Adi Haryadi

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Unboxed voters Winner by VMware

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Attempting to add a host to VirtualCenter produces a license error

Details

When you are attempting to add an ESX host to VirtualCenter, VMware Infrastructure (VI) Client displays an error message similar to the following:

There are not enough licenses installed to perform the operation.

Solution

The above error message may be caused by one of these problems:

The VirtualCenter Server is in an unlicensed state. VirtualCenter may be unlicensed because the edition selected during the installation is not the purchased edition.
There is a problem with a virtual machine on the ESX host.

Correcting the VirtualCenter Server license state

To correct the VirtualCenter Server license state:

1. Launch VI Client and log in to VirtualCenter.
2. Choose Administration > VirtualCenter Management Server Configuration.

3. For VirtualCenter Server Edition, choose the edition that is not currently configured and click OK.

This is especially true if you purchased and uploaded VirtualCenter Foundation license and selected VirtualCenter Enterprise during installation.

If the VirtualCenter Server licensing is correct, the problem may be with a virtual machine on the ESX host.

Verifying and correcting issues with a virtual machine on an ESX host

To verify and correct a problem with a virtual machine on the ESX host:

Log on to the ESX host service console with root privileges.
View the vpxa.log file. Run the command:

more /var/log/vmware/vpx/vpxa.log
Examine the log for messages for warnings similar to:

[2008-06-16 12:37:59.350 'App' warning] ============BEGIN FAILED METHOD CALL DUMP============
[ + 0 msc 'App' warning] Invoking [GetLayout] on [vim.VirtualMachine:336]
[ + 0 msc 'App' warning] Fault Msg: "A general system error occured: Failed to serialize result"
[ + 0 msc 'App' warning] ============END FAILED METHOD CALL DUMP============
[ + 1 msc 'App' error] [vm.GetLayout] Received exception in GetLayout: vmodl.fault.SystemError

The example shows the source of the problem is the error Failed to serialize result.
View the hostd.log file. Run the command:

more /var/log/vmware/hostd.log

The output appears similar to:

[2008-06-16 09:44:12.052 'vm:Win2000.vmx' verbose] Retrieved current power state from foundry 0
[ + 1 msc 'vm:Win2000.vmx' verbose] Retrieved Summary info
[ + 29 msc 'vm:Win2000.vmx' error] Disk was not opened successfully. Backing type unknown.
[ + 31 msc 'App' warning] Failed to serialize result of method vim.VirtualMachine.GetLayout: Not initialized: vim.vm.FileLayout.DiskLayout[] disk.diskFile
[ + 31 msc 'Vmomi' info] Activation [N5Vmomi10ActivationE:0xacfe360] : Invoke done [GetLayout] on [vim.VirtualMachine:336]
[ + 31 msc 'Vmomi' info] Throw vmodl.fault.SystemError
[ + 31 msc 'Vmomi' info] Result:
(vmodl.fault.SystemError) {
reason = "Failed to serialize result"
msg = ""
}Search for Failed to serialize result errors. This example shows that a virtual machine file Win2000.vmx is experiencing problems.
Determine the full path to the virtual machine. Run the command:

vmware-cmd -l
For example:

# vmware-cmd -l
/vmfs/volumes/47a0abbf-48b83cd4-3517-001a5311f31b/AD-SVR-PRM/Win2000-1.vmx
/vmfs/volumes/47a0abbf-48b83cd4-3517-001a5311f31b/IIS-XPR/Win-2003.vmx
/vmfs/volumes/47a0abbf-48b83cd4-3517-001a5311f31b/ajax-test/Win2000.vmxIn this example, the last line of output lists the full pathname to the problematic virtual machine.
Unregister the virtual machine. Run the command:

vmware-cmd -s unregister /vmfs/volumes/47a0abbf-48b83cd4-3517-001a5311f31b/ajax-test/Win2000.vmxNote: This does not apply any power operations to the virtual machine. The virtual machine continues to run unaffected. You cannot, however, manage the virtual machine from VI Client until you re-register it.
Restart the ESX management agents. For more information, see Restarting the Management agents on an ESX Server (1003490).
Add the ESX host to the VirtualCenter Server.
Re-register the virtual machine. Run the command:

vmware-cmd -s register /vmfs/volumes/47a0abbf-48b83cd4-3517-001a5311f31b/ajax-test/Win2000.vmx

Verifying and correcting issues with a virtual machine on an ESXi host

To verify and correct a problem with a virtual machine on the ESXi host, follow these steps:

Note: The following steps require the vSphere CLI or the VMware RCLI. For more information, see vSphere Command-Line Interface.

Open a browser, and go to:

http://<hostname>/host/

where <hostname> is the name of the ESXi host
Enter the appropriate credentials.
Click on the vpxa.log link, and search for Failed to serialize result errors:
[2008-06-16 12:37:59.350 'App' warning] ============BEGIN FAILED METHOD CALL DUMP============
[ + 0 msc 'App' warning] Invoking [GetLayout] on [vim.VirtualMachine:336]
[ + 0 msc 'App' warning] Fault Msg: "A general system error occured: Failed to serialize result"
[ + 0 msc 'App' warning] ============END FAILED METHOD CALL DUMP============
[ + 1 msc 'App' error] [vm.GetLayout] Received exception in GetLayout: vmodl.fault.SystemError
Click on the hostd.log link, and search for Failed to serialize result errors:
[2008-06-16 09:44:12.052 'vm:Win2000.vmx' verbose] Retrieved current power state from foundry 0
[ + 1 msc 'vm:Win2000.vmx' verbose] Retrieved Summary info
[ + 29 msc 'vm:Win2000.vmx' error] Disk was not opened successfully. Backing type unknown.
[ + 31 msc 'App' warning] Failed to serialize result of method vim.VirtualMachine.GetLayout: Not initialized: vim.vm.FileLayout.DiskLayout[] disk.diskFile
[ + 31 msc 'Vmomi' info] Activation [N5Vmomi10ActivationE:0xacfe360] : Invoke done [GetLayout] on [vim.VirtualMachine:336]
[ + 31 msc 'Vmomi' info] Throw vmodl.fault.SystemError
[ + 31 msc 'Vmomi' info] Result:
(vmodl.fault.SystemError) {
reason = "Failed to serialize result"
msg = ""
}
Make note of the virtual machine referenced in the hostd.log file. This example above shows a virtual machine file Win2000.vmx is experiencing problems.
Using the vSphere command line interface, run the command:

