By Rafe Needleman
Technology evolves. Good technologies and products usually survive; poor ones usually go extinct. But not all of the technologies and tech products that have swirled down the drain of the tech gene pool deserved their fate. Here are some big, and some small, ideas that we thought we'd have with us forever, but that unfortunately have gone the way of the dodo.

	Manned space exploration It's been 33 years since humans have set foot on the moon or journeyed beyond the close orbit of the Earth. In other words, we've stopped exploring. Sure, robotic spaceships and Mars rovers are adding to our knowledge of the universe, but the last people to explore the final frontier are past retirement age--and so are the engineers who put them there. In other words, next time we go into space, we're going to have to retrain people from scratch. There may be no firsthand knowledge of what it's like to be in space or to build a space vehicle. This is progress?
	Kozmo.com At the height of the dot-com bubble, you could get a candy bar delivered to your door for the price of...a candy bar. Kozmo, an online store and delivery service, promised fast, friendly delivery of almost anything: a DVD rental, a bag of groceries, or just a single pack of gum. It was incredibly convenient and a heck of a bargain. It was also too good to be true. The cost of the small-time deliveries contributed to the demise of this great idea.	CNET community's Top 10 tech we miss See all comments
	Napster This is the one that started it all: The peer-to-peer network let you share your music collection with anybody in the world, and more importantly, get all the world's music tracks downloaded to your computer. The only problem: Sharing digital assets this way was decreed to be illegal, which was not helped by the fact that on the original Napster, you couldn't pay for music even if you wanted to. Napster was summarily shut down by the authorities. The brand has since been resurrected as a paid music site. It's not the same.
	The Concorde Many of us thought that one day, when we were millionaires, we'd take a jaunt around the world on the supersonic jet. If you're still waiting for fortune to knock on your door, you're too late: the Concorde stopped flying in 2003, victim of economic factors and the aftermath of its only fatal crash. It's ironic that as aeronautical technology has moved ever forward, the only supersonic aircraft the public could fly on has been retired. Now all of us, rich and poor alike, have to obey the pedestrian speed limit of sound.
	GM's EV1 Even today's superclean hybrid cars are still polluters--their electric batteries are recharged by small gas engines. But up until 2003, you could lease a true zero-emission electric car from General Motors: the EV1. It was a science-fiction car of the first order, and it looked it--all swoopy lines and space-egg aerodynamics. None were made available for sale. When the leases on the EV1s expired, GM recalled the cars, over the ardent objections of many of the lessees, who protested, begged, and lobbied GM to let them buy their vehicles. GM would not relent, and, citing concerns over liability and parts availability, even took to crushing some of these high-tech marvels to keep them off the road.
	The original Palm Pilot Introduced in 1994, the original Pilot was a model of simplicity. It was an excellent pocket calendar and address book, and it synchronized sufficiently well with a desktop computer to make it a solid PC companion. With so many new Palm Pilots shipping today, why do we miss the original? Because the 1.0 Pilot never crashed. Its simplicity was its blessing. You'd think that after 11 years, this is the one feature that we'd keep.
	Good keyboards Once upon a time, using a computer was a loud, tactile affair. The keyboards on early IBM PCs were heavy, had a great feel, and made a satisfying clacking noise when you typed, thanks to the expensive "buckling spring" design for the switches. They could also take a beating, which was important for people who were making the transition from pounding on manual typewriters. Nobody ships a PC with a good keyboard anymore, although you can still get IBM-style keyboards from Unicomp.
	Wires Try to buy communications equipment today--it's all wireless. Wireless networks, cellular phones, Bluetooth headsets. We say, bring back wires. Wired communications are faster, cheaper, and less prone to interference and don't need batteries. Want to make a clear phone call? Pick up an ordinary telephone with a good old coiled handset cord. Want really fast networking? Use wired Ethernet for a gigabit a second. We like portability, but our lust for cord-free technology has gone too far.
	LPs This is an argument for the ages. Many music lovers say the analog technology of vinyl records, where sound waves are recorded as bumps and waves in the record groove, provides a more authentic, warmer sound than the digital recording technologies of CDs and MP3s. Today, LPs are the province of music collectors and scratch artists. Many people still have substantial collections of LPs and no way to play them. Our recommendation: record your prized LPs to digital files while you still have a working record player. You won't be able to completely capture the analog sound, but at least you'll preserve the memories of this ancient technology.
	The Newton When Apple gets things right, it's spectacular (think iPod), but when the company messes up, it's a hoot. The first popular pen-based PDA, the Apple Newton, was big, expensive, and too smart for its britches. Early models tried to interpret handwriting with often amusing results, making words out of users' scrawls that often combined into surreal "Newton Poetry." We miss the Newton because what it thought we meant was often far more interesting than what we were really trying to say.

By William O'Neal
If one thing is true, it's that video games have come of age in the past 10 years. Sure, many of us remember playing Ms. Pac-Man in the early '80s, but the fact remains that many of the games that were released over the past 10 years have changed not only technology and gaming, but in many ways entertainment in general. Here are our picks for the top 10 games of the past 10 years.

