Day: September 23, 2009

BlackBerry Tour trackball woes

If you are going to buy a BlackBerry, consider this: BlackBerry Tour trackball woes cause rampant returns, analyst says.

I love my BlackBerry for alot of reasons, but I am not a fan of their trackball. I already had to take mine — a Curve — in for repairs in the first year. In talking to a Bell Canada service employee, he said they were going to be able to repair them in the future for $10. (When I took mine in they replaced the whole BlackBerry, not just the trackball). Why is this? Apparently the trackball is suseptible to dirt and dust getting in it and gumming it up.

I wish the BlackBerries still had the scroll wheel as well as the trackball. I would use the wheel for 90% of my work I am sure. The buttons they have there now I never use.

Mail-E? A paper robot that tells you that you have e-mail


If you love WALL-E and you have an ability to build robotic devices, this might be the project for you: Mail-E, a mail-checker robot from Let’s Make Robots!

If you don’t want to make it, it is still interesting to see how it’s done. And if you love the idea of making robots, then you have to check out  Let’s Make Robots!

Why not buy flowers…

On the weekend I was in Dufflet on Yonge in Toronto having a delicious brownie. This particular Dufflet also has a flower shop in it with gorgeous flowers for sale. While I was enjoying my brownie, a woman walked by with a gorgeous bouquet. As she exited, she exclaimed “I am buying them to cheer me up”.

It may seem extravagant to some to buy flowers. You can’t do much with them. But we pay for movies and attend musicals and watch TV shows on cable TV. If anything, flowers last longer and cost less than these diversions. Even my brownie is not something I have to eat. I enjoy it for much more than the calories it provides (and it does provide alot of those!) It’s a small extravagance.

No, flowers are no more extravagant than any of those. If you want to make yourself better, you could do worse than buy flowers. Even one small one, in a tiny vase. Go ahead!