Trailer: Kick-a**

Music: "I want you to (acoustic)" - Weezer ft. Sara Bareilles

Wow. I'm married. Still can't believe it. It's been a crazy past two weeks. Between wedding, honeymoon, and work the week after.... Well, I can't complain. Awesome wedding. Couldn't have picked a better day. Once I get my hands on the video, and the pictures, I'll post them up. Honey moon was good to. First night we did the Four Seasons in Dallas, just to relax. Then the next day was just packing and getting ready for our trip. It wasn't until we got boarding that I told her where we were going: San Francisco.

Day 1.

We landed and ate dinner at Muang Thai off of O'Farrell and Taylor. Really good food and tried Singha beer for the first time. Not bad at all. We stayed at the Hilton off of O'Farrell (across the street) the whole week, also no complaints.

Day 2

Breakfast we tried the place right next door to Muang Thai, this coffee shop. Excellent food, but a very small venu. We took a trolley down to the Fisherman's Warf area. Ate a breadbowl clam chowder in the Grotto area (the link shows the best palce to find one) and watched the Bush man scare the c**p out of people just down the street. Then took a cab to the golden gate and walked it. At the other side, we took a cab to Sausolito. Hung out there for a while, then sat in a cafe and waited for the ferry to take us back. Dinner was at this little pizza joint, which was OK food. The people watching there was good though, so it made up for it.

Day 3

This was the day we tried to go-car. Interesting concept. You rent this three-wheeler motorcycle and it's a self guided GPS tour of San Francisco. Went to all kinds of interesting places, like Stow Lake, Japenese Tea Garden, and a hundred other places that I can't even recall right now. Well worth the money and really fun to drive around and see all the places. For a late lunch we did Katana-ya Sushi place. Very yummy. Almost as good as my local sushi place. Took a nap, and then we did the horn blower yacht wining/dining/dancing--which was fun but more in watching the other (German/Chinese tourist) people dancing.

Day 4

Took a car down to Napa and did the wine train. Very interest. Larkmead vineyards joined us in the Dome car and the executive chef cooked us food specifically made for Larkmead's wines. Every Friday they do this, bring on guests from other vineyards and make a custom menu for them. After that, we drove to Cakebread Cellars, one of my fav's, and did their taste testing. Drove back and tried Castagnola's, which was a place I'd tried before in previous visits but... food wasn't that great. Taking into account how much we paid for it, it was horrible.

Very awesome trip. I always did like San Francisco, and it was cass's first time.  I'd highly recommend adding a trip to SF to your bucket list.

Side note, looks like my photobucket account got disabled somehow. Bye-bye signature. I'm trying to get it re-enabled. 

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Trailer: Sherlock Holmes

Music:  "I want more part 2" - Faithless

In the words of Penny in The Big Bang Theory.... "Holy c**p on a cracker".

I'm never drinking again.

You would think one bachelor party was enough. But no.

What about two?  Neh!

...Three? (unfortunately)

There is only so much my liver can handle.

I won't disclose any of the juicy details. Just know that if you are every in South Beach (Miami, FL), you MUST check out a place called Mangos. And if you happen to be in the Vodou room after midnight on Friday/Saturday... Go you.

Well enough about my deboutchery. Did you guys like the music video? That was when China was preparing for the olypics. Pretty cool, and I do love that song.

OK, so I've discovered two things today that boggled my mind. Both I can thank IntelGuy for  (thread found here).

First one is called ninite and it's basically a one stop shop for all the programs you normally install. But here's the cool thing about it, you pick all the programs you want and then it provides you ONE installation file. Not only that, but it will assume all defaults--and NOT install any crapware like toolbars--and it does it all with one click. Meaning, if you were like me today and recently had the work laptop re-imaged with Windows 7 because Vista was an EPIC FAILURE and made root go batshtcrazy over it like a monkey with a blue circle trying to fit it in a square hole.... where was I?

Oh yeah.