vmware-cmd <connection options> -l

The output appears similar to:
/vmfs/volumes/47a0abbf-48b83cd4-3517-001a5311f31b/AD-SVR-PRM/Win2000-1.vmx
/vmfs/volumes/47a0abbf-48b83cd4-3517-001a5311f31b/IIS-XPR/Win-2003.vmx
/vmfs/volumes/47a0abbf-48b83cd4-3517-001a5311f31b/ajax-test/Win2000.vmxIn this example, the last line of output lists the full pathname to the problematic virtual machine as identified in the example in step 4.
Unregister the virtual machine. Run the command:

vmware-cmd.pl <connection options> -s unregister /vmfs/volumes/47a0abbf-48b83cd4-3517-001a5311f31b/ajax-test/Win2000.vmxNote: This does not apply any power operations to the virtual machine. The virtual machine continues to run unaffected. You cannot, however, manage the virtual machine from VI Client until you re-register it.
Restart the ESXi management agents. For more information, see Restarting the Management agents on an ESX or ESXi Server (1003490).
Add the ESXi host to the VirtualCenter Server.
Re-register the virtual machine. Run the command:

vmware-cmd.pl <connection options> -s register /vmfs/volumes/47a0abbf-48b83cd4-3517-001a5311f31b/ajax-test/Win2000.vmx

For additional information or if the issue persists, see Not enough licenses installed (1005265) or Cannot connect ESX server to VirtualCenter (1005562). (Source kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1003623)

Installing Windows XP on ESX using LSI Logic driver

I get a lot of questions concerning the deployment of Windows XP on ESX. By default, ESX will use the LSI Logic driver when deploying a new Windows XP virtual machine. The LSI Logic driver is not found on the CD-ROM media, so Windows XP will not continue with the installation if this driver is not found.

The steps:

Create a new Windows XP Virtual Machine
Upload a Windows XP .iso file to your datastore/ISOstore (preferably a VLK version) and link it via the CD-ROM options in your Virtual Machine. Make sure it is connected / at power on
Go to http://www.lsilogic.com/cm/DownloadSearch.do and search for a driver for the LSI20320-R controller.
Extract all files in the symmpi_wXP_1201800.ZIP
Use a program such as WinImage to create an LSILogic.flp file and include the extracted files in the .flp image.
Upload the newly created LSILogic.flp to your datastore/ISO store
Link the .flp file via the Floppy options => use existing floppy image in datastore in your Virtual Machine. Do NOT connect it yet.
Power On your Windows XP machine. The installation of Windows XP should begin.
During setup, press F6 to select additional SCSI drivers
Now is the time to connect your floppy and use S during Windows Setup when prompted to connect to the floppy drive.

The LSILogic drive should appear. Press ENTER to continue
Setup will continue as normal
Install VMware tools
Done!

NOTE: when using the BusLogic driver instead, you can download & use a preconfigured .flp file from the VMware site: http://download3.vmware.com/software/vmscsi-1.2.0.4.flp. Follow the same procedure as described above. The driver should be name VMware SCSI Controller in Windows XP. (Source: virtrix.blogspot.com/2007/09/vmware-installing-windows-xp-on-esx.html)

New VM receives NTLDR is missing

NTLDR is missing
Press Alt + CTLR + DEL

I just received this after creating a VM (in my case Windows XP) on ESX 3.5. I jump back to the server and fire up the VM and receive the same NTLDR is missing message.

Step 1. Check the summary or the .vmx to make sure there is no floppy drive present.

Step 2. Load BIOS (F2) during the VM power on and check to see if it recognized the drives.

Step 3. Boot to a mounted O/S disk (Bootable Windows XP). Load the recovery console. If you are able to get to the recovery console, your VM disk .vmdk’s are recognized. You may then want to try the following Microsoft recommended steps.

“Issue the following commands at the recovery console”

FIXMBR C:
FIXBOOT C:
COPY x:\I386\NTLDR C:\
COPY x:\I386\NTDETECT.COM C:\
BOOTCFG /rebuild

Step 4 If the recovery console was unable to recognize any drives, which led me to believe that something was still wrong in the .vmx config file. I check and had two .vmdk files (one 12GB and one 15GB). The .vmx was referencing the wrong names. I updated the names to point to the existing .vmdk files and the VM powered up just fine.

Not sure when or how the scsi0 and scsi1 got pointed to invalid .vmdk names but good to know none the less. (Source: www.jesswatts.com/it/vm-receives-ntldr-is-missing)

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

The Ugliest Products in Tech History

All of this gear may have worked just fine, but it sure looked bad doing it. Here are 10 examples of the worst product designs in the tech industry's storied past.

