An Illinois man named Ronald Ball may have had one of the most uniquely bizarre and disgusting experiences one can ever have the misfortune to live through. Ronald Ball cracked open a can of Mountain Dew, took a long sip to quench his thirst, tasted something a little bit horrifying, spit out the soda and discovered a dead mouse. Yes. There was a dead mouse in his soda. At least, that’s what he says. He sent in the specimen to Pepsi Co. who he claims destroyed the carcass, and have now provided an insanely horrifying defense.

If there’s one thing we can be sure of in this world, it’s that companies will generally release an upgrade for their primary gadget or software if the original was well-received. This can range from the minor upgrade to the spiritual sequel or even an entirely new endeavor with the old name slapped on. There will always be those riding the coattails of their former achievements, but there are also those companies who seem to be genuinely trying to improve their product and just miss the mark. Whether it’s a matter of public perception, a number of times they fall short of their goal, or a combination of factors.

Both of these can lead to disappointing results — financially and otherwise — that can leave the general public jaded. So, here at last is our list of the most disappointing technology upgrades and additions.

The above is a screenshot of the U.S. manual for Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D on the Nintendo 3DS. The bit at the bottom regarding save files means players cannot delete older save files, and considering the game only has one save slot, it means no one can ever create a completely fresh game, barring some kind of future update which frees up some slots, whether it be officially implemented by Capcom, or unofficially implemented by 3DS hackers. Why in the world would Capcom implement something like this in a game when one can only assume they want to reach the largest possible audience? To curb used game sales, of course!

While speaking yesterday at the Ira Sohn Investment Conference, Geenlight hedge fund manager David Einhorn called for Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to step down as head of the software juggernaut. Einhorn, whose fund currently holds 9 million shares of Microsoft (0.11%), says that Microsoft stock is greatly under valued as a result of Ballmer’s continued leadership calling his presence, “the biggest overhang on Microsoft’s stock.”

Criticism of Ballmer has sprung from Microsoft’s apparent inability to stay on top of the explosion of the mobile market and the rise of web searching, areas which have been dominated by Apple and Google respectively. In his speech, Einhorn said that worse than failing to lead in these new areas was the money spent trying to catch up to them — the Zune and Bing spring to mind — calling it “Charlie Brown Management.”

Einhorn’s words carry a lot of weight, as he is often credited with warning about and profiting from Lehman Brother’s collapse in 2008. But those who have watched Microsoft over the past ten years should not be surprised by the criticism. Over the past decade, Microsoft has become synonymous with slow adaptation, and resting on the laurels of their PC domination from the 1990s. With sheer persistance they were able to turn the XBox into a winner, but have let other once-popular products languish (Internet Explorer, anyone?) and have had a run of bad luck with operating system releases since XP.

Ousting Ballmer might change all that, but the only certainty is that losing Ballmer would mean an end to the expressive images used by blogs in posts about Microsoft. Perish the thought!

(Reuters via Techmeme, Business Week, image via Wikimedia)