If you are like me and have a lot of application you normally use, it takes a LOT of time to 1) find them 2) download them 3) install them. This does it all for you. Now obviously there are some drawbacks to this, which I'm sure will get addressed in future releases. Three off the top of my head: it assumes all defaults (not always a good thing), not a whole lot of programs there, and last but not least it doesn't install anything addition from ninite (Read: a true package manager for Windows that can auto-update all apps for you like Linux does).

Which leads to the second thing. While I was poking around at the ninite site, I found one application I'd never seen before. BumpTop. A really slick UI for Windows, and if you are one of the very few that has hardware that supports Windows 7's multi-touch, some really cool features. But I have to admit, in trying out the free version, it's taking some getting use to since I'm a minimalist on my desktop (ala nothing is on it usually). I rely heavily in custom tool "bars" or folders on my start bar.

OK, so root has finally found a Windows OS that he likes. And yes, it's Windows 7. I mean, XP was simple enough--but that was the problem. It was simple. Now I'm not saying I'm switching, mind you. I still like my Linux. But I gotta tip my hat off to Microsoft. Their latest OS is solid. Although, I'm suspecting that this was all part of Microsoft's evil master plan. They've probably been working on Windows 7 since the XP days and tossed Vista out there (the Alpha version of Windows 7) just to show people how bad they can make an OS. Then "save them" with this awesome OS.

Oh come on, it crossed your mind at least once when watching this tv ad:

Speaking of "I kind of want" products, has anyone seen the new Android skin from Motorola? Well, actually two things from that company. There is the alleged iphone-killer Droid, which the hardware specs on it does raise a few eyebrows... but we'll see what the price is going to be at. Per my last prediction, I don't think Android is iphone-killer material yet. But I DO think it's taking one step closer to being at par. Which leads to the second part of motorola, the MotoBlur... which I'm assuming Droid will have it. It's a pretty slick UI for Android, which is what it's missing (asside from better hardware, better intuitiveness for the layman, and more sexiness). Click on the "Watch It" link. Pretty slick, that CLIQ.

Time to put on the Google hat. I just got done playing with Google Wave and I'm stoked. I wished my entire company could jump on this. If you haven't gotten the invite yet, just wait. If you have no idea what the F I'm talking about, and you have an hour and twenty minutes to kill (no really). WATCH THIS!

If you think that's cool, you've got to check out Google Voice. I'm still waiting for an invite to Google Voice (for a lot of months now actually). Here's a good video that sums up the high points nicely. Real slick.

Real overview... check out this for all the real slick features that they don't mention.

Gotta love the Google.

Well that's enough for today. I do realize I've said 'slick' one to many times, but that's my word of the day. Now I got to go do some wedding stuff and some house stuff. When did growing up suddenly made things so boring?

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Trailer: Surrogates

Music: "Tangerine Sky" - Kottonmouth Kings

I have a new goal in life... I want to work less but get paid more. 

You might wonder where I've been the past month or two. And to be honest, me too. Freaking work has sucked the life out of me. I feel like my new theme song is "Every Day is Exactly the Same" by NIN. While some people are afraid of change, I'm begging for it. Hopefully the upcoming bachelor party in Miami, and bachelor party #2 in Dallas, and the wedding on 11/1 will be a big enough 'change' to get me out of this funk. 

But enough about that. Let's move on to less depressing things. Like EPIC failures

...or http://www.nanowrimo.org/. 

Yeah, nonwrimo was a site PM'ed to me by a fellow writer. Really cool idea. If one of your hobbies is to write, I highly recommend taking a look at the site.  There are 20 days left until it starts. Basically you have 30 days to write a 50K word novel, and you have to start from scratch on the 1st. It's an interesting concept--don't worry about editing, just write and worry about throughput.

Speaking of awesomeness (not really a good transition but w/e), Android is gaining some more momentum (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/08/BU141A327G.DTL&type=tech). Did I call it or what?

Some other interesting tech related news:

• First Clown in space http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33262374/ns/technology_and_science-space/
• Sidekick does an 'oops'... again. I'd hate to be the Storage Administrator that did that upgrade. Can you say RGE (resume generating event)? http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/11/AR2009101100109.html
• Windows 8 and 9 to have 128 bit architecture (for the techno impaired, most machines are 32 bit right now, 64 bit is the 'new thing' and now 128 is coming out). http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/173442/windows_8_details_emerge.html
• Intel and nVidia are having relationship issues http://www.v3.co.uk/v3/news/2250968/nvidia-cuts-intel-amidst-legal 

That's it for now. Until next time... 