By Emru Townsend , PCWorld Oct 8, 2007 11:00 am

Acoustic Coupler Modems

The 1970s aren't exactly known for great design (shag rugs, The Osmonds' hairstyles), but one egregiously tacky piece of tech from that era was also one of the most vital for the pioneers of our modern, always-connected world: the acoustic-coupler modem. Back when Ma Bell ruled the telephony landscape and phones were hard-wired into walls, the only way to connect your computer to the outside world was to make the call manually, listen for the carrier tone, and then push the handset into the twin suction cups mounted on top of the modem. A triumph of function over form, these devices were how the first generation of Netizens got their online fix. Too bad it looked like you were sticking your phone into two miniature plungers. -- Emru Townsend

Osborne 1

The idea of portable computers is so commonplace now that we don't even call them portables. Terms like laptop and notebook convey the current state of the art: full-featured computers that you can easily tuck under your arm or into a knapsack. But in 1981 the first truly portable computer, the Osborne 1, weighed in at a bulky 24 pounds. The box included a 5-inch monochrome monitor, a full-size keyboard, and two floppy disk drives. The first generation of computer road warriors cut their teeth (and built up their biceps) carrying the popular but awkward Osborne, but as personal computers began getting smaller and sleeker, the suitcase-sized (and -shaped) Osborne 1 began looking like an unfortunate throwback.

Motorola DynaTAC 8000X

There are some things that are so sleek and gorgeously crafted you wonder how they could have come from such, er, less-than-glamorous forebears. Exhibit A is Liv Tyler. Exhibit B is the Motorola Razr, whose ancestor is the DynaTAC 8000X--the very first cell phone. At an unwieldy 10 inches tall (not including the antenna), the blocky 28-ounce 8000X wasn't all that visually or ergonomically appealing even in the big-hair, skinny-leather-tie 1980s. However, people were so awed by the concept of a truly mobile phone when the 8000X made its 1983 debut that thousands of people happily dropped $3995 for the sake of being cutting-edge. By 1984 there were over a quarter of a million wireless subscribers worldwide.

Microsoft Windows 1.0

The first Macintosh operating system popularized the concept of graphical user interfaces when it was launched in 1984, and a year later Microsoft responded with the first version of Windows--and no GUI has been as blocky or garish since. To be fair, the first Windows wasn't so much an operating system as an add-on to MS-DOS, which meant living with design groaners like ALL-CAPITAL file names and the still-very-DOS-like graphics standard. Though more than a few people would contend that Microsoft has been playing catch-up with Apple's design sense ever since, the ugly duckling did eventually turn into a swan with Windows Vista. And, as we understand it, Windows has done kind of okay in the marketplace.

Nintendo Virtual Boy

In 1995, Nintendo capitalized on the virtual-reality craze by coming out with the Virtual Boy game console. The "portable" unit consisted of goggles mounted on a stand (looking like some kind of compact, plastic peep show), along with a full-size controller. By rapidly displaying slightly different images to the right and the left eye, the goggles made players experience the illusion of three dimensions. Although the technique is not unlike the one used for 3D IMAX movies, the console's cheaper technology meant that instead of bright colors, players got pixilated red-on-black monochrome images. The Virtual Boy still has its fans (check outwww.virtual-boy.org), but back in the mid-1990s people stayed away in droves. Nintendo pulled the plug on the Virtual Boy the year after its debut.

Tiger Electronics Furby

It sounds like the ultimate geek fantasy: Give your child an intelligent robot for Christmas--even if it does look like a cross between Gizmo from the Gremlins movie, a Muppet, and a Warner Bros. cartoon character. Thanks to its CPU, sensors, and moving parts, the original Furby could react to light, sound and touch: waking up in the morning, responding to words and sounds, and responding to having its fur stroked. Out of the box, Furbys spoke "Furbish," but could be taught to repeat certain English words if they were given positive reinforcement at the same time. In 1998 they caused enough of a sensation that the $35 toys quickly sold out in toy stores, driving prices up into the hundreds and riling up parents who clearly hadn't learned from the Tickle Me Elmo fad two years earlier.

iMac Flower Power and Dalmatian

Apple's first iMacs were like a breath of fresh air to the computer-buying public. The bright, playful colors and rounded design of the all-in-one computers were in sharp contrast to PCs, which were still mostly beige blocks. Among the 2001 lineup of iMacs were two new color schemes, Flower Power and Dalmatian (white with hazy blue spots). No doubt Steve Jobs felt that the softly colored hues would be considered soothing and tasteful, but frankly they were a bit more reminiscent of a cheap shower curtain. Even the Mac faithful agreed, and saved their oohs and aahs for the Indigo and Graphite models released at the same time.

Neuros II Digital Audio Computer

In 2004, Neuros Audio released the Neuros II, the second version of what was already the mother of all audio players: It played MP3, Ogg Vorbis, WMA, and uncompressed WAV files. It could also record MP3s through a line input, a built-in microphone, or an FM tuner. Perhaps most innovative was the player's two-part design: The player unit was mounted inside an upgradable "backpack" that contained the battery and the storage media (from a 128MB flash drive to an 80GB hard drive). The downside was that the whole thing looked something like a black brick, at the ungainly size of 5.3 by 3.1 by 1.3 inches--at a time when audio players were getting sleeker and more strikingly designed. However, the legion of enthusiasts and tinkerers that Neuros catered to were more interested in specs than looks, and they happily snapped the player up.

Commodore 1541 Floppy Disk Drive

The Commodore 64 is arguably one of the best-designed computers ever. It's boxy enough to remind you it's from the 1980s, but it's got enough curves in just the right places that its look is almost timeless. Unfortunately, the external Commodore 1541 disk drive coming with it was pretty much a slab of plastic that was bulkier and heavier than the computer it was supporting. It was noisier too, making gronk sounds during ordinary operation and clacking when it encountered read or write errors. The drive also ran hot, which led to many drives being adorned with fans on the rear vents. The only thing less appealing than one of these monsters on your desk? Two of them.

Microsoft Zune Player

When Microsoft launched its "iPod killer" in 2006, the company made sure to include many of the things that made Apple's iconic players a runaway success, including great sound and an integrated music store/manager. Somewhere along the way, though, Microsoft forgot to include the iPod's sexy design, opting instead for a boxy plastic casing and a spectacularly unflattering brown color. The Redmond giant has released Zunes in other, "limited edition" colors, and did manage to achieve its somewhat modest goal of selling a million Zunes in seven months. Still, it's a bad sign when someone comes up with a Web site built entirely around the joke that no one would steal an iPod if it were hidden in a Zune casing--and people actually want to buy that casing.

