Recently, Gmail has been giving problems to its users. All of a sudden, you may find that you have signed out of your Gmail even without your knowledge! The reason behind this thing is not so clear to us. After all, why should we know about it? Since we are the end users, we just need prompt service and nothing more to it.
So what are the things that you can do when Gmail lets you down all of a sudden? Here we shall see some of the best options for you to spend time effectively without cribbing about how Gmail has turned out these days.

1. Go to Twitter

You can happily go to Twitter and crib or curse about the nasty Gmail servers that ditched you all of a sudden. In fact, this is one of the best options as you can kill your boredom too while you simultaneously complain about your problem. We are human beings and cribbing about things is our birthright, isn’t it?

2. Choose Facebook or Orkut

If not Twitter, you can always choose Orkut (err! It is also prone to problems too) or Facebook for this purpose. You could also play some petty games there. You can also blindly take those Facebook quizzes that are best time pass solutions ever.

3. Blog about the problem

You can also blog about this problem of yours caused by Gmail and express your anger and other emotions. In fact, blogs are the best since no one can question you about your expressions. Thus, it is the best place to put all your feelings right there and watch what people have to say.

4. Get some exercise

Tell yourself that you have been sitting in front of the computer for very long so you should consider a small walk in your lane. You can also take your dog along. Get some exercise for your body that has been up all day.

5. Clean your room

Care to clean your room, which has never received your attention for over a month or two. Else, you can also try to wipe your PC clean with a cloth or even use a vacuum cleaner to remove the dirt.

The digital age provides us plenty of opportunities to meet people and strengthen connections online. But sometimes, we see a different side of people online: the undateable side.

Need proof that finding your soul made on Facebook isn’t a good idea? Our Friends at Top 10 List took the liberty of finding some pretty ridiculous posts on Facebook from people who were single and for good reason. You know, the kind that make you scroll back and say “Seriously?!”.

More Info about the Largest Social Networking Site:

It’s weird, I know, but FB is like peanut butter and jelly: you must be some sort of freak if you’ve never tried it. (OK, or you have some severe allergy, but that doesn’t fit with my analogy so let’s move on.) Facebook is at the epicenter of our generation’s world, so anyone who isn’t on there is weird, right? I mean, how do you live without Facebook?

Matthew Myron, an author who recently wrote and did research on online privacy, has gone as far as to argue that not being on Facebook is like social suicide. ”Many people feel they have to be a part of Facebook to socialize. Such sites are the modern equivalent of a mobile phone. They have grown into fashion accessories and they are a must-have for people who don’t want to be social outcasts.”

Myron argues in regards to status updates and wall posts, but there is more to his argument than what meets the eye. When people have parties, they invite guests through Facebook. When people have birthdays, we send them messages (and are automatically notified) on Facebook. When people have anything to say, we say it all on Facebook.

And when someone doesn’t have Facebook, we think they are freaks hiding something.

Are those things even replacements for in-person chats or phone call conversations that are yesterday’s news?  Is someone’s profile a good way to judge him/her as being a social suicide freak? Probably not, but that is how we roll in “generation me” and anyone who is not a part of that will be left behind and out of the know when it comes to weekend ragers.

We may not want to admit it, but Facebook is a huge part of us and our our social lives. Not being on there might be worse for your social status than being “that girl” at a party or for every other Facebook hater. Or even being that annoying status updater who lets everyone know where they are at every possible second/puts up ambiguous statements that are just begging for attention. Ugh, those people are annoying.

The question that this article tries to ask: are people using Facebook to much? are they making themselves look like freaks? Will it make a difference if someone has Facebook or not? Truthfully, someone who is an outcast in real life, may well be an outcast on Facebook.

1.The Self-Loather

Nothing is less attractive than someone who has absolutely no confidence and is tirelessly lamenting their life and relationship status. It’s that whole mom-endorsed “you can’t love anybody until you love yourself” truism. Being honest is an attribute, but I don’t think that includes waxing on about your jaundice or crippling loneliness.

2. The Conspiracy Theorist

Wouldn’t you like a steamy date with boy-who-cried-fake-wolf, Alex Jones? Last week he filled the douchebag throne in the wake of the horrific Boston bombings. This is the type of dude that would check your criminal records  and square footage with the DateCheck app. There’s a place and time for people who constantly question accepted truths, but they are not “now” and “in your bed”.

