Yay! Another Aria lover! I had one, and loved the small form-factor. Unfortunately, I couldn't deal with the bad UIs that assumed you had a Note-sized screen (once you brought the keyboard up, you could only see about 2 lines of text, if that). I still have the Aria (with custom ROM), but had to move to a Samsung. I don't have a case on it, so it doesn't feel QUITE so big in my pocket.

I concur. Even if the "driver" is texting, there are times that are ok, and times that are not. That is why there are laws are about "distracted driving" and "impaired driving." Banning texting is too meddlesome, and the problem is covered in other, just as enforceable laws.

Unfortunately, most people just bring up Google/Bing and type in (or, worse, just type into the address bar) what they are looking for. Even Google-ing for "amazon.com" -- I cringe every time.

Ouch ("both"). So, after Blag gets out, we should see him getting elected soon after??

Yeah, I just ordered a T-shirt from a Canadian company, paid with PayPal ... and my bank charged me an "International Charge fee" because it went through PayPal Canada. I ordered last year from a company that is in Europe (I think Czech Republic, but I can't remember right now); the shirt was a good price, but international shipping was more than I expected -- but the total was still very reasonable.

So, I've taken advantage of the new worldwide economy, although I try to buy things locally when I can.

And the ones that aren't in prison got sent to Washington? ;-)

False. The sales tax laws are very specifically worded, anything collected (even if in excess of what you were supposed to collect) is required to go to the states. Unless the rules are different since Amazon is out-of-state? I have looked into Florida laws, and even if I were to collect double what I was supposed to, I couldn't keep a penny (legally).

I have done both (daily push, and now once-a-week). The real problem is not CYA versus agile; my current company is publicly traded, and trying to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley means they have to have MULTIPLE meetings about what is going out, what it is going to impact, how to roll it back, etc. The SOX compliance just introduces tons of "process" meaning that there is absolutely ZERO chance of daily changes.

The best way around this is to make as much as possible data-driven, with screens to update the data -- that way you don't "push to production," just go through an interface.

+1. AVG was too much up-selling and "don't you think you need to upgrade?" Having said that, Avast does that sometimes, but they haven't been as intrusive ... yet.

Wait, you have people that actually accept the Windows Updates? Everyone I know just closes the pop-up, and when I show up (virus / malware, or running really slowly) I see "926923798257 updates to install" (yes, I'm exaggerating).

True, no loyalty in business. I've been through enough times where I liked where I was, but through no fault of my own (or even no fault of the entire department), the whole lot was let go -- or the business changed enough that it was like being let go.

One place I was a contractor, hoping to turn it into a full-time position, and all the contractors (there were many) were let go. A mandate from at least 3 levels above our manager. The employees were left with gobs of work to keep doing without contractors, and I'm sure 6 months down the road they were hiring contractors back. Some ploy to make the books look better; show a short-term gain (not paying contractors) by sacrificing the long-term gain (losing their expertise and having to re-train people; having the system basically stagnate while the employees tried to keep up).

Not to say that I haven't jumped ship myself, but I know that my boss(es) are not looking out for just my best interest. They are concerned with their best interest, and whatever it takes to keep themselves employed, and moving forward in their career.

I also loved Takeshi's Castle -- even the Americanized, somewhat watered-down, full-of-corny-jokes version. If they replaced all the reality shows with Japanese knock-offs, TV would be 100% more entertaining. At least I might watch a few more shows than I do now. Now I just get ill flipping past the shows, let alone trying to watch them.

I *completely* agree. Human-interest stories are what make me want to tape everything, so I have a way to fast-forward through the BS.

Secondly, the so-called challenges from WO are just impossible. Not impossible like Sasuke, where people get better and can actually do them (rolling thingy comes to mind), but what is up with the punching wall from WO? There is no way to really get past it, you might as well just dive into the muck to start with.

I liked the reality show set in Japan, something like "I'm on a Japanese Game Show!", but I shudder to think what the Americans would do with it if it got really popular. I understand it wasn't really a Japanese game show, but the challenges were at least somewhat believable that someone could do them if they had some skills or learned how it worked.

Ooh, Wolfenstein -- and, since you may not have good arrow keys, you could use the phone orientation for turning / movement? Turn right/left to actually turn right/left? Tilt forward, backward to move ... a little for slow movement, tilt 45 degrees for fast movement?

Sounds like a great use of my phone!

Oh, was that humor? I was expecting you to go in a different direction, and then you put Yahoo, HP, RIM, MySpace.

I was expecting AltaVista, AskJeeves, InfoSeek, Overture.

But, yes, I agree with your premise -- does Bing have a shopping search yet?