5 Great Microsoft Web Services You Probably Don't Use

Microsoft is so often the behemoth everyone loves to hate that people overlook the stuff it does right. We tried its newer Web services and found five gems.

By Preston Gralla, PCWorld Mar 4, 2009 5:45 am

When you think of Web apps and services, Microsoft doesn't immediately come to mind. Lately, though, the company has been rolling out a slew of them, including several that match or beat competing offerings from Google, Yahoo, and any number of startups you've never heard of.

Which of those Microsoft services are the best? We've tried them all, and we've selected five free hidden gems.

You'll notice that most of these services carry Microsoft's "Live" brand. If you're like most people, you're probably thoroughly confused by the Live lineup, and by what Live actually means--especially since Microsoft has muddied the waters with the newer "Live Essentials" moniker. For the record, Windows Live is a central online location for accessing the Live services and applications. Windows Live Essentials is a subset of the Windows Live brand that houses downloadable applications, including Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Messenger, and others.

Windows Live SkyDrive

How's this for a deal: Get 25GB of online storage, at no cost, with no strings attached. That's what Windows Live SkyDrive offers. Just create folders on the site and upload files to it. You can share any of your folders with colleagues, as well. The site's design is simple and straightforward.

That isn't to say SkyDrive is flawless. You can't use it as a virtual drive--it won't appear on your PC as a drive, so you can't save files directly to it within a program like Microsoft Word. That's a minor point, though. You can't argue with 25GB of free storage, especially considering that neither Google nor Yahoo currently has this kind of service. While Google is rumored to be working on a similar service called GDrive, Yahoo's Briefcase provides only 25MB of space, and is shutting down at the end of March anyway. So right now Windows Live SkyDrive is as good as online storage gets.

Windows Live Sync

If you have more than one PC and you want to keep files and folders on them synchronized, you need this service. After you download and run a small piece of software on each PC, head to the Windows Live Sync Web site and tell it which folders on which PCs should stay in sync.

You can synchronize your personal folders as well as your shared ones. Whenever any of your PCs are connected to the Internet, they will automatically sync the specified folders with one another. In addition, you can connect to any synced computer from any other computer to browse through the remote system's entire hard disk and to download files.

Note that unlike some of the fee-based sync services we looked at last year, Live Sync does not keep copies of your files in the cloud: It merely serves as a conduit between PCs. Since it involves no online storage, however, it puts no iimit on the amount of data you can sync. And, of course, it's free.

Live Mesh

Here's a free Microsoft service for people who do want to keep their files in the cloud. Though Live Mesh is more powerful than Windows Live Sync, it's also a bit more complicated.

Rather than synchronize files and folders from PC to PC, you create folders in Live Mesh and then have all of your PCs synchronize with those folders. With this arrangement, you can access the files and folders from any Internet-connected computer. You have an exceptional amount of control over the synchronization, too--for example, you can choose to synchronize only the files modified in the last 30 days, or those under 500MB. Live Mesh supports remote control of any PC in your mesh, as well. So far, Microsoft has announced no plans to charge for storage--or to limit the amount of data you can store.

Microsoft Office Live Workspace

Office Live Workspace will help anyone with a small business or in a workgroup who needs a simple way to collaborate on projects. With this service you can create and share documents, schedules, to-do lists, and more.

You start by creating a shared "workspace." You can choose from 11 prebuilt ones--such as a Project Workspace, a Meeting Workspace, or a Travel Workspace--or you can create your own from scratch. Each workspace has templates already created for it, including PowerPoint presentations, Excel worksheets, and Word documents. Group members can work on the documents and save them for colleagues to see and edit. To edit the Office documents, you'll need to install a free Office add-in, although anyone can view them without the add-in or Office.

Why use this rather than Google Docs or Zoho? One big, exclusive benefit is its direct integration with Microsoft Office--right within the Office suite, you can save files to your workspace, and you can use the Office programs to edit files in your workspace. On top of that, the template-driven approach to creating documents and workspaces is superior to anything you'll find in Google Docs or Zoho.

Microsoft's Virtual Earth 3D

Okay, this one isn't a Web service, strictly speaking--it's a desktop app that works with a Web service. But it's a good one: Microsoft Virtual Earth 3D.

Because Google Earth is so predominant in this arena, not many people bother with Microsoft's product, and that's a shame. This downloadable application works in concert with Windows Live Maps to give you dramatic and compelling 3D views of places around the world. Using simple controls, you can fly in and out of cities in full 3D. You can also go on guided tours that other people create, and you can make tours of your own. You can save your tours for future visits, too, or share them with other users.

The views are richer and more compelling than what Google has to offer, so if you're looking for great 3D mapping, this is the service to try.

To use Virtual Earth 3D in concert with Microsoft's Live Maps service, you must download the Virtual Earth 3D software, from either Windows Live Maps or Microsoft's general downloads site.

Microsoft says that the software will work with a 1GHz processor and 256MB of RAM, but recommends a 2.8GHz or faster CPU and 1GB of RAM. Go with the recommended specs or better, or else you'll find the app very slow going.

The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time

These products are so bad, they belong in the high-tech hall of shame.

By Dan Tynan, PCWorld May 26, 2006 3:00 pm

At PC World, we spend most of our time talking about products that make your life easier or your work more productive. But it's the lousy ones that linger in our memory long after their shrinkwrap has shriveled, and that make tech editors cry out, "What have I done to deserve this?"

Still, even the worst products deserve recognition (or deprecation). So as we put together our list of World Class winners for 2006, we decided also to spotlight the 25 worst tech products that have been released since PC World began publishing nearly a quarter-century ago.

