Most reviews give the reviewer a very short amount of time to look at something and then tell the world what they think of it--not enough time to find all those little quirky things you're used to doing with your gear that wouldn't come up in day one.

So, after a month of having the Helio Ocean, James Bond ringtone and all, here's 5 and 5 on either side:

I like...

1. The form factor and design of the hardware itself.   The double slider is fantastic.  I can dial numbers like a normal human with ease and type e-mail in a separate place.  Its sturdy and scratch resistant as I've been keeping it in the same pocket as my keys and that did a number on my Treo in the past.  And, the thing is, with a phone, you have to imagine the hardware is more important than the software because that can always be fixed, upgraded, added upon, etc.  If you don't like the actual brick itself, there isn't a lot you can do with it.
2. Built in apps.   Doing offline gmail on the subway is heaven and its hilarious to answer a "Whatcha doin?" IM on AOL with "Walking down Broadway." 
3. The price.   I'm all about getting value for my dollar and paying $65 pretax for unlimited texting and high speed data... I thought it was a misprint.  That and the phone was only $250.  I don't think I'll ever spend $600 on a phone again... certainly not if its coming out of my pocket anyway.
4. Integrated multimedia.  When I send photos to Flickr by e-mail, it asks if I'd like to get something out of my photoalbum, rather than having me chase down folders and directors like Win Mobile did.  That's the good thing about a closed system... everything on there is meant to work together and it does nicely. 
5. Gaming.  I've already won the championship in the poorly named Derek Jeter baseball game on this platform... and rented it twice for 99 cents a week.  Its 7 to buy, but I think I'll get tired if it before than.  Buying a game and paying for it was a snap, and the graphics and speed are great.  The Mets could use a 2 hitter like F. Suarez on Brooklyn.  :)

I don't like...

1. Calendar/contact sync...  coming soon?   I'd love for someone at Helio to tell me when they plan on supporting Exchange sync for calendar and contacts.  That would tip me off as to what kind of solution I should be searching for in the meantime.  Would it kill them to let us know?  I mean, I bought the phone because I trusted the "coming soon" would come through... the longer it goes, the more likely it will be that I'll try to get out of my contract b/c of false advertising...   six months is not coming soon to me.  Coming soon is a month, maybe two.  In the meantime, I had to manually upload contacts, which didn't work 100% and I have no mobile calendar integrated into the phone, which is killing me.   
2. The menu architecture is screwy.  I miss the Start menu from Win Mobile... mostly b/c I could put my favorites in it.  I spend most of my time texting, Gmailing, Google Mapping, and snapping photos...   I want to be, at most, two clicks from that, but I'm an extra click and maybe two.  First, the menu that shows when the phone first comes on is just blank and pointless.  I have to hit the Menu key to get Helio's graphical menu, which gives as much real estate to buying music and videos as it does to the camera, which might be good for others, but not for me, so I want to be able to change what's on that menu...  or Favorite past it entirely.
3. Phone home?  Go back to the first screen.  This is a phone, correct?  So how come when I'm on any other menu other than that blank pointless first screen, I can't activate the phone app by pressing the green phone key?  That's silly.  I have to hit back like four times sometimes to get to the first menu to be able to make a phone call.  Also, when I go straight into my contacts, pick a contact, and click the "Call" link via the middle button, it doesn't work.  Same when that call button pops up when I'm in my e-mail and it autodiscovers a phone number...  clicking call just takes you back to the rotating Helio menu and does nothing.  Didn't anyone QA this thing?  That needs to be fixed.
4. Autotyping.   Can I turn this off?  I'm using to hitting the Shift key on my own things, and also not expecting when I do hit shift at the beginning of a sentence, because it autoshifts for me, when I hit it again, I go into Caps Lock accidently.  I can't tell you how many times I do this.  Its not saving me any time.  Plz turn off, kthx, bye.
5. No blogging tools.  Writing, reading, nothing.  I really really miss my Newsgator mobile, which I suppose is a bigger problem thant they don't use a platform someone can write useful apps to, but this is the one that bugs me the most.  Seriously, how much would it cost them to build an RSS reader?  If they built a nice one (and got that Exchange thing fixed) they'd get so much more viral marketing through geek channels than their ridiculous marketing campaign is getting them.
6. EDIT:  Oh, wait, one more thing, but this is a Sprint network issue or maybe just a phonewide issue... b/c it used to happen on my old phone...  When I go into the subway and then come back out, it will not reconnect on the data side unless I turn the phone on and off.  If I come right out of the subway, and then try to sync anything... nothing happens.

