The iPod is a wonderful piece of machinery.  I was a late adopter, but I'm a full convert now.  I've used some other mp3 and video players, and nothing is quite as sexy as the iPod.  My only complaints are the following: 

1. Navigation.  The clickwheel was a novel concept, and it's good for moving quickly through long lists of albums and songs.  But it doesn't have fine-tuned control, and that's a problem.  Pretty much every time I try to navigate to a specific item in a list, I accidentally overshoot it by one, then I overshoot it again on the way back.  A solution would be to give the user some tactile feedback so he/she could "feel" each item in a list, kind of like the volume dials on many car radios.
2. Scratches.  The screen gets scratched easily, but oh well.  The more easily-fixable scratchable surface is the beautiful stainless steel on the back of the device.  I realize a scratched back surface doesn't affect the functionality of the iPod, but it's the thought that counts.  One solution would be to use titanium, or some other light, hard metal.  I would say tungsten, but it's heavy (unless that's what you're going for).
3. Podcast sorting.  Podcasts are essentially recorded radio programs, and they're broadcast in chronological order.  So why would I want to listen to the newest one first?  That's how the iPod does things, and I would at least like the option to do things my way.

That's really it.  Otherwise it's the best device ever invented, besides the Xlerator. #technology

I recently traveled for work for a week and didn't have much access to a computer.  When I got back, I was overloaded with things to read and catch up on.  Nothing important, of course.  Just entertainment and time-wasters like Not Always Right and IMMD.  But I think I finally reached the point of content over-consumption.  It's no longer even enjoyable.  I just do it to do it.  So I went through and unsubscribed from about 15 things in my feed reader.  Here's to less content overload! #technology

In the past few years, the internet has grown tremendously as a result of the extremely low barrier to entry for content production.  Blogs, YouTube, and social networking sites are all pretty easy to use, so people are able to produce tons and tons of content on a regular basis.  This is generally a good thing, because in the past the internet was run by geeks, and geeks are boring.  Regular people want to hear about and connect with regular people, not geeks.  So the internet is good. 

The problem, however, is that people are stupid and they do stupid things.  And they record those stupid things in text and video format and publish them on the internet for all to see.  This is generally an entertaining thing, like the TV show America's Funniest Videos, but without that stupid host's voice doing a running commentary (seriously Tom Bergeron, just shut up).  Sites like Fail Blog and Failbooking have popped up to record these great moments in internet history, and again, this is a good thing.  People are stupid, and that's funny.  We should all laugh at stupid people. 

Maybe I've watched a few too many teenagers faceplant after attempting a bike jump, or maybe I've read too many personal details about people that really shouldn't have been broadcast to the entire universe, but I'm starting to change my mind about this whole thing.  Don't get me wrong, I still believe people are stupid.  But stupid used to be funny.  Now it's getting ridiculous.  Sad.  Unbelievable.  Pathetic.  Disgusting.  Horrific.  Un-undo-able.  I'm starting to doubt the earth will still be around in a few years, let alone a few generations.  We could very well die of stupidity. 

But seriously, this is pretty funny.  And this.  And this too.  And those were just from two days of content!  Thank God for stupid people. #technology

I can't put into words how irrationally angry I get when the "Click for larger image" button on a product website opens up a bigger window with an image the exact same size as the original.  As a casual programmer, I can attest to the fact that this problem is stupidly easy to fix: 

if (largerimagesize > currentimagesize) {
   display_link();
} else {
   do_nothing();
}

Internet, fix it! #technology

I own three machines that utilize small gasoline engines:  A push lawnmower, a weed whacker, and a leaf blower.  During the summer, I use all three every few weeks to keep my tiny yard looking nice.  In the fall, I use the leaf blower pretty extensively to clear leaves.  Despite that incessant hum of engine noise and the wonderful smell of exhaust, I would posit that these engines are actually pretty efficient, more so than a typical car.  This isn't a scientific statement or one that I can prove with numbers, but all I can say is that only after three years of home ownership did I need to refill my five-gallon gas container that feeds all three devices.  I burn through five gallons of gas with my car in probably two or three days. #technology

The Ouroboros is "an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon swallowing its own tail and forming a circle."  It represents the idea of a futile process where all that is achieved is ultimately destroyed. 

