I once came across a "mathematical" formula for determining if you were in love with someone. (I think it's from Richard Feynman): add up the number of times you think of the other person in a day, and subtract the number of times you think of yourself. If the number is positive, then you're in love. Or something like that.
So with apologies to Dr. Feynman, here's my take on figuring out if a tools is actually useful or helpful in your life. Add up the time you spend using the tool for its intended purpose, and divide by the amount of time you spend futzing with the thing. If the number is greater than or equal to five, then the thing in useful.
Let's take my car for example -- it needs oil, tires, gas, and the occasional bit of maintenance. In a year I maybe spend 20 hours messing with it. In that same year I'll use the car for its intended purpose for maybe 300 - 500 hours (that's a wild guess). So the "utility ratio" is 15 to 25 or so -- good thing.
The airplane I fly needs about an hour of my time for every 20 hours of use or so. Just _being_ a pilot takes study time too, so I'd estimate the plane at about a 10 (to 1) utility ratio. Not too bad. My Chumby is fantastic by this measure -- easily beating a 50 or so.
Moving from actual or at least estimated measurements to guesswork: My home Linux server is probably over 50 too; my Mac is certainly lower -- maybe 15-ish. The giant slew of portable media players lying around the house? Definitely lower maybe 10-15 or so.
Though there are exceptions, it seems like the more complex the thing is, and the more general purpose it tries to be, the lower the utility ratio. My mobile phone is an interesting exception -- it is a full-blown general purpose computer, complete with third-party software, email, web browser, etc. I only use a very, very limited subset of its capabilities though (phone, contacts, calendar), and for that it scores very well.
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