Paying Attention

Yoda: He is not ready.

Luke: Yoda! I am ready. I... Ben! I can be a Jedi. Ben, tell him I'm ready.

Yoda: Ready, are you? What know you of ready? For eight hundred years have I trained Jedi. My own counsel will I keep on who is to be trained! A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind. This one a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away... to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was, what he was doing.

—The Empire Strikes Back

The old cliché that time is money isn't always precise, but it hints at an idea that I'm increasingly convinced is true — human attention is the most precious resource we have.

We spend eight or more hours a day at work, but we're not really paid for our time. We're paid to apply our skills and talent to a particular set of tasks (projects, customers, problems). Setting aside the myth of multitasking, that means focus. We're paid to pay attention, in other words.

Advertisers spend millions on the hopes you'll pay attention for 30 seconds. People humiliate themselves on national television for the attention. Aspiring actors take on one low-wage job after another in the hopes of a big break that will make them famous.

In our personal lives, attention is the most valuable thing we can give our friends and family. I can't think of anything more irritating than trying to talk someone who's physically with you but on a phone call or texting someone else (I’ve been guilty of this myself). We crave having attention paid to us. Attention is the currency of love.

Paying attention is good for our own well being, too. Whether you call it "mindfulness" or "living in the present," paying attention to the here-and-now is vital to staying centered. As a wise person recently told me: we can't change the past, and we don't know the future. That leaves the present.

And that's worth paying attention to.

Things fall apart

My wife and I got terrible news this weekend that a dear friend of ours has cancer. While she doesn’t yet know whether her case is terminal, it is already clear that the treatment, even under the best circumstances, will dramatically change the quality of her life.

I couldn’t help wondering what I would do under the same circumstances. I don’t think I would be strong enough to endure the treatment. I’ve seen other people fight and ultimately succumb to cancer — and as weak as it sounds, I’d probably jump in front of a train before going through the same thing myself.

But we all die. Our bodies break down, our minds grow dull. My friend’s news was a sharp reminder of the transience of existence and the limited time we have.

Twenty or 30 years from now, will I look back with pride about what I’ve accomplished? How will I define success? Am I taking the best advantage of the time I have now, when I’m still healthy and sharp?

In other words, am I wasting my time? Sometimes, I feel like my last few years have been a series of distractions and missed opportunities. Actually, I’m sure of that. I think I could have made more of my transition out of journalism. I haven’t made the most of my potential. I’ve squandered opportunities for personal growth. And sometimes I fear I still haven’t found my calling. I’m not even sure whether that means changing careers or recreating my life outside of work.

The good news: I’m not dead yet. I don’t have unlimited time, but I do have time. The hard part is figuring out how to make the most of it.

Fascinating article in Investor’s Business Daily

Just kidding. It’s my latest story, a how-to on using NFC tagging.

NFC: short for New Fun Craze.

Blogging as catharsis

In the course of reading about the sad and puzzling life of Aaron Schwartz, the computer programming wunderkind who hanged himself Jan. 11, I’m struck by how poetic and intensely personal his blog posts were. As a New Yorker article explains, he wrote things in his blog that he wouldn’t say to anyone in person, not even his friends. His writing is direct, concise and at times heartbreakingly intimate.

Part travelogue, part confessional, Schwartz’s writing spans everything from movies to air-travel complaints to the meaning of life. In one post he muses about the nature of evil. In another, he laments life in suburbia. In most of his writing, even the seemingly mundane posts, you catch a glimpse of a man who’s smart, funny and thoughtful — but sad and isolated, too. Few of his posts are about himself but most of the reveal a complex inner dialog and rich inner life.

I wish I could say the same about my blogging. Baring your soul so freely, or even part of it, takes real guts. That’s courage that I haven’t been able to muster in the decade-and-a-half I’ve been blogging.

Maybe someday.

P.S. After thinking further about this topic, it dawned on me that one of the reasons Swartz’s writing seems so transparent is that he thought, incorrectly, that he was writing more or less anonymously. Though he didn’t hide his identity on the blog, it somehow rarely occurred to him that his friends were actually reading it. One story — and for the life of me, I can’t remember where I read this (edit: it was Rolling Stone) — recounts a time he was being introduced to speak at an event. The person introducing him mentioned an embarrassing personal story Swartz had detailed on the blog. Swartz was mortified that the story had gotten out, even though he had published it himself.

The incident makes me wonder whether I should create an anonymous blog for my most personal thoughts. Why not just get a private diary? I don’t know. Physical diaries are too easy to find and too tempting for other people to read; and if someone finds it, it’s obvious who those thoughts belong to. Posting online offers a degree of separation. Blogs are almost transient, existing in a digital etherworld. At the same time, knowing that some stranger somewhere might be reading it might make me more disciplined about the writing style. Too exhibitionist? Paradoxically, opening up to people I’ll never meet seems more private than, say, posting the same things to a close circle of friends on Facebook. It’s like the anonymity of a big city vs. the suffocating familiarity of a small towns.

Separated at birth?

Is it just me, or do the choruses of “Feel this Moment” and “Holiday Road” from the movie “Vacation” (a Chevy Chase classic) sound a lot alike? (And yes, I realize that “Feel this Moment” is a hip-hop take on A-Ha’s “Take on Me.”)

I report. You decide.

Feel this Moment

 

Holiday Road

Quick notes on Surface Pro

After using the Surface Pro for a couple of weeks, I have to say I’m really happy with my purchase. This would have been invaluable when I was a reporter.

Here are a few quick impressions:

• I really like the touch interface. While I maintain that the interface doesn’t make sense on desktop PCs, It’s fun to use in tablet mode. Gestures, once you learn them, are consistent and, in a way I can’t quite put my finger on (sorry), delightful.
• That said, the traditional desktop mode can be cumbersome to use without the snap-on keyboard. The pen-digitizer makes things a bit easier in desktop mode, but I suspect that’s because I’m a longtime Tablet PC user who has acclimated to the old desktop pen interface.
• Apps are expensive! Apps that go for $2-$3 on iOS and Android regularly go for $5 in the Windows store. I understand that developers have a smaller install base to spread their costs over, but come on!
• On that note, apps are scarce. Some of the important ones are there (Netflix, Hulu, WSJ, NYimes), but I’m surprised to see some other big ones missing in action (Facebook, Twitter, most magazines).
• It’s difficult to use on my lap. The keyboard is too floppy, and unlike a regular laptop, nothing holds up the screen. To use this while lying on a couch, I have to place the Surface on a large book or something like this laptop pillow.
• The critics are correct when they say that the bipolar nature of Windows 8 can be confusing. This is especially true when you have two different versions of the same application (the traditional Windows-style application and new touch-style apps). That probably goes double for the Windows RT version of the Surface (without the “Pro”), which has a old desktop-style environment but doesn’t actually run regular Windows programs.