Bonus:  Don't call it a phone.   Helio has the most ridiculous marketing campaign I've ever seen, mostly because it does nothing to actually sell the product.  Just a big blue flame, picture of the phone, and the words "Don't call it a phone" does nothing for people.  Most people scratch their heads and go, "Well, isn't it a phone?"  It is a phone, trust me.  I have it.

Instead, I would write....  Unlimited texting, IMing, e-mail for a limited price...$65 a month + $250 for the phone.  I'm pretty sure that would get more people in the door.

All in all, if they fixed Exchange, you'd have a much more serious market for this phone, b/c that's the most important thing a lot of people want to do.  The little nit picks about menus and extra clicks aren't so bad at all and I like the phone... its just not making me as productive as I could be.

Blogging, RSS reading, and Exchange sync please!

Beautiful day at the office, originally uploaded by ceonyc.

I'll be here until 4 today..

Wedding Hors d'oeuvres: I can haz cheezburger?, originally uploaded by ceonyc.

Little tiny ones!

Oil change for Vroom!, originally uploaded by ceonyc.

15,115 miles... Time for oil change #5. The guy says I need a power steering oil, too... How the heck do I know? This car eats various car liquids like there's no tomorrow.

• Lunch 2.0 - The Recap - Zillow Blog - Real Estate News and Analysis
  Makin' headlines across the country!
  (tags: zillow bloggers seattle crosscountry)

Link: {mikeoliver.org} » Blog Archive » Proud to be a Lord Jeff.

Amherst will be replacing the student loan portion of all students’ financial aid packages with a scholarship.

• Stage6 · Refuse Life · Charlie Brown? Manga designs woah, what the fuq!
  (tags: charliebrown anima manga)

My godmother, who I call Aunt A, always remembers my birthday.  So, even though it is actually next week, when I stayed at her house last week, she got me a cake...

This is Aunt A...  her kids have guinea pigs.  Guinea pigs are surprisingly Web 2.0, because they are lightweight, flexible, and have feeds. 

I'm a little bit bleery eyed from not sleeping on the redeye last night, so yes, these are out of order.  Don't know how Redeye VC does it.

We got to spend a day and a half in Yellowstone on our trip and it was really amazing.  We came in through the east entrance via Rt. 16 and stayed at the Grant Village Hotel.  The accommodations were simple but sufficient.  Then, the next day, we spent the whole day working our way north, seeing geysers, waterfalls... all sorts of natural phenomena.  One thing I didn't know about Yellowstone is that the whole thing is sitting on a very thin layer of the earth's crust... making it a haven for hot springs, boiling mud pools, etc.  The springs spew minerals of all sorts of different colors making for some amazing formations.

So, here goes...   First, this is one of the first things we saw when we came into the park.  A Buffalo came perilously close to the EuroPod:

We missed Old Faithful by 5 minutes, but caught this other guy just in time:

Mere has a lot of family in Butte... and that's where her parents grew up, so we made a stop there and stayed with her aunt.  Sorry to take so long to catch up, but this was the Saturday before last.  I had been having too much fun in too many places without wifi to keep up the vacation blogging.

Butte's an interesting place.  Called "the richest hill in the world", Butte was a copper boomtown that  peaked in 1917 and  started to significantly decline in the 50's and 60's.  That didn't stop mining companies from erasing a section of town called Meaderville in favor of a big gaping pit for copper excavation.

