Comments

I'm planning on keeping my longer writing in my rants section (http://www.highprogrammer.com/alan/rants). I'll post announcements in my blog (like I did here). I'll dump shorter entries and topical items into my blog. Maybe someday I'll unify the two systems, but today is not that day.

It is so too bad that you ended up with something less than what you desired. It is kinda like ordering chitlins "to get the experience of them" only to find out later they were just dog intestines. I think probably what happened is that Sony thought they could "do better" then the crappy looking palm interface with new whizbang graphics features which look pretty, but sacrifices useability on the alter of marketing. If you were some 733+ 12 year old whose parent have too much money, are you going to desire some black and white interface that looks like it was designed on an HP oscilloscope--or something flashy like those video games with which you've permanently stunted your intellectual growth. Obviously, you'll pick the flashy color one. Technology must have the appearance of advancement in the face of stagnation. Because of this, you suffer.

I like the commenting system for your writings. I should really do that on RD.

Pete's comment pretty much sums up what I was going to say. I have always assumed that the people purchasing WinCE machines were less technologically savvy than Palm users, as shiny is the attraction over usability.

I'm glad you got it working for you, though. Shiny can be cool too.

Technologically savvy? You're entering notes into a text file with an easily understandable schema for Pete's sake. What did the WinCE machine look like--big color screen and one button labeled "PORN"? Because if the average PDA user was any less technicaly inclined, this is about what I'd be expecting.

Hmmm, a device with a big screen and a single button labelled PORN? I suspect that would be a best seller.

Anyhew, what exactly is it that you like? It's just a comment system on my blog, just like yours.

I realized that after I submitted. I thought I was commenting on the actual article.

And pete...I've seen WinCE users break screens because they were pressing to hard. The reason? They wanted to get a thicker line. I wish I was kidding. I loved my tech job in college.

Really had to grin after reading this rant - I bought a TH55 yesterday and had EXACTLY the same experience. Wondering about dozens of leaflets in the package, the immense wireless connection foldout, the awkward power button (BTW: the jogdial and the back button are equally dumb - I plan to remap them using "thegogo") and the completely unusable, but very glitzy new datebook app with the cute little symbols (japanese girls will LOVE them :-). Spent most of today "stripping" away the sony-specific tools and adding some REAL applications. And yes, other than that, the machine simply ROCKS! (Screen, Memory, WiFi...).

I've had my TH55 for about two weeks now, and I'm really pleased with it. A few weeks ago I used it instead of a laptop at the Condor Week conference (http://www.paradyn.org/PCW2004/). With the built in WiFi, a keyboard (http://tinyurl.com/2c6kt), the built in web browser (http://www.brighthand.com/article/PS04_NetFront_in_Cobalt), and pssh (http://www.sealiesoftware.com/pssh/) I was hooked up. I was probably connected to the wireless for 4 hours per day of moderately heavy use and only drained about half of the battery. I'm very impressed. It's a good piece of hardware.

I've grown accustomed to the weird buttons on the back, they seem like a reasonable idea now. Unfortunately I constantly accidentally hit the camera lens switch and the record button.

The Sony branded software remains crap, but after disabling it everything works like the gloriously polished Palm software. I am using Datebk5 (http://www.pimlicosoftware.com/) to replace the stock Datebook. I've been a happy user of Datebk3 for years and Datebk5 is a solid improvement. Gotta remember to register that.

Thegogo (http://www.maicca.com/) looks good, thanks for mentioning it. I would like to remap/disable some of the buttons. I'm a little iffy on downloading random binaries from sites I can barely read, but it's worth a look.

I'll try to write up a little entry about what I like about my TH55 soonish.

Hey, cool, the paragraph breaker upper is borken. I'll see about fixing that as well.

Dang, thegogo (http://www.maicca.com/) will even warn you when you leave your lens cap on, another thing I do all the time! Good stuff!

I de-screwed multiple paragraph posts, including fixing older posts.

One reason I love my TH55: I'm making this comment using it. Yes, I'm a dork.

Wah! I didn't even know anyone had ever commented on your blog. The comment link should say how many comments there are so I can see if I should click on it even if I don't have anything specific to say. It's like that time I lifted up my "Insectors" toy that I'd left in the backyard and it had a bunch of worms crawling on the bottom of it. Worms with opinions!

I consider this correct decision, I plan to make similar system for my sites

Oh, bugger, my first comment spam. Time to start seriously considering. defensive measures... (The spam in question, advertising some password site, will be purged when I get around to it.)

Must. Kill. Spammers.

At least posting here doesn't increase their pagerank, which is what they're trying to do.

*sigh* Actually, at the moment, it does increase their PageRank. highprogrammer's got good PageRank (7 by the Googlebar's measure). I specifically designed the comment system to be Google friendly.

The future plan is to redirect all "Your web site" URLs through the script and block Google. That's easy. Links in the posts themselves are harder; but I have some (stupid) ideas.

I'm kinda curious how they're finding me, and why they really like this page. None of my other comment pages get spam. So far it's just 3 out of 184. I'm loathe to delete comments and now that I'm using rel=nofollow, he gots no Google juice. So for now I'll ignore it. If it ever gets bad I'll probably add some sort of trivial human filter like Lessig does

ALAN DE SMET IS AN AS_WIPE,oops did I just post that. Hey Alan, bite me di_k. YOUR A FUC_IN LOSER!

Thanks for taking the time to respond, Rich!

I am really sad that "alanhater.com" didn't actually exist; I was hoping to finding a site dedicated to hating me personally. After all, you're not really someone until you have a group of people actively working against you.

Anyway Rich, I really think you need to relax. Why are you so deeply bitter? Is being a blog spammer really that depressing? Are you just angry that you failed to use the Preview button or documentation I provide below to format your post correctly? Are you frustrated that I use rel=nofollow? (I can assure you, I do it to all comments, not just yours. Although, as a blog spammer you should be better at noticing.)

Indeed, you appear to be so angry that you're unable to form correct sentences. Should I parse it as "Hey Alan, bite me, dick," (suggesting that I'm a dick), or "Hey Alan, bite my dick," (suggesting that you have some strange penile pain fetish)?

I'd also like to assure you that there is no profanity filter. Feel free to share your amusingly colorful language with the world.

Ultimately, Rich, while I'm happy to chat with you, have you considered that your time might be "better" spent spamming more blogs instead of getting all angry at me?

Testing. Ignore me.</test>

<a href="asdfasdF">more testing. Still ignore