Those are my initial thoughts, many of which have been covered exhaustively in numerous reviews. I’m sure I’ll have more to say soon.

Perception is everything, part duex

After re-reading my previous post about the fluid, fickle nature of perception, I realized that all of my examples were negative — favorable perceptions that soured over time.

I do have an example of a negative perception that, while still not positive, turned softer upon reflection.

I once had a terrible, terrible, truly horrific boss. I don’t know this manager well as a person, but as a professional, the person was insecure, demoralizing, devious, scheming, thin-skinned, and above all, thoroughly incompetent — really the worst combination of traits you could ask for in a boss. Though under the person’s custody for less than a year, the experience scarred me personally and professionally. I would never make the mistake of working for the person again.

That said, I can now look back and see that why the manager responded so viscerally to me. I understand my part in the relationship, what the manager was reacting to in me, especially given the person’s own history and personality. I wasn’t the model employee and probably deserved some of the grief I got working there.

That doesn’t mean the former manager was always in the right, but the person wasn’t always wrong, either. Being ineffective and mean, in other words, doesn’t make you evil incarnate.

I gave in and got a Surface

After reading a few more reviews and coming to the realization that most of the new Windows 8 tablets don’t have pen-digitizer capabilities, I went ahead a got a Surface. I like it a lot so far. I got a Type Cover, and it feels very comfortable (I’m using the Type Cover to compose this blog post).

I see the Surface as more of a laptop replacement than a tablet. In other words, I don’t plan on selling my iPad anytime soon. Aside from regular Windows programs, the Surface doesn’t have much of an app ecosystem (although it does have a few publications that I can’t get on my Android), and doesn’t have the battery life I’d be happy with in a pure tablet.

But as a working tool, I’ve already found the Surface much more useful than an iPad — and surprisingly, even a regular laptop. It turns on instantly and is much more portable than any laptop I’ve owned, including the family MacBook Air. I can see myself grabbing the device for a quick blog post or revision to some freelance article I’m working on.

Which reminds me — I’ve got work to do.

Tablets and the “cozy” factor

It should be obvious by now that while Steve Jobs was his usual prescient self about consumers’ appetite for an easy-to-use tablet computer, he was wrong in one big way — literally. Despite Jobs’ insistence in 2010 that 9.7 inches is the perfect size for a tablet, the market has produced a bevy of different sizes with varying levels of success, forcing even Apple to introduce the 7.9-inch iPad mini. While the original iPad remains by far the most popular tablet, a host of smaller-sized rivals has made surprising inroads.

At first, consumer interest in small tablets befuddled me. The original iPad screen is smaller than the typical magazine as it is. With 7- and 8-inch screens, you lose even more screen real-estate, leaving little room for the page layouts that make reading newspapers and magazines on the (original) iPad — not to mention print — so enjoyable.

So why are consumers flocking to smaller-screen devices? Based on conversations with people who recently purchased smaller-screened devices, I’m convinced it’s the cozy factor. People are willing to trade a less-than-ideal reading device for a lighter, more luggable electronic “pal” that’s more accessible in a wider range of environments.

“Cozy” is a fuzzy concept. But as far as I can tell, it boils down to these concepts:

• Basic size/weight
• Tactile feel
• Personalized covers

Basic size and weight

Let’s face it. The iPad is big. It’s heavy. It’s not easy to lug around. The combination of its surface area and weight leave it susceptible to damage.

That means it’s not always convenient to pull out and use, which is probably why you don’t see a lot of people taking it out on the go. Yes, I saw people using it as a camera at Disneyland, and occasionally, you’ll see it precariously balanced on exercise bikes at the gym. But outside of Starbucks, e-readers and smaller-screened devices (including phones) are a much more common sight.

Smaller tablets are just easier to carry around.

Tactile feel

I love my iPad. But I don’t always feel comfortable taking it out and using it. Yes, it’s shiny and slick — almost too good. There’s something hard and uninviting about it. It’s unfriendly.

Old-school printed books are a different story. You can’t read one without feeling the texture of the cover, brushing your fingers against the paper as you turn the pages, appreciating the tactile sensation of holding your place in the text.

No tablet can replicate the touch and feel of a book, but many smaller tablets and e-readers recreate some of that physical appeal with textured backs a or curved forms that give the devices a certain palpable sense of approachability. These devices are more comfortable to touch and hold.

Personalized covers

This category sort of plays on the pervious two concepts. While iPad users have about a million different covers to choose from, most user opt for Apple’s own Smart Cover. The choice makes sense — most third-party covers add bulk to an already-large device.

Smaller devices are more amenable to a wider range of covers, giving them a more personal, touchy-feely appeal. What’s more, the devices seem more protected, which makes the user more likely to whip them out and use them in more places.

While I don’t plan on trading in my iPad anytime soon, I can see the appeal of smaller devices, even if it means a less-than-optimal experience for reading certain publications. It reminds me of the two robots in Disney’s 1979 sci-fi flop “The Black Hole.” Vincent was the better robot. But Bob was the one everyone loved.

Picture imperfect

Last week’s New Yorker had a fascinating story on the quest for 3D sound. The idea is to fool the mind into perceiving music spatially to achieve an all-encompassing sound in which the listener can determine the location of individual instruments as if hearing the music from the center for the performance. (Unfortunately, the full article is available to subscribers only.)
But what really struck me was an almost throwaway remark about “the vital role of the not-too-perfect in our pleasures.”

The two expressive dimensions whose force in music Levitin had measured and made mechanical were defections from precision. Vibrato is a way of not quite landing directly on the note; rubato is not quite keeping perfectly to the beat. Expressiveness is error. … [W]hat really moves us in music is the vital sign of the human hand, in all its unsteady and broken grace. … Ella singing Gershwin matters because Ella knows when to make the words warble, and Ellis Larkins knows when to make the keyboard sigh. The art is the perfected imperfection.

This idea reminds me of the Japanese concept of Wabi-sabi, finding beauty in the imperfect, unfinished and transient. Wabi-sabi is the polar opposite of the Western idea of beauty in the ideal. But it seems to match human experience -– we find beauty in nature, an asymmetrical, wild, ever-changing and never-finished reality.

For me, the same thing comes into play in science fiction and fantasy. The most interesting characters aren’t the oh-so-perfect Superman, but gritty, conflicted, morally ambiguous characters like Batman and Ironman. And forget the smooth-as-plastic futurism of countless sci-fi stories. I’ll take the dystopic, sand-in-the-astromech imperfection of Star Wars, Blade Runner and Robocop any day.

Most of all, I’m reminded to enjoy life as it is -- not how I wish it to be. Ultimately, we have only so much influence on the external. But internally, we can choose how we respond to it.

