come closer, move farther, go left, go right, zoom. That's it. That's all it needs to do. It never works. Well, occasionally it works, but it has never worked three times in a row. Most people who've used it more than once just point it at the wall and plug in a USB mouse instead. I'm really astonished it was ever released as a consumer product, and curious if there's any actual implementation that isn't mostly frustrating.
posted by eotvos at 11:51 AM on December 23, 2019 [1 favorite]
I'm still depressed about the demise of Windows Phone - so much potential squandered. That whole Nokia/Microsoft thing was such a cluster to boot.
Also, I think they forgot about MS SPOT (albeit previous decade) when discussing MS Band as a Microsoft wearable (altho' it doesn't look like MS themselves made it, just licensed the OS unlike the Band which they did make).
posted by phigmov at 12:38 PM on December 23, 2019
Also, I think they forgot about MS SPOT (albeit previous decade) when discussing MS Band as a Microsoft wearable (altho' it doesn't look like MS themselves made it, just licensed the OS unlike the Band which they did make).
posted by phigmov at 12:38 PM on December 23, 2019
I loved the “wearable DVD player” in the 2010 cheat sheet article linked above.
posted by Orlop at 6:40 AM on December 24, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Orlop at 6:40 AM on December 24, 2019 [1 favorite]
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posted by They sucked his brains out! at 7:18 AM on December 21, 2019 [10 favorites]