NationStates Jolt Archive

Pointless inventions piss me off as much as postmodern art and for similar reasons: people are actually buying this crap.

I'd like to start off with the Delonghi pasta cooker. That's right, a pasta cooker. What kind of idiot can't figure out how to cook pasta? All you have to do is throw it in a pot of boiling water for 10 minutes, try a bit to see if its cooked then chuck it in a strainer and add a bit of oil so it doesn't stick. The only credible feature is that the pasta is lifted and strained at the end of the cooking time. Such a device will cost you 300 Australian dollars. If you plan on buying this as a gift for your mother on mother's day you are either insulting her or she is a really bad cook.

Anyone else want to add a pointless invention?

Caffienated water. It was really on the market. It was supposed to be for people who don't like coffee. I bought some, I made coffee with it.

My god! Really? That's disgraceful! OK, pointless inventions...how about remote controlled curtains, why the hell can't you go over and draw them yourself?

How about the remote controlled computer mouse?
Think about it.
It takes more effort to operate the remote than it does to move the mouse manually.

Forks

ForksSporks were worse.

Forks

thats the stupidest thing i've ever heard!

Forks

thats the stupidest thing i've ever heard!

see, that's why i posted that here :wink:

Hmm lets see what is another pointless invention?
I know, a compass without a needle.

Sorry about the bad joke, but it is getting late for my brain to be working.

Forks

thats the stupidest thing i've ever heard!

see, that's why i posted that here :wink:

MEH!

THE PET ROCK!

Pretty much any pointless decorative knick-knack falls into this category I think. Today's Dilbert strip highlights that rather well:

http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-20040507.html

Clap on, Clap off...

Clap on, Clap off...

clap, clap, clap :D

Reality tv.

-----------------------------------------
"But by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that there may be equality."
Free your mind! (http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/bright/berkman/comanarchism/whatis_toc.html)
I like big butts!

http://img63.photobucket.com/albums/v193/eddy_the_great/steatopygia.jpg

damn...reality TV is taken... ok then....

CNN and FOX News.

Hmm lets see what is another pointless invention?
I know, a compass without a needle.

Sorry about the bad joke, but it is getting late for my brain to be working.

we're doing real inventions that are useless are'nt we.

There was a joke there?

ForksSporks were worse.

SPORKS ARE AWESOME!!!!

screendoor for a submarine!

ForksSporks were worse.
Sporks are awesome. Its like a spoon and a forn in one. I am waiting on the "Spife" or "Fife" to come along to complement the spork. If they made spork silverware, I would buy it.

Never heard of sporks before this... *g*

Useless inventions... how about computer viruses? Not only useless (or at least I haven't heard of one that did much good) but also harmful to dataflow.

Bow ties.

Dress Suits.

Cumerbunds.

Nuclear weapons (think about it, how much has been spent on making/maintaining them and how many times have they been used).

biometric scanning

pop music

blatant faux 'musicians' (pop stars, pop idol, fame academy et al).

reality TV shows

solar-powered flashlight

see-through clothing (hmmmm.... :shock: )

Adolencence

Flies

Invisible Ink

ForksSporks were worse.
Sporks are awesome. Its like a spoon and a forn in one. I am waiting on the "Spife" or "Fife" to come along to complement the spork. If they made spork silverware, I would buy it.

Why didn't they call it a foon? I'll never get over that. :cry:

See through clothing.

Depends who wearing it :wink:

I'm surprised Letila didn't mention:

Government

Religion/God

Money

Value

Tax

etc.

See through clothing.

Depends who wearing it :wink:

I'm surprised Letila didn't mention:

Government

Religion/God

Money

Value

Tax

etc.God....Damn you all to hell! HA HA HA HA :twisted:

God....Damn you all to hell! HA HA HA HA :twisted:
/\
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||
Another useless invention.

How come you don't have a post count :? :?:

The Internet. They never did find a good use for that...

dp

tp

Not to mention the Server...

no inventions are pointless.

_____________________________________
http://www.blurbco.com/~gork/random/ignignot.gif
"Everyone, please, bow your heads, and pretend to be serious."

no inventions are pointless.

_____________________________________
http://www.blurbco.com/~gork/random/ignignot.gif
"Everyone, please, bow your heads, and pretend to be serious."

Have you read anything on this forum?

Another useless invention: the leaf blower.

no inventions are pointless.

_____________________________________
http://www.blurbco.com/~gork/random/ignignot.gif
"Everyone, please, bow your heads, and pretend to be serious."

Have you read anything on this forum?

Another useless invention: the leaf blower.

In order for something to be "pointless" it must not have any purpose whatsoever. But the fact is, the leafblower, for example, does have a point. It moves leaves around faster and less strenuously than a rake would. So obviously it makes the point of helping out some more dibilitated people who can't risk injuring their back by raking.

Not to get too philosophical on you but EVERYTHING in the universe has a purpose.

_____________________________________
http://www.blurbco.com/~gork/random/ignignot.gif
"Everyone, please, bow your heads, and pretend to be serious."

The setter ball. I mean come on, the setter can use a normal one, and that's what he will be using in the game.

no inventions are pointless.