Clowns: still evil

I know this is probably an old allegory, but I’m posting it here anyway because I like it. It’s new to me, and – correctly -- casts clowns in a negative light:

A man found himself in the middle of a long hallway. In the middle of this long hallway was a solitary door. He walked up to the door and knocked on it. It was answered by a clown who proceeded to beat the life out of him.

The next day, the gentleman was in the hallway once more, and once more found his way to the door and knocked on it. Again, it was answered by the same clown and again the clown beat him senseless. This occurred for four more days -- the man would be in the hallway, go to the door, knock on it and the clown would answer the door only to beat him senseless once more.

On the seventh day, the man was once again in the hallway. He walked up to the door and knocked on it -- but no one answered.

So he went looking for the clown.

People, I cannot stress this enough: do not go looking for that clown.

Perception is everything

Is this a comely young lass or an old hag? If you’ve seen this classic optical illusion before, you know the answer is both. Or more precisely: “it depends on how you look at it.”

We humans perceive everything through our personal lens –– our unique blend of knowledge, experience, values and desires. No two people will perceive an identical situation the same way. Two people could be standing in the same room and see it differently –- they’re viewing it from different angles, for one, and interpret what they’re seeing uniquely. And each of those people might see the room differently themselves depending on the day, the time and their mood. People change --they learn new facts, gain life experience, rethink their assumptions, and value different things as they grow older and (presumably) wiser.

I’ve seen this for myself in a myriad of ways. Pop stars that seemed so cool and intimidating to me as a kid often seem ridiculous (and a little sad) in retrospect. Situations that tormented me in college wouldn’t faze me today. And people I once idealized have been knocked from the pedestal as their human frailties came to light.

Sometimes I’m surprised at how quickly my own perception of something can change –- new information, circumstances, or hypotheses, if compelling enough, can upend even the most entrenched sentiment.

But more often, our perception lags the changing reality. Once, when I was picking up my daughter from preschool, I mistook another kid for Elena. (I know: Father of the Year, right?) As I drew closer to the unwitting imposter, I noticed that she was taller and chubbier than my daughter –- and wasn’t responding when I called her name. Instead of recalibrating my initial assumption and realizing that I had honed in on the wrong girl, I instantly began adjusting my perception of Elena. Wow, I thought, Elena has gotten so big without my noticing –- not to mention a little hard of hearing. One of the teachers, embarrassed for me, sheepishly pointed out where Elena actually was.

This kind of perception-lag happens all the time. We bend new information to our preconceived assumptions rather than the other way around. We continue spending time with toxic people, supporting politicians long after their policies have ceased serving our interests, and buying products even when alternatives have emerged in the marketplace.

What blinds our perception? Is it inertia? Misguided loyalty? Unwillingness to admit you were wrong?

I guess it all depends on how you look at it.

Elena’s first dance performance

Elena’s dance class performed last night. I thought she did great, but Elena herself was less impressed, complaining that “the other girls weren’t doing the right things, and I didn’t like the music.”

We have to do something fast. She’s far too young to be a diva (in the pejorative sense).

Not getting the social-media hate

People who live their lives on Facebook, Twitter, Google +, Pinterest, Instagram or the countless other social networks have always seemed a little sad to me. As do the people who seem so self-satisfied for not being on them.

While I can understand why even a tech-savvy person wouldn’t personally use a social network -– I think it’s misguided in today’s world, but I can understand it on some level –- people who seem emotionally vested in others’ joining the boycott perplex me to the extreme.

Yes, reasonable people can find fault with particular services. Facebook’s fast-and-loose concept of user privacy irritates me, too, and I’d drop the service in a second if I felt the company crossed the line. And sure, Twitter is not the place for well-developed arguments or deep philosophical discourse. And no, seeing a photo of someone’s meal on Instagram is not exactly enlightening. People abuse and misuse every form of communication, whether it’s the printing press, TV or the telephone. Above all, I couldn’t agree more that If social media ever begins to take the place of personal communication, it has defeated its own purpose.

But in my experience, these tools enhance communication and personal relationships. In addition to allowing me to keep in touch with far-flung friends from every stage of my life, these tools allow friends to effortlessly share things that they wouldn’t necessarily deem significant enough to email, print or bring up in a quick conversation -– things that they wouldn’t think to share but I enjoy  enjoy knowing. An article in the New York Times a few years ago labeled this notion “ambient awareness.” This doesn’t take the place of real-life personal connections –- it encourages them.

That said, I have no stake in whether someone else uses a particular service --or none of them. (In other words, I’m not like the HR manager who wrote the third letter in today’s Dear Prudence column). If Facebook isn’t your thing or brings nothing of value to you, who am I to persuade you to use it? That’s why I’m surprised when someone feels so strongly against other people using social networks.

I hate Arby’s with a passion. But I promise I won’t think less of you for eating there.

Extended warranties are usually a bad deal

A nice follow-up from the NYTimes about Staples' questionable product-warranty practices, proving once again that big-box retailers' biggest problem isn't "show-rooming." It's themselves.

My Own Personal Book Club

 

A co-worker who occasionally discusses literature with me noticed my dearth of blog posts and suggested this week that I highlight my current reading list for public comment/ridicule. So on that spirit, here’s what I’m reading now:

• I started but abruptly stopped "Howard's End" by E.M. Forster. I'm not sure what happened -- I probably got distracted -- but I do plan to resume after I finish a few other items in this list. I haven't completed enough of the book to comment on it.
• "Malgudi Days," a collection of classic short stories by R.K. Narayan that became a popular TV show in India. I wouldn't call it great literature, but The stories provide vivid snapshots of life in India at the time and a cast of characters that seem extraordinary and real at the same time. The short-story format is easily digestible, enabling the reader to put the book down and pick it up later without losing anything.
• "The Sun Also Rises." Yes, the Ernest Hemingway classic. I know saying this makes me sound like a philistine or – worse -- presumptuous, but I can't say I like his plain, Spartan writing style. While the approach is great for journalism and other nonfiction (Hemingway, like me, was a journalist), it's not as enjoyable in novels, at least so far. Acclimating to an unfamiliar writing style is always the toughest part about getting into a new book, so I'm hoping I'll get used to it and begin enjoying the story for the story's sake.
• Anna Karenina, the Leo Tolstoy classic, which is being retold in a new movie. I usually stick to English-language novels, but the Maude translation is engaging, and the story is familiar and new at the same time. I have a feeling that this will be the story I finish before returning to the other items in this list.
• And for a bit a easy-reading nonfiction, "The Power of Habit," by Charles Duhigg. This book looks at how people form and break habits, with an emphasis on using triggers to harness the power of habit to our benefit. The premise seems reasonable -- habits form when we have a trigger, action and reward -- but I haven't yet tested the theory.

