Recently I’ve been receiving a bunch of flack for my iPhone signature “Sent from my iPhone.” For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, the iPhone places this line on the bottom of all emails which are sent from the iPhone. BlackBerry does the same thing with “Sent from my BlackBerry” but for some reason the iPhone’s signature has really been looked down upon.

I really believe the price and hype around the iPhone has contributed to all the negative comments about the iPhone’s signature. For some people, receiving an iPhone message which follows with the signature “Sent from my iPhone” indicates the following about the sender:

• “They are a pompous ass showing off their iPhone
• “They have way to much disposable income”
• “Wow, this person drank from the Apple punch bowl”
• “They are too busy to send me a real email”
• “This person really has the need to tell me they are working hard”

OK, those are just a few of the negative spins on the signature. If you want to read more about the negative takes on the iPhone read Mitch Wagner’s article in Information Week. Mitch believes anyone who hasn’t removed the signature is a doofus. Nice use of doofus, Mitch!

However, I’m going to flip this argument around. I’m 100% behind the signatures because they tell me a different story. When I see someone has sent me a message from an iPhone or BlackBerry I make the following judgments:

• “OK, they have a mobile device so they have zero excuse for not getting back to me within 48 hours”
• “If their email is short and has typos I know why”
• “This person obviously likes to stay connected”
• “There is a good chance I’ll be able to reach this person during off-work hours”

Yesterday during lunch this discussion came up and Bruce had a great insight, why not just say “Sent from my mobile phone.” This signature leaves out the brand name and the negative associations that others my read into BlackBerry or iPhone. Bruce is totally correct; however being an Apple shareholder I’m also about marketing the products, so for now “Yeah, I sent it from my iPhone.”

Let me get this out of the way right now: I haven’t balanced my checkbook … ever.

However, recently after entering the stage of “real life” I thought it might be beneficial to start: budgeting my finances, tracking my credit cards, and generally trying to not get myself into horrendous debt. After coming to this conclusion I started looking for realistic ways to track my finances. Particularly ways that would take as little effort as possible.

Now, there is good news for someone in my shoes. First, there are about 10,000 programs available to do finances on the computer. Some are web based and some require a software installation. However, I have yet to find an online based finance tracking system (such as Mint) that doesn’t scare the hell out of me. This is because they require you to enter in all of your online banking information, including: usernames, passwords, account numbers, and bank security questions (i.e. an identity theft’s wet dream). Okay, so online money budgeting (as of now) is out of the question.

That leaves me to the software side of things, here’s my ideal goal for such a piece of software:

• Fast transaction entering. Preferalbly the ability to pull it from the web, but otherwise accept transaction importing via QIF or CSV files.
• Tagging. A must for working with purchases that belong in multiple categories (i.e. a dinner might be classified as: entertainment, drinking, a gift, and food).
• Fast searching. I don’t want to scroll through thousands of transactions to find what I did on January 10th, let me see that instantly.
• Bill tracking. I need to know what bills I have coming up and how much they are. Preferably I would like to have reminders that take me directly to an online payment site.
• Quick budgets. It’s nice to see a three month graph of my spending, but what if I want to see individual transactions and how I am stacking up for the current month’s budget? I should have this option.
• Security. I want to make sure only I can work with my finances.
• Usability! If the app is slow, the keyboard short cuts suck, or things are hard to find, I won’t ever use it. This app has to be easier to use than my iPod.

After doing a bit of research I came to the conclusion that there are no apps that do everything I want (particularly the online transaction gathering). However, there is one that comes damn close: Cha Ching. Cha Ching is a $40 app that is exactly what you would expect from a group of indie OS X developers. It is simple and intuitive. The application itself is just what I need, something that I can import transactions into and spend less than 5 minutes using per week. It does tagging that is inexplicably easy, not to mention it allows organization via smart folders. Meaning I can create dynamic (self-updated) groups of transactions based on price, tag, date, name, etc. What this means is that within seconds I can know exactly how much I have spent on gas for the month, or just how many transactions have taken place with the word “liquor” (hey! it’s just an example) in the title.

