PLEASE NOTE: the following bit contains information about the iphone, including (but not limited to) my opinion about the iphone, thus rendering it of little consequence to basically anyone on Earth.

So I had an iphone, for about 24 hours. The virtual keyboard was a total dealbreaker. Maybe my fingers are too fat, maybe they have been spoiled by the tactile feedback afforded to me by my blackberry… regardless, the iphones’ input method was a dog. I mean yeah, you go to the apple store, you play around with one, and perhaps you think (as I did), “wow, that iphone is quite a sexy litte number”. But the thing did not stand up to actual standard use.

Then also, the whole lack of text-selection and copy-paste, and the interface quirkiness (it’s all very well thought out, as anyone will tell you, but that is exactly the problem: it is well thought out, but that hardly guarantees intuitiveness to anyone who is less than 100% cerebral in the manner in which they use their fingers) and the rather strained ichat metaphor for txting… and, and, and. It’s cute, but it fails. Plus, what is with the email options? It will check for new messages either a) never; b) once every 15 minutes, or c) once every half-hour??? What the fuck am I, twelve years old???? My ugly-ass blackberry (to which I have reverted) gets my email as soon as you fling it at me.

Plus, you know, six hundred dollars is class money.

Yeah so yeah. I didn’t drink no Kool-aid. Just so you know. You wouldn’t think that, necessarily, given that you can’t swing a dead cat in my personal living space without knocking over at least 8 or so apple products, but anyway no. Not this time.

Anyway. It’s been a pretty good summer, despite the fact that I spent most of it completely freaking out and acting generally antisocial. For a while there, I didn’t really want to do anything except draw letters and write code. I was fortunate enough to live near Christian (and indeed I still am, for a few more weeks), cuz he would drag me out and make me drink beers, even when I was maximally clammed up. He would then altruistically permit me to effusively babble on about whatever it was that I was thinking about at the time (usually type design) while graciously and generously not smacking me in the face. Really, I couldn’t ask for much more.

So yeah yeah. A few more projects to wrap up, and then it will be fall. I suppose this was my last “summer break”, but really I had such a blast doing actual work, such that the very idea of a “summer break” is complete moot. I am ready for the REAL WORLD, again; bring it on I say. I do have to get through this nastay thesis thing, and then ok yeah. Yeah! I’ll see you back here next year… you can buy me a beer at Enid’s, and I’ll draw a typeface for you. Yes.

FWIW, someone who is not me was able to a) negotiate the purchase and activation of an iPhone (a very complex affair involving multiple high-stress phone calls to break up with verizon) and within the hour b) decipher the interface, with no prior experience, fat fingers and all, to purchase MF DOOM tickets online, all this with a head full of 250mg of mescaline hydrochloride. that has to be a testament to the user interface, of some sort.

no. that is a testament to a) how awesome MF DOOM is and b) the natural human desire to overcome the hideous obstacles created by hallucinogenic drugs. I dare this non-you person to pull some double-blind shit, with like a panoply of chemicals and/or interfaces. yeah!

are you proposing a DARPA-style grand challenge of pharmacology? a race to the south pole using nothing but iPhones, blackberries, and treos, subsiding on a diet of electric kool aid laced with variously substituted phenethylamines and tryptamines (plus placebo)? cus if so I will be in the pole position and i will WRECK YOU

indeed I am throwing down that exact gauntlet. you definately are in the ‘pole position’ as regards kool-aid consumption, judging from your pointedly punctillious capitalization of the ‘p’ in ‘iphone’. but yeah it’s on. I’ll out-txt you so hard, you’ll collapse into a black hole. SCIENCE!!