	Half-Life (1998) When it was first released in 1998, gamers knew that Half-Life was going to be a great game. At the time, however, we had no idea that it would change the first-person shooter genre forever. In an era when the world of shooters was dominated by online titles such as Quake II, Half-Life offered gamers an amazing story-based experience. Playing as Gordon Freeman, Half-Life felt more like taking the lead role in a well-written action movie. If not for Half-Life, one could say that we wouldn't have had other great story-based shooters, such as Medal of Honor and Call of Duty.
	Starcraft (1998) Often compared to the various Warcraft and Command and Conquer titles that preceded it, Starcraft had some pretty large anticipatory shoes to fill. While the debate raged as to whether Starcraft was the best real-time strategy (RTS) title up to that time, the fact remained that with Starcraft, Blizzard did a great job of sticking to the RTS formula that was heralded in by Warcraft and Command and Conquer. With a great multiplayer mode, Starcraft's single player (or campaign) mode was both long and compelling. Players could choose from one of three races: the insectlike Zerg, the interstellar "everymen" Terrans, and the high-tech Protoss. The gameplay itself was so addictive that players often played the game through three times just to experience it from the perspective of all three races.	CNET community's Top 10 video games See all comments
	The Sims (2000) Released in 2000, The Sims, created by Maxis, took the gaming world by storm. Having experienced success with the various Sim City titles, The Sims was unique: rather than managing cities, players got to manage the lives of their onscreen counterparts--everything from bathroom breaks to waking up and going to work. While this sounds like torture to many of us, the game was extremely successful. Popular among women gamers, The Sims spawned a veritable deluge of offshoots.
	Quake (1996) One of the best-looking games ever to be released, Quake introduced us to true 3D gaming. In conjunction with the ascendance of graphics chip maker 3Dfx, with Quake, games became not only three-dimensional, their textures were also greatly improved. Gone were the days of hideous pixelated graphics and simple aim-and-shoot gameplay. In Quake, perspectives looked correct, nails from nail guns whizzed by your head, and the gameplay gave birth to the vaunted keyboard-and-mouse gaming combination that was needed to aim up, down, left, and right, all while moving your character forward and backward as well as strafing left or right. And let's not forget that with a soundtrack created specifically for the game by Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails, Quake also introduced us to the idea of mainstream artists making music for video games.
	Madden NFL Football (immemorial) Now, in its 17th year, the Madden NFL Football series is the king of all sports games. Not so much a game as a lifestyle, I don't think there's a man alive who hasn't played Madden. While each year has seen significant changes to the game, some years have been better than others. For instance, many critics seem to think that Madden 2005 is better than the recently released Madden 2006. That said, there's no doubt that Electronic Arts will experience success with Madden 2006. Additionally, the game's reach is so deep, before every Super Bowl, players are chosen from each team to compete in a game of Madden. Up until recently, the team whose player won the Madden game won the big game, too.
	EverQuest (1999) When you think of massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG), EverQuest shines as the king of the genre. Often referred to as "EverCrack," the game's addictive gameplay and extensive online community has led to people making a real-world living selling in-game artifacts on eBay and meeting on EverQuest servers and getting married in the real world.
	Halo (2001) Released in 2001, Halo had to be a lot of things. Not only did it have to be a good game (the Halo-hype machine was immense), it was also the flagship launch title for the recently released Xbox. In other words, Halo had to be compelling enough to get people to shell out $300 for an as-yet-unproven console. Fortunately for Microsoft, Halo was a success. Not only was it a genuinely fun game to play, fighting to save the world as the Master Chief, Halo did a great job of showing off the Xbox's technological capabilities.
	Metal Gear Solid (1998) At a time when all shooters were of the "grab a big gun and shoot the hell out of everything and everyone in the room" variety, Metal Gear Solid was a breath of fresh air. As the venerable Solid Snake, in Metal Gear Solid, players were required to use stealth to save the world from a group of terrorists that had gotten their hands on...uh...some weapons of mass destruction. Like many of the games in this list, leaks about the game were rampant and hype was through the roof. Fortunately, the game was so enjoyable that once the game was released, no one minded all the hype.
	Grand Theft Auto III (2001) When it first came out, Grand Theft Auto III (GTAIII) took the gaming world by storm. With open-ended environments that gave players a ton of freedom, you could enjoy the game without diving into its more shady aspects. But where's the fun in that? Unless you've been living in a cave, you already know that GTAIII is about stealing cars, killing people, sleeping with hookers, and many other things that make the Mature rating seem appropriate. While it's easy to get distracted by GTAIII's over-the-top sleaziness, the fact remains that the actual gameplay is actually fun.
	The Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time (1998) Originally released for the Nintendo 64 (N64), The Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time represents what a platformer is capable of being. With a ton of side missions, minigames, and compelling puzzle levels, Zelda has spawned a ton of sequels and a gang of copycats