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Trailer: Gamer (drools)

Music: Shinedown - "Sounds of Madness"

OK, so the Root Technology Center (aka my NAS) got taken out by yours truly. One freaking command and all 5TB of video/music/etc of RAID5 goodness went bye-bye. And my backup script had failed 4 months ago so all the important personal data (like cass's Pictures) are gone.

Sleeping on the coach now.

Not the best month.

Note to anyone with an mdadm array, be VERY careful when you attempt to rebuild it. If, say, you accidently put one drive out of order, you can kiss your data good bye. No idea how my array got to that state in the first place (clean, Not Started) but I knew how to fix it. And by 'fix' I mean kill it (apparently). So a little peeved. They say bad things happen in threes, and that's definitely number 3. 

Sigh.

Well, on a positive note, I learned my backup script wasn't working (lol) and I get to recreate everything to be more optimized (proper LVM/XFS alignment). I might post up a runbook on it here shortly.

And I can't wait for Gamer to come out. Freaking awesome looking.

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Trailer: Hitman 

Old movie, but still love it.

Music Video: Killers - Hotel California  

I don't care about the purists out there, this is a damn good song.

Haven't posted in a while. Sorry about that. Crazy at work lately and my spare time has been consumed by wedding stuff. I've said this one before, but I'll say it again: I'd rather plan a data center move than plan for a wedding.

Honestly don't have much to write about. Started working a new book, haven't published on my writing dot com site yet, but I might when I have a few chapters flushed out. Aside from that, private life has been boring.

I did watch G. I. Joe. It was OK. Probably wouldn't have paid full price for it--but I might see the sequal that they are developing already just to see where they take the story line (fyi, nothing is after the credits). Also saw Transformers 2, worth full price but I wouldn't see it a second time. Same with The Proposal... the "Get Low" scene is hilerious.  

I will say, I REALLY want to watch The Gamer. What can I say, I'm a fan Death Race type movies (which BTW they are coming out with a prequel).

Speaking of new movies/trailers, have you ever looked at something and --- just couldn't look away?

Check this 'restricted' trailer out:

http://filminfocus.com/focusfeatures/film/thirst/

I don't know why, but I really want to see this.

I wonder when Ironman 2 comes out (new tabs it and googles). Oh man, 5/7/2010. Thats stil a ways away.

How the hell did this blog post turn into all about movies?

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Trailer:

Awesome.

Music:

Come on, you can't tell me you don't like that song.

So last Friday, cass informed me that about the Texas's mega millions (lotto) up to 80 million dollars. I did some quick math  (50 million cash value, 30 million after taxes), and started wondering what I'd do with 30 million. We've all had this conversation with ourselves at least once before. As I spent frivolously my theoretical millions, I came up with two interesting facts:

1) I wouldn't want people to know I won

Think about it. The moment you win, people expect you to pay for their dinners or just flat out give them money. It would change their perception of you--or you to them (because you are always guessing their motives). Or maybe I'm just paranoid like that. Bottom line, I wouldn't want them to know and I'd still live in the same place I lived.

2) I never want to become a millionaire

I was talking to a waiter at my favorite sushi place (Geisha) and she said she'd commit suicide. The head sushi chief and I laughed at her and told her she was crazy. But then, after going through all the things I would buy (and invest), I came to a sudden realization: I'd be bored out of my freaking mind. What does one do who has everything they need? I know I've become accustomed to a certain life-style, but if I had MILLIONS to spend, I wouldn't know what to do with it. There has to be some goal that would make me want to get up in the morning. And I hate to say it, if you had all the money you could ever spend, there wouldn't be many (desirable) goals. As crazy as it had sounded, maybe she wasn't so crazy?

So what do you think about this subject? Say someone could solve all your financial problems and you could have all the money you could possible spend (disregard the 30 mil figure, think bigger). Would you want it?

