Just admit it, Apple.  You screwed up.  The naming convention for the different variations of the iPhone is stupid.  First there was the iPhone, which was fine.  Then a year later, there was the iPhone 3G, which confusingly was a second generation phone on a third generation network.  Now another year later, we have the iPhone 3G S (or is it 3GS? -- even Apple can't decide) which, not to be confused with the plural of iPhone 3G, refers to speed.  Quite the snafu from the company that can do no wrong. #technology

I got a Palm Pre a week and a half ago.  I'm not usually an early adopter of technology, so this purchase was a bit unusual for me.  But to be fair, my contract with Sprint was up so I was looking for a new phone anyway.  Here are my initial thoughts: 

Pro:

1. Google Sync is awesome.  I'm really glad to be done with Outlook syncing.
2. The operating system seems to block a lot of the options and preferences that were available in Windows Mobile, but I'm seeing this as a positive thing because, like Apple and the iPhone, this device seems to be more about the interface than the hardware or software.
3. The default ringtones were composed by UCLA music professor Roger Bourland, and they were recorded live with human musicians.
4. There's no stupid little startup sound when you turn on/off the phone.

Con:

1. The Notes application, which I used to jot down a few ideas for this review, is quite ugly and stupid.  It's growing on me, and the whole "post-it notes on corkboard" idea is cute.  But I like order, not cuteness.
2. The keyboard is good, but not great.  The top row of keys is almost unusable because they're so close to the rest of the phone.
3. The speakerphone isn't loud enough.
4. Battery life is abysmal.  I have to charge it every day, maybe every other day if I hardly use it.  Coming from a Treo 700, which I charged maybe once every five days, this is quite a change.
5. I often have trouble determining which end of the device is the top.  This makes me sound stupid, but my old phone had an antenna and an always-present keyboard, so there was no question.
6. The sliding mechanism is a little loose and makes the phone feel kinda cheap.
7. There's no way to turn off the data connection, which might have something to do with the abysmal battery life.
8. The screen has a slight yellow mark on the lower left corner, and it seems to appear either after extended use or while charging, which makes me think it has something to do with heat and might just be a problem with my particular phone.  I might try to get a replacement.

All in all it's a cool phone, and I'm sure it'll get better with software updates and I'll get more used to it over time. #technology

I do a lot of programming for work and fun, and two annoying things I come across on a regular basis are the following: 

1. "You should be able to do (X) even though I've never tried it."  Yes, you should, but you can't.  If you don't know what you're talking about and don't understand the language you're trying to use, don't just spout off answers from the top of your head like some sort of code gunslinger.
2. "This code should work even though I didn't test it."  You're right, it should work, but it doesn't.  If you took two minutes to actually try it yourself instead of just typing it into the comment box on a website and assuming it would work perfectly, maybe you could've actually contributed something.  Instead, I'm left trying to solve my preexisting problem while also trying to solve the problems your code created.

Programmers are so full of themselves.  Buncha nerds. #technology

I was in a meeting yesterday and one of the guys answered his cell phone in the middle of the meeting and told the caller (his wife) he couldn't talk.  The Etiquette Police would point out the following flaws in this person's game plan: 

1. A phone was left on during a meeting.  (-5 points)
2. A phone was answered during a meeting.  (-10 points)
3. An unfathomably pointless conversation took place (-30 points) in earshot of other people (-20 points)

Your score:  -65 points.  You lose.  Next time let it go to voicemail, Twitchy. #technology

I signed up for a Twitter username when the service came out about two years ago, and I promptly dismissed it as a meaningless, useless service.  I stand by that claim.  The idea behind Twitter is to post status updates, like a blog, but smaller.  I already have a blog, so it's of no use to me.  Another idea is to keep up with friends' status updates, but I can do that by reading email and blogs.  Another idea is to keep a public record of conversations, but I fail to see the point in that.  No matter how much I think about it, Twitter is something I will never understand. 

However, in my infinite wisdom (or my unending desire to use my initials for everything -- hence ddhr) I signed up for a nice short username:  twitter.com/dh.  I posted about three messages, most of which went something like, "I still don't understand Twitter."  Every month or so I would get an email saying that some new person was following me, which seemed odd because I hadn't posted anything for over two years.  People were following the status updates of a person who never updated his status, adding to my failure to understand Twitter. 

