As we all know, technology moves along at brisk pase. New, "better" technology replaces old "outdated" technology. But has there ever been a piece of technology you've championed for its continued use only to find out you've not only wasted your time, but wasted your money?

In my case, I remember when I ordered the computer I'm typing on right now. I was livid that floppy drives where not standard anymore and it cost an additional $30 to have one put in. As of today, it, and the box of floppy disks I purchased to use in it, remain virtually unused. It goes without saying I feel like a real dipstick, failing to realize at the time with e-mail and flash drives there really is little to no use for these drives/discs anymore. Really, outside making a boot disc what would you use these for?

Can anyone else think of an oudated technology that still seems useful but is anything but?

The common combo DVD/CD drives in today's computers tend not to read old CD-Rs from a decade ago (won't load the TOC, so it thinks no disc is there).  Something in the laser must change when DVD readability is added which reduces the readability of CDs...

But an old regular CD-ROM drive (and regular CD players) will still read it, so I keep that drive installed on my PC for cases where I need to make a new encode from a 10 year old CD-R.

Actually, don't very old stereo's w/CD players have trouble reading CD-R's? If I recall correctly, my sister's old boom box will not read anything that was burned.