There is room for improvement with Cha Ching. For instance, it’d be awesome to be able to put a web address for online bill payment into each reoccurring bill reminder. Further, global search could work a bit better. Not to mention a find and replace function for transactions (imagine doing a find for the title “diamond shamrock” and globally applying the “gas” tag to it). Still, that said I am extremely impressed with Cha Ching and I hope it will be the answer to my finance tracking. I’ll check back in a few months and let you know how things are going.

Recently an article was published on A List Apart talking about the future of the DOCTYPE element and how browsers will render it in relation to web standards. In essence, the article discussed how developers have become used to certain browser rendering habits, and although they work within a standard framework, have not accounted for browsers in the future to display their websites correctly. Therefore, WASP suggests these browsers should continue to render like their previous counterparts unless specifically targeted to utilize current day standards.

First off, this line of thought is completely ignorant. The whole concept of web standards is to create a guideline that all developers can follow when producing websites. If developers stick to this guideline the consensus is that the browser (any version) should render pages correctly. Granted, some browsers (IE6/IE7/Safari1.2) have various issues rendering standard compliant code, but, in these cases, developers have found ways to target individual browsers and versions to make them work. For instance, utilizing conditional comments to target IE. The rest of the browsers: Firefox, Opera, Safari 2&3, Konquerer, etc. that actually follow web standards tend to look and act the same. There may be slight text rendering differences, or slight pixel variations, but for the most part functionality works and the website looks good.

The point is, standards work. So why in the world would we change the paradigm of how we implement them? It makes no sense to have a browser render pages like the previous version unless otherwise told.

The solution is simple. Target the browsers that have standards problems and apply hacks as needed. Otherwise, assume the “standard” will work and fully embrace it. If websites from the late 90’s break, so be it, you can’t impliment a standard without having non-standardized things stop working perfectly.

It’s like anything, if you want it to get better, you have to make a few sacrifices. If those sacrifices entail non-standards websites, then it’s time for that to happen. The web will be a better place. We have to stop placating people and force change for the better.

Why does it take design trends so long to catch up to the great designers? What I mean is recently I have been noticing that more and more people are embracing the “hand written type” for anything from ad campaigns to movies. This hand written type looks suspiciously like the design technique coined by one of my favorite graphic designers: Stefan Sagmeister.

If you don’t know who I am talking about, he is worth looking up. His eccentric, original, stirring design still hits a deep cord in my graphic design heart. When he returned to the states after a short design bout in Hong Kong, Sagmeister created his own unique “type face” where he would use his own handwriting instead of regurgitating the same type face in the same bland ways. Sagmeister even went as far as etching the words into his own skin (with some help).

Now, 10 years after this poster was designed do I start to see people utilizing Sagmeister’s techniques. The first time that I saw it was in the movie “Napoleon Dynamite” which used the concept of Napoleon’s doodles that is a running joke throughout the movie and added the spice of the handwritten type.

Most recently I have seen this style featured in an ad campaign for Noodles and Company pushing for the concept of “balance”. What I found most interesting about this is the fact that this concept of balance and symmetry is conveyed with an asymmetrical unbalanced typeface. I think that the reason this design technique is so exciting for designers is the fact that it reintroduces the human element back into a design style that it dominated by the computer. So maybe next time you are stumped about your design, try putting down the mouse and picking up a pen and paper.

Back in November the Rocky Mountain News posted a story that a potential big player has purchased the old StorageTek facility in Broomfield. The rumors in the story claim it would either be Apple, Google or eBay. Any of these three selections would be incredible for the Denver Metro region and especially good for the Technology sector in Colorado. While I’m a major Apple fanboy I’d have to say my vote and hopes are for Google.

Why Google?
I’m hard pressed to see why the other two would move to this area. What reason would Apple have for opening an office on 50 + acres of land in Broomfield? I can’t find one. eBay is certainly a possibility, especially if the work with nearby Level3 for closer ties to Level3’s network capabilities / backbone. As for Google; the Front Range is loaded with data storage and GIS based companies and very talented engineers. I could certainly see a situation where Google could be setting up to make a major push into the online data storage market to compete with companies such as EMC. A location in Broomfield, Colorado would allow the facility to be centrally located in the United States, it would give it a great backbone next to Level3 and it would pull from the existing local talent pool of excellent engineers.

That’s just my 2 cents.