3. The Constant Sarcastic

Apathy and sarcasm look really cute at first, but after six months, man, that’s gonna wear you down. Statuses like these are often accompanied by live reenactments of Seinfeld episodes and dispassionate views about ice cream and soon, your entire relationship.

4. The Quotidian

Oh, minutiae! 2:43: Looks down at feet. 2:44: Thinks about typing. 2:45: Types a little more of this article. 2:46: Decides to get the hell out of this relationship.

5. The Casual Misogynist

I am so happy this person finally made it to the internet so that I could approach them for a date. I have a feeling like he will respect me and enjoy my company a lot. Because I am a woman.

Studying for finals, midterms, and even regular tests can be inherently linked with stress. In fact, where stress is already built into a situation where you need to call up all the important information that you’ve learned in each of several classes over the course of several months, the last thing students need to do is add to the stress of important tests, midterms and finals, right? Well, unfortunately, many students inadvertently do just that. Certain common practices that often make finals and other tests even more stressful than they need to be.

Here are ten gadgets you should turn off before you start your studying for exams, midterms and other tests that are very important to your career.

1. Cell Phone

Smartphones have redefined the term “distracting” and have made it to the Top 1 Gadget to Avoid While Focusing on Coursework list. Text messages, email alerts, phone calls, app notifications, and rage-filled birds all beg for your attention. Unless you are using your smartphone to contribute to your online college course, you are probably just using it to waste valuable study time.

2. The Vacuum

Vacuums rank 2nd in the Top 10 Gadgets to Avoid While Focusing on Coursework list. Clean freaks everywhere will probably cringe at this concept, but put down the vacuum cleaner. If you usually distract yourself with cleaning tasks to avoid coursework, then make sure to remove all cleaning gadgets from your study area. People always looks for distractions, and with cleaning temptation lingering, it might be easy to make an argument for tidying up when really you should be studying hard.

3. The iPod

Music players like the iPod rank 3rd in the list. According to a study conducted by a team at the University of Wales Institute of Cardiff in the United Kingdom, background music can interfere with your ability to memorize new information. While the research also shows that certain types of studying can benefit from a soundtrack, you should opt for mellow music and avoid sound entirely if your coursework relies on memory-based tasks.

4. The Remote Control

The remote control for television ranks 4th in the list.Many academic catastrophes began with the words, “Just one more episode.” Remote controls make that episode far too easy to reach. However, research from Shawn Achor shows that simply removing the batteries from the remote and putting them in a desk or nightstand was enough to mute the remote’s desperate call for attention.

5. The Shake Weight

Exercising gadgets like the Shake Weight rank 5th in the list. Exercising helps relieve stress, but it is also a way to distract you from focusing on course work. While it may seem like a good idea to postpone finishing class work in order to work out, it will only prolong what you need to finish—stressing you out even more.

6.The Handheld Games

Handheld game consoles rank 6th in the list. While “Game Boys” may not exist anymore, those beloved old bricks have been replaced by a host of handheld gaming devices. Put down your PSP, PSP Slim, and PSP Go; your Game Boy DS, DSi, and 3DS; your PlayMG; your Sony Xperia; and, yes, even your iPod Touch.

7. The Webcam

Webcams rank 7th in the list.Webcams make talking face-to-face with someone a reality even when he or she is not in the same room. Programs like Skypethat use webcam technology make staying in touch with family and friends easy and free. But unless you are using your webcam to connect to a study-buddy, you should turn it off and focus on the coursework at hand.

8. The Wii Console

Multiplayer gaming consoles like the PlayStation and Wii rank 8th in the list. Thanks to Netflix, multiplayer gaming, and online marketplaces, video game consoles now offer a practically unlimited lineup of distractions. If you find yourself falling into the trap of “one quick game” before your coursework, consider storing your controller in a different room from the console itself.

9. TV

Many people come home from a day’s work and “relax” in front of the tube. Little do they know that the rapid flickering, the constant changes in images, and the glowing pulse on the screen actually reduces their energy level.

On the other hand, if they were to go out and jog or have a workout in the gym (or write a new Web page , they would become more energized. Ironic, isn’t it?

Watching TV also inhibits your imagination and has a numbing effect on your mind. This is because TV viewers passively take in information as opposed to actively doing research and thinking about what they are watching. You sit back and watch what is essentially somebody else’s imagination.

How?

