This is just Apple hype about Apple hype...

Perhaps what Apple is worried about is that folks will figure out that the iPhone differs from other non-Apple products only in its clever marketing and exterior styling.

Dear LW,

I recently listened to a public affairs discussion program on our local public radio station, KUNM, in Albuquerque. The topic of the day was on homelessness. One of the local experts made the statement that, on a regular basis, he encounters Vietnam War vets who've been homeless since shortly after they got back from the war. This statement shook me and it immediately lept to mind when I read your letter.

Perhaps your father is still dealing with the after effects of his service in Vietnam. Maybe you can try getting him involved in a Veteren's center, or something similar. Maybe the counselors there, many of them vets as well, can help.

Good luck!

My point wasn't that the iphone isn't more than a phone, but rather that its capabilities aren't unique. There are lots of handheld devices out there that run a "full blown OS." How is the iphone any different from those devices?

I've used Apples in the past, mainly for a job where the boss was an Apple-maniac. I found their user interface too cutsey and the OS impossible to sort out when it crashes. They are also expensive. Sorry, I gave it a try, but was unable to drink the kool-aid.

The point of my comments isn't really to bring up the Mac vs. PC thing. I said I've used Apples because you said I didn't. Apple users tend to think that non-Apple users just haven't tried the a Mac yet, that they are just ignorant of the supposed advantages of the Mac. In my case, its not true.

The point I'm trying to make is the iPhone doesn't do anything that other devices do. There are other multi-task devices that have been on the market for years (Blackberry, Palm, etc)and that have loyal followings. Granted, the interface on the iPhone is different, but the functions that all these devices perform are not.

I will say that I do own an iPod. When it was released, it was unique in both its function and interface. Others rushed to make their own digital music players, but Apple led the industry (and still does). I just don't see the iPhone being in the same position and being as groundbreaking as the iPod.

A year or two from now, Mac users will own iPhones. Everyone else will not. That's my prediction.

Also, the current Mac interface looks like it was designed by Pixar. :P

Dear LW,

Arghh is right.

Remove the old bat from your mother's home. Go get her and take her to one of her children's homes. Tell her she is no longer welcome at your mother's house. Change the locks. Stay over night for a few weeks to make sure she doesn't come back. Stand up for your mother.

Can't do that? Get power of attorney for your mother. Sell her house. Move your mother in with you.

The meek do not inherit the Earth, they get stepped on by people like your aunt. Get off your butt (and your computer) and go protect your mother.

So you think that Journey still sounds great and Sgt. Pepper's is dated? I think its the other way around. Journey's music has not held up very well over time. Listening to it now, I find that it sounds out of date and cheesy. There is plenty of music from the 80's that I can still listen to without cringing, but Journey is not in the category.

Salon should replace that pseudo-intellectual Paglia with Cary Tennis.

1. Academia be damned. A job in higher education is B.S. You work long, long hours for peanuts and a chance at maybe getting tenure so that you can keep working long, long hours for peanuts until you are dead. Move to the Bay Area and get a job as chemist at a semiconductor company. Let the girlfiend get the academic job. Someone has to raise the kids...

2. If she loves you, it will work out eventually. Take the job in Toronto. Opportunities like this don't come up very often and if you are going to make it in academia, you'd better jump on it. This post-doc could lead to that tenure-track position you know you want. Some other half-assed post-doc in the Bay Area just wont do. You and her both know it.

Of course, Toronto has a good p-chem program too. Compromise has to work both ways.