Is the Sega Dreamcast the Biggest Tech Flop of the Past Decade?

Paul Lilly — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 09:45:25 -0500

For every Core i7, GTX 295, and other technological marvels, there's a piece of hardware sitting on the other end of the technological spectrum that, for one reason or another, just didn't make it. Maybe the design was flawed, or in the case of HD-DVD, it simply lost the marketing battle to a competing format.

Whatever the reasons might be, CNet has composed a list of what it believes are the 25 biggest tech flops of the past decade. Ranking No. 1 on the list is the Sega Dreamcast console simply because after staying on the market for just three years after it was originally released in 1998, "it didn't make it."

Other items on the list include DVD Audio, Sirius satellite radio, the two-wheeled, self-balancing electric vehicle known as the Segway, UMDs, and more than a few handheld devices.

Spy the full list here, then hit the jump and tell us what you think are the biggest tech flops of the past decade.

Image Credit: teamteabag.com

Satisfy Your Internet History "Crave" with the Top 50 Moments

Mark Edward Soper — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 13:24:41 -0500

Cnet.UK's Crave blog decided to dig around in the Internet history attic recently and bring us what it calls the "50 Most Significant Moments of Internet History." Before you click the link (at the end of this article), let's try a little quiz to see what you know about your favorite time-waster/research tool:

Which of these building blocks of the Internet predate the first Super Bowl? A. WWW B. GIF image C. Arpanet
Which came first? A. Apache B. Mosaic C. RSS
How old is the MP3 file format? A. Old enough to drink (21). B. Old enough to be in college (19). C. Old enough to get a driver's license (16).
Which search site was originally known as "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web"? A. Yahoo! B. AltaVista C. Google

Go to page 2 for the answers.

Now, let's see how you did.

1. Which of these building blocks of the Internet predate the first Super Bowl? The correct answer is C, Arpanet.

Arpanet, a Department of Defense data sharing network that's an important predecessor to the Internet, began in February 1966 (the first Super Bowl was played in January 1967). CERN's WWW proposal is the youngest of the three (introduced in November 1990), while the GIF image format dates back to June 1987.

2. Which came first? The correct answer is B, Mosaic. Mosaic, developed by Marc Andreessen (who later founded Netscape), was the first successful web browser, and was introduced in early 1993. You can still download it from the NCSA archives. The Apache web server is just a couple of years younger (introduced in 1995), while the ancestor to RSS, the scriptingNews format, is actually over 10 years old, seeing the light of day in December 1997.

3. How old is the MP3 file format? If you selected B, It's old enough to be in college, you're right! MP3 was introduced in 1989, making the format 19 years old.

4. Which search site was originally known as "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web"? Let's be thankful that Yahoo! (A) is the correct answer. I just can't see a lot of web surfers typing a URL like jerryanddavidguidewww.com, can you? Google (C) needs no introduction, but if you forgot about AltaVista (B), click the link to try it.

Check out Crave's complete list of all of the most significant moments, as well as some honorable mentions, but don't forget to hit the Comment button here for your nominations.

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Is the Sega Dreamcast the Biggest Tech Flop of the Past Decade?

Satisfy Your Internet History "Crave" with the Top 50 Moments