Inferior technology that did well

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tyred

Squire
Location
Ireland
Austin Mini. A car that never made a penny of profit for the manufacturer. A car that had its seams on the outside. But they sold several million of them.

It was a pretty neat peace of engineering in many ways and great fun to drive if you didn't want to do too far. Continuing to build it for 40 years at a loss is more about a lack of management than a design fault in the original product.

The same company managed to sell about a million Marinas/Itals and that really was a terrible piece of engineering but no doubt it made them money, if only because the developments were negligible as it was probably designed on the back of an empty Woodbine packet after about 14 pints while the engineer was passing the time waiting for a taxi home.
 

swee'pea99

Squire
 

mybike

Grumblin at Garmin on the Granny Gear
Minidisc. Sony created a medium that would have sold then disabled it so they could sell more records. As a recording medium it is extraordinary, good quality and flexible, being able insert cues on the fly.
 
For example if I want to take a photo in landscape, I have scroll down from the top to get a menu, then hit landscape.
Um, couldn't you just take the photo anyway? Wouldn't be a good idea with a video, but I don't see much problem with a photo - trivial to rotate it later.

(or just install a different camera app on your phone. The one that came installed on my £100 ZTE rotates the screen automatically, even if system wide autorotate is turned off)
 

Threevok

Growing old disgracefully
Location
South Wales
Minidisc. Sony created a medium that would have sold then disabled it so they could sell more records. As a recording medium it is extraordinary, good quality and flexible, being able insert cues on the fly.

I have two recorder/players (left over from my DJ days) a portable (Walkman) type one and even a car stereo system one

Still haven't got around to wiring the car one up though
 
My view is that the threadless stem is only inferior until you try sprinting up a hill
For tourists who need to carry a more complete toolkit, threadless wins in the tool stakes. Just use the same Allen key as you already carry, no more headset wrenches needed.
 
Minidisc. Sony created a medium that would have sold then disabled it so they could sell more records. As a recording medium it is extraordinary, good quality and flexible, being able insert cues on the fly.
That's how Sony roll. The betamax might have been world beating if they extended it's play sooner and licensed more to lower the price of players. Minidisk, as you say. And I was very serious about digital photography a few years back and sony had some of the best lenses, but they had propriatorey memory (when memory cards represented a large investment) and I just didn't want to get locked into Sony only cameras.

A few sensible decisions and they'd be bigger than Google now.
 

srw

It's a bit more complicated than that...
On the other hand, how do raise the handlebars an inch or so?
By playing with spacers or changing the stem. Changing handlebar height by such a large amount is hardly an everyday activity - it'll happen as part of a major reappraisal of riding position.
 
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