Gobble gobble: InfoWorld’s top 10 tech turkeys of 2010

Well it’s Thanksgiving week, and what better time to talk turkey — tech turkey, that is. As usual, the nearly ended year was stuffed with bad actors and bad ideas. Here are 10 players in the tech game who deserve to be (metaphorically) carved up and served with a bit of chutney and cranberries on the side.

1. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson: Nobody — but nobody — presides over a major company that has done more to make life miserable for tech consumers than Stephenson. AT&T’s terrible wireless network makes the iPhone a doorstop for all too many users, and the company’s constant promises that it will fix the network have long since grown hollow. Even worse, Stephenson and friends have the nerve to sell consumers a $150 mini cell phone tower that is supposed to make their AT&T cell phones do what they’re supposed to do in the first place: work.

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: The Boy Billionaire is a close second to Stephenson, though maybe he should be first. Zuckerberg repeatedly allowed his company to leak personal data to third parties, and then apologized, over and over again. Despite having immense engineering resources, Facebook somehow can’t find a way to create a simple consistent user interface that would regulate privacy choices. And as Facebook makes it way into business, IT is sure to have unending headaches.

3. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer: Why is so hard for Microsoft to develop a decent mobile OS? Maybe it’s because Ballmer doesn’t realize that it’s already been done and his company is astonishingly late to market with the flawed Windows Phone 7. Ballmer’s inability to move the company beyond the Windows/Office franchise has much to do with the stock’s terrible performance.

4. Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg and Google’s Eric Schmidt: These two turkeys teamed up to try and convince the public, not to mention regulators and Congress, that the wireless Web should not be “restrained” by the principles of Net neutrality. Indeed, what the two companies and their pampered executives really mean is that the FCC and the states shouldn’t regulate the wireless industry at all. Anyone who uses wireless technology know that we’re being ripped off, and someone has to stop it.

5. FCC chairman Julius Genachowski. Those of us who believe in an open Internet were pleased with his appointment, but nearly two years into his term, it’s hard to see that Genachowski has accomplished very much. His staff has come up with lots of evidence that wireless carriers and Internet providers need to be reined in, but the boss continues to dance around the issues. Maybe it’s the timidity that affects the entire Obama administration, but we needed an FCC chairman who will come out swinging — and we haven’t gotten that person.

6. The state attorneys general who cracked down on Craigslist. Being a politician means you get to make grandiose statements about problems and then do nothing to solve them. If the advertising of prostitution on the Internet is a problem, pushing sex workers off Craigslist did nothing to stop it. Indeed, it is well documented that the problem simply moved elsewhere on the Web. What a waste of time. What a bad precedent.

7. Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd: Jeez, Mark. Cheating on your wife is your family’s business, but playing games to cover it up by faking expense reports and throwing extra business to the lady in question is disgraceful and altogether turkeyish. What a shame that you got a huge severance payout and a great new job as co-president of Oracle.

8. The 19 senators who voted to censor the Internet: U.S. officials are always running off at the mouth when other countries censor the Web, but when their big campaign contributors in the music and movie industries wanted action, these turkeys were quick to comply. The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously (when was the last time blue and red senators agreed on anything?) approved the odious Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act that would give the Justice Department the ability to block access to sites that are dedicated (whatever that means) to infringing copyright.

9. Former HP CEO Carly Fiorina: Whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, Fiorina’s failed Senate campaign had to turn your stomach. Here’s the person who personally destroyed tens of thousands of tech jobs in Silicon Valley and Texas, running on the promise of creating jobs, while spending millions of her own money to spread the bull. What a turkey. (And what is it about HP CEOs?)

10. Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn: Protecting trademarks and other intellectual property isn’t a joke, but Best Buy became a laughingstock by sending a cease-and-desist letter to Father Luke Strand of Fond du Lac, Wisc. The padre’s crime? He took the Geek Squad logo, altered it to read “God Squad,” and painted it on the side of his Volkswagen Beetle.

That’s the list; I hope these turkeys don’t give your heartburn. Have a great holiday.

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This article, “Gobble, gobble: InfoWorld’s top 10 tech turkeys of 2010,” was originally published by InfoWorld.com. Read more of Bill Snyder’s Tech’s Bottom Line blog and follow the latest technology business developments at InfoWorld.com.