# Examples of inventions that seem like a good idea but turned out to be worthless **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 10, 2019, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-inventions-that-seem-like-a-good-idea-but-turned-out-to-be-worthless/832355 "2019-04-10T21:04:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-inventions-that-seem-like-a-good-idea-but-turned-out-to-be-worthless/832355/41 "2019-04-11T13:54:58Z")
> [@Sparky812](#): > > Interesting… I know they haven’t replaced UPC but they are usually beside them for advertising and marketing purposes. Unfortunately, up until fairly recently, you needed to install a 3rd party QR reader app which probably causes many users to ignore them. There was word on the street that scanning a QR code could infect your phone. From [2012](https://www.cnet.com/news/the-dark-side-of-qr-codes/): > [@](#): > > Taking your smartphone to a new site certainly can seem cool if you trust the source. But experts believe it’s just a matter of time before hackers are able to hijack this clever code, taking you someplace you didn’t plan on going. The results could be a nasty virus, botnet, or malicious code that records your personal information, your location, even your bank account numbers. I was trained in the 90s to “never click on an ad online” and later “never use a QR code.” I have followed those instructions to this day. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-inventions-that-seem-like-a-good-idea-but-turned-out-to-be-worthless/832355/42 "2019-04-11T13:56:42Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Spoken like someone who doesn’t live somewhere where [QR mobile payments](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code_payment) are a thing. I[use them](https://www.snapscan.co.za/user.html) on a near-daily basis. It’s how I pay at the convenience store, or at the farmer’s market, or for the pizza i had on Monday. > [@GuanoLad](#): > > I’ve certainly never seen them. We use PayWave. I think phones with chips can do it too. Wal-Mart has them. You link your credit card to their app, then when you pay, there’s a QR code on a display that you point your phone camera at. [Walmart Pay](https://www.walmart.com/cp/walmart-pay/3205993) ---
**Author:** ![Hermitian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hermitian/32/470_2.png) [@Hermitian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermitian)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-inventions-that-seem-like-a-good-idea-but-turned-out-to-be-worthless/832355/43 "2019-04-11T14:02:40Z")
> [@Sparky812](#): > > QR codes are everywhere and used in almost every industry. That is interesting. I remember them coming out years ago and they were on everything to do with advertising. People rarely used them and so they just started to disappear. I don’t think I’ve used one in years. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-inventions-that-seem-like-a-good-idea-but-turned-out-to-be-worthless/832355/44 "2019-04-11T14:33:01Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > See thread title. > > For my example, I give the car alarm. Seems great, right? If someone tries to steal your car, an alarm goes off, raising the hue and cry for all good citizens to come to your aid and thwart the dastardly thief. > > But we all know the problem. When we hear a car alarm, we wish the dumbass car owner would come out and turn the damn thing off because he did something stupid to set it off. I have never in my life heard a car alarm going off and thought that a car was being stolen. Not once, not ever. > … I have nothing to add in terms of inventions, but my favorite example of the above comes from the South Park Movie. Conan O’Brien jumps out of a window and falls on some guy’s car, destroying the roof and setting off the alarm. The guy just walks up and turns off the alarm without even looking. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-inventions-that-seem-like-a-good-idea-but-turned-out-to-be-worthless/832355/45 "2019-04-11T19:17:24Z")
> [@Hermitian](#): > > That is interesting. I remember them coming out years ago and they were on everything to do with advertising. People rarely used them and so they just started to disappear. Yes! This is my experience too, which is why I brought them up. I had no idea that they had successes in other countries, though I realise now that for non-latin alphabet regions, using them for URLs would be faster and more convenient. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-inventions-that-seem-like-a-good-idea-but-turned-out-to-be-worthless/832355/46 "2019-04-11T19:25:08Z")
Blimps as passenger vehicles. They were slow, hard to control because of weather, and inefficient in regards to size vis-a-vis the number of passengers they could carry. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-inventions-that-seem-like-a-good-idea-but-turned-out-to-be-worthless/832355/47 "2019-04-11T19:34:38Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Kodak instant photos. Kodak intended to compete with Polaroid but the process was patented, Polaroid proved that their rights were violated, and in a bold move took advantage of their right to have the Kodak product shut down completely. > > Polaroid, Kodak, and others attempted any number of ways to allow people to make home movies on film and distribution of film content for home use more practical, all failing because videotape killed was much simpler and more practical. I’m not aware of a Kodak product for that, but Edwin Land got obsessed with instant-develop home movies, marketing his Polavision system in 1977, just in time for it to be battered in the marketplace by videotapes. Polavision images were small and dark, needed a special viewer, and didn’t provide sound. it was discontinued two years later. If Land had introduced it ten or twenty years earlier, he might have had a successful product on his hands. ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-inventions-that-seem-like-a-good-idea-but-turned-out-to-be-worthless/832355/48 "2019-04-11T19:36:11Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Kodak instant photos. Kodak intended to compete with Polaroid but the process was patented, Polaroid proved that their rights were violated, and in a bold move took advantage of their right to have the Kodak product shut down completely. For a while after that, there was a store in town giving full price refunds for any Kodak Handle cameras or accessories, no questions asked. A friend of mine cleaned up by buying them at yard sales for next to nothing and returning them for full price. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-inventions-that-seem-like-a-good-idea-but-turned-out-to-be-worthless/832355/49 "2019-04-11T19:47:49Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > Anything named Tesla not directly invented by the guy named Tesla. I see various models of Teslas (the cars) driving around every day in Atlanta. I don’t own one myself, and have never driven one, but given that they are driving around on the roads the same as every other vehicle out there (pure internal combustion; various sorts of hybrid IC/electric; and other pure electric vehicles like the Nissan Leaf, which is also pretty popular “Inside the Perimeter” in Atlanta) it seems a stretch to consider Tesla cars to be “worthless”. ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-inventions-that-seem-like-a-good-idea-but-turned-out-to-be-worthless/832355/50 "2019-04-11T21:26:45Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > I don’t know about worthless but the microwave never lived up to its hyped protentional …. You mean the [Science Oven](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIGPvPRzEaQ)? ---
**Author:** ![Grestarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grestarian/32/3227_2.png) [@Grestarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grestarian)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-inventions-that-seem-like-a-good-idea-but-turned-out-to-be-worthless/832355/51 "2019-04-11T21:41:46Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > See thread title. > > For my example, I give the car alarm. Seems great, right? If someone tries to steal your car, an alarm goes off, raising the hue and cry for all good citizens to come to your aid and thwart the dastardly thief. > > But we all know the problem. When we hear a car alarm, we wish the dumbass car owner would come out and turn the damn thing off because he did something stupid to set it off. I have never in my life heard a car alarm going off and thought that a car was being stolen. Not once, not ever. > > Are there any other examples of this? Just a one-up on this one: The Page-Alert Car Alarm. My brother bought one of those for his first new car and quite proudly wore the pager on his hip everywhere he went. The box for the system bragged that it was better than a normal car alarm because everybody ignores those – while a direct-to-the-owner page was more likely to get a response. A couple months later he had ripped it out and didn’t even bother to replace it. I asked why and he said his car got burgled while he was at the county fair. Yes, the pager went off, but he was watching a concert at the fairgrounds, three miles away from his car. Not only did he figure it was just another idiot bumping or leaning on his car, but he knew he couldn’t get to the machine very quickly, even at a full run, if somebody was really popping his door open. –G! The irony was that he had also parked near the base of the fairground’s security tower. Since there was no actual alarm (my brother didn’t buy that accessory) the security guy(s) didn’t get alerted to the fact that somebody was breaking into a car directly underneath the tower! ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2019, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-inventions-that-seem-like-a-good-idea-but-turned-out-to-be-worthless/832355/52 "2019-04-12T08:24:38Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > I think the big advantage of an onion chopper is not the time saved, but because it eliminates eye sting. That’s the reason I use one. Go to Walmart. Go the swim section. Buy goggles.with snorkel. Discard snorkel. The little swimming goggles are uncomfortable. The eye-protection goggles are vented. ---
**Author:** ![MarvinKitFox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ba0ec/32.png) [@MarvinKitFox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MarvinKitFox)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2019, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-inventions-that-seem-like-a-good-idea-but-turned-out-to-be-worthless/832355/53 "2019-04-13T18:19:06Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > I don’t know about worthless but the microwave never lived up to its hyped protentional …. Medical alert! User detected with severe brain aberration, needs immediate treatment! ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Zox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Mr\_Zox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Zox)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2019, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-inventions-that-seem-like-a-good-idea-but-turned-out-to-be-worthless/832355/54 "2019-04-14T02:10:52Z")
Apple corer. Great idea: jam it into the apple, saw it in a circle, pop out the core. Only one problem: the edge blunts in six months to the point where the only apples you can force it into are so rotten the smell makes you gag. So, you go back to cutting the apple into fourths and cutting out the parts of the core. All with that inexpensive paring knife you had all along. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2019, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-inventions-that-seem-like-a-good-idea-but-turned-out-to-be-worthless/832355/55 "2019-04-14T05:43:15Z")
