dumbest hardware ideas

[Boomstick]

My keyboard died over the weekend and so I went shopping for a replacement. I wanted something simple- volume control, with no f-lock hassles. I couldn't find one. Got a logitech and f-lock appears to be on bt default, so not so bad. Anyways-

Some of the dumbest hardware ideas I've seen:
-The f-lock key
-Putting the eject button button under the disc tray of optical drives.

 

[JamminPotato]

<n00b> may i ask what an f-lock button is? </n00b>

 

[Boomstick]

The new KB's replace all the Function keys (F1-F12) with things the manufacturer thinks is more useful, like Open & Save. So to use the original Function key you have to first hit the f-lock.

 

[Mortis03]

I would guess a button that makes the f keys work only if the f lock is on.

Just guessing this based on num lock idea.

Speaking of which (funny story I swear). My grandma was going crazy trying to get the numbers to work. I just built her a new computer and she was like, "I want my old keyboard," and things like that. I went over to her house, hit the num lock key and it all worked fine. Hehe.

 

[JamminPotato]

oh ok. Souns ridicoulous why not just teach ppl ctrl+c and ctrl+v and stuff like that. shiver....-lock..shiver

 

[JamminPotato]

as far as stupidest hardwar "innovation" my vote goes to 5 inch floppy disks

 

[don256us]

as far as stupidest hardwar "innovation" my vote goes to 5 inch floppy disks

What about the 10 inch floppy. I ran into a few of those the other day.

Bad hardware ideas...

The LS120 was too little too late. Same with zip disk; too costly, too little, too late. Computers with no HDD LED ( I really hate that one). Slightly off note but furniture stores that sell 'Internet desks'. Like I won't be able to get the internet without the desk? Ohh. I got one. Why do all of the connectors have to be on the back of the machine. To change my speakers to headphones requires that I crawl underneath my desk (not an internet desk) to swap out. Then, because I'm not young and spry, this happens a lot.

OUCH! !@#$!@#$

 

[Mortis03]

hehe, internet desks. What I always thought was dumb was my old pc case. Doesnt really apply to everyone... pretty much to just me. But man, this case was crap. Nothing would line up right, no holes to screw cards (pci, agp, etc.) in. The psu it came w/ had a bent casing. The window came broken, and wasnt attached well at all. The top of the case was bent and wouldnt want to fit together very well. Man I didnt like that thing, but put up w/ it for a year. I should have known better then ordering from a canadian company

 

[JimmyG]

RE: "as far as stupidest hardwar "innovation" my vote goes to 5 inch floppy disks"

It depends on your perspective....5" disks came before the 3 1/2" disks because the technology wasn't developed at that time to read the density the 3 1/2" disks required.

 

[BoilersT]

I had a Pentium mmx 166Mhz with a tubro button that would lower it to 30 or so Mhz's, I found it stupid that this button existed.

 

[DMac]

I had a Pentium mmx 166Mhz with a tubro button that would lower it to 30 or so Mhz's, I found it stupid that this button existed.

I had a 386 with a turbo button. It's like...why not run it in turbo all the time?!

 

[jabaro]

I had a 386 with a turbo button. It's like...why not run it in turbo all the time?!

You don't wanna wear out the turbo do you?

 

[/\\/3|2o]

DEATH TO THE F-LOCK

F-LOCK

MOST FRUSTRATING BUTTON IN THE WORLD

 

[DMac]

You don't wanna wear out the turbo do you?

Yeah that would be a shame wouldn't it? If I fried something, I'd have to go back to my 8086.

 

[Mortis03]

RE: "as far as stupidest hardwar "innovation" my vote goes to 5 inch floppy disks"

It depends on your perspective....5" disks came before the 3 1/2" disks because the technology wasn't developed at that time to read the density the 3 1/2" disks required.

I had an amegia w/ 3.5 in discs when everything else was using 5". I loved that thing. It was before "my time" in the sense that I didnt know jack about computers, but then, I was like 8. Anyway, it had like plug and play software, no istalling... I liked it

 

[DMac]

Wow, 10 inch floppies. haven't seen those in a while.

 

[DaWiper]

AFAIK the point with the old TURBO button was to underclock your computer so that older games and applications wouldn't run way too fast.
I remeber a game called "Digger" that i liked alot when my father had a brand new 286. The problem was that the game was written while 086 was state of the art. No need to say that the game was alot harder to play at aprox. double speed.

Saying that 5 1/4" floppies is stupid hardware is also wrong. It was great for it's time. It would be like saying: "Hey! Those old 20MB harddrives was lame. Why didn't they make them 160GB right away?"
There is something called progress....
When I got my first computer(c64) I had to store my things on audiotapes!

Anyway. back to the original post... The F-Lock. I don't like it!!! It's Off by default on my keybard. Have to push it to get to the F-keys.

Infact I almost never use any of those extra features I paid for(Logitech Office Internet Keyboard)

And the eject button on the cd/dvd drives: I bet it could be located at a better place....

 

[MyPCAlexi]

come on the turbo kicked bum! now that i think about it though, it would be pretty slick to see a new system run stock and when you pushed the turbo button it would overclock into a monster *hint hint (DO IT! )*. my vote has to go with the zip drive though. too little too late. the jazz drives still are decent to hold 10 gigs but the rev drives look really good for backups now. 100 mb's didnt cut it when it came out, and it definitely doesnt cut it now.

 

[FoxBat]

"Internet Desk" LMFAO! That's a good one! It seems the tradition continues though, "laser" LEDs and "laser" mice for example.

And how about those "internet" keyboards? Jeepers isn't there enough buttons on the standard keyboard already?

My vote for the most useless innovation though has to be those silly little USB powered personal fans they are trying to sell to notebook users. What a waste of power.

 

[Mr_White]

if you think the usb fan is bad, you must not have seen the coffee cup warmer. thats just pointless.