• For starters, you could throw away the remote control. It would amaze you how much less time you’d spend in front of the tube if you had to get up to change the channel or adjust the volume every five minutes.
• OK, if that is too much, you could give the remote control to a friend for, say, 21 days. At least you could realize how silly it would be to visit your friend and ask him or her for your remote control…
• What about a TV-watching plan where you choose to watch only certain shows in a week. You watch only these shows and immediately turn off the tube when they are over. It might be hard at times due to the fear of loss, but this method served as my first step towards successfully avoiding TV.
• When you are eating, turn off the box at all times.
• How about making it a point to devote at least 15 hours a week to reading?
• Ultimately, if all that fails, remember that you can always give your TV to a charity!

10.  Messenger

We understand that you need your computer when studying, but you don’t really need the messenger, these include Skype, Facebook and MSN. If you don’t want to automatically log in to Messenger when your computer boots up, then you should disable it. Fortunately, by learning how to disable Windows Live Messenger, you will still be able to log in when you need to. We recommend that you disable these distractions before your study period begins.

Remember: While remembering the importance of a test’s outcome can be a good motivator for studying, too much focus on the outcome can backfire. If you’re the type of person who is already pretty conscientious, and the idea of doing poorly on the test is starting to cause significant test anxiety, it may be time to shift your focus. This is because being overly anxious about a test’s outcome can actually cause you to do poorly, or to score lower than you normally would. To avoid obsessing, try some positive affirmations, visualizations, or tips from this article on overcoming test anxiety.

There really couldn’t be a better time to be a teacher, than today with all of the modern technology that we have at our fingertips. From laptops to iPhones to iPads, there are all sorts of great tools available to make teaching more productive and more fun for everyone. Check out the top 10 awesome iPad apps that are available right now.

1. Dropbox

Anyone who has used Dropbox on their PC knows how great it is. If you are not familiar with it, you should: Dropbox is an online file storage app that lets you say ‘so long’ to the days of flash drives and other storage devices. All you need to do is sign up to store files online, and then you can access them from your iPad or your computer.

Once setup, Dropbox will allow you to save files to the Dropbox servers and transfer files from one device to another. You can event transfer files to your PC, which is a great way of uploading photos without going through the hassle of connecting your iPad to your PC.

To download DropBox click here.

2. Alge-Bingo:

Helps you to teach algebra to your students. They can develop their skills in solving algebra equations by playing Bingo. This was actually created by a high school teacher with more than 20 years of teaching experience.

Click here to download.

3. Evernote

You no longer need to have a notebook or a daily planner to keep track of your lesson plans. All you need to do is to enter your plans and notes into your iPad by text or by voice.

Use what you love. Evernote works by connecting all the computers, phones and tablets you use. Anything you add to your account is made searchable and accessible wherever you are. Create an account and get Evernote downloaded on all your devices to get started.

For example, it capture whiteboards. All you have to do is snap a photograph of a whiteboard full of class notes, brainstorms and presentations. We’ll make the image searchable and even recognize handwriting.

You can also use Evernote for Professional Development: If you use the summer break or vacations to improve your skills or continue your education, keep all your notes, resources, lessons and new ideas learned in Evernote. This also works well for teacher in-services, conferences, workshops and seminars that you attend.

Another advantage? You are able to scan graded tests, including scantrons and add them to Evernote. You can then enter them into your preferred grade-book or spreadsheet when you have time. This is also great if you have a teacher’s assistant. You can share the notebook with them and have them help with the grading process.

To download click here.

4.Things for iPad

A great task manager to help you keep track of things you need to do in your classroom and your appointments outside of it.

5. QuickVoice Recorder

QuickVoice is a useful recording application that is easy to implement into your daily life.  You can record new ideas, voice memos, shopping lists  meetings, classes, interviews, teacher evaluation, or even an entire class period. This can be used in the professional, educational, and/or personal setting. It could even help students with studying such as recording useful information for a test or a classroom lecture.

QuickVoice can be used in multiple capacities in the classroom or in your own daily lives. This application is easy to use and implement.  According to QuickVoice it is “the most popular, full-featured iPhone/iPad/iPod voice recorder available.” Check it out today!

It’s a great reminder of how messily human the stories behind even our sleekest creations are – not to mention delightful curiosities in their own right.