The pit closed in 1982 and is below the water line, so it continues to fill with toxic water to this day.  While some residents have renovated Butte's old "copper king" mansions and there are some people moving back in to start new businesses, the big pit is really a sad symbol of what we've done to the environment and how quickly one-industry towns can fall.

On the very bright side, however, Mere's Aunt Gretchen was a very gracious host and gave us a great tour of the town's history...and treated us to breakfast at the M&M.

Scott Gatz is thinking exactly what I am...   Facebook is not LinkedIn.

Lots of people who are new to Facebook have been friending me that I would consider more professional contacts... some people I don't even know.

Its not that I don't want to be connected to them, but I agree with Scott when he says,

"I’m turning down invitations from people I know well. I’m clicking “REJECT” to those professional contacts. I want my facebook to be my closest friends (professional and personal). I want it to be a fun place, I want to know what music they are listening to, what they are doing, restaurants, fun stuff. I’ll use a professional network for those professional contacts. I want to keep facebook fun! ...

Since I do want to be friends with you (I like you, trust you and want to keep in touch), I’ll kindly invite you to LinkedIn instead. So don’t be surprised to get a REJECT from Facebook and a INVITE from linked in."

I couldn't have said it better.

I mean, how likely is Jeff Jarvis going to change his Relationship Status?  For Jeff's sake, that should be like watching paint dry.   

The hard thing about all these social apps is that the lines between professional and personal get blurred... so I visit some bloggers in Louisville on my vacation, but others remain in my RSS reader.

So, please don't be surprised or offended if I don't accept your Facebook invite... I'd rather connect to you here on LinkedIn.

Who knew one would need such a thick skin in Web 2.0?

From Vault.com's take on VC...   (My comments in parenthesis)

Venture Capital uppers

1. You often get to be the one making decisions because you have money.   (Except when a deal is a good deal, of course... I mean, you *could* decide to pass on Twitter, but then you'd be an idiot)
2. Over the long term, you will certainly become rich because the job is well paying and you should eventually get "carry" or equity in the firm.    (Yup... all VCs become rich.. every single last one of them... except of course if you suck at it.)
3. Being "in the middle of it all" in some of the most interesting industries.  (Ok, I'll give them that...)
4. You have access to the best minds -the people you work with are typically very smart and interesting.    (As an analyst?  hmm...  :)   )
5. Your job is to absorb and enjoy the positive creative energy of entrepreneurs and direct it toward successful execution.     (What exactly does that mean?   I couldn't imagine sitting at my desk in reception at USV and telling Brad and Fred, "I'll be absorbing and enjoying creative energy for the rest of the afternoon")
6. You could suddenly become rich if one of your companies does extremely well and you were able to co-invest or you have carry.   (You could also stand in a field with a big metal pole during a lightning storm...)
7. You have access to the best information systems.    (Really?   All I got at USV was a laptop and a phone...   Isn't the whole lack of information what enables outsized returns in VC?)

Venture Capital downers

1. You don't have pride of ownership in anything. You're just an investor, not a builder.   (I'm pretty sure ownership is what you get when you hand someone a check... unless I'm completely mistaken about what "equity investment" means.  Also, a quick read of VC blogs will show you that there is no lacking on the pride side.)
2. VC is a slow path to wealth compared with the immediate cash income you get in investment banking, hedge funds or even management consulting.   (No, book publishing is a slow path to wealth.  That's like saying the guy who finishes 22nd in the Tour De France was too slow of a cyclist.)
3. You are a jack-of-all-trades, not an expert. After a few years, you can't do anything other than VC because you grow spoiled by making decisions without much compromise.  (And your muscles atrophy, too... from all that absorbing and enjoying...)
4. Venture capital is fundamentally a negative process. Because you reject 99 of every 100 plans, year after year, over time you focus on figuring out what is wrong with a company so you can reject it and get onto the next deal. What is wrong with the management? The technology? The deal terms? The strategy? After just a few years, that mentality may bleed into your life. What is wrong with my partners? What is wrong with my spouse? What is wrong with me? Oh, the angst!   (I really need to know which VC they interviewed to get this answer.)
5. Because you reject 99 of every 100 entrepreneurs, you make a lot of enemies, no matter how nice and helpful you try to be. No one likes rejection, and passionate entrepreneurs have long memories.    (Yes... that's why so many VCs are killed in the line of duty--like a passionate district attorney putting thugs away.)

