iPhone, uPhone, we all scream for a more original title

I thought I was clever and original with this title, until I noticed that Jeremy Keith used it first. Read his for a summary of reactions and observations regarding Steve Jobs' recent keynote speech unveiling the iPhone.

As for my reaction, I'll chime in with others to say that I haven't been this excited about a new product/technology in a good while. It just. looks. awesome. I've been a PC user for my entire computer-aware life, but I've recently been considering switching to Mac, in part because they care about design and interface. The iPhone continues this, and despite a $500 price tag, may be too much to resist.

Concerns have been raised, however, about the iPhone's lack of buttons, or any other source of usable tactile feedback. This is the trade-off to be able to use the full product as part of your interface. If there was a fixed button keyboard along the bottom of the iPhone, you would lose the ability to rotate it in your hand and have a widescreen interface. I acknowledge the concerns, but man, that landscape orientation opens up a good bit more space. Awesome.

A parenting insight from Jeffrey Zeldman

Jeffrey Zeldman of web standards fame posted today about a humorous and accurate insight into parenting his wife made at a recent dinner. I'm sure I'll think about this when I see my two boys tonight.

Here it is, in permalinky goodness: http://www.zeldman.com/2007/01/04/tanks/.

P.S. - This is my first Blogger post via email; if it looks funky, my apologies.

Messing with the bagger at your local grocer

1. Have a need to fill at least two shopping carts worth of groceries;
2. Begin unloading items from your cart onto the conveyor at the checkout. This should motivate the baggers to begin bagging groceries. Continue until at least half your groceries are bagged;
3. As if you just noticed the error, exclaim to the baggers that you wanted paper bags, not plastic.
4. Pause to enjoy reactions. In my case, the two baggers were split between shock and unamused disgust.
5. Let them in on the joke, so you don’t get hurt. They both laughed, but some of the eggs were broken. I suppose that's a reasonable penance.

Obligatory Intro Post

After trying to develop my own site, and drowning in a mire of perfectionism, I'm fulfilling a New Year's Resolution by setting up a blog here, and just writing. Ultimately I will complete my helper-free blog; but really, what's the point of getting a nice design, custom CMS, etc. if you don't really know that you'll use it like you think? I'm not sure the nature of posts I'll be more prone to write - I have ideas about what I think I should write, but it has to be natural, so we'll see what comes out. Anyhow, more to come, daily if I can. Here's to keeping a resolution, and starting something.