1. Avatar
This word for our digital incarnations has a mysterious origin to it, beginning with the Sanskrit term avatara, that is often used to describe the descent of a god from the heavens into an earthly form. Arriving in the English dictionary sometime in late 18th century, via Hindi, the term largely preserved its mystical meaning until Neal Stephenson’s 1992 novel Snow Crash popularized it in a technological sense.

Fusing notions of virtual world-building and incarnation, it’s the perfect emblem of computers as a portal to a new species of experience.

There are so many online avatar/character to pick from, it’s hard to keep track of them all. Indeed, it’s also hard to even find them.

As a writer, I like to picture my characters on paper, and since I can’t draw anything, I turn to these nifty tools to make my characters literally come to life.

2. Hashtags
In 1920s America, the # sign was used as a shorthand for weight in pounds (and they still call it the pound sign). It was first brought to pubic usage thanks to its adoption by telephone engineers at Bell Labs in the 1960s – and if you’re looking to sound clever, you could call it an “octothorpe”, the  term coined at Bell to describe it. It’s on Twitter, though, that hashtags have really come into their own, serving as a kind of function code for social interaction #Top10List.

3. Scunthorpe problems
Computing can be as much combat as collaboration between people and machines, and the Scunthorpe problem is a perfect example. The Scunthorpe Problem arise when search engines create a filter to exclude the use of some words and because the word Scunthorpe contains a very certain word, this prevents residents of Scunthorpe from opening accounts and from people who were searching for businesses in Scunthorpe from finding them. Similar issues were found in Penistone in Yorkshire, Lightwater in Surrey and Clitheroe in Lancashire.

4. Trolling

Interrnet trolling can be defined as the anti-social act of causing of interpersonal conflict and shock-value controversy online.

As you’ve probably already know, there are people lurking all over the web who find pure joy in humiliating and attacking others. Tapping the expertise of psychologists and experts, it offers solid reasons why this scourge of the Internet continues.

We all like to think that most people mean well, and are inherently good. Even if that’s true, studies show us instances where even some good people can quickly turn bad, all because of a variety of situations related to mob behavior.

When people think they can stay anonymous, they do things they otherwise would not do.  When conversations are not taking place in real time, some people feel like they can quickly dash off a negative comment and then immediately escape altogether. And when people get all wrapped up in their narcissism and rebelliousness, they might be more likely to pick on others they don’t even know.

5. Memes
Richard Dawkins coined the term “meme” in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene as a shortening of the Ancient Greek term mimeme (“an imitated thing”). He designed his new word to sound like “gene”, signifying a unit of cultural transmission. Little did he know that his term would become one of the most iconic of online phenomena, embodying the capacity of the internet to itself act as a kind of gene-pool for thoughts and beliefs – and for infectious, endlessly ingenious slices of time-wasting.

Are you getting tired of Facebook and the insecure and childish behavior friends exhibit on it? Facebook is the most popular social media site with over 425 million active users. And with great popularity comes some very shameful and disturbing behavior and people who look to tap into Facebook’s viral market to sell you their crappy selves or scheme your money through affiliate links and the like.

So if you happen to find yourself doing any of these top 10 irritating things on Facebook, you should look to stop doing so immediately before all of your friends look to jump ship and get rid of you. If you are losing friends on Facebook like sunflower seeds, you really need to find another approach to social media management.

1. Tagging Random People in Photos

You should quit tagging people you barely know in photos that have nothing to do with you or met at a party. It’s one thing when your buddy tags you in an unphotogenic pic, then sends it out to friends for them to laugh at. At least in this situation it’s you and your friends with the person who tagged you. But the people I’m talking about upload photos and tag as many people as they can to try and gin up as many likes as possible. This is a classic move by spammers so be cautious of anyone tries strategy out. I’ve had to call out several individuals over the years, even friends for their random tagging, and you should do the same if you suspect anyone doing this. Sending a personal message to them to stop could do the trick, but I feel like if some goofball wants to tag me in every one of his posts, he must be looking for my input so I give it to him publicly right then and there. Revenge is just a dish that is best served cold…

Worst of all… they know how picky you are about your pics and that you like to approve them before they hit the WWW. BUT, if they look good, they don’t give a flying monkey what you think They will post them and tag you anyways! Who cares if you look like a loser or cock eyed. It’s all about them! Cause they look like god!

