This past week I was in Boston, and with the snow storm coming across the Midwest to New England, I wanted to get an idea if I was flying home as planned. On Tuesday morning at 6:30 am Eastern (5:30 am in Chicago) I grabbed some coffee and started up my friend's browser on what ended up being an unscientific quest by a person still waking up to find out the forecast for the Windy City.

My first stop was the Web site for WMAQ, or NBC5 as they prefer to be called. My lovely wife and I just about always watch this station for news. I had been to their Web site before, and though I am not a fan of its layout and design, it's where I started. On the home page there were large red bars across the middle with links to school closings and weather alerts – easy to see with just a few sips of coffee. But as I clicked onto what I saw as the Weather Plus page, the entire Web page started scrolling, and I wasn't touching the mouse! It was an ad for GM for the Auto Show that was expanding before my eyes. As I hadn’t found the forecast, I decided to move on.

After a few more sips of coffee, I ended up on WLS's Web site, or ABC7 as they prefer. There I found weather headlines, just not as bright, and a link to watch a video forecast... from Monday night. At that time, there must have been a video clip available from the morning show, right? Sip more coffee, time to move on.

My next stop was WGN's Web site, who does go by the acronym for the World's Greatest Newspaper. However, they have 3 stations, so at wgn.com I was presented with a plain page with their 3 logos – Channel 9, AM 720 and the Superstation. Choosing the first one, the first thing I saw was a link to a video clip of Tom Skilling... from Monday night. What gives? They have a morning show too. Got another cup of coffee, and moved on.

What ended up being my last stop was the Web site for WBBM, or CBS2 as they prefer. Right front and left of center was a link to a video clip... of a weather forecast from about 15 minutes ago. Yea! As I was watching the video, I took a closer look around the site and saw a clean design, mostly text, with an RSS feeds link at the top of the page.

This was not scientific, and I did not go to WFLD (or Fox Chicago) or CLTV, Chicago's answer to CNN Headline News, as the sites came to mind as my mind was slowly awakening. I finally got my weather forecast, as disappointing as it was, and a new source for news in Chicagoland.

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Why is the "power" button on the LodgeNet TV remote control on the bottom of the remote? Sure, it’s green, but it’s relatively small as compared to the large, round "menu" and "order" buttons at the top of the remote.

Why is the design of the remote control that you find in just about every hotel different that the paradigm of just about every remote control found in your home? So much for that “home away from home” feeling.

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There are purely cross-browser Web sites, ones which can be viewed and function the same no matter the browser brand or version they are viewed in. Then there are Web sites that have small quirks or functionality that only work in some Web sites.

Then there are some that only work in one browser. When someone who builds Web sites thinks about this, they typically chalk it up to bias or sloppy work on the part on a single developer/designer. But Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer? TechCrunch has the screenshot of what Wal-Mart's new video downloads site looks like in the Firefox browser.

After walmart.com was down most of Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) last year, why does this not surprise me?

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Podcasting has been of mind lately, as I pondered an accompanying podcast to The Hot Iron blog. A monthly or semi-monthly podcast featuring highlights of recent posts and perhaps some unique content was my running thought.

Then along comes a new, free service to automatically convert the words of blog posts to an audio file. Odiogo takes my RSS feed and creates an MP3 file with a digitized voice reading the text of each blog post. About a week after signing up for the service, I am in the program, and MP3s of the last ten posts are now available – you can follow this link to Odiogo or subscribe to their feed.

How does it sound? You can tell it is a digitized voice, but it is very clear and it speaks "difficult" words well, like Maddaloni. I put my last name, which people have been mispronouncing all my life, into my last post to see how it sounds, and it was better than I have heard from many people. The service is free to bloggers, and there is an ad program available to blogs with high traffic, sounding similar to Feedburner’s ad program.

Give it a listen and I am eager to hear your feedback.

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Last month, after much thought and dragging friends through my thinking, I bought a Palm Treo 680 smartphone. It coincided with my switch to T-Mobile. It has been a good month using the phone, and here is my feedback and rants about the device.

My decision to buy the 680 is built on my 10+ years of using a Palm handheld device, including the Treo 600 I had for the last 2 years. Though not multi-threaded and simple in the minds of many, I like the Palm operating system, or whatever it is called these days. Oh, and I should say that I did purchase the phone, and it was not given to me and I am not writing this in return for the freebie.

Here’s what I like best about the 680:

• I lock my device, and when you power it on, you see the date and time, which is why I turn it on half the time.
• The nub antenna, an ugly mainstay of other Treo models, is gone.
• The SD card slot is on the side with a protective cover, meaning it won’t pop out when I lightly tap the phone.
• When I switch it to silent mode, the phone vibrates to confirm.
• I was able to buy an unlocked phone (directly through Palm) which means I can use it anywhere in the world no matter the provider.
• As it runs the Palm OS, I was able to charge the battery, HotSync it and all my information was there with no problems, though I did backup the Palm database folder on my PC just in case of problems.
• I can hear much better on it than on my old 600.
• It supports video, unlike the 600, and its quality is ok for quick video clips.
• The cradle charges a spare battery.

And here’s what I am not a big fan of on the 680:

• Low battery life, which is drained quite a bit by Web surfing and Bluetooth. Get a spare battery and charge it in the cradle.
• The email program does not allow you to change the font sizes and is small for my aging eyes.
• The red or hang-up button is used quite a bit, especially when unlocking the phone, however it is a tiny button for something that is used a lot.
• The green or dial button is NOT used much, especially as you can start a call without it, and just sits there.
• There is no reset button, a long mainstay of the Palm, and you have to yank out the battery to reset the device.
• The earphone jack is still on the bottom, which means you can’t charge the phone in the cradle and use an earpiece.

These are a things with which I am indifferent:

• Bluetooth – I've received mixed reviews over the Bluetooth earpiece from people I talk with, but I bet the first time I print from the device I will be happy.
• The model number – 680. Why? Palm went from the 600 to the 650 to the 700, then back to the 680. It does look a lot like the 750 which is available outside the US – is it the same?

Overall I like my phone, a vast upgrade from my old one, and I recommend it to anyone who does not need CrackBerry push mail and a nice looking, serious smartphone.

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