And while I'm on the subject of reading, I wanted to mention that I'm really tempted by Amazon's new Kindle Paperwhite. By all accounts, the device's screen is amazing. But I really like the physical buttons on my Nook, so I'm not sure whether the Kindle would be as usable for me. I really hope Barnes&Noble licenses the screen technology but keeps the Nook form factor. Or that Amazon adds physical page-turn buttons to the Kindle. Either way is fine, really.

A sucker for cover songs

NPR’s Happy Hour pop-culture podcast delves into one of my favorite topics this week: cover songs. I gotta admit -- I love ‘em. If you scrolled my music collection by song title, you’d see what looks like a lot of duplicates. In most cases these are different remixes of the song or different versions of the song performed by another artist.

I’m really a sucker for both categories, probably for the same reason in each case. I love to see a song stripped down to its elemental components and built back up from scratch. When done right, the core DNA remains, but the work is entirely new. This is especially true for cover versions, where the recording artist puts a new spin on the piece, imbibing a familiar tune with new life. (From a communitarian perspective, covering a song is also an act of tribute, honoring fellow artists and keeping past works alive for a new generation of listeners.)

Sometimes, the result doesn’t quite work –- a college friend once became vocally enraged when I played the Pet Shop Boys’ version of U2’s “Where the Streets Have No Name.” In other cases, the result is meh -- the cover doesn’t add much of anything to the original. Case in point: Erasure’s cover of the Blondie classic “Rapture.”

But in many cases, the result is something wonderful, such as Adele’s cover of the Cure’s “Lovesong.” And in some rare cases, the result is something close to magical, where the cover outshines the original. Gary Jules’ hauntingly beautiful cover of Tears for Fears’ “Mad World” is a prime example. (This version was featured in the cult classic movie Donnie Darko, which I highly recommend.)

My love of cover music is probably what drew me to the Glee in its early days, when the show still performed interesting new arrangements of music rather than simply replicating the original arrangement.

Fortunately, I live in the age of the Internet, where a person can indulge any fetish. In this case, The Covers Project ought to keep me occupied for awhile.

Blogs of Innocence and Experience

As the father of a 4-year-old, I do everything in my power to keep my daughter’s mind protected, soul uncorrupted and life uncomplicated. I want her to have a simple, romantic view of the world, where animals talk, people sing and stories have happy endings.

For now.

As she grows up, a crucial part of her development will be learning that the world is not the candy-colored playgrounds depicted in her My Little Pony Netflix queue. Like William Blake’s famous poems (from which this blog post takes its name), she’ll cross the event horizon of adolescence and adulthood into a world where the innocence of lambs gives way to the fearful symmetry of a tiger, and often, joy to sorrow.

Those lessons are easy –- they’ll naturally occur as she experiences the world in all its gnarled imperfection. She’ll learn that her parents aren’t perfect, politicians lie, and salespeople don’t always have her best interests at heart.

The tricky part is not letting experience transform that innocence into cynicism. It’s a fine balance. Naivety –- viewing the world through a child’s eyes -- is a dangerous way to live as an adult. But a life of world-weary bitterness is cold and lonely.

I can’t say I’ve found equilibrium yet. Despite my sarcasm and journalism-induced skepticism of anything stated as fact, I tend to romanticize the world, idealizing bigger-than-life people, government and institutions. When reality inevitably triumphs, I’m left disheartened and utterly disenchanted. As Byrd says in Len Deighton’s An Expensive Place to Die, cynics are just disappointed romantics. Or as Rick Bayan’s The Cynic’s Dictionary puts it, a cynic is “an idealist whose rose-colored glasses have been removed, snapped in two and stomped into the ground, immediately improving his vision.”

How do we balance the two extremes? Guarding our heart without  building a wall around it? Accepting that life will break your heart, but refusing to let it break your soul?

Maybe Blake answered it best in Auguries of Innocence:

He who mocks the infant's faith
Shall be mock'd in age and death.
He who shall teach the child to doubt
The rotting grave shall ne'er get out.

He who respects the infant's faith
Triumphs over hell and death.
The child's toys and the old man's reasons
Are the fruits of the two seasons.

Elena discovers that the Internet has information, too

She already knows she can find funny videos and music, but surprised me by asking to check whether the author of The Runaway Bunny also wrote The Runaway Mummy (no).

Then she wanted to see pictures of termites.

 

Let's just hope she doesn't figure out that the Internet can be used to buy things, too.

Motoactv price slashed to $150

One of my best gadget purchases ever, the all-in-one fitness/music/life-tracking Motoactv GPS sports watch, just got a 40% discount. Unfortunately, I can't tell whether this is a good thing.

If the stock-clearing discount is a prelude to a new version of the product, I'm happy to hear that Motorola is sticking with the product, which despite some annoying flaws, is ahead of its time in the fitness tracker category. This device played a big role is keeping me motivated and disciplined in my half-marathon earlier this year. The Google executive now in charge of Motorola is a triathlete, so there's hope that he's pushing for a watertight, tougher version of the Motoactv.

But my fear -- and gut feeling -- is that the discount actually means Motorola is killing off the device. That would be a shame, but it wouldn't be the first time a well-conceived tech product has failed in the marketplace. And cleaning out the product catalog is common after an acquisition.

Still, discontinuing the device so soon after adding golfing features and advertising it so heavily would seem odd. And Google is pushing Android anywhere it can. I mean, come on -- This device is a whole lot more practical than Google Glasses.

But if Arrested Develoment can get cancelled, I guess anything is possible.

If the Motoactv is indeed being killed off, I hope the company does one last favor and give users a way to keep using the device, either maintaining the portal or enabling the device to transfer run data to third-party sites.

Taking the plunge

Gulp. I've begun training for my first full marathon, which if all goes well, will take place in early November.

I won't lie -- 26.2 miles sounds daunting. In January, I had decided to tackle a marathon by the end of the year, but chickened out after the San Diego Half Marathon last spring. When I had finished that one, I couldn't imagine myself being just halfway through.

And yet, here I am, ready to go for it. I've done enough training and reading that I'm convinced -- not delusional, I hope -- that it's doable. Oprah did it. Drew Carey is a runner. And while I can't stand their politics, even George W. Bush and Sarah Palin have respectable marathon times.

I'm trying to time things so that the bulk of my training occurs in the September-October timeframe, when my wife and daughter are in Brazil. I've tentatively selected the Santa Barbara International Marathon but am waiting for my wife to confirm her plans before I settle on mine. As part of my training leading to the full marathon, I will definitely be running the Zombie Runner Half Marathon on Labor Day. (Despite the name, no Zombies are actually running. The name comes from the store sponsoring it.