Picking our list wasn't exactly rocket science; it was more like group therapy. PC World staffers and contributors nominated their candidates and then gave each one the sniff test. We sought the worst of the worst--operating systems that operated badly, hardware that never should have left the factory, applications that spied on us and fed our data to shifty marketers, and products that left a legacy of poor performance and bad behavior.

And because one person's dog can be another's dish, we also devised a (Dis)Honorable Mention listfor products that didn't quite achieve universal opprobrium.

Of course, most truly awful ideas never make it out of somebody's garage. Our bottom 25 designees are all relatively well-known items, and many had multimillion-dollar marketing campaigns behind them. In other words, they were made by people who should have known better. In fact, three of the ten worst were made by Microsoft. Coincidence? We think not.

The first entry in our Hall of Shame: The ISP that everyone loves to hate...

The Worst Five

1. America Online (1989-2006)

How do we loathe AOL? Let us count the ways. Since America Onlineemerged from the belly of a BBS called Quantum "PC-Link" in 1989, users have suffered through awful software, inaccessible dial-up numbers, rapacious marketing, in-your-face advertising, questionable billing practices, inexcusably poor customer service, and enough spam to last a lifetime. And all the while, AOL remained more expensive than its major competitors. This lethal combination earned the world's biggest ISP the top spot on our list of bottom feeders.

AOL succeeded initially by targeting newbies, using brute-force marketing techniques. In the 90s you couldn't open a magazine (PC World included) or your mailbox without an AOL disk falling out of it. This carpet-bombing technique yielded big numbers: At its peak, AOL claimed 34 million subscribers worldwide, though it never revealed how many were just using up their free hours.
Once AOL had you in its clutches, escaping was notoriously difficult. Several states sued the service, claiming that it continued to bill customers after they had requested cancellation of their subscriptions. In August 2005, AOL paid a $1.25 million fine to the state of New York and agreed to change its cancellation policies--but the agreement covered only people in New York.

Ultimately the Net itself--which AOL subscribers were finally able to access in 1995-- made the service's shortcomings painfully obvious. Prior to that, though AOL offered plenty of its own online content, it walled off the greater Internet. Once people realized what content was available elsewhere on the Net, they started wondering why they were paying AOL. And as America moved to broadband, many left their sluggish AOL accounts behind. AOL is now busy rebranding itself as a content provider, not an access service.

Though America Online has shown some improvement lately--with better browsers and e-mail tools, fewer obnoxious ads, scads of broadband content, and innovative features such as parental controls--it has never overcome the stigma of being the online service for people who don't know any better.

2. RealNetworks RealPlayer (1999)

In order for your browser to display the following paragraph this site must download new software; please wait. Sorry, the requested codec was not found. Please upgrade your system.

A frustrating inability to play media files--due in part to constantly changing file formats--was only part of Real's problem. RealPlayer also had a disturbing way of making itself a little too much at home on your PC--installing itself as the default media player, taking liberties with your Windows Registry, popping up annoying "messages" that were really just advertisements, and so on.

And some of RealNetworks' habits were even more troubling. For example, shortly after RealJukeBox appeared in 1999, security researcher Richard M. Smith discovered that the software was assigning a unique ID to each user and phoning home with the titles of media files played on it--while failing to disclose any of this in its privacy policy. Turns out that RealPlayer G2, which had been out since the previous year, also broadcast unique IDs. After a tsunami of bad publicity and a handful of lawsuits, Real issued a patch to prevent the software from tracking users' listening habits. But less than a year later, Real was in hot water again for tracking the habits of its RealDownload download-management software customers.

To be fair, RealNetworks deserves credit for offering a free media player and for hanging in there against Microsoft's relentless onslaught. We appreciate the fact that there's an alternative to Windows Media Player; we just wish it were a better one.

3. Syncronys SoftRAM (1995)

Back in 1995, when RAM cost $30 to $50 a megabyte and Windows 95 apps were demanding more and more of it, the idea of "doubling" your system memory by installing a $30 piece of software sounded mighty tempting. The 700,000 users who bought Syncronys's SoftRAM products certainly thought so. Unfortunately, that's not what they got.

It turns out that all SoftRAM really did was expand the size of Windows' hard disk cache--something a moderately savvy user could do without any extra software in about a minute. And even then, the performance boost was negligible. The FTC dubbed Syncronys's claims "false and misleading," and the company was eventually forced to pull the product from the market and issue refunds. After releasing a handful of other bad Windows utilities, the company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 1999. It will not be missed.

4. Microsoft Windows Millennium (2000)

This might be the worst version of Windows ever released--or, at least, since the dark days of Windows 2.0. Windows Millennium Edition (aka Me, or the Mistake Edition) was Microsoft's follow-up to Windows 98 SE for home users. Shortly after Me appeared in late 2000, users reported problems installing it, getting it to run, getting it to work with other hardware or software, and getting it to stop running. Aside from that, Me worked great.

To its credit, Me introduced features later made popular by Windows XP, such as system restore. Unfortunately, it could also restore files you never wanted to see again, like viruses that you'd just deleted. Forget Y2K; this was the real millennium bug.

(Photo courtesy of Geek.com.)

5. Sony BMG Music CDs (2005)

When you stick a music CD into your computer, you shouldn't have to worry that it will turn your PC into a hacker's plaything. But that's exactly what Sony BMG Music Entertainment's music discs did in 2005. The discs' harebrained copy protection software installed a rootkit that made it invisible even to antispyware or antivirus software. Any moderately clever cyber attacker could then use the same rootkit to hide, say, a keylogger to capture your bank account information, or a remote-access Trojan to turn your PC into a zombie.

Security researcher Dan Kaminsky estimated that more than half a million machines were infected by the rootkit. After first downplaying the problem and then issuing a "fix" that made things worse, Sony BMG offered to refund users' money and replace the faulty discs. Since then, the record company has been sued up the wazoo; a federal court judge recently approved a settlement in the national class action suit. Making your machine totally vulnerable to attacks--isn't that Microsoft's job?

