Matthew Botos

When I bought my MacBook, Bluetooth was a feature I thought I could’ve left behind, not having a slick enough phone or PDA that could wirelessly talk to the computer. Over the last few months, though, I’ve found that it definitely has its uses.

The first was for hooking up a mouse to the laptop; wireless mice are all the rage, but I couldn’t see marring the MacBook’s clean lines with a dongle for a wireless mouse. A Bluetooth mouse easily solved the problem, though it does occasionally lose sync with the computer.

More impressive was how well it worked with my new Motorola RAZR phone. After I set it up as a new device, the Mac popped up iSync to send over contacts and calendar items. I setup a “Cell” group in Address Book to transfer and that was it; no cables, no lame vendor software, no cajoling Verizon to load them from an old phone. The only slightly goofy part was it assigned speed dials in alphabetical order, which took a little effort to sort out. Also, while Verizon didn’t totally neuter the phone, they do seem to have turned off the ability to transfer for files (photos, ringtones, etc.).

I’ve been checking out HDTVs a bit more seriously and finally went to look at some in person last night. While all the HD sets look good, the ones that really popped with detail were the 1080p ones playing high definition DVDs. To translate from geek-speak, that’s 1080 horizontal lines being drawn at once versus the 480i drawn in alternating passes on a standard TV. Most HDTVs on the market do 720p.

As impressive as full 1080p HDTV is, it doesn’t seem worth it at the moment. The selection of sets is still limited, and there are no broadcasts in that high a resolution. Even of the two competing HD DVD formats only one currently offers it, and that’s still a $1000 BetaMax gamble. You get a lot more options and better deals in the meat of the market where there’s plenty of 720p competition.

One of the great things about iTunes is the ability to buy the single odd track from an album that really catches you. Except when they make it only available as part of a complete album.

I gave up gaming long before video cards and gaming systems hit stratospheric prices, but the recent ad for Gears of War really grabbed me. It’s the music; a sparse rendition of “Mad World” from Donnie Darko (per ars technica). Available on iTunes, but only as part of the complete soundtrack. I passed, but many others didn’t- it was the #7 album on iTunes this week!

Sometimes, the full albums are worth it, though; I did buy Foo Fighter’s Skin and Bones. It’s all acoustic renderings of their songs, and perhaps a sign of maturing musical taste that this sort of thing is more appealing to me. The album also includes a “digital booklet”, aka liner notes. In an age of downloaded music, it is nice to flip through artwork and candid photos from recording sessions.

I was a good citizen and exercised my right to vote today, though I can’t say it was terribly inspiring. Voting has always seemed to be a choice between the lesser of two evils; this year the evils made themselves quite while known and I showed up more to vote against them than for their opponents. I’ve spent past elections poring over platforms and candidate’s positions on the the issue; this year was more of a gut feeling on who wasn’t a complete jerk.

This year’s campaigns has been fairly obnoxious, and more intrusive than in the past. My mailbox has been stuffed full of flyers, and my voicemail always has “important policital messages” sent by automated lobbying groups. The latter should be illegal; perhaps I could let my congresspeople know with an automated system of my own…

Despite past miscounts and questions about closed, proprietary voting machines, the physical polling place was pretty relaxed, once you ran the gauntlet of last minute lobbyists up to the front door. It wasn’t as bad as Robert Stack’s scene in Airplane, but there still needs to be a greater standoff distance. Inside, there was no ID check, just a signature next to your name in the book.

It’s a striking contrast to any election photos you see in developing nations getting their first taste of democracy, where seriously determinted pollsters shuffle locked ballot boxes under the watchful eye of armed guards. A bit dramatic, but it leaves no doubt as to the gravity and passion of the event.

My own experiences seem to be mirroring those of Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Fry in terms of upgrading cell phones. Though “it’s just a phone”, the cell phone has become more of a fashion statement and status symbol than one’s car.

Though I’m a technical person with the usual slew of electronic toys, I held off getting a cell phone for five years after college. Even then, I grudgingly got a pay-as-you-go plan with a suprisingly good color flip phone. It was fine for 18 months until I found myself surrounded by coworkers with slick Motorola RAZRs.

One the somewhat practical side, a wider, thinner phone is easier for my hands, and I have been looking to consolidate my VOIP and cell lines. But lusting for a slick new phone definitely pushed me over the edge.

I just ordered naked Verizon DSL (DSL without a voice dial tone). It’s not an option on their website, so you do have to call and pay a $5 premium, bringing it to $35 a month with a year commitment. Comcast is $43 if you also have cable TV, so Verizon is still a better deal. (You can get $30 DSL with a “$12″ basic line, but my last land line was at least $20 with various fees that funded the Spanish-American War until a few months ago.)

You also can’t dodge the setup/equipment fee if you’ve had DSL before; you’re still going to pay $30, so you might as well take the equipment. Though it is an integrated modem and wireless gateway, and having a spare is better than paying $2.50 a month in “insurance”.

Finally, the woman who took my order was the first in a long time to recognize that my email was my last name. I didn’t have the heart to tell her part of the reason was so I could jump to the cheapest Internet provider as the winds shift

I had seen this article on how to get that perfect shave ages ago, and finally decided give old school shaving a shot about six weeks ago. I dropped out of the razor tech arms race with the Mach 3 and have since tried various shaving gels to sooth one particularly irritable area of my neck with limited success.

A brush and lather with the same razor yielded much better results! There’s definitely some truth to the brush making whiskers stand up, and heating my face with a hot washcloth when I haven’t showered before also helps soften them. The final change I’ve made is replacing blades more ofter, putting my face above excess frugality. With the right size plastic container, the system is even quite portable, and there was a certain charm to lathering up with the brush in an old hotel in England.

I joined Mike, Steve, and Michael for a fun mountain bike jamboree in Fair Hills, Maryland today. There’s just something energizing about pulling up to a trail head with a parking lot full of mountain bikers! Delaware Trailspinners put on the event to raise awareness of the trails and show out of towners where the good stuff is. Mike and I had spent a humid summer day last year boring ourselves silly on double-track horse trails before getting a brief taste of singletrack.

With local guides, it was a much better experience, with miles of tight, twisty singletrack, bridges, rocks, roots, and the added thrill of fall leaves covering up other surprises. Afterwards, there was plenty of tailgating, grilling, drinking, and chatting with old friends and new. I caught up with several of the JAR folks from the Idaho trip and other past events. It was a great way to spend a Sunday bonding with the larger area mountain biking community.

A few recent experiences rekindled the hope in me that there is someone out there for everyone:

• I was at a Princeton lecture last week by a husband and wife research team who have spent much of their 30 married years together pursuing their shared passion: camping out on an uninhabited island in the Galapagos studying Darwin’s finches.
• At a party last night, I was struck by how perfect the couples containing my friends are, including those whose spouses and significant others I just met for the first time.

It’s been a tiring but exciting week of work. My current project of developing internal Web 2.0 knowledge management tools yielded some interesting moments:

• Wednesday afternoon we brainstormed web interface ideas while checking out Flickr, YouTube, and Netflix for inspiration.
• Thursday our vice president became our first executive blogger with a great post that addressed reorganization rumors that had just started swirling. Not only did I get “first post”, I also got a response back within the hour!
• Friday we talked to Google about their search appliance. Like everything Google does, it’s pretty slick. And they’ve got quite a market to capture if they’re correct about 80% of information being behind corporate firewalls.