2. Cross-Posting with Twitter

Look, we social media marketing experts understand that you are a little short on content and intelligent things to say on Facebook, but there is no need to post random stuff that no one cares about. We all post the same stuff on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, but at least have the guts to not automatically send your Twitter tweets to Facebook, because people will just mute you, dislike you, or defriend you. For one, you’ll get much less engagement posting to Facebook via any third-party app let alone Twitter which basically disregards Facebook etiquette. If you do this, it’s a clear sign you’re not really engaging with anyone on Facebook or are just too lazy to post new content manually, either way you will fail and friends and followers will keep disappearing.

3. Liking Your Own Posts

So you’ve just posted the new dog or the cutest baby pictures of your best friend. That’s cool, right? But then you go ahead and like your photo yourself. Well, we know you already like the post, aren’t you the one who just shared the thing? Besides being annoyingly repetitive, the real reason people feel the need to do this is that the action of liking the post will again show up in the streaming news ticker, giving the post even more exposure, sometimes double as much. These are typically the moves of self-proclaimed “social media gurus” or people who just feel insecure about their status posts. It’s obvious that you like your own content, you posted it yourself.

4. New Page Invites

Look, as social media marketing experts, we understand you need to create a page for your business, but do everyone else a favor and stop inviting them to your half-ass Facebook pages. Instead post interesting content to your own page, share it on your profile as well (so your friends see it), and if people are interested they will follow. There is also the new social graph that will allow others to network, who are not on your friends’ list. It’s almost not your fault, as creating a page and inviting all your friends can seem tempting, but most of your friends won’t like your page and maybe they won’t like you either and defriend you. And the ones who do like it would’ve probably found it anyways without your begging them to do so. So like the funny Oatmeal comic, don’t do this…

5. Useless App Requests

If you’re on Facebook all day playing CafeWorld and Hotelville, that should be embarrassing enough, and the last thing you should ever want to do is invite your friends and alert them to your obsessions. And I can’t even explain to you the ill feeling we get when we receive a request to join Vampire World, for example, even though we’ve already registered to be  friends with some  less intelligent friends who do not have a life or do not work.

Rule of thumb: Step off with the application requests! Only send the ones that are absolutely necessary, the awesomeness you’ve ever seen, etc. We don’t care, at all, what shape cocktail glass we are, we don’t want a shot, we don’t want to compare our favorite ‘Hills’ characters. No, no, and no.

In my opinion, humankind’s fascination with clock towers does not really stem from the architecture of these magnificent edifices, but rather from time itself. Back in the day, when the vast majority of people didn’t have watches, the town’s clock tower served mainly a functional role and most clock towers were equipped with bells to signal the important upcoming events in the community. If we were to go further back in time, we would soon realize that man has become fascinated with time when he realized that there are “right times” for growing crops and harvesting.

As time passed by and Patek Phillippe invented the first wrist watch – which was later on improved by Louis Cartier – the need for the faithful clock towers became obsolete. Still, nowadays when everyone can easily learn the time by checking their watch or smartphone, the allure of clock towers remains just as powerful as in the past. Following is a list of the most famous clock towers worldwide, all charming buildings you should check out if you ever plan your holidays in those areas.

1. Big Ben

By far the most notorious clock tower in the world, the great bell located in the Northern part of the Westminster Palace in London has become a symbol for the United Kingdom, even greater than the red double-decker bus and the notorious black cabs. Built in 1858, Big Ben is still in the top 3 tallest clock towers in the world and it is also the world’s largest four-faced clock.

2. Spasskaya Clock Tower

Overlooking the heart of Russia, the famous Red Square, the Spasskaya or Kremlin Clock has had a turbulent history. Initially designed in 1491 by Pietro Solari, the clock itself was taken down repeatedly, only to be installed again with more appealing architectural details. However, it is important to note that the clock you see guarding the entrance to the Red Square today dates back to the early 1900s, when the tsar Nicolai was murdered by the Soviet Party.

3. Tsim Sha Tsui Clock Tower

While today the bell tower is a standalone landmark in Hong Kong, the Tsim Sha Tsui is a remnant of an impressive railway station, the Kowloon-Canton Railway. The remarkable edifice is 144 feet tall and you can only reach the top by climbing an interior wooden staircase. Sadly, while the tower was open for visits for several years, nowadays it is closed for maintenance. Nonetheless, the granite and red bricks construction is still worth checking out if you plan a visit to China.

