20 Most Worthless Pieces of Junk – Rebutted — or Supported
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Above, you’ll find the link to an interesting viewpoint of what the blogger finds useless in everyday life. In some cases I agree with him, in others, I don’t. Let’s see why.
#20 Rice Cookers: I agree that the rice cooker is a (nearly) single-purpose device that is nearly useless to the average person. I mean, anybody with cooking skills can make a pot of rice, right?
Not really! Just ask my wife. As a geek, I’m a set-it-and-forget-it kind of cook. In one night I burned two pots of rice just trying to make dinner. That’s right, not one–but TWO pots of rice! What’s really bad is she still wants me to fix dinner on occasion. Is this logical? The rice cooker would have been a boon for me. (Still don’t have one.)
#19 Shoe Inserts: Well, I have to agree here to a point; some of those inserts are absolutely worthless. On the other hand, if your shoes are nearly worn out and you feel like you’re walking with a couple of boards for shoes, some of those inserts really can soften your stride. Biggest problem? You’re lucky if they last longer than 30 days. If you spend all day standing on a concrete floor, you pretty much compress these things to the consistency of cardboard pretty quickly.
#18 Polaroid Camera: The blogger is right that the film was expensive; I can’t remember a time when these weren’t priced nearly a dollar a shot, even with the older “Land” camera with the adjustable bellows. Then again, these cameras offered something that still isn’t quite available today; an instant print that you could give to family or friends… albeit only one copy. Modern digital photography has effectively replaced the Polaroid camera itself, but the concept is still valid. What very few people remember is that Kodak produced a far superior film back in the early 80s, but Polaroid claimed Patent Infringement on the use of twin steel rollers to squeezed the developer over the film, even though the film and chemicals were somewhat different. Polaroid went bankrupt–Kodak is still around; though admittedly focussing now on digital photography.
#17 The Iron: This one is a questionable one; some people still use the iron–especially people who have to present a well-groomed appearance at work. We may be in a wash-and-wear world, but aside from Steve Jobs, how many CEOs have you seen that aren’t wearing an expensive, tailored suit and shirt with absolutely-crisp creases? Wash-and-wear might be good for a lot of people, but you still have to press them if you want to avoid wrinkles.
#16 Hobby Kits: This one is kinda questionable. Some kits could be considered junk for exactly the reason he claims; it’s really hard to determine what a recipient will consider a worthwhile hobby. Some people absolutely love modeling airplanes, cars, boats, etc… others could care less. Calligraphy? Aside from the fact that computers can emulate any type or text style available today. Maybe it’s a waste, then again, maybe not. One thing that isn’t necessarily easy on a computer is to combine calligraphy with pre-printed material, such as an elaborate greeting or signature on a store-bought card or poster. There are people who make money at calligraphy, but it’s not for everyone. Other kits? Really, it’s personal opinion. Not worthless, but definitely requires careful thought for gifting.
#15 Tie Rack: Nope, the tie rack itself isn’t a piece of junk–if you have a lot of ties, you need some way to hang them up and keep them straight. On the other hand, if you don’t wear ties, then both the ties and the rack to hold them on are junk. Guess what I don’t have.
#14 Giveaway Thumb Drives: The blogger here emphasizes the little 128MB drives, which are grossly obsolete in most cases now. However, even something this small may be worthwhile if A) they’re not pieces of junk and actually work and B) you load some pictures or short video files for use in one of those digital picture frames that have become so ubiquitous today.
#13 Trade Show Swag: Honestly, this belongs more in the #2 place, beside the #1 item which we’ll come to in time. The stuff is cute and great for advertising, but usually gets buried in the junk drawer, as the blogger attests, or gets filed in File 13 for immediate recycling/destruction. Then again, take the small, dangerous parts off of it and maybe you can give it to your so-safety-conscious kids to leave scattered around the house.
#12 Bargain DVDs: Junk, he says, and maybe he’s right; after a number of viewings you really begin to know the movie by heart. Then again, sometimes you just want to see it again. TCM makes its living off of replaying old, worn-out movies year after year–and for some reason people still tune into them. Now, if you were to stick all these DVDs into a jukebox and set them to random playback, kind of like iTunes’ “shuffle” mode, they’d be more interesting for their unpredictability. After all, how often do you just turn on your TV to watch whatever comes on? Wouldn’t it be nice if you didn’t know from one viewing to the next if you were going to see Citizen Kane, Jane Eyre or The War of the Worlds?
