First post, by torindkflt
Just a quick curiosity on my part. What do you think would be the most utterly ridiculous, pointless, useless or stupid computer peripheral or addon?
My vote would be for the drive bay cigarette lighter:
I recall seeing one of these advertised in a computer magazine 15-20 years ago, and even back then I thought it was a stupid idea, primarily for the following two reasons:
1. It's effectively a dead short across one rail of the power supply. I could see frequent use/misuse of this killing a PSU quite quickly.
2. Not only is it yet another place of ingress for dust and lint due to the exhaust fans, it's a place of ingress for FLAMMABLE dust and lint in a location that HEATS UP TO SEVERAL HUNDRED IF NOT THOUSANDS OF DEGREES.
Bonus why-it's-stupid reason: it further encourages smoking around a computer, and having seen dead/ailing computers with motherboards caked in cigarette tar numerous times in my life, I know what kind of damage that can cause. 😜
The ONLY potentially harmless use I could see for such an addon is now outdated due to the ubiquity of USB...that being the ability to use a car adapter to charge an ancient pre-USB cell phone while at your computer.
I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on what the most ludicrous computer addon would be.