Etymotic Research makes some nice headphones. The HF2′s are my favorites for iPhone use – they are high quality earbuds with excellent sound isolation and a built-in microphone and button. They are the first set of earbuds I’ve had that reliably stay in my ear. However, reliability is not their strong suit.

I’m on my third set since buying this a little over a year ago, and once again they are exhibiting the same problem as they did previously. One earbud stops working. At first the problem is intermittent, then it becomes permanent. Fortunately, Etymotic has a 2 year warranty, and has once again agreed to replace them. After I pay to ship them back to the company.

It’s nice that they honor their warranty, but it would be better if they didn’t have the problem at all. They say they are working on a new cable design, but it’s not ready yet. They are offering to include some accessories for free.

I’m not really interested in free accessories – I just want these rather expensive headphones to keep working. A better solution would be to do what Apple once used to do: take my credit card info and ship me a new pair in a pre-paid return package. As long as I return the old headphones within 30 days, don’t charge me.

Aw, how nice. Macy’s includes a little computer to let you surf the net while you shop…

…or maybe their price check system crashed. Oops!

In winning an argument, it helps to have a position that is proven correct by any evidence.

For the Bush administration, it was the war on terror. How could you tell whether the government’s actions had kept us safe since 9/11? Well, there had been no new terrorist attack, so that was proof enough, right? What if there had been an attack. Then that would simply underscore the need for the administration’s aggressive stance.

I see the same sort of sophistry surrounding the stimulus, recovery act, or whatever the label du jour is. If the economy improves (which it inevitably will at some point), it proves the administration was correct in pushing the stimulus. If it worsens, imagine just how much worse it would have been had we not acted. Of course, the other side could turn this on its head and say the economic recovery occurred independently from, not because of, the stimulus. Or that any worsening is evidence of its failure. In fact, you’ll hear all these arguments being made right now.

I appreciate that there are different points of views on both these issues, but let’s not delude ourselves into thinking that there’s any sort of empiric way to prove or disprove their efficacy.

…but this is ridiculous.

I wasn’t aware that soft drinks needed to be gender-specific.

From CNN: CNN GOP ’survey’ slams Obama: “‘Do you agree with Barack Obama’s decision to close the dentition (sic) center in Guantanamo Bay and move some of the world’s most dangerous terrorists to the United States?’”

I’m glad to see the RNC is concerned about the “dentition” of the “world’s most dangerous terrorists”.

One of the common criticisms of the iPhone is that it doesn’t allow for programs to run in the background. This is, of course, not really true. While Apple doesn’t allow just any program to run in the background (citing battery life and speed concerns), several of the built-in programs do work in background. Examples are the iPod program (you can listen to music while doing other things), the phone (keep a call going while you’re using other programs), mail (can download mail regularly), calendar (for reminders), etc. With iPhone 3.0, this feature has been added to Safari as well.

Let’s say you have a slow loading web page. Now you can go do something else while it loads – that can be reading another page, or using a totally different program.

This is probably a greater advantage on the older iPhones than the new 3GS, since the latter is quite speedy at opening pages. Still, a nice addition.