Numbers 6 to 10

6. Disney The Lion King CD-ROM (1994)

Few products get accused of killing Christmas for thousands of kids, but that fate befell Disney's first CD-ROM for Windows. The problem: The game relied on Microsoft's new WinG graphics engine, and video card drivers had to be hand-tuned to work with it, says Alex St. John. He's currently CEO of game publisher WildTangent, but in the early 1990s he was Microsoft's first "game evangelist."

In late 1994, Compaq released a Presario whose video drivers hadn't been tested with WinG. When parents loaded the Lion King disc into their new Presarios on Christmas morning, many children got their first glimpse of the Blue Screen of Death. But this sad story has a happy ending. The WinG debacle led Microsoft to develop a more stable and powerful graphics engine called DirectX. And the team behind DirectX went on to build the Xbox--restoring holiday joy for a new generation of kids.

7. Microsoft Bob (1995)

No list of the worst of the worst would be complete without Windows' idiot cousin, Bob. Designed as a "social" interface for Windows 3.1, Bob featured a living room filled with clickable objects, and a series of cartoon "helpers" like Chaos the Cat and Scuzz the Rat that walked you through a small suite of applications. Fortunately, Bob was soon buried in the avalanche of hype surrounding Windows 95, though some of the cartoons lived on to annoy users of Microsoft Office and Windows XP (Clippy the animated paper clip, anyone?).

Mostly, Bob raised more questions than it answered. Like, had anyone at Microsoft actually used Bob? Did they think anyone else would? And did they deliberately make Bob's smiley face logo look like Bill Gates, or was that just an accident?

8. Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 (2001)

Full of features, easy to use, and a virtual engraved invitation to hackers and other digital delinquents, Internet Explorer 6.x might be the least secure software on the planet. How insecure? In June 2004, the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) took the unusual step of urging PC users to use a browser--any browser--other than IE. Their reason: IE users who visited the wrong Web site could end up infected with the Scob or Download.Ject keylogger, which could be used to steal their passwords and other personal information. Microsoft patched that hole, and the next one, and the one after that, and so on, ad infinitum.

To be fair, its ubiquity paints a big red target on it--less popular apps don't draw nearly as much fire from hackers and the like. But here's hoping that Internet Explorer 7 springs fewer leaks than its predecessor.

9. Pressplay and MusicNet 2002

Digital music is such a great idea that even record companies finally, begrudgingly accepted it after years of implacable opposition. In 2002, two online services backed by music industry giants proposed giving consumers a legitimate alternative to illegal file sharing. But the services' stunningly brain-dead features showed that the record companies still didn't get it.

PressPlay charged $15 per month for the right to listen to 500 low-quality audio streams, download 50 audio tracks, and burn 10 tracks to CD. It didn't sound like an awful deal, until you found out that not every song could be downloaded, and that you couldn't burn more than two tracks from the same artist. MusicNet cost $10 per month for 100 streamed songs and 100 downloads, but each downloaded audio file expired after only 30 days, and every time you renewed the song it counted against your allotment.

Neither service's paltry music selections could compete against the virtual feast available through illicit means. Several billion illegal downloads later, an outside company--Apple, with its iTunes Music Service--showed the record companies the right way to market digital music.

10. Ashton-Tate dBASE IV (1988)

In the early days of the PC, dBASE was synonymous with database. By the late 1980s, Ashton-Tate's flagship product owned nearly 70 percent of the PC database market. But dBASE IV changed all that. Impossibly slow and filled with more bugs than a rain forest, the $795 program was an unmitigated disaster.

Within a year of its release, Ashton-Tate's market share had plummeted to the low 40s. A patched-up version, dBASE IV 1.1, appeared two years later, but by then it was too late. In July 1991 the company merged with Borland, which eventually discontinued dBASE in favor of its own database products and sold the rights in 1999 to a new company, dataBased Intelligence, Inc.

Numbers 11 to 15

11. Priceline Groceries and Gas (2000)

The name-your-price model worked for airline tickets, rental cars, and hotels--why not groceries and gas? Unfortunately, even Priceline spokescaptain William Shatner couldn't keep these services in orbit. Grocery shoppers could find real discounts bidding for products online, but only if they weren't picky about brands and were willing to follow Byzantine rules on what they could buy and how they paid for them.

Fuel customers had to pay for petrol online, wait for a Priceline gas card to arrive in the mail, and then find a local station that would honor it--a lot of hassle to save a few pennies per gallon. In less than a year, WebHouse Club, the Priceline affiliate that ran both programs, ran out of gas--and cash--and was forced to shut down.

12. PointCast Network (1996)

Back in the mid-90s, so-called "push" technology was all the rage. In place of surfing the Web for news and information, push apps like the PointCast Network would deliver customized information directly to your desktop--along with a healthy serving of ads. But push quickly turned into a drag, as PointCast's endless appetite for bandwidth overwhelmed dial-up connections and clogged corporate networks.

In addition, PointCast's proprietary screensaver/browser had a nasty habit of commandeering your computer and not giving it back. Companies began to ban the application from offices and cubicles, and push got shoved out the door. Ironically, the idea of push has made a comeback of sorts via low-bandwidth RSS feeds. But too late for PointCast, which sent out its last broadcast in early 2000.

13. IBM PCjr. (1984)

Talk about your bastard offspring. IBM's attempt to build an inexpensive computer for homes and schools was an orphan almost from the start. The infamous "Chiclet" keyboard on the PCjr.was virtually unusable for typing, and the computer couldn't run much of the software written for its hugely successful parent, the IBM PC.

A price tag nearly twice that of competing home systems from Commodore and Atari didn't improve the situation. Two years after Junior's splashy debut, IBM sent him to his room and never let him out again.