4. Zytglogge

If you are passionate about medieval architecture, then one monument you should place at the top of your itinerary is the Zytglogge clock tower in Switzerland. During its 800 years of existence, the Zytglogge has played many roles, from serving as the gate tower for the early Bern fortifications and a prison to being the focal point of civil memorials and urban life. Featuring impressive details, an astronomical dial, a frieze with ancient Greek gods and a facade with Roman numerals, the Zytglogge is a must-see attraction for anyone visiting Switzerland.

5. Allen-Bradley Clock Tower

The landmark of Milwaukee, the Allen-Bradley clock tower has made it into the Guinness Book of records as the largest four-faced clock with an office addition. Because each of the facades has a diameter of over 40 feet and the distance between each hour is of about 16 feet, meaning twice the size of the emblematic Big Ben, the architect ruled against adding chimes to the clock.

When it comes to recent advancements in the medical field, most people start thinking nanotechnology. Who can blame them considering that nano is presented as the ultimate solution in dealing with an impressive array of diseases that were previously considered incurable? However, until the point when nano tech emerges to abolish all disease on Earth, we will have to put our faith and trust in the current healthcare innovations, which are actually impressive and provide effective solutions for various medical conditions and issues, as you are about to find out.

1. Truvada

Although it does not qualify as a cure, the FDA approval on the Truvada medicine certainly constitutes a big step in the war against the most devastating disease on the planet, AIDS. The Truvada pills have been prescribed to patients tested HIV positive from 2004, but with inconclusive results. Only recently, when physicians started testing them on HIV-negative patients did these pills show their huge potential. To put it simply, their two active ingredients proved very effective in stopping HIV from spreading and, according to research, had a 70% rate of success.

2. MobiUS ultrasound system

As you might have guessed from its name, the MobiUS is designed to address patients with medical emergencies who are unable to see a physician for various reasons, such as being located in a remote area or in a disaster zone. The device is created to send offline feedback directly onto a physician’s computer, images and data that can be decrypted and analyzed via an ultrasound wand to detect life-threatening issues. It is necessary to mention that while there is no denying the fact that MobiUS has the potential of saving numerous lives, physicians should receive training on how to read the images produced by the device.

3. Artificial heart valve

Claiming the lives of over 1.5 million people per year, heart attack can classify as one of the deadliest conditions in the Western World. Not only is it leading the top of deaths, but unfortunately a great percentage of patients do not qualify for a surgical intervention that could save their lives. The artificial heart valve designed by Edwards Lifesciences represents a solution for patients who are too frail to survive a heart surgery.

4. AxoTrack

Because inserting a catheter implies a great deal of precision, in the past several years physicians have employed the help of ultrasound for this purpose. Even though ultrasound has reduced the chance of making a mistake that could put the patient’s life at risk, the problem with it is that it cannot detect a needle as accurately as doctors want. Their pleas were heard and today physicians can use AxoTrack for a rate of 99% safe insertion of catheters.

5. An ingested pill health-feedback system

Even though it will take approximately two more years before it enters the production phase, the pill health-feedback system already looks promising. Developed by Proteus Digital, the main function of the pill is to help physicians gain relevant feedback regarding their patients and track the results of the treatments. It is necessary to mention that the system is simple and ingenious, considering that the patient will have to ingest a pill that will afterwards send binary signals to a patch placed on the patient’s abdominal area.

The more you think about it, the more you realize that the world is moving at a rather fast pace. Just think about the tech behind computers when your parents were born and the fact that nowadays, any smartphone is ten times more advanced than the first PC prototypes.

Who could actually predict what will happen in the next 50 years accurately, considering the popularity of tablets and groundbreaking mobiles only began a few of years ago? In the light of these facts, I cannot help but wonder, just how soon the technologies people use today will become obsolete. Let’s examine the top ten of them that seem to be on their last legs.

1. Landline phones

If you were to analyze the statistics, you would notice that many households have already given up on their landline phone. Since almost all members of the family have a mobile phone with them at all times and can be reached easily, having a landline counterpart makes no sense anymore. It’s just an extra utility bill you do not really use, but have to pay at the end of the month. Furthermore, nowadays you have more convenient and not to mention cheaper alternatives to that, namely VoIP services and mobiles communication devices.

2. Personal printers

Ten years ago, nobody could imagine getting a personal computer without purchasing a printer as well. Without denying the fact that the printer is still very useful for both personal and commercial purposes, it is necessary to mention that the plug-in printers will soon make way for the wireless and communal printers. The main indicator for this change stems from the decreasing demand and popularity of the desktop computers as opposed to the growing dominance of laptops.