_____________________________________
http://www.blurbco.com/~gork/random/ignignot.gif
"Everyone, please, bow your heads, and pretend to be serious."

Have you read anything on this forum?

Another useless invention: the leaf blower.

In order for something to be "pointless" it must not have any purpose whatsoever. But the fact is, the leafblower, for example, does have a point. It moves leaves around faster and less strenuously than a rake would. So obviously it makes the point of helping out some more dibilitated people who can't risk injuring their back by raking.

Not to get too philosophical on you but EVERYTHING in the universe has a purpose.

_____________________________________
http://www.blurbco.com/~gork/random/ignignot.gif
"Everyone, please, bow your heads, and pretend to be serious."

I realise that every invention is intendend to improve on the way a process is done but what I mean by an invention being pointless is when an invention does not offer any real improvement in doing a particular process, such as the pasta cooker.

As for the leaf blower, the aim of raking up leaves is to gather them into a pile in order to dispose of them more easily. A leaf blower just blows the leaves somewhere else and cannot be used to gather the leaves into a pile. The wind already does this.

no inventions are pointless.


The mechanical potatoe peeler.

It took more time and energy to peel a potatoe than using a normal peeler

clothes

no inventions are pointless.


The mechanical potatoe peeler.

It took more time and energy to peel a potatoe than using a normal peeler

Then the point of it was the fact that it was created. It made the point that it could be invented to the inventor. It also shows the negative of invention. It shows how it's a failure so that a more efficient potato peeler can be created. One cannot know light unless they have seen dark.

It could also make the point that one doesn't have to risk cutting themselves when they use the machine. The point being for safety.



Oh and about the leaf blower, it's still convienient for people with back problems; although you still may have to rake, with a leafblower, you don't have to rake as much.

_____________________________________
http://www.blurbco.com/~gork/random/ignignot.gif
"Everyone, please, bow your heads, and pretend to be serious."

Chia pets

blatant faux 'musicians' (pop stars, pop idol, fame academy et al).

Does this include the Monkees?

blatant faux 'musicians' (pop stars, pop idol, fame academy et al).

Does this include the Monkees?

HEATHEN!!! :evil:

blatant faux 'musicians' (pop stars, pop idol, fame academy et al).

Does this include the Monkees?

No idea, I know nothing about them, not a lyric or name or trivia

How about theese at least no one actually made them (I hope)!
very pointless (http://www.madhousebeyond.com/?mode=np&view=1224/) :D

A quick look around my room reveals...
A "polarized anti-glare computer screen cover," meaning it has black lines in it, and it is so dark that you cannot see anything clearly until you set brightness to full...
A "Dust wiper," which is an inch of plastic withsome fuzz at one end and velco at the other, so that you can move all the dusk on your computer screen to one place...
A box of "Crest Whitestrips Premium plus," which work amazingly well, but they work by having a flouride gel, which is highly acidic and poisonous if consumed, and physically eats away at your teeth revealing the whiter bone beneath. So, in essence, you're rubbing bleech on your teeth and trying not to swallow for 30 minutes. Oh, and they're just big enough that the reach the bottom of your teeth and hang over, but aren't big enough to fold over without abandoning the top of your teeth. So, while your teeth are going to feel exactly like a dentist is drilling into them for 30 minutes straight anyway, you have the choice of scraping off the bottoms and having this stuff on your gums, eating some acid paste, or having teeth with an extra layer that hasn't been eaten off at the top so that you can fold them over...
A "Touch Lamp," working via noticing a change in capacitance with four "on" settings. If no-one touches it in the "off" setting for more than a few hours, the current it's drawing turns itself on to the lowest setting. After about two days, it goes to the second lowest setting, where it stays at least until your average bulb burns out (I experimented, you see). You have to touch it, so that your body is connected to the power outlets, in order to manually change settings, which makes my hair stand on end. This problem was solved by...
Power outlets turned on and off by a light switch. The bottom outlets always work normally, and the top outlets are provided power only when you turn on a light switch. I've seen it done right (once) so that they work normally (which is still annoying as !@#$ to deal with/explain to guests), but in every other case I've seen this happed, the power over-rid any on/off switch and left stuff everything connected continuously on. Now, if I leave the lamp alone, it goes to 2 immediately, 3 if I turn the power off and on or leave it alone for a while, and becomes a strobe light when I touch it. Finally...
A "Stress Globe," made in China for the U.S. State Dept., without Denmark or most of Scandinavia. How the hell are you supposed to relieve with a globe stress if you can't imagine you're crushing Denmark out of existence?

I am waiting on the "Spife" or "Fife" to come along to complement the spork.Is a Knork (http://www.knork.net/) good enough?

There are plenty of strange Japanese inventions, such as the chopsticks fan and ever-ready tissue dispenser (roll of tissues on top of a hat).

blatant faux 'musicians' (pop stars, pop idol, fame academy et al).

Does this include the Monkees?

No idea, I know nothing about them, not a lyric or name or trivia

Really? "Daydream Believer"? "Last Train To Clarksville"? "Pleasent Valley Sunday"? "(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone"?