Internet Business Daily

1) Sony Lithium-Ion Batteries: Computer manufactuers have recalled 9.6 million Sony made notebook battiers so far this year. The recall to date has cost sony about $433 million, bur reputation costs were much higher.

2) Amazon.com Unbox: Amazon’s movie download service was a complete flop. It is slower than driving yourself to Blockbuster. Its restrictive on how the purchaser uses the movie they paid for. It has lower resolution than a DVD. It requires a cable from your PC to TV. Horrible.

3) Vonage VoIP: With little to no reliable customer service and the constant question of clarity and receiving voice mail in a timely fashion, Vonage’s Voice Over Internet Protocol telephone may be cheaper, but is it anything but efficient.

4) Hewlett Packard: HP was a legend in Silicon Valley making a good product and doing good philanthropic work. What’s all that worth when executives violate the privacy of employees, journalists, and even board members? Planting spies in newsroom janitor staffs? Yes, I’m sure HP will not put any spyware or other questionable features in their computers. I can trust HP. Can’t I?

5) Microsoft Vista: Initially Microsoft will not be giving access to the Vista Kernal or core code to any of its third-party security software vendors until Service Pack 1 is released. So until SP1 you will be depending soley on Microsoft to protect your computer. I wish I was lying, but I’m not. Microsoft screws up again. Maybe we can spin this into a new antitrust lawsuit =).

6) Recording Industry Association of America: This year the RIAA released a film called “Campus Downloading” warning students that they could be kicked out of school and arrested for downloading music without permission or paying a fee for all digital music. So much for fair use. With all the complaining that consumers don’t really buy and own digital music, I guess I wasn’t really paying Apple who pays you for music now was I? The RIAA needs to learn what the word “distinction” means.

7) Blu-Ray v. HD-DVD: Initialy this was just going to be a gigantic headache as the movie standards war of the 1980s (VHS v. Betamax) reared its ugly head once again. With consumers not knowing if Blu-Ray or HD was going to prevail and having to spend $1000-$2000 on a player that could be obsolete in a year, how could this not frighten anyone looking to trade up. Luckily Toshiba came out with a controller chip that will allow players to read both formats.

Paperless Voting Machines: After the 2000 Presidential Elections, it was realized that a better system for counting votes was needed. The answer was The Direct Recording Electronic Voting Machine which provided no paper trail, no reliable way to audit results, and refusal of third party security assessments, The DRE caused people to lose more faith in the electoral system than to have more in it.

9) Ultra-Mobile PCs: Not small enough to fit in your pocket, not large enough to be practical for constant work. Enough Said.