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Definitely summer time.

Is everyone eatting snowcones and chasing fireflies yet? Or perhaps floating down a river with a keg strapped to a float, showing off your brillant engineering/ducktape skillz?

It's a cool 97 degrees here in Texas and I'm starting to enjoy the summer time. Already hit the casino in Oklahoma and the lake for some party barg'in. Next up is patio barbq's and beers (aka bur's).

So what you are you doing this summer?

I'll tell you what I'm not doing.

Megan Fox.

God I hope Cassie doesn't read this blog.

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As most of you know, I have a love for good modern tango songs.

Since it's Friday, I leave you all with a simple post. A great song.

Enjoy.

Have a safe/happy weekend.

And for those of you looking to buy this song, good freaking luck.

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Trailer: Brick

Pretty darn good movie. I bought the DVD. Its... different from your average movie.

Music: Clair de Lune

So relaxing.

So lately I've been educating a friend of Cass's on all the movies she's missed. Keeping a relatively short story even shorter; I've told her that she has to watch a movie of my choosing each night she's hanging out with us. The first one we watched was Wanted. At the end, the main character says "What the F have you done lately?"

 She (Cass's friend who we'll call D) liked that part of the movie--something to think on. What HAVE you done lately, taking into account your life? For most people (who live monontonous lives) it gives us sudden realization of the potential they hold--of the oportunities we haven't taken--and well it makes you depresed.

Seeing how D liked those types of movies (makes you think about something you've never thought on), I popped in a classic: The Boondock Saints. As most of you who have already watched it, and seeing the title, you might know where I'm going with this. At the end of the movie, a reporter goes around asking people on the street what they think of them. I'd like to pose the same question to the two people that read my blog: "Would you be against someone going around shooting 'bad' people?"Judge, jury, and executioner all rolled up into one.

There seems to be three camps: 1) "Hell Yeah!" 2) "No, that's wrong" and my favorite 3) "No comment"

D picked camp 3, that looser.

I end this post about an interesting thread by Tracer76. Do you think the internet will stop being free and it will eventually turn into an itunes like cost model? And do you think it's the RIGHT thing to do? For those of you who haven't followed the Net Neutrality debate, Google 'Net Neutrality'.

Makes you wonder what the world will be like in ten years.

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Trailer:

Music:

I'm going to try and come up with a trailer and a music video for every post moving forward. We'll see how it goes--seeing as to how (in)frequently I post up, it shouldn't be that hard.

The trailer is for a movie called 9. Looks fantastic. Saw it a ways back when it first hit the internet. Can't wait until it hits theaters (9/9/09).

The music is by Gotan Project, one of my favorite bands, called "Mi Confession". Love it.

Anyways, what to blog about...?

Well let's start off with Wave. It's google's new little 'beta' project that has a LOT of potential. If you haven't checked it out already, I'd highly recommend watching the whole video. I know, it's long, but IMHO it's well worth it. The applications of such a tool is pretty wide. I can see myself using it daily. I wonder what will happen to gmail? And what about sites that rely on advertisement? This would circumvent it. Very interesting to see what the adoption rate will be. What are you're thoughts on it?

Special thanks to intelguy for posting it up.

Next up has to be the car I'm thinking about getting. Now before you start rolling your eyes about the time I wanted the hardtop convertible Miata (I know, I know, what was I thinking?), give me a chance.

So it's a Hyundai....

I lost you already didn't I?

Genesis Coupe.

V6 that puts out 306 ponies and starting at 25K. For the price, and for what you get, I think I'm in love. I'm waiting for the 2010 model which will (allegedly) have the GPS. Which leads to the discussion manual vs. automatic. Well as nifty as it would be to shift around that winding road near my parents place (BTW: awesome), I'm lazy. I'm not a hard core enthusiast so I'm OK with taking the man-card-hit and go automatic. Here is a great quick clip:

Go on. Drool. I know I did.

Or maybe you are still rolling your eyes saying "Hyundai!?!?"