(Photo courtesy of the Oldskool Shrine to the IBM PCjr and Tandy 1000.)

14. Gateway 2000 10th Anniversary PC (1995)

After a decade as one of the computer industry's major PC builders, the folks at Gateway 2000 wanted to celebrate--not just by popping a few corks, but by offering a specially configured system to show some customer appreciation.

But instead of Cristal champagne, buyers got Boone's Farm--the so-called 6X CD-ROM spun at 4X or slower (a big performance hit in 1995), the video card was a crippled version of what people thought they were getting, and the surround-sound speakers weren't actually surround-capable. Perhaps Gateway was sticking to the traditional gift for a tenth anniversary: It's tin, not gold.

15. Iomega Zip Drive (1998)

Click-click-click. That was the sound of data dying on thousands of Iomega Zip drives. Though Iomega sold tens of millions of Zip and Jaz drives that worked flawlessly, thousands of the drives died mysteriously, issuing a clicking noise as the drive head became misaligned and clipped the edge of the removable media, rendering any data on that disc permanently inaccessible.

Iomega largely ignored the problem until angry customers filed a class action suit in 1998, which the company settled three years later by offering rebates on future products. And the Zip disk, once the floppy's heir apparent, has largely been eclipsed by thumb drives and cheaper, faster, more capacious rewritable CDs and DVDs.

Numbers 16 to 20

16. Comet Systems Comet Cursor (1997)

ThankComet Cursor for introducing spyware to an ungrateful nation. This simple program had one purpose: to change your mouse cursor into Bart Simpson, Dilbert, or one of thousands of other cutesy icons while you were visiting certain Web sites. But Comet had other habits that were not so cute.

For example, it assigned your computer a unique ID and phoned home whenever you visited a Comet-friendly Web site. When you visited certain sites, it could install itself into Internet Explorer without your knowledge or explicit consent. And it was bundled with RealPlayer 7 (yet another reason to loathe RealPlayer). Some versions would hijack IE's search assistant or cause the browser to crash.

Though Comet's founders insisted that the program was not spyware, thousands of users disagreed. Comet Systems was bought by pay-per-click ad company FindWhat in 2004; earlier this year, Comet's cursor software scurried down a mouse hole, never to be seen again.

Editor's note: After publication of this article, we heard from a founder of Comet Systems who took issue with our characterization of Comet Cursor's behavior. In response we have amended the description of how Comet Cursor got installed on PCs. See PC World's Techlog for more information.

17. Apple Macintosh Portable (1989)

Some buildings are portable, if you have access to a Freightliner. Stonehenge is a portable sun dial, if you have enough people on hand to get things rolling. And in 1989, Apple offered a "portable" Macintosh--a 4-inch-thick, 16-poundbeast that severely strained the definition of "laptop"--and the aching backs of its porters.

Huge lead-acid batteries contributed to its weight and bulk; the batteries were especially important because Portable wouldn't run on AC power. Some computers are affordable, too; the Portable met that description only if you had $6500 of extra cash on hand.

18. IBM Deskstar 75GXP (2000)

Fast, big, and highly unreliable, this 75GB hard drive was quickly dubbed the "Deathstar" for its habit of suddenly failing and taking all of your data with it.

About a year after IBM released the Deskstar, users filed a class action suit, alleging that IBM had misled customers about its reliability. IBM denied all liability, but last June it agreed to pay $100 to Deskstar owners whose drives and data had departed their desks and gone on to a celestial reward. Well before that, IBM had washed its hands of the Deathstar, selling its hard drive division to Hitachi in 2002.

19. OQO Model 1 (2004)

The 14-ounce OQO Model 1 billed itself as the "world's smallest Windows XP computer"--and that was a big part of its problem. You needed a magnifying glass to read icons or text on its 5-by-3-inch screen, and the hide-away keypad was too tiny to accommodate even two adult fingers.

The Model 1 also ran hot to the touch, and at $1900+ it could easily burn a hole in your wallet. Good things often come in small packages, but not this time.

20. DigitalConvergence CueCat (2000)

Appearing at the tail end of the dot com craze, the CueCat was supposed to make it easier for magazine and newspaper readers to find advertisers' Web sites (because apparently it was too challenging to type www.pepsi.com into your browser).

The company behind the device, DigitalConvergence, mailed hundreds of thousands of these cat-shaped bar-code scanners to subscribers of magazines and newspapers. Readers were supposed to connect the device to a computer, install some software, scan the barcodes inside the ads, and be whiskered away to advertisers' websites. Another "benefit": The company used the device to gather personally identifiable information about its users.

The CueCat's maker was permanently declawed in 2001, but not before it may have accidentally exposed its user database to hackers.

Numbers 21 to 25

21. Eyetop Wearable DVD Player (2004)

Some things just aren't meant to be done while walking or driving, and one of them is watching DVDs. Unfortunately, that message was lost on Eyetop.net, makers of the Eyetop Wearable DVD Player.

This system consisted of a standard portable DVD player attached to a pair of heavy-duty shades that had a tiny 320-by-240-pixel LCD embedded in the right eyepiece. You were supposed to carry the DVD player and battery pack in an over-the shoulder sling, put on the eyeglasses, and then... squint. Or maybe wear a patch on your left eye as you walked and watched at the same time.

Up close, the LCD was supposed to simulate a 14-inch screen. Unfortunately, the only thing the Eyetop stimulated was motion sickness.

22. Apple Pippin @World (1996)

Before Xbox, before PlayStation, before DreamCast, there wasApple's Pippin. Wha-huh? That's right--Apple had an Internet-capable game console that connected to your TV. But it ran on a weak PowerPC processor and came with a puny 14.4-kbps modem, so it was stupendously slow offline and online.

Then, too, it was based on the Mac OS, so almost no games were available for it. And it cost nearly $600--nearly twice as much as other, far more powerful game consoles. Underpowered, overpriced, and underutilized--that pretty much describes everything that came out of Apple in the mid-90s.

