­­Technology has given us a lot to be thankful for over the years, but rarely without mistakes.

Today I’m looking at five of the worst products that have come out of the technology boom. From hardware to software, here are five things all of us would have been better off without.

The Nokia N-Gage

Nokia’s cell phone/video game console might have been successful if the N-Gage wasn’t so hideous.

The lack of a decent game selection made the N-Gage almost worthless for what it was supposed to do, but having to hold this embarrassingly awkward taco-shaped phone to your cheek sideways was the real nail in the coffin.

There would be a day when cell phones and handheld video games merged beautifully, but the N-Gage probably did more to hurt that industry than help it.

Windows ME

For those of you who might have struggled with compatibility issues when Vista was released, just be glad it wasn’t anything like the mess that came with Windows ME.

If you ever managed to install it without your computer crashing, you got to enjoy one of the oddest computer bugs we’ve ever seen. Whereas most computer problems involve your system crashing, Windows ME refused to let you shut it down.

For many people who upgraded to ME, pulling the power cord was just about the only way to escape the misery.

The Macintosh Portable

Many of you might not be lucky enough to remember when the Portable was released —­­­ I was only two years old .

But this 16-pound laptop — yes, 16-pound laptop — left a legacy for portable computing that will be around for ages. For those lucky enough to drop $6,500 on the behemoth, you were then stuck with a machine that was useless if your battery ran out. AC power? Not for this beast.

Eventually the Portable paved the way for the laptops we have today, but it was the chiropractors who really benefited from this mammoth. What could induce an epidemic of back problems more than lugging around a 16-pound laptop?

Internet Explorer

To be fair, the newer version of Internet Explorer hasn’t been plagued with the problems that IE 6 had. Using IE 6 to browse the Internet was the computer-virus equivalent of swapping dirty needles. By the time IE 7 was released to fix most of its problems, everyone paying attention to Internet safety had already switched to Firefox.

And the world is better for it.

The Zune

Today’s grand champion in our technology shamefest has to be the Microsoft’s Zune.

The Zune didn’t really suffer from anything other than choosing a market niche that was too small. There just aren’t that many people out there interested in buying a brown, thick and uglier version of the iPod, whose only substantial feature was the ability to customize your background image.

It was almost sad how hard the Zune tried to copy the iPod — even boasting a fake click-wheel on the front. It might not have failed so miserably if Microsoft had gone for originality, as opposed to cheap imitation.

Oh yeah, did I mention it was brow­n?

There are plenty of exciting new tech products being thought up and created as we speak; gadgets that will change our lives and revolutionize the world. But everything will eventually become outdated as we watch product lines upgrade and innovations turn our old toys into fossils.

One thing that will never die, though, is the laughs we get from remembering the biggest goofs, the worst gadgets and the most embarrassing products the tech industry has given us over the years.

Brett Nolan is a philosophy and political science senior.