Maybe I'm crazy. Maybe I want to feel justified calling myself a runner. Maybe I just want the 26.2 sticker on my car.

It does get better

I couldn't disagree more with the title of this recent blog post from BuzzFeed writer Matt Buchanan, which argues that updates don't make most devices better.

You might buy a new phone that's missing something, thinking, "It will get better." No, it won't. If I were to tell you one thing about buying technology, it is this: Buy something because you like what it is right now, not because you think it's going to get better, or that one day it'll be what you really wanted it to be. It's kind of like marrying somebody and thinking you'll change them and they'll get better. They might. But they probably won't. Over time, you'll just hate them even more. And yourself, at least a little.

The writer makes several good points about making sure you're happy with a device you have, not the one you're hoping to have with the next update. And I completely agree with him about Android phones. Unless something changes dramatically in the next few months with regards to carrier OS updates, I won't ever buy another non-Nexus Android phone again.

But Buchanan oversells his case. Almost every device I have is better than it was when I first bought it. My MotoACTV running tracker has a dramatically better battery life, more features and better reliability thanks to the magic of software updates. My Nook has sharper text and changes pages more quickly than it did last year. And let's not forget how much better the iPhone was a year after its launch, when third-party apps had begun to truly transform the device from something cool to something transformative.

Buchanan concedes as much about the Xbox, but argues that it's an isolated case. He's wrong. Devices usually get better with updates. Let's hope tech journalists do, too.

Dear Best Buy: Your biggest problem isn't "show-rooming"

If I read one more business news article lamenting the effect of e-commerce on big-box retailers such as Best Buy, I swear I'm going to hunt down the reporter and make that person come shopping with me.

Yes, Amazon avoids many sales taxes. Yes, Amazon doesn't have to stock items in fancy buildings and pay people to wear blue shirts (from what I've seen, that's pretty much all they're paid to do). And yes, some people ogle and manhandle gadgets at the store and only to purchase them online.

But just as many people log onto to Amazon in the store to read the reviews, then head for the cashier with the item under their arm. I do.

Physical retailers have a couple of huge advantages over online retailers: instant gratification and hand-holding from salespeople, reassuring shoppers that any given purchase is a good one. If someone has already made the effort to drive down to a store and expressed a tangible interest in a given doodad, clinching the deal shouldn't be difficult.

And yet, for Best Buy it is. I've lost count of how many times I've gone to Best Buy hoping to snag an expensive toy only to return empty-hand because the store was out of stock or the salesperson couldn't find (or unwilling to look) for the item. And even when the store happens to have the item, the purchase process is painful -- "No, I don't want the extended warranty. No, I don't want any accessories. No, I don't want to justify my budgeting priorities to a stranger."

That anyone shops there at all is a testament to the power of I-want-it-now.

Best Buy's biggest problem isn't Amazon. Best Buy's biggest problem is Best Buy.

A modest proposal for gadget reviews

If I ran a technology product-review blog, I'd have a regular feature called "The Six-Month Checkup." It would basically be an addendum to every previous initial gadget review, detailing how well a product is holding up over time. Such a feature would let reviewers get better acquainted with a product -- its annoyances, reliability issues and even little surprise features that don't always make it into the press materials.

As a onetime/longtime technology journalist, I know the pressures of product reviews: your readers and editors want them immediately, and six-month-old gadgets aren't exactly eyeball magnets. But I think there's an audience that -- whether for reasons of frugality or conservation -- is looking to make careful long-lasting purchases. And for this audience, the Six-Month Checkup is just what the doctor ordered.

Happy Fathers Day (to me!)

The fringe benefits of fatherhood: I woke up to a delicious crepe breakfast, cookies and an iFitness hydration belt I've been eyeing. I am loved.

Starting over

After months of non-activity, I think I'm ready to start blogging again. I do have a few housekeeping things to take care of, including whether to switch to WordPress and whether to continue using Flickr to host my photos. Yes, I know -- both seem passé. I need to figure out whether the benefits of switching outweigh the hassle. Stay tuned.

For my first post, I present an original song written, arranged and performed by my daughter (surprisingly melancholy for a 4-year-old). Now, if only I could decide on a second post.

The long and winding road

I'm a beginning runner, and every run seems long to me. But when I run a distance and double back, the return trip always seems shorter than the first half of the run. You'd think it would be the reverse -- by the second half of the run, I'm tired and have already seen the environment I just passed. Maybe the newness of the first half slows time, like the first day at a new school or job. Maybe just knowing, viscerally, how far you have to go makes the second half faster. I don't know.

Life seems the opposite of a run, though. Getting to a certain point can seem effortless, almost haphazard. The hard part -- maybe the impossible part -- is getting back to where you came from.

He Who Hesitates is Sometimes Better Off

I have three Android devices. I’m happy with two of them.

After getting a Samsung Captivate last fall, following up with a Motorola Xoom two months ago, I bought a Barnes & Noble Nook last week.

The Xoom was supposed to be my e-reader. While the iPad had electronic versions of all the publications I’m interested in as well as app versions of both the Nook and Amazon Kindle, I was bothered by the fuzzy-looking text. The Xoom offered sharper text and both of the e-reading apps. I hoped my publications were coming, heartened by the fact that a version of Wall Street Journal was already available for the 7-inch Galaxy Tab and Conde Nast’s announcement last winter that the New Yorker and Wired were on their way to Android tablets by this spring. As of today, none of those publications is available on 10-inch Androids.

So after years of dismissing e-ink readers as tablet wannabes, I finally bought one. I went with the Nook over the Kindle because of its smaller screen, longer batter life and more advanced screen. I’ve been pleasantly surprised. E-ink really is much easier on the eyes. And having a single-purpose device allows me to truly read the text without the distraction of knowing that e-mail, Web sites and games are a click away.

If I were to do it all over again, I would have bought the Nook now and waited for the next generation of tablets, both Android and iOS. Lesson learned.

A gift from my daughter

Elena was ecstatic to give me this when I got home from work today. Andrea says Elena tried to jump off of a picnic table at the park to grab this for me from the tree branch it was attached to.

At her age, that's more work (and risk) than I've put into any of her presents.

My first 5K!

In the midst of a winter funk this new year, I resolved to exercise at least 30 minutes, three times a week and lose weight. I settled on running – no fancy equipment, no time-consuming classes, no expensive gym membership. And with the treadmill, I can do it rain or shine.

To motivate myself, I trained toward the goal of doing a 5K. And today was my first official race. Here are my results: http://runkeeper.com/user/kenspencerbrown/activity/34558584. Not a great pace, but it was steady. And in my defense, my knee hurts like crazy.

More importantly, I completed a goal (a few, actually). I’m still a newbie, no doubt. But I haven’t been this thin since college and never this fit in my life.

I can’t wait to start training for a 10K.