Now half of you are saying this because of the brand's reputation (in the 90's). I insert (in the 90's) because the company has really turned around and their warranty is pretty darn good. The other half of you are nearly salavating at the mouths like a rabid dog because it's not an American company. So here is my take on it:

America is a capitalistic country. Capitalistic country means your success/failure is (for the most part) all your doing. So for the (insert American) car companies out there that didn't change with the times, and couldn't take the competition--why would I do business with them when their product isn't as great as a 'foreign' company? A guy I know at work, who is gun-ho about America (F#$k Yeah!), practically blew a casket when he heard what my next car will (probably) be. Why? Maybe it's the whole isolationism vs. interventionism. Or maybe it's because I'm a young 20 something year old and nieve. What do you guys think?

OK, long enough post. Hurry up and comment.

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Well this is awkward. I won the 2009 EMA award for best blog but I haven't blogged in... awhile.

But many thanks to all those who votes! To see the other awards/winners, check them out here.

So where is root going with his first post in a while? Is it about his new house? Nope. The new car? Nope. The wedding that's coming up (11/1/09)? Haha, no. Dare I say Swine Flu?

OK, no really. The title wasn't some randomness I sometimes throw in for giggles. I really mean to talk about swine flu. Some of you might remember the death of practicality  post. Well this post is (mostly) about the death of individual opinion. Who was scared of the swine flu back when it hit epidemic proportions on the news? Be honest and raise your hand. What about now? Still scared?

"What do you mean death of individual opinion root?"

I mean the news. Some of you might not believe in the local/national news, but in advertently you do (read: your friends who do). I don't mean to go so far out there as to beleive nothing in the news like some paranoid lunitic. 911 really did happen and wasn't some government hidden agenda. But these stories of clear FUDs? And actually I'm not just talking the news. Could be email. Could be anything. The infamous FWD emails. Snopes FTW! This is why I love shows like Mythbusters or sites like straight dope. There is always someone out there wanting to make a big deal out of nothing.

And that's the end of that rant.

Since this is (suppose to be) a technology blog, I'll end it with two things. Browser speeds - check it out. I use Chrome at work and like it alot. Funny how Safari actually won but the article is about chrome...

And have you guys been following RealDVD in court? If you like (cough) backing up (cough) your DVD's, I'd suggest you take a look at this. No decision has been made yet but there are some great arguements. What do you guys think about DVD backups for personal use? Comment below.

Well, time to go do some yard work. Ugh. I hate growing up.

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So safe to say 2009 will be the year root is MIA from eggxpert (and with good reason). Here's a collage of what's going on in my brain right now:

• Currently engaged, wedding set for 11/1. Root has come to realize planning for World Domination is ten times easier than planning a wedding.
• At the end of this month, root is moving into his first house with mrs. root--pending the inspection this coming Saturday.
  
• Root will not have any money in 2009
• Have you seen gmail's video chat? Or send sms text messages through gmail? Just two of the 15 or so new things from gmail labs, check it out.
• How about Google Latitude? Check it out right now, pretty freaking cool.
• Moving is on my top 5 things I hate
• Knowing how to do more means you have to do more (can be applied to just about anything).
• Work all day, play all night. Good idea on paper, not so much any where else.
• Taken is an awesome movie, up there with Borne Trilogy.
• Can't wait until Push/Watchmen comes out.
• Martin Campbell (Director of new Bond series) going to do Green Lantern? Sweetness.
  

 That's all for now. Back to work.

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For those of you who are looking for a FREE budgeting/alerting/reporting tool for your personal finances, this is the site you've been waiting for.

Here is how it works:

You give the site your logins to all your online accounts (savings/checking/401k/stocks/ROTHs/CDs/Money Marketing/Credit Cards/Car loans/school loans/etc) and it will log in with read-only access. Using the same security standards as banks, the site logs in and downloads all of your transactions/changes that's been done to your account.

