Galaxy S II, Epic 4G Touch
There's a very popular smartphone made by Samsung called the Galaxy S II, Epic 4G Touch.  That's not a joke.  How do you know when your product is poorly named?  When there's a comma in the middle. #technology

Tablet with keyboard (1)
I keep seeing ads and new product announcements for add-on keyboards for tablet devices, and I can't help but think that a tablet with a keyboard is simply a laptop.  We already have those. #technology

Squirrels are jerks
Level 3, a company that installs and maintains fiber optic cables, says that "squirrel chews" account for 17% of the damage done to their cables, down from 28% the year before.  A company spokesman said, "I don't understand what the big attraction is or why they feel compelled to gnaw through cables."  I have an opinion:  Squirrels are jerks.  That is all.  (via Consumerist) #technology

Language limitations of search (4)
One bad thing about how big the internet has gotten is that it's sometimes impossible to find things.  Not in an unorganized way, like you're trying to find something in the middle of a pile.  But in a language limitation kind of way.  For example, recently I was looking for pictures of mice.  I wanted the animal, not the computer peripheral.  For whatever reason, Google didn't want to show me the animal.  So I wasted a few minutes sifting through pictures of plastic white objects with buttons, before finally giving up and doing something else.  The problem isn't that the information doesn't exist, or that the algorithms used to find it are lacking.  It's that the English language isn't complex enough to handle what we're throwing at it.  It's like putting a CD on a record player. #technology

On cell reception
The only time I get bad reception on my cell phone is every single time I try to use it. #technology

Wikipedia vs. Snopes
No offense to the friends and family who fit in the following category, but I've noticed that the people who tend to say things like "You can't trust Wikipedia because anyone can edit it" are the same people who send email forwards full of made-up facts and outright lies. #technology

Speakerphone shouting
The guy in the cubicle adjacent to mine likes to call people, put it on speakerphone, and then shout entire conversations because he thinks the people on the other end can't hear him since he's not speaking directly into the phone's microphone.  I'm pretty sure they can hear you, buddy.  Everyone can hear you. #technology

Windows 7 on netbooks (1)
About a year ago I got a netbook, a little laptop that's lightweight, cheap, and has great battery life.  But because of its size, it has some less-than-impressive hardware.  It doesn't have much RAM, and it's not great at playing games or things like that.  But it's great for simple web searching and light computing, which is exactly why I bought it and exactly what I use it for.  For some reason, it came pre-installed with Windows 7.  Like any new software iteration, Windows 7 is a bigger, fatter, slower version of its previous incarnations, and as such, requires significant hardware to feed its neverending gluttony.  So obviously what I'm getting at is that Windows 7 is the absolute worst operating system you can possibly put on a netbook.  Yesterday I was finally able to coax my netbook into letting me install Windows XP from a USB drive (since it has no CD drive), and now it's amazing.  It's blazing fast and everything just works.  I can't believe I dealt with Windows 7 for an entire year. #technology

Car audio aux
I'm not a car person, and I'm not a car stereo person, but I recently installed an auxiliary adapter in my car's stock radio, and it was surprisingly easy.  Once I figured out it was possible, I bought an adapter online and found a video that showed how to take apart my dashboard.  With a screwdriver, a socket wrench, a laptop, and about 10 minutes of free time, I modified my car stereo so it can easily interface with an iPod or any other portable music player.  I'm amazed at how awesome I am.  And at how awesome the internet is. #technology

Online age verification
Websites with information about alcohol, tobacco, or "other" often have an age verification system that asks the user to either confirm they're of legal age or input their birthday so the system can determine whether or not to allow access.  This is one of the stupider things on the internet.  Anyone with half a brain knows how to lie, and there's some doubt as to whether anyone has ever clicked "I Am Under 18".  At this point in my life, it's been a while since many things were illegal for me, so I take offense to being asked to verify I'm of legal age.  And as with any time I take offense at something, I lash out by entering the most unrealistic age or birthday possible, like "37.5" or "1/1/1200".  Some people think the system should be made easier so that people have less of an incentive to lie.  I think protecting people from accessing information by filtering out those who are unable or unwilling to lie is a flawed system. #technology