The new website Autocomplete Me points to a Google search suggestion that asks, "If I ate myself, would I become twice as big or disappear completely?"  Hilarious. #technology

Some of NPR's podcasts recommend visiting their website for more information.  They say, "Please visit N-P-R dot O-R-G."  Every time they say it, I think, "It's 2009.  Just say 'org.'  If people don't know what you're talking about, they probably don't know what the internet is." 

I also hear people say "forward slash" when they're referring to subdirectories of URLs, as in, "google dot com forward slash search."  First of all, most modern web browsers automatically correct for that.  Second, if people can't figure it out by now, they probably shouldn't be using the internet.  Thirdly, I still don't know the difference between a forward slash and a back slash, and look at how far I've made it in life (on an unrelated note, I'm writing this from a bathroom). #technology

I know iTunes has the ability to auto-delete podcasts after they've been listened to, but that function has never worked for me.  When I click "Settings..." in the Podcasts tab, I have "Episodes to keep" set to "All unplayed episodes", which to me means all played episodes will not be kept.  However, in real life, this doesn't happen.  Thankfully there's an easy way to fix this:  Right-click a podcast and click "Allow Auto Delete".  Or you can press Ctrl-A to select all, right-click, and select "Allow Auto Delete".  The one caveat is that podcasts are only auto-deleted after a refresh. #technology

A few weeks ago, my toaster oven broke.  The heating element still worked which means the bake function still worked, but the button that simply engages the toaster function stopped working.  Electronic devices are generally above my level of understanding, so I didn't even think about trying to fix it.  And it's not technically broken; it just doesn't work as well as it originally did.  So I decided to forget about it in the hopes that it would fix itself.  We continued to use the bake function and simply stopped using the toast button.  And whether it was a loose wire that melted back into place or a touch from the mighty hand of God, it magically started working again this week.  I'm not sure why and I don't understand how, but now I'm wondering if I should worry about it becoming self-aware and toasting me in my sleep. #technology

A few weekends ago, I was using the GPS function on my phone to find a friend's house in rural Massachusetts.  The thing about my phone's GPS is that it needs a data connection as well as a GPS connection in order to work.  This is fine for heavily populated areas and interstates, but not so good for everywhere else on earth, such as a friend's house in rural Massachusetts.  Needless to say, my phone stopped working the second I got off the interstate, leaving me fumbling around with a useless phone in a completely unfamiliar area. 

Similarly, but quite differently, there were these two mushrooms that popped up in the middle of my yard over the weekend seemingly out of nowhere, acting like they owned the place.  The grass is dying, some leaves are falling, there are seventy billion acorns, and these mushrooms are like, "What's up?"  So naturally I got my camera and took a picture.  Right before I could take the second picture (the first one is never good) my camera stopped focusing and wouldn't let me press the shutter button.  That's when I noticed a warning light telling me the battery was pretty much dead. 

The central theme of both these stories is simple:  Technology always fails exactly when you need it.  I don't need GPS service on the interstate, I need it in rural areas.  A camera without a battery is worse than no camera at all.  Satellite TV loses signal when there's cloud cover, when all you want to do is watch TV.  My electric razor always dies right in the middle of shaving my face, leaving me half-shaved and pissed off. 

For product designers and engineers, the solution to these problems would be to anticipate failure, and make adjustments.  Anticipate a lost GPS signal, and give the user a simple list of turn-by-turn directions.  Have a better battery meter that alerts the user before, not after, the battery dies.  Admit that a satellite signal has been lost, and advise the user to go read a book.  Allow the device to be used while charging. 

It's stupid to produce a product and think it'll always be used in a perfect world under ideal circumstances.  Technology always fails.  Fix it. #technology