Using other users tagging (the site has over half a million users), it will know which transactions fall under which categories (food, utilities, entertainment, etc). With this knowledge, it builds trending information and compares you to the average American. This gives you the ability to create personal (and REALISTIC) budgeting goals. Being able to consolidate all of your accounts into this reporting tool, you can see from a high level where you are going. You can also create alerts (email/mobile) on when you go over budget or when a large purchase hits. You can also have a weekly/monthly email of your biggest purchase for that week (among other things) as well as trending. And if you click on the Investments tab, it shows you how your stocks/mutalfunds/401k's are doing against the market as well as if you are making money or not (price bought at and what it's currently valued at). I also hear that if you use them for a full year, tax season is a little less painful.

Seeing there is no advertisement on the site, you might wonder how they make money. They will offer other options (credit cards/loans/etc) if they see saving opportunities and if you accept their option, they get a piece. It's basically like a financial advisor but automated and online.

So what's the downside?

The only one I can see is a (potential) security risk. They have security certifications from a number of respectable security companies and all the reviewers I've seen believe that they are as secure as any other online bank out there. Since they don't ask for your social or date of birth (you sign up with email/zipcode/password--that's it)... even if they did get a breach, the only thing that would get compromised is your online accounts (not your identity--unless those online accounts give them more). While this can be a huge issue with some online banking sites, for the most part, it's still difficult to do much with the access. A pain, sure, but so is any other online venture. I would, however, recommend using a password that is long, complex, and not something you use anywhere else since your email is easy to find.

Edit: Found out today that mint doesn't store your logins, they only store the transactions for trending/budgeting purposes. They use a third party (Yodlee) to login into your accounts--they are the ones the actually store your login information. Take a look at their customers:

http://www.yodlee.com/customerspartners_cu.shtml

 For more features, click here.

Saturday root got the G1 phone. Within 24 hours, the geek had conquered the phone. Here is his review:

For those of you that don't know what the G1 is, it's Google's new phone that has the new Android OS (uses a Linux Kernal). It has a flip out keyboard but also a touch screen and a track ball. 1G SD, expandable to 8GB <EDIT> 16GB now </EDIT>. Wifi, 3G/2G, GPS, and Bluetooth. Music player, google's browser (Chrome) for on the go websurfing (not to be confused with mobile spefic sites--this is a real browser), Youtube, POP/IMAP email client, Pictures, 3 megapixel camera, AIM, Yahoo Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, and the ability to sync to all your google account features (Gmail, Calendar, Contacts, Gtalk)

So let's get right into.

What's worth mentioning:

• Market Place. Android OS means it's open for developers to create apps/games. It's open to all, and with just a 25$ fee for the developers to get into the market place--a built in app that lists all the apps available to the phone--you can see the value straight away. Every day I check the market place and find 3-5 new apps out there. The developers to these apps are also constantly improving their programs with the feedback given to them by their users. This is very much like any Linux package manager but it takes it one step further with feedback directly to the developer. Bugs/Feature requests are heard, and new releases come out relatively frequently (depending on the developer really). 
• Apps. There are some truly great, innovative apps out there. Just to name a few: With ShopSavvy you can scan a barcode (taking a picture of it), use your GPS, and find the nearest/cheapest place to buy that product. Parkmark allows you to mark where your car is via GPS and later, after a long day's of shopping, find it again using a radar like screen or a google map. Maps, G1's built in google maps gives you realtime view of where you are at with GPS and directions to where you are going--or the ability to search around you for restraunts/shops while you are walking around. Brain Genius Deluxe, like the nintindo DS's brain age. ConnectBot, a putty-like application allows you to ssh into a server/switch/computer. Dial 0, a huge database of businesses and the automatic shortcut to getting to a human being immediately. Budget Droid, for on the go budgeting. Power Manager, sets rules as to what your settings are (brightness, wifi/3G/2G/bluetooth/GPS/etc) based on how much battery life you have left--allowing you to get the most out of your battery. Locale, which sets up rules based on your location and time of day as to when your phone is on vibrate/silent, or who/when can get your phone to ring (wife calling during a meeting vs your friend or 'that guy'). And of course, imeem, a free internet radio service (a second cousin to pandora)
• Desktop. The desktop has three screens: Left, Middle, Right. This lets you organize icons--or shortcuts--easily or supply widgets. But of course, you can always pull up the master list of apps.
• Search. It's what google does best, and they have a specific key for it on the keyboard. Touch it and it uses contextual searching (if you are in the market place, it will search apps, if you are in the gmail app, it will search your emails, etc)
• Unlock pattern. 9 balls in a square matrix that is the security screen to get in. While optional, very cool to use and very annoying on the gf.
• Track Ball. After a while of using the touch screen/keyboard, you learn to use the trackball as well--which is great for when you are browsing. Very similar to being your mouse.
• 2G. While slower than 3G, it is nice to have the option to only use 2G. Why? Well to conserve battery life.
• 6 in memory. This is both a pro/con--but more so pro for me. How Andriod is built is that it keeps the last 6 programs you've opened in memory. The 7th one (And beyond) get closed. Holding down the home button, you can do an alt+tab to any of the last 6 you openned. This is both good and bad. Great idea (your phone will run consistantly at the same level performance wise), but you don't have the option to specify certain apps being persistant and not allowed to close--like IM. I use Gtalk, AIM and Yahoo Messenger. Only Gtalk is always on. If the IM application becomes 7 programs old, it will automatically close it and log you off of AIM/Yahoo. Thankfully I have a laptop that I use for most of my chatting and only when I'm out and about do I log onto the IM program... and Gtalk is always on... but it's still annoying to not have the option for persistent or being able to close a program (always on until 7th one).
  