Last week I received an email from a guy who said one of his "clients" was interested in purchasing my Twitter username/password.  He asked me to name my price.  I laughed.  How can you put a price on something that has no value?  But since it apparently was valuable to someone else, I pulled a number out of the air:  $500.  My emailer consulted with his client and said, "Sounds good."  This sounded all too much like a scam, so I asked him how I could trust him to not just take my password and not pay me.  He whipped up a quick legal-ish agreement on paper, signed it, emailed it to me, and asked me to sign it and fax it back.  I figured I could trust a person with his own fax number.  Plus, I didn't really stand much to lose.  I'd be giving up my username and password for a service I had no use for.  It wasn't necessarily a win-win, but it certainly wasn't a lose-lose. 

Long story short, I signed the agreement, emailed him my password, and promptly received a $500 PayPal payment.  I still can't believe it worked.  My emailer said this type of thing happens more often than you'd imagine, similar to the purchase of domain names.  Still, I don't quite understand what kind of person/company would want to pay money for a username on a third-party website.  It makes sense to buy a domain name because your dot-com typically represents your company or brand.  But I can't imagine your twitter-dot-com-slash should really be used as your official moniker.  Oh well.  Me:  $500; Twitter:  $0. #technology

I quietly updated my favicon to match my current theme, which means I'm only about 15 months late. 
Previous favicon update here.  I stuck with the idea of simple geometric shapes and colors.  I'm not very good at drawing. #technology

At work, the IT overlords forced us to upgrade to Microsoft Office 2007, which would seem to make sense because the version we had been using was at least 6 or 7 years old.  Not that you should always upgrade old software when it gets past a certain age, but newer versions of software often have improvements that can help you do your job.  Such is not the case with Office 2007.  Here's why: 

1. It's slow.  This isn't solely a Microsoft problem.  It's an everybody problem.  All new software is slower, less useful, and more bloated than old software.  They say it works best when used on some Pentium octo-core 12GHz processor.  Guess what, idiots:  I still simply use Word for word processing and Excel for calculations.  If my uses haven't changed, the hardware requirements shouldn't change either.
2. It's ugly.  Many people disagree with me on this, and that's fine.  But the fact of the matter is that the entire user interface is changed, and as a creature of habit, I don't like change.  Hence it's ugly.  Also, I don't like ClearType.  It hurts my eyes for some reason.  Thankfully, Microsoft didn't give me the option to disable it.  Awesome.
3. It's different.  This is the most important thing to me.  Microsoft Office has essentially been the same product since I started using it circa 1998.  The new versions that came out (2000, XP, 2003) never changed the core functionality to an extent that I would even notice.  There were a few slight UI changes, but other than that, the product went through a long cycle of constant improvements.  But with 2007, everything is different.  There's a ribbon bar instead of toolbars.  The menu system is completely different.  When starting a Word document, I have no idea how to change styles.  When using Excel, I feel like I have to relearn the program I've been using half my life.  And that's the kicker:  Software should help you get stuff done; it should never get in the way.  Office 2007 gets completely in the way of me getting my stuff done.

I'm seriously considering downgrading. 

Update:  I downgraded to 2003, and Microsoft Office is usable again. #technology

Attention universe:  When viewing a PowerPoint presentation, use the left arrow key, the up arrow key, or the page up key to go to the previous slide instead of right clicking and selecting "Previous".  I can't believe how many people don't know this and how much time is wasted waiting for Mr. I Communicate Solely Through PowerPoint Yet Have No Idea How To Perform Simple Tasks to click the stupid mouse. #technology

A few years ago I wrote that I'd like a GPS-enabled camera-phone-ipod-gaming-system to satisfy all my gadget needs in one device.  The more I think about it and experience various attempts at such, the less I like my idea.  The problem with all-in-one devices is that they do everything, but they don't do anything well.  A great example is my current smartphone/PDA/whatever-you-want-to-call-it.  It's a phone with a camera and a mini computer, which means it can also play music and store lots of information.  The thing is, it really only does about two of those things well.  The camera is dismal, and the music-playing capability was essentially an afterthought.  I guess these things will get better as technology matures.  It's just hard to get past the fact that single-purpose devices like iPods and digital cameras do one thing very well, but when combined with other devices tend to get much worse. #technology

I changed my mind on podcasts, largely because I recently received a pre-owned iPod (my first Apple device; yes I'm late to the game), and also because I discovered some high-quality podcasts in internetland.  Instead of some dorks talking about their websites, the podcasts I've been listening to are like pre-recorded talk radio segments.  There are news podcasts, opinion podcasts, and a bunch of in-depth reporting on unusual topics (yes, these are all NPR-related).  Either way, it's a good alternative to radio since it died a few weeks ago. #technology