3. Phone numbers

Truth be told, most people still remember the number to their parents’ house even today. However, at the same time, people don’t bother with remembering or dialing other numbers when it is so simple to tap somebody’s name in the contact menu. Furthermore, the various VoIP services today allow you to make calls by simply accessing the other person’s username. Therefore, it is believed that in the future people will be asking for a person’s user ID rather than their phone number.

4. Hard drives

Once the SSD drives were launched on the market, it marked a point of no return for the spinning magnetic hard drives. While it is true that they are currently more expensive and are unable to store as much data as the HDDs, there are clues indicating that this won’t be a problem in the near future. The second blow that the HDDs took in the past few years was the advent cloud storage technology. Cloud storage is even better than SSD, since you will no longer have to invest in physical space and essentially, you will be paying a lot less for the same storage space.

5. Movie theaters

It’s funny, but the demise of the movie theater has been predicted a long time ago when the first TV sets became available on the market. It could be nostalgia, but the reason why they are still around resides in the fact that few things can compare with seeing your favorite movie on a large screen. However, with the 3D feature becoming more affordable and accessible, the HD TVs presence in most homes and since some studios have begun to release on-demand screening online, it is easy to understand why the era of the movie theaters is coming to an end. In addition, it is much more cost effective on long term to invest in a home theater system than taking your entire family out for a movie each weekend.

I’ve noticed that quite often, irrespective of the overall qualities and innovations of a game, developers appear to have a subconscious desire to balance out the attractiveness of the gameplay by introducing game-breaking blunders. What’s even worse is that these mistakes are stereotypical and repeated over and over again, since the dawn of time.

Regardless of how many complaints they receive from the gaming community, the developers show no actual intention to stop introducing frustrating elements anytime soon. But let’s elaborate a bit on the aspects that gamers find extremely tedious and aggravating, particularly because they cannot be avoided if you really want to finish the content.

1. The cutscenes that cannot be skipped and/or paused

The role of the cutscene is to immerse you further in the story and help you understand the events that take place in the game’s universe. However, assuming that the cutscene needs to be replayed at the start of a quest/mission that you end up failing for whatever reason, you will have to re-watch it several times over if the developers decide not to include a skip button. And, in order to make the absence of the feature even more bothersome, the length of the cutscene is usually directly proportional to the difficulty of the mission. At the same time, the inability to pause it doesn’t permit you to take a much needed bathroom break or attend to a spontaneous crisis event without missing a vital piece of the story.

2. The incompatibility between the game and a certain operating system or piece of hardware

One of the latest examples for this issue is the highly anticipated RPG game, Diablo 3. Leaving aside the overall disappointment that the game presented for the diehard fans of the series – Blizzard seems keen on killing its customer base – Diablo 3 has a wide array of incompatibilities with video cards that, based on their benchmarks and technical specifications, should be fully able to support the game. However, if you look on the forums, you will notice a plethora of complaints regarding hardware compatibility issues. Sadly, this is only one example of games with average level graphics that require a monstrous amount of resources or that have not been adapted to function on all platforms.

3. Collectibles with no actual applicability

Batman and L.A. Noire are two highly acclaimed games that include hidden collectibles and respectively clues that serve no purpose. If there is no motivation for the player to actually discover the secret areas aside from level statistics, why would he even bother? And, if he did, he would probably utilize a guide rather than spend hours searching for them.

4. The repetitive nature of the gameplay

Go from point A to point B and deliver this package to NPC X. Kill 10 NPCs and bring me their furs. Shoot 20 enemy soldiers and destroy the doomsday device. Build 10 farms and 2 barracks to spawn 30 foot soldiers. This summarizes the “originality” of the content – which on a side note is getting shorter and shorter – included in the modern games. The gameplay has been recycled so many times that it seems unreasonable to buy yet another war shooter/RPG/strategy game, because they seem to look like variants with different skins.

5. The fact that you need DLC content

I personally find this issue the most aggravating. Instead of getting a full game for my purchase, I find that I have acquired something a bit more than a demo version. Therefore, in order to actually gain access to the content that should have been there in the first place, you need to spend more money on the content that is gradually being released. However beneficial this strategy might be for the developers from the short-term financial point of view, it is slowly killing their clientele.