What's not great:

• Keyboard. Don't get me wrong, it's good. It's just that I'd like to have the option of having a soft keyboard. There are a few apps out there that can do it, but none are as asthetically pleasing or as good as the iphone/storm.
  
• Tilt. All the apps that come standard with the G1 (i.e. google's apps), do not tilt when you turn it sideways... only if you open up the keyboard will it go into landscape mode. Now I have seen many apps out there made by the developers that will go into landscape mode when tilted, even without the keyboard showing. So we know the hardware is there, it's just getting them to code it in--or at least giving us the option.
• No ActiveSync. For the corporate citizens, this is a major downer.
  
• Touchscreen. Sometimes it doesn't recognize my input. It's not enough to get me frustrated, but it happens enough to have it mentioned here. Mostly happens in the browser with the small links and on the edges of the menu screen.
• Built in Storage. I'm a KDE kinda guy, I like a lot of applications. Unfortunately,at this time, you can only store the apps on the internal built-in storage, not the 1GB SD card. SD card you can upgrade, just not the internal space. There is the option of jailbreaking it (post RC30), but for the layman that's difficult.
  
• Location of the USB Charger. A small thing but when charging the phone, the wire is in the way of using the phone for internet use (keyboard) for me.
• No 3.5mm Jack. You have to use the connector for charging the battery for the headset
• No Multitouch. Yet.
  
• Amazon, not iTunes. Which, really, if you don't have itunes music already, this isn't a big deal. Its just that for us iTunes people, who already have a lot of music already, can't play the encrypted drm stuff. Meaning we have to spend the time/money on burning CD's and copying them back to convert it into a non-DRM format. But I'd LOVE to be able to use iTunes, to be able to rent movies and watch it from my G1--but I know that wouldn't ever happen... and if it did, they'd require a wifi connection and that I wouldn't be able to dl it over the 3G network (amazon requires this when dl'ing music anyways).

Now most of the cons are software related issues that could be address in an upgrade or an app, but these hardware related issues is something that won't be fixed until G2 (or whatever the next version is) comes out. The greatest thing I love about this phone, though, is the apps and the developers. The applications you can use the apps for on the go is limitless. And since Google is marketing the Andriod to not just their product (G1) but to anyone that want's to use it as their OS (unlike windows or iphone's os). Now comparing this to iPhone would be silly. It has a long way to go from both a useability and style. But I will say this: In my mind, it's got windows by the balls.

Root's recommendation (strictly phone, not factoring in service): Not worth full price, but worth it if purchased with a contract (or second hand from a trusted, cheaper source). If you want customization and you are OK with banking on the future--with a limited budget for this type of phone--go for the G1. If you want something stylish, better storage, has better hardware (IMO), great for the simpleton, and you don't have a limit on the budget, go iPhone.