(Remind me again how this is helpful to a college student or young person starting their career...)

I'm getting this weird sms response anytime I attempt to twit.

I can receive twits, but when I try to send, I get this weird "invalid number" response that tells me that I need to sms to 10 digits or use a valid short code. If you have any idea whats going on please twitter me.

I just got into California today and will be heading to SF tomorrow.  We've got a full day with friends and family, but we'll be setting up shop at Kennedy's at 9:30PM at night.  Feel free to stop by and say hello!

Mere & Charlie Meetup
Saturday, July 14th
9:30PM

Kennedy's
1040 Columbus Avenue
(between Chestnut St & Houston St)
San Francisco, CA 94133

I'm sorely behind in my tripblogging, mostly because we have such a packed schedule that I didn't really leave time for blogging (good to see I have at least one priority in order...).  However, my pics are mostly up to date here.

Just wanted to let Bay Area folks know that we'll be planting ourselves somewhere for drinks in SF on Saturday night, most likely in the North Beach area... I'd guess around 9ish.   Would love to catch up with blog friends, real friends, etc...

In the meantime, thanks to Drew and Dave from Zillow for inviting Mere and I to Lunch 2.0 yesterday.  It's sort of like a Tech Meetup only its kept to 50 and held in someone's office during lunch, obviously.  Zillow's got a really impressive operating going (and a sah-weet view) and the Seattle tech scene is really buzzing.   

• Master of 500 Hats: Marketing Facebook Apps: All About the FEED, n00bs!
  (tags: facebook)

Even though I'm behind on my road trip blogging, I'm going to break for some thoughts on why this bubble isn't like what was experienced the first time around.  My experience with the first bubble was watching it all fall apart from a fund investor perspective at an institutional LP.  We dove deep into trying to assess the damage and try and figure out what actually happened to try and separate the smart VCs from the bad ones--at a time when everyone's performance was completely underwater when we started evaluating the next bunch of funds that came back to market in 2003 and 2004.

There are some marked differences that I was talking to someone about today worth noting:

One of my best friends is from Wyoming and she's always tried to get me out there.  Well, Deirdre, I finally got to see it, even if it was without you and after your fam has moved away... better late than never. 

I have to say, I was totally missing out.  July 5th was our big driving day (I'm  a few days behind in posting)... 11 hours from KC to Sioux City to Sundance, Wyoming.  Sundance, just so you know, isn't where the film festival is.  That's in Park City, Utah, for some reason. 

Anyway, by the time we got out there, we were dead tired.  That's what made the surprise jacuzzi so perfect.  We stayed in this great little cabin with a jacuzzi on the front porch.  Every day of driving should end with a jacuzzi. 

In the morning, we played in the fields and hills around the cabin, and then went off to see Devil's Tower.

Well, this answers the question of whether the shirt I'm wearing right now as I blog this was clean or dirty when I pulled it out of the suitcase.  Oh well.

The EuroPod (which is what I've been calling our Tribeca because of its bizzare design) and our cabin.

When I was planning our trip, everyone told me that I had to go see the Badlands.  I had heard of them, but really didn't know what they were or why they were so bad.  It sounded like something out of Mad Max, and to be honest, that's not so far from the truth.  Turns out, the Badlands were basically the bottom of a huge body of water that sat in the middle of North America for hundreds of thousands of years.  Receding water carved out these amazing rock formations  in the middle of nowhere, creating something that really needs to be seen to be experienced.

More photos of the Badlands here.

Ok, catching up... I posted the flat tire pic, and for those keeping up on Twitter, we did manage to get out of Sioux Falls, but I had some other pictures that I wanted to post.  Its a nice little town with a cute main street.

Thanks to the folks at Graham Tire for getting us back on the road!