On public apologies

A few days ago, I flew off the handle and attacked someone on the jewish-boston mailing list for a comment which was meant in jest and which I incorrectly took seriously. I was helped to see the error of my ways by some very polite people, and this morning I sent this apology to the… Read More »

Voting the “straight Israel ticket”

It’s campaign season in the US, and like clockwork, out come the Jews who ask only one question when deciding for whom to vote: “Which candidate is the strongest supporter of Israel?” It is not unheard of to hear such people express the opinion that Jews who consider issues other than support for Israel when… Read More »

On “School Choice”

It’s campaign season in the US, and one of the issues that comes up during every campaign is “school choice.” “School choice” is a code word for school voucher programs, through which money would be taken away from public schools and given to private schools instead. In other words, under a school voucher program, if… Read More »

HP printers: Oh, how the mighty have fallen

My loyal readers may recall my previous complaint about HP’s bungled attempt to support the Mac with its C5280 all-in-one printer. Unfortunately, my difficulties with this printer didn’t end there. Below is the letter I recently sent to HP’s CEO about the ongoing saga of my attempt to completely the presumably simple task of purchasing… Read More »

Is it really so hard to sell a pair of jeans?

When I need to buy a new pair of jeans, I walk into the store, find a pair of Levi’s with a 34-inch waist and a 30-inch inseam, pay for it, and walk out. Seems simple, right? So why doesn’t Target sell Levi’s in my size at their Watertown, MA store? So why doesn’t Target… Read More »

Turning off startup animation and sound on an HTC Windows Mobile phone (AT&T 8525)

After AT&T acquired Cingular, they released a software upgrade for the 8525, one of their Windows Mobile devices. In the upgrade, they added an extraordinarily annoying boot-time animation to the phone. When you power on, you see an animated picture of the Cingular “flying bars” and then the AT&T logo. It wouldn’t bo so bad… Read More »

Coining a new phrase

While discussing with my wife a product which is so poorly designed that it’s an absolute marvel that it made it to into manufacturing: “The team that designed this was definitely a few monkeys short of infinity.”