Forgive the cliche...

But I'm citing T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land this month:

"APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding 
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing 
Memory and desire, stirring 
Dull roots with spring rain."

I won't claim to have mastered this classic, but man, these opening lines sure seem to fit this year.

The Tweet Escape

While I've posted "deep thoughts" and political diatribes on Facebook before, I've notice myself using the social network less and less for serious discussion and more for personal, noncontroversial content. Most of my political content now goes on Twitter, despite the microblogging service's 140-character limit on messages. And while I find political posts on Facebook annoying, I enjoy reading them on Twitter -- even the crazy ones.

Am I the only the only one doing this -- and finding it counterintuitive? Shouldn't the silly stuff be short & sweet and the complex policy arguments have lots of room to expand?

Another technology dilemma: tablet edition

About a year ago, I wrote about my difficulties in choosing a new cell phone. I ended up with the Android-powered Samsung Captivate, and with the possible exceptions of no physical keyboard and an excruciatingly long upgrade cycle to Froyo, I couldn't be happier with it.

Now I want to buy a tablet. The iPad 2 is the default choice. It has a commanding lead in the apps I care about (think online newspapers and magazines), a nice size and shape, superior battery life, and a price that's inexplicably better than similarly powered tablets.

So why not just buy one? First, rumors of a sharper-resolution model this summer makes me want to wait a few months -- the main appeal of a lightweight tablet for me is e-reading. At the same time, I want to see what Android alternatives might be available by then. One possibility is the Nook Color, which is supposed to be getting a big upgrade this month. While I don't know whether I can live with the measly 7-inch screen, the idea of a low-cost Android tablet appeals to me. I do think Android is going to dominate the mobile market in the long run, and dealing with just one interface would be easier. (I already find myself looking for Android buttons on my wife's iPad.)

I wish someone could refute the iPad 3 rumor and just let me buy something already.

The more things change...

My rebuttal to anyone who says newspapers will survive because people need something to read on the toilet.

My wife’s awesome Page One illustration

Well-known graphics-design blogger Charles Apple mentions Andrea’s homage to the St. Pepper’s album cover for a San Jose Mercury News story about friendship. She also did an interactive online version (it’s near the bottom of the Web page.) This marks the second time he’s praised her work.

I’m happy to say that she included a Star Wars reference (and even a Star Trek one).

She’s been doing some great work. A page-design class I recently took with Poynter featured one of her illustrations as an example of good design. I was proud to point out to my classmates that I was married to the graphics artist –- it was sort of like being at a concert and being able to tell everyone that I’m dating the lead singer.

In an uncanny coincidence, I can also report that she’s not bad at “The Beatles: Rock Band.”

The curse of being Ken Brown

“Kenneth” is the 17th most common first name in the English language. “Brown” is the 5th most common last name. Though my family calls me “Spencer” my legal name is the oh-so-common “Ken Brown.” That’s Ken like the doll, Brown like the color.

I was one of three Ken Browns in a community Karate class. A Ken Brown works at a rival newspaper (he was even promoted to an editor position not too long after I was!). And scores of other Ken Browns roam cyberspace.

Every few days, I get e-mail meant for one of them. I used to tell senders of their mistake, but it got to be too much work. But I can’t help reading the messages, and so I’ve learned a lot about these sobriquetical doppelgangers.

Now, a few of these may tie into the same Ken:

• One is a teacher who accepts class assignments via e-mail (I still do inform the students of their mistake in these cases, but judging from the quality of their work, I doubt my good deed will help their grade much.) He also appears to be looking for a school administrator job.
• One wants to lose weight (he joined Weight Watchers). Or maybe he’s just trying to pick up people struggling with their weight.
• One is an architect or works at an architectural firm.
• One is collecting proposals for a home project. This may be the architect. If I see any good bids for a new roof, I may reply.
• One is married to a woman named Ann, and GoldPointsPlus.com is very excited to welcome them as members.
• One has a thing for Jim Carey tattoos.
• One goes by Alicia. I still haven’t figured out the backstory on that one.

That’s just from the legitimate e-mail. Who knows how much of my spam was actually meant for another Ken, or for that matter, Alicia.

What if any of these people are getting my e-mail?

A PC guy reviews the iPad

Though I’m a longtime Tablet PC user who sees the iPad as more of luxury device than a necessity, I bought one for my Mac-loving wife and got some quality time with the device. Here are my first impressions:

• It’s very slick, with a smooth, snappy interface and nice industrial design.
• Browsing the Web is enjoyable on the iPad, thanks to a big screen, awesome battery life and instant-on startup.
• Typing on the iPad’s on-screen keyboard isn’t as fast as using a real keyboard, but faster than I expected.
• The iPad is lighter than any tablet device I’ve owned (including this Vadem Clio – talk about an early adopter!), but even a 1-pound device gets heavy fast when you’re holding it up in your hand.
• Not having Flash is not as big of a deal as I thought it would be. Many sites are already working around it, and even YouTube videos embedded on other Web sites know when to switch to a non-Flash version.
• As noted by famed Web interface guru Jakob Nielsen, app interfaces are wildly inconsistent. A lot of experimentation is taking place, which is good and bad – it will lead to interface innovation but a lot of user confusion until designers begin to coalesce around some common interface conventions. Just like the early days of the Web. 
• The iPad doesn’t work on Macs running OS 10.4 or earlier. So my wife’s PowerPC-based computer is too old, even though the iPad works fine with older Windows-based PCs. Does Apple hate its most loyal customers, or do its customers meekly take whatever Steve Jobs gives?
• iTunes is a bloated POS. Truly.

Go Fish: Apple sells 1 million iPads

I have to admit that part of me felt toward Apple and the iPad like former Disney CEO Michael Eisner felt toward for Pixar and “Finding Nemo” – that a less-than-stellar reception would serve as a wake up call for the company.

But after 1 million units sold, maybe the device has legs after all.

My cell-phone dilemma

As pleased as I’ve been with my 2.5-year-old HTC Kaiser cell phone (also known as the AT&T Tilt), it’s time to start planning my next phone purchase, which I expect to happen sometime this fall. For now, it’s a close race between the 4th-generation iPhone, the best Android phone with a keyboard available at the time and the best Windows 7 phone with a keyboard.

First, a history: I bought the phone in November 2007 in a $150 sale. This was just a few months after the iPhone launch and was clearly the right choice. Let’s remember that unlike the Tilt, the original iPhone lacked third-party apps (let alone multitasking), GPS, voice dialing and 3G data (with laptop tethering). Neither Android nor WebOS existed. Windows Mobile is still among the most open and hackable platforms around. I can download applications from anywhere, and developers don’t need approval from anyone. For me, the pros outweigh the clunky Windows Mobile 6.1 interface.