#11 Ear Candles: I have to agree with this one. Of course, it does give you an opportunity to catch a few winks while the technician lets the candle burn down. Let’s just hope the technician remembers to blow out the candle before it burns down to your eardrum.
#10 Books in a Kindle World: The Kindle itself is more junk than the books it supposedly replaces. As you can see, I’m rather biased here.
First off, “With their cheap downloads, small size, and light weight,
they are far more convenient than traditional books.”
Cheap downloads they are not. What books are available for the Kindle
tend to be more expensive than the average paperback book, which is
what most Kindle readers are likely to be using the device for. So
not only do you have a ridiculous up-front cost, but the supposed
savings on book downloads actually cost you more down the road than
buying the book itself. The small size is convenient, but the lack of
backlighting truly eliminates the one other advantage the Kindle could
have; an ability to read in the dark. The fact that you can store a
number of books at a time in the device is the other advantage.
However, some of the biggest drawbacks are the fact that you can NOT
store books on an external device. Once the Kindle is filled up, you
have to discard books you’ve already paid for to add new ones; an
absolute waste of money. A second is the inability to read in the
dark. Donna (commenter #4) was wrong about the backlighting and Ken
(#5) corrected her on it. Add to this certain nearly-useless
components like a full qwerty keyboard, and the Kindle itself becomes
both redundant and undesirable. Sony and a few others have come up
with better products, but I believe Apple will end up showing the
others how it should be done.
Finally, the author’s envisioning of the paper-making process has a
significant error. In most cases, paper comes, not from full-grown,
beautiful shade trees or even old-growth forest, but rather from
trees grown for the purpose or wood cleared from a development
project. Those trucks you see running down the highway with
relatively-thin, rough-looking straight poles are carrying pulpwood
for paper mills. 90% of this wood is pine growth maybe 20 years old
from tree farms scattered around the country.
#9 Home Theater Sound Systems: He’s joking, right? Ok, so I admit they can be an annoyance to set up and use at times, but there are ways around those problems. He talks about adjusting and readjusting the sound depending on what effect you want, but most of the time it’s a set-it-and-forget-it system. In fact, with a lot of TVs, you can feed the display’s audio directly into the sound system to create a true Home Theater sound. He says it’s too much trouble, but then he also implies that you’re using two or three remotes just to control the sound. Uh uh. With even a simple universal remote you can use one button to turn on the TV, the sound system and any recorders/playback devices and have full control of the system. I got one with my satellite receiver.
#8 Ice Cream Makers & Bread Machines: I’ll agree… to disagree. Ice cream is expensive if you eat a lot of it. You go out to the store and buy a pint for a couple dollars. You buy a quart for maybe a dollar more. But how does it really taste? How many of you have ever really had home-made ice cream? I have a better question: How many of you have eaten a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream? Usually a tiny container that costs more than the normal grocery store fare, but also has real flavor. Why? Because they make relatively small batches and eliminate many of the ingredients that destroy the taste–like HFCS and preservatives. Of course, this also triggers the question of, “What’s wrong with HFCS?” That’s an item for another rant.
Bread machines are of much the same sort, you can buy bread at the store for only a couple of dollars. In fact, buying the raw ingredients for making a single loaf of bread costs about the same, doesn’t it? Nope. Buying the ingredients could have you making 3 or 4 loaves for about the price of two loaves of store-bought bread…discounting the HFCS and preservatives again. The home-made bread tastes better and the aroma, as the blogger pointed out, does smell delicious!
An advantage is that both of these machines can be ‘set-it-and-forget-it’ items, too. If you’re having a LAN party or a gaming get together or even just a simple barbeque, having the aroma of fresh bread (and a variety) and a few quarts of home-made ice cream just enhance the experience and make the whole party more fun. And even individually can be a cost-saving device as well–over time.
