It’s become fairly clear that HP is not webOS’ savior. It’s also unlikely that webOS can come back from the dead for the second time. But it makes me sad, since webOS and its devices hit a sweet spot that no one managed to exploit.

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I finally had to throw the shiny white excuse for a mouse into the drawer and pull out a trusty VX Nano. The Apple mouse suffers from the form over function malady: it is apparently too damaging to the aesthetic to actually have separate left and right buttons. Instead the mouse intuits which you want by how far to the left or right you press your fingers. Unfortunately, it didn’t work too well and I kept getting left-clicks when I wanted right. That, and the fact that at the highest sensitivity I still needed way too much desk space to maneuver across the screen led to its replacement.

I remember reading an article by Bruce Tognazzini (AKA “Tog”) many years ago about how extensive research at Apple indicated that using the mouse is faster than using shortcut keys on the keyboard. This always seemed wrong to me, but after using a Mac somewhat regularly for the past few weeks, I think I’m beginning to understand.

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So shortly after crowing about how cheaply I was getting cell phone service, I’ve sailed headlong into the rocks of an $80 a month smart phone plan. In spite of all the Android buzz of late, I went with the Palm Pre.

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I frequently say, only half-jokingly, that printers are evil. Actually I love my HP LaserJet 1320, but my Canon Pixma 620 is just plain E-V-I-L.

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I have to admit to being a bit of a Luddite when it comes to cell phones. In spite of being in the generally gadget-friendly demographic of software engineers, and someone who bought the very first Palm Pilot model within days of its launch, I’ve not yet owned a cell phone. But that may actually change soon.

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I spent some of my Christmas vacation upgrading the hardware on my PC. I’ve been suspicious that there was something wrong with my old motherboard, so I decided to get a new one. And when you’re getting a new motherboard, you might as well get a new CPU and new RAM. And since I was getting a new motherboard, it ought to have PCI-Express, so that meant a new graphics card as well. I’ve been through this process a few times now, so I thought I’d try to collect some of the wisdom I’ve acquired by doing it. There are lots of people who are more expert at system building than myself, but maybe I can save someone from a special class of boneheaded mistakes: those I’ve made myself. Read the rest of this entry »

It seems like Microsoft’s typical entry into a market goes something like this. It sees an interesting market built up by someone else, and releases a product in that space. The product is crap compared to the existing market leader. Microsoft revs the product a few times until it is competitive, and uses whatever means available to push it. Then, they release something that is actually good, the former market leader starts to crumble, and Microsoft dominates. Then, Microsoft, having won the war, lets their product rot. Examples? Visual Studio over Borland development tools (though Java has spurred competition again), Internet Explorer over Netscape, Office over WordPerfect, etc. Read the rest of this entry »