I believe in holding on to purchases as long as I can, so despite an explosion of innovation in mobile phones, I still use the Tilt. Even the AT&T support people are shocked. If Microsoft hadn’t made clear with Windows Phone 7 that my handset is officially a dead-end technology, I’d keep it another year. But I have a feeling that Google’s recently updated Maps app will be the last software update this phone ever sees.

So now the dilemma. I love the Windows Phone 7 interface, but I fear that Microsoft is trying to out-Apple Apple with a closed app store. If I have to choose between two closed ecosystems, I’ll go with the one that features the vastly larger ecosystem of apps and accessories. Apple is the safe choice, but I really, really want need a physical keyboard. Android looks promising, but the platform appears increasingly fractured, even worse than Windows Mobile was with two different OS flavors and multiple screen/keyboard configurations. WebOS looks increasingly like a dead-end, and nothing about the BlackBerry interface excites me.

On top of that, what’s with everyone producing phones with no removable battery or add-in storage? Apple might get away with it, but they’re cons, not pros in any iPhone evaluation.

UPDATE: It appears I may have dismissed Palm’s WebOS prematurely. HP is buying the company, which may give it a fighting chance. I’m just glad I don’t have to buy a phone right now.

I remember playing this game when it was called “Tribes.”

Halo, the seriously overrated Xbox franchise, is getting jet packs, making it strikingly similar to one of my all-time favorite games, “Starsiege: Tribes.”

Not that it’s a bad thing.

Things my 2-year-old daughter will probably never do

• Rent a movie from a video-rental store
• Purchase a compact disc
• Dial a phone number (in the original sense of the word)
• Use a non-VoIP landline phone
• Deal with a utility’s meter-reader

Am I missing anything?

Elena as a flower girl

Courier: Microsoft's dual-screen tablet "book"

This looks seriously awesome.

in reference to: Courier: First Details of Microsoft's Secret Tablet - Microsoft courier tablet - Gizmodo (view on Google Sidewiki)

Why all the hate on the Google Toolbar?

But maybe SideWiki should be a standalone Firefox extension.

in reference to: Google Sidewiki Is a Universal Commenting System for the Web - Google Sidewiki - Lifehacker (view on Google Sidewiki)

I’ll bet you didn’t know I wrote a book about Tango dancing

Open publication - Free publishing - More tango

 

It's true. As part of a technical writing program I’m close to finishing, I had to write a user manual, and the instructor assigned us topics she thought the students would know nothing about.

And she was right.

For the record, I don’t recommend producing long, carefully formatted documents in Microsoft Word.

Elena wakes up at midnight to make a phone call

This “conversation” was going on for 5-8 minutes before we started recording.

Proof that the Wiggles make kids go insane

And now the longer version

11 seconds of previously unseen material!

Elena’s first steps!

She walking. Now we’re in trouble.

Elena bath

Bathtime!

Kill the Newspapers

Marc Andreesen says killing the print edition of newspapers to survive. His thesis: the print advertising dollars have to go somewhere. Newspaper Web sites won't get all of it, but thanks to dramatically lower publishing and distribution costs, they'll get enough to be profitable.

He may be on to something. I hope one of the about-to-be-shutdown publications in one-newspaper towns tries this (I'm looking at you San Francisco Chronicle) to test this theory. What have they got to lose?

The meltdown continues

 

If I turned in a chart like this to my newspaper’s art department, they would call me to double-check that the last number wasn’t a mistake.

My Micro-Review of Windows 7

After much trepidation, I finally installed the Windows 7 beta on my laptop. With the possible exception of losing my VPN connection (Cisco hasn’t made a driver available yet), it’s been a really smooth experience. The beta is very stable and a big improvement over Vista.

I’m one of the few people who seem to actually like Vista, but 7 takes it up a notch. In a nutshell:

• It seems snappier than Vista and uses less memory on my machine.
• It ditches some of Vista’s big annoyances (I’m looking at you, UAC)
• It adds some nice features such as an improved and more useful taskbar.
• It resumes from hibernation and standby much faster.
• It updates the Media Center interface.

Windows 7 also extends the life of the laptop battery, but I have not had time to test that.

In other words, my observations seem to jibe with what everyone else has said so far. If the final addresses the VPN issue, there’s no question that I’ll upgrade when it comes out (the final is scheduled to launch in about a year).

Update: I installed it on my home computer, but it didn’t recognize my ancient GeForce3 chipset, which controls audio and networking. So I had to go back to Vista on that machine.

Check out my wife's cool inauguration graphic

Obama Inauguration

Happy New Year!

Things I’m looking forward to in 2009:

- Buying my first house

- Seeing my daughter turn 1

- An Obama presidency/Bush leaving office

- Final half-season of Battlestar Galactica

In 2009, I resolve to:

- Make better use of my time, money and other resources

- Procrastinate less (see above)

- Read more fiction

- Be more helpful around the house

- Re-do my professional Web site

- Finish my technical writing certification

- Grow more adept at Flash

Redfin defects from Microsoft to Google

I meant to mention this when I first read it over the weekend -- it’s been thoroughly warmed over now -- but real-estate Web site Redfin has switched completely to Google Maps from Microsoft’s Live Maps service. Redfin said it liked Microsoft’s technology, but that Google’s maps are much faster.

That’s pretty much been my experience. I love showing people the 3-D and bird’s-eye view on Live Maps, but when it comes down to trying to find something fast, I always gravitate to Google Maps.

This is probably true of most of Microsoft’s Live services -- they’re just not fast enough. Hotmail has gotten noticeably faster in recent weeks, but everything else seems kind of pokey.

From my television family to yours…

Here’s a timely Christmas project I did a couple of years ago for a class I was taking. Enjoy!

Yes, I know. It takes forever to load. It was an intro to Flash class, OK?

CBS on the mortgage meltdown

It gets scarier.

 

Two sci-fi shows I thought were great but somehow turned out terribly, terribly wrong

1) Heroes. My theory on why the show started going downhill in season two: The writers abused time travel. Now, no one stays dead, so nothing has any consequence or finality. Lame.

2) Smallville. This used to be my favorite show, but has become downright unwatchable this season. No Lex Luthor, no Lana Lang. No Smallville even.

She crawls: video evidence

Two sci-fi shows I thought were going to be crap but actually turned out pretty good.

1. Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles.
2. Star Wars: The Clone Wars

With a TV budget and skimpy one-dimensional character motivation, I assumed Terminator was going to be cheesy and repetitive. The first few shows seemed to bear out this assumption, but it is developing into a fairly complex story with unexpected depth and insight. As long as they don’t abuse time travel -- don’t get me started – I’ll keep watching.