#7 VCRPlus Gizmos: When VCR+ was introduced, it was a way to make programming your VCR easier–especially if you didn’t know how to program your VCR. Remember your parents? Who usually set it up to record their favorite shows? It was a great product at the time and became so ubiquitous that nearly every VCR had the capability built in–then the bottom fell out. All of a sudden people weren’t recording to tape any more, they were watching DVDs. Recording? Who recorded? Some DVD players even became direct-to-disk recorders as well. What fun! Now we have DVRs. All you have to do is browse through an on-screen programming schedule and tell the system to record the program of your choice. You can even tell a DVR to record any instance of a given title. The VCR+ concept is obsolete. Worthless? Maybe now, but only now.
#6 Ionic Breeze: This one is still questionable. The concept of electrostatic air filtering is a good one, but does the Ionic Breeze really generate harmful amounts of ozone? Maybe the devices themselves are worthless, but the concept isn’t. Anything that can reduce dust in the environment can be helpful, within reason. Of course, if it’s a more passive system that actually uses static electricity rather than charging the air is going to be at least marginally healthier. However, keeping the environment too clean is just as harmful as not-clean-enough. How many of you are more sensitive to allergens than your parents/grandparents? I think the ‘household cleaner’ industry has made us less healthy rather than more so, not only by introducing harmful chemicals to our environments but also by removing the things we need to build up immunities.
#5 Single-Slot Piggy Banks: In other words, the piggy bank you have to break to open. Worthless? No. Effective? No. The idea of teaching your kids how to save is great. The concept of ‘out-of-sight, out-of-mind’ is excellent–but kids are curious. They know their money is in that bank and they want to know how much. In this case, out-of-sight means “I want to know!” I use a big plastic jar, myself. I don’t really look at it except to determine how full it is; I don’t attempt to estimate how much cash it holds. On the other hand, on the one occasion so far that I filled it up, I cashed out for over $125 and used it to buy a gift for my wife and myself that we wouldn’t have ordinarily purchased… just for fun. The piggy bank itself isn’t worthless, but it really doesn’t get the chance to do what it’s made for–the little ones will break it open far too soon.
#4 Ab Rollers: Ok, maybe worthless. It’s an ‘el-Cheapo’ device that really can’t serve too many purposes, though it’s a great source of wheels for your kid’s ‘soapbox’ car. Yes, other household things might do almost as well, but they’ll also change other factors what make that particular exercise effective. If you have a barbell, you don’t need an ab roller, if you don’t, will a skateboard work? Do you have one? Hmm. Towel? Umm… well, if you’re going to substitute a towel on a linoleum floor for one of these, why not just substitute a soapy brush instead and clean the floor while you’re at it? The thing’s only as good as the purpose it’s put to. If you don’t use it, then it’s worthless, right?
#3 Radar Detectors: This one really depends on the user. If you’re an habitual speeder, then you probably need one. Then again, if you get caught with one in certain states, your ticket just went up logarithmically. The blogger’s comment about Ka-band and laser are somewhat valid, but these things are designed to detect the use of such before it’s aimed at you, giving you a vague chance at “checking your speed” before you become the target.
However, there’s a much better way to get where you want to go at a decent speed: set your cruise control. Today’s Interstate Highway System usually lets you cruise between 65 and 75 miles per hour, plenty fast enough to cover a lot of mileage quickly. I drive 650 miles between my home and my parents’ home in about 12 hours, despite having to go through two of the worst areas of highway congestion in the east. Ok, maybe not the worst, but one takes me an hour usually to get through even when taking the beltway and the other seems to always have construction slowing you down. Oh, and that time is including stops for gas (1 stop) and food (1, maybe 2 stops) At that rate, 1,000 miles in 24 hours should be downright easy, right? Who needs to drive faster than that?
#2 Wipe Warmers: Ummm… would you believe I’ve never heard of these before now? Talk about useless! The blogger’s comments pretty much say it all. And now for…
#1 Happy Meal Toys: Pardon me, that’s too brand-specific. How about saying ‘Kids’ Menu Toys’ instead. Worthless? Ask the collectors. Of course, there aren’t too many collectors, are there. These things are cheap, disposable toys whose sole purpose is to market a new movie, TV show or other product. Many of these things are quite ingenious, if somewhat cheap in quality and durability. Best thing to do with these? Take them out of the meal and toss them in a safe immediately. Don’t pull it out again for a minimum of 15 years, then put it up on eBay. It might make you rich–or not.
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