> [@Sparky812](#): > > Wow, are you some kind of Neo-Luddite? :eek: Yes. Yes, I am. > [@MEBuckner](#): > > I see various models of Teslas (the cars) driving around every day in Atlanta. I don’t own one myself, and have never driven one, but given that they are driving around on the roads the same as every other vehicle out there (pure internal combustion; various sorts of hybrid IC/electric; and other pure electric vehicles like the Nissan Leaf, which is also pretty popular “Inside the Perimeter” in Atlanta) it seems a stretch to consider Tesla cars to be “worthless”. I think I’ve seen 3. ---
**Author:** ![BeeGee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5a626/32.png) [@BeeGee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeeGee)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2019, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-inventions-that-seem-like-a-good-idea-but-turned-out-to-be-worthless/832355/56 "2019-04-15T04:07:08Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > A friend of mine owns a bar/restaurant. He sells a ton of fries. He has a [wall mounted vegomatic type tool that works really well (though it’s pricey).](http://www.chefdepot.net/frenchfrycutter.htm) Big lots and Amazon both sell countertop models for less than $20. I love my slap chop for making salsa. I have eczema which makes handling raw tomatoes, onions, lemons, serranos, jalapenos, etc Not Much Fun. So I like my gadgets. For cleaning slap chop, veg-o-matic, spiralizer, or salad shooter blades, after a good swishing through soapy water, drop them in a bowl with a few denture tablets from Dollar Tree. This is also an excellent way to get rid of the ick that gathers in the teeth of a manual can opener. ---
**Author:** ![HelenGawn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@HelenGawn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelenGawn)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2019, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-inventions-that-seem-like-a-good-idea-but-turned-out-to-be-worthless/832355/57 "2019-04-15T06:14:29Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > 8-track tapes. > > Back in the 70’s, a lot of people bought them. > I dunno why, but I guess it seemed like a good idea at the time. > > But nobody ever bought a second one. It was a great idea. The sound was wonderful. They became obsolete when cassette players became good enough for something besides dictaphones. Even then, most audiophiles I knew claimed their cassettes recorded at home from vinyl sounded better. (Personally, I couldn’t tell the difference.) ---
**Author:** ![JoseB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/joseb/32/1530_2.png) [@JoseB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoseB)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2019, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-inventions-that-seem-like-a-good-idea-but-turned-out-to-be-worthless/832355/58 "2019-04-15T20:03:12Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > Yes. Yes, I am. > > I think I’ve seen 3. Tesla sells well in Europe, especially in Norway and The Netherlands (where I live), with sales in the tens of thousands in each country (Norway \> 30.000 vehicles; The Netherlands ~ 20.000). Full disclosure: I own a Tesla. I must say that I am extremely happy with it. Best car I have ever owned in my entire life, in almost all aspects. ---
**Author:** ![polar\_bear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ec9cab/32.png) [@polar\_bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/polar_bear)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2019, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-inventions-that-seem-like-a-good-idea-but-turned-out-to-be-worthless/832355/59 "2019-04-15T20:55:10Z")
Heavily subsidized by us normal folk (since even the 3 is prized way into the realm of luxury cars). You’re welcome btw Verstuurd vanaf mijn moto g(6) met Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![stanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ba0ec/32.png) [@stanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stanger)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2019, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-inventions-that-seem-like-a-good-idea-but-turned-out-to-be-worthless/832355/60 "2019-04-16T02:08:35Z")
I remember a friend of mine buying a Technics audio system in the late 70s that had ‘dbx’ noise reduction incorporated in it. Was supposed to be superior to the Dolby system that was widely available at that time. I bought a dbx converter unit for my regular sound system. I don’t recall if it seemed to work much better for cassette recordings (which is what I used it for), but you could get special vinyl records to use with the system that really sounded clean and cool, though the selection was quite small. Never saw another dbx system since. I don’t know if it just didn’t get the exposure it needed to grow or if the newer Dolby setups passed it by in quality. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-inventions-that-seem-like-a-good-idea-but-turned-out-to-be-worthless/832355.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-inventions-that-seem-like-a-good-idea-but-turned-out-to-be-worthless/832355.md?page=4)