Syncronys SoftRAM

SoftRAM and SoftRAM95 were system software products which claimed to "double" the available memory in Microsoft Windows without the need for a hardware upgrade. The truth is that 700,000 users bought Syncronys's SoftRAM. 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 actual drivers were in fact slightly modified versions of code examples taken from Microsoft's "Windows Development Kit". Still, the program would try to pretend that it increased system resources, by silently increasing the size of the swap file on Windows 3.1 and by giving false information on the current state of the system. Even worse, the program was compiled with the debug flag on and so runs slower than the original driver from Microsoft.

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.

You can read here a full description of why this application is not working. No application can really increase your computer's RAM memory.

SoftRAM. Photo taken from http://www.dansdata.com/gz142.htm

Sharp RD3D Notebook

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.

Common problems with the Sharp Actius RD3D Notebook were:

• The 3D graphics could reportedly not be seen if the user slightly shifted position while looking at the computer.
• The computer's performance reportedly slowed when it was put into 3D mode.
• It was also very big (12 pounds), bulky, and extremely expensive, selling for $2,999.
• The battery life was also inferior, reportedly lasting for a mere 2 hours.

Apple Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh

Apple in 1997 released a specially designed bronze-colored Mac to celebrate its 20th year of making
computers. The Apple machine featured a 250 MHz PowerPC 603e processor and 12.1" LCD screen powered by an ATI 3D Rage II video chipset with 2MB of VRAM capable of displaying either 800x600 or 640x480 pixels up to 16bit color. It had a vertically mounted 4x SCSI CD-ROM and an Apple floppy Superdrive, a 2GB ATA hard drive, a TV/FM tuner, an S-Video input card, and two "Jewel" speakers and a subwoofer built into the externally located power supply "base unit".

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.
This Macintosh may not have been a well known machine in its time, nor a big seller, but it has had a lasting legacy on personal computers. All-in-one LCD computers are now quite common, which clearly owes its design to the TAM, including using a vertically mounted removable drive (i.e. Superdrive).

Comet Cursor

Comet Cursor for introduced spyware unknowingly to large number of people. 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. Some versions would hijack IE's search assistant or cause the browser to crash.

At its height,
 more than 350,000 sites, including those of Warner Bros., Comedy Central, the funny cartoon Dilbert, and the Star Trek franchise, were utilizing the organization's innovation to adjust the cursor picture for their visitors. 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.