The Breville Oracle Jet Coffee-Maker

Indulge in Australian coffee culture, without having to actually visit

When the Internet was young and there was about one tech-product launch a week, as opposed to the hundreds that happen now, your columnist decided to set up a service to help technology companies make their offerings more user-friendly.

Whether because of stupidity or smartness, I was able to find elementary faults in both gadgets and Web sites within minutes. The business was called the Village Idiot—the idea being that I would test your product as the world’s dumbest customer and find everything that’s wrong.