Star Wars is a cartoon, and I’m glad I didn’t pay $10 to see the pilot episode in theaters. But if you’re a Star Wars geek, you’ll appreciate the abundance of Star Wars technology (you get to really see inside many of the ships in the movies!). Jar Jar was in last week’s episode, which I’m ashamed to say got my wife to watch it with me. But other than that, so far, so good.

Report: Comcast usage monitor coming in January

 It's about time.

From the Department of Redundancy Department…

Best of all, they’re selling franchises!

Why does this stuff always come out after the election?

Not that it matters now, but it turns out that Joe the anti-redistributionist plumber got help from welfare twice as a child, and says it helped his family work its way into the middle class and become productive taxpayers. That’s exactly how welfare is supposed to work -- if Joe actually paid his taxes, that is.

And more disturbingly, it looks like Sarah Palin was even less fit for the vice-president than we ever imagined. She couldn’t name the countries that have signed in to NAFTA (hint: there are only three, and they’re all in North America) and didn’t realize that Africa is a continent, not a country. If this were something on Jay Leno’s “Jaywalking'” segment, it would be funny. But knowing that this women came so close to the White House is scary.

(Both videos are from Fox, because me conservative friends wouldn’t believe it if any other network aired it.)

Scary retail anecdote of the day

Three weeks ago, I was looking for a laptop roller bag when I saw and fell in love with the Briggs & Riley @Work Compact Rolling Computer Case. I researched an online and in several physical stores but couldn’t find anywhere for less than $289. A woman at one of the stores told me they never go on sale, ever.

Yesterday, I was looking again at the mall when a salesman tried to sell me on that very bag. I told him I loved it, but it was too expensive. He asked how much I was looking to pay. I told him $200 -- he agreed to that price on the spot.

This was at a mall, not a flea market.

QIK | Streaming video right from your phone

Software updates

A lot of cool free software to talk about:

 

Zune 3.0

I don’t own a Zune, but I like the latest version of the device’s music-management software. In addition to new music-discovery features well-documented in other reviews, the application has a cool now-playing features, that acts as a sort of music screen saver. Here’s a picture:

My only complaint is the limited number of biographies. Not surprisingly, only the most popular artist have enough information for the biography mode (the rest show the default album-cover mosaic). But who at Microsoft is deciding who makes the cut? I understand that not all of my obscure techno-pop favorites are going to make it, but Nelly Furtado does? Seriously?

Download Zune 3.0 here.

Windows Live suite

I was most interested in Live Writer (for blogs), Live Mail and Live Photo Gallery.

The only big difference in Live Writer I can see is the ability to automatically upload and embed YouTube videos.

Live Photo Gallery now recognizes face for easier and more consistent tagging.

Live Mail now includes a calendar that syncs up to Microsoft’s online calendar (the online-only version isn’t well integrated into Hotmail, though).

Download Live here.

Google Maps Mobile (Windows Mobile version)

The newest version includes transit direction and thanks to a new algorithm for cell-phone tower triangulation , more accurate “my location” feature when not using GPS.

The java and BlackBerry versions of the application includes Street View, something I hope to see in the Windows Mobile version soon.

Download Google Maps Mobile here.

Live Search Mobile

The newest version starts up faster. This application has a user interface that’s not so intuitive and doesn’t have Google Maps’ handy “my location” feature that triangulates your position without the need for GPS, but I’ve found local search results to be more accurate.

Download Live Search Mobile here.

A green jewel in Golden Gate Park

Check out my wife's cool graphic.

Dropbox opens to public

The slick, file-syncing service I mentioned a few weeks ago has emerged from beta.  I highly recommend it.

MSNBC’s election logo looks like Bank of America’s

An eerie similarity -- or is it just me?

 

    

Funny

It’s as if Microsoft is reading my blog

Or a simpler explanation: my comments are so banal that millions of other users are saying the same thing. Anyway, the Windows 7 team writes about how its working to speed up boot times, the No. 1 complaint I have about Vista.

The team describes a very good bootup time -- “getting to a usable desktop” -- as 15 seconds. I’ll take it.

Comcast to institute 250-gig cap

I don’t know yet whether I should be outraged about this new policy, mainly because I don’t know how much bandwidth I actually use -- Comcast won’t tell me. By policy, the company won’t tell you how much you’ve used until you've already exceeded the cap. If you exceed the cap again within a year, Comcast cuts off service.

I got the warning last year after I went on vacation and a buggy program (TVTonic, the company that helped NBC bring Olympic downloads to Windows Vista Media Center) kept downloading video over and over again. Before I figured out what was going on, I pleaded with Comcast to tell me how much I had used and when the peak download times occurred, thinking someone was leeching my network. The Comcast rep couldn’t have been less cooperative.

I figured out the problem on my own and have been in Comcast’s good graces ever since. But to this day, I don’t know how close I’m coming to that usage cap. While 250-gigabytes sounds like a lot, I use my Internet for downloading movies and TV shows on Xbox Live, playing video games online, my Vonage phone line, Skype video calls, streaming Brazilian radio stations, uploading and of course, regular Web browsing and e-mail.

Maybe that adds up to a lot of data; maybe it’s well short of 250 gigabytes. The bottom line is, I’ll never know, thanks to Comcast’s poor customer service.

I understand that Comcast needs to make a return on its investment. But by keeping users in the dark until they’ve exceeded the cap, the company is going to chill a lot of legitimate uses of the Internet. And that is going to make its service a lot less valuable.

Photosynth goes public

I’ve written about this cool photo mapping/modeling technology before, but now Photosynth lets anyone create their very own photo set.

HP updates the 2710p

The 2730p is a refresh of what I consider the best laptop I’ve ever owned – it also happens to be a good Tablet PC.

The best part is that the older 2710p’s are going for about half price, refurbished. If I had to get a new laptop, I don’t know which one I’d choose (my wife would probably break the tie and suggest I get the 2710p).

What I want in Windows

Contrary to popular belief, Vista is actually pretty good, assuming you have 2 gigs of memory, a not-so-ancient graphics and updated drivers.

But in response to this call from the top Microsoft program managers, I will say this: it needs to startup, shutdown, hibernate, sleep and resume much, much faster. As it stands now, it’s more convenient to check e-mail on my wife’s iPod Touch than it is on my own PC. Seriously.

P.S. And don’t make me use UAC to move stuff around in the Start Menu.

Live Mesh, SugarSync invites

I just filed a story on file-syncing/online-backup services and have a few beta invitations to Live Mesh and Dropbox for anyone who wants one.

Both of these services work pretty well, though Dropbox sometimes fails to update files quickly to connected computers. And Live Mesh isn’t yet available on Macs. But that’s why they’re called betas, right?

Leave a comment with your e-mail address if you’re interested.

Update: It looks as though Live Mesh is now open to everyone, so no invite needed.