(Photo courtesy of The Mac Geek.com.)

23. Free PCs (1999)

In the late 90s, companies competed to dangle free PCs in front of you: All you had to do was sign up, and a PC would eventually show up at your door. But one way or another. there was always a catch: You had to sign up for a long-term ISP agreement, or tolerate an endless procession of Web ads, or surrender reams of personal information. Free-PC.commay have been the creepiest of them all. First you filled out an extensive questionnaire on your income, interests, racial and marital status, and more. Then you had to spend at least 10 hours a week on the PC and at least 1 hour surfing the Web using Free-PC's ISP.

In return you got a low-end Compaq Presario with roughly a third of the screen covered in ads. And while you watched the PC (and the ads), Free-PC watched you--recording where you surfed, what software you used, and who knows what else.

We can't say whether this would have led to some Big Brotherish nightmare, because within a year Free-PC.com merged with eMachines. By then, other vendors had similarly concluded that "free" computers just didn't pay.

24. DigiScents iSmell (2001)

Few products literally stink, but this one did--or at least it would have, had it progressed beyond the prototype stage.

In 2001, DigiScents unveiled the iSmell, a shark-fin-shaped gizmo that plugged into your PC's USB port and wafted appropriate scents as you surfed smell-enabled Web sites--say, perfume as you were browsing Chanel.com, or cheese doodles at Frito-Lay.com. But skeptical users turned up their noses at the idea, making the iSmell the ultimate in vaporware.

25. Sharp RD3D Notebook (2004)

As the first "autostereo" 3D notebook, Sharp's RD3D was supposed to display 3D images without requiring the use of funny glasses. But "auto-headache" was more like it, as the RD3D was painful to look at.

When you pressed the button to enable 3D mode, the notebook's performance slowed, and the 3D effect was noticeable only within a very narrow angle--and if you moved your head, it disappeared. Maybe the funny glasses weren't so bad after all.

(Dis)Honorable Mention
They may not have scored a spot in our baker's two dozen of infamy, but these ten products were too flawed to be forgotten.
Apple Newton MessagePad (1994): Yes, we know that the Apple Newton also happens to be number 28 on our list of the 50 greatest gadgets (so no letters, please). But while Apple's innovative concept won kudos, the Newton's execution was lacking, especially in its first version. Aside from its famously awful handwriting recognition, the Newton was too bulky and too expensive for all but Apple acolytes.
Apple Puck Mouse (1998): Introduced with the original iMac, Apple's stylishly round hockey-puck-shaped mouse had only one button (natch), but figuring out where that button was and orienting the mouse without looking down created an ergonomic nightmare. Apple added a small indentation in a later version so you could figure out where to put your finger, but you still had to find the indentation. The puck got chucked a couple years after it was introduced.
Apple Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh (1997): Learning nothing from Gateway 2000's fiasco a couple of year's earlier with its 10th Anniversary PC, Apple in 1997 released a specially designed bronze-colored Mac to celebrate its 20th year of making computers. This one came with a Bose sound system and leather palm rests, but it also had a weak processor, no network card, and a slow CD-ROM drive (because a faster one couldn't be mounted vertically in its special case). To participate in the celebration, Mac lovers had to plunk down $7500--three times what the same computer cost in a different case. It may qualify as the priciest case mod of all time. Steve Jobs might have bought one; we doubt whether many others did.
Circuit City DiVX DVDs (1998): Remember the disposable DVD? Circuit City's attempt at starting its ownpay-per-view movie service entailed proprietary set-top players and disposable DiVX movie discs that expired 48 hours after you started watching them. The player required a phone line so it could check whether you had permission to watch. But as it turned out, consumers preferred their DVDs without strings, and Circuit City ended up dropping $114 million on its little experiment.
Concord Eye-Q Go Wireless Digital Camera (2004): The first Bluetooth-enabled digital camera cost a little more than otherwise comparable drugstore cameras, but for the premium you got the ability to transfer 7MB of images in a nap-inducing 15 minutes. (Transfer time using an old-fashioned USB cable: 8 seconds.) The Bluetooth was a bust, the camera was crude, and the pictures were awful. Aside from that, it was just fabulous.
Dell SL320i (1993): The Ford Pinto of notebook PCs, this model had the unfortunate habit ofcombusting and eventually had to be recalled. Laptops from Apple, HP, and Sony, as well as a handful of other Dell models suffered similar overheating problems over the years, but the SL320i blazed the trail.
Motorola Rokr E1 (2005): The world's most popular digital music player meets the world's coolest looking phones; what could possibly go wrong? Well, plenty. The Rokr E1 held only about a hundred songs, file transfers were painfully slow, the iTunes interface was sluggish, and--duh--you couldn't download tunes via a cell connection. This phone ain't rockin', so don't bother knockin'.
3Com Audrey (1999): Some of us had a soft spot in our hearts for Audrey, the Internet appliance--that supple form, the cute way her light blinked green when a new e-mail message arrived. But with limited functionality and no broadband support, she failed to excite the masses, instead becoming a symbol of why Net appliances bombed.
Timex Data Link Watch (1995):This early wristwatch/PDA looked like a Casio on steroids. To download data to it, you held it in front of your CRT monitor while the monitor displayed a pattern of flashing black-and-white stripes (which, incidentally, also turned you into the Manchurian Candidate). Depending on your point of view, it was either seriously cool or deeply disturbing.
WebTV (1995): Getting the Web to display on a typical TV in 1995 was like watching an elephant tap-dance--you were amazed not that it could do it well but that it could do it at all. With the WebTV, Web pages looked horsey, some media formats didn't work at all, and using the remote control to hop from link to link was excruciating.
Contributing editor Dan Tynan writes PC World's Gadget Freak column. He is also the author of Computer Privacy Annoyances (O'Reilly Media 2005).