After all my complaints about things, I felt I should highlight a success. My Kinesis keyboard started acting funny. Actually, it has a few minor problems: the Escape key doesn't always register, and sometimes it goes into caps-lock mode when I press one of the keys in the vicinity of caps-lock. But this was a new and more serious problem: the r key went wonky. When I pressed it, I got somewhere between zero and about five r's. I cleaned it up and the problem persisted. I started to panic. I emailed their support line and got an answer in less than an hour, to try a hard reset. I did that; it didn't fix the problem, but did force me to figure out how to restore my customizations (this time I wrote it down). So I called, and they asked if it was under warrantee. "Maybe." The serial number was worn off, because I type with the keyboard in my lap, but they were able to look it up based on the purchaser, even though that wasn't me. (Thanks, Lars!) It was about 19 months old, and so still covered, so they sent me a replacement unit for the right keywell free of charge ($35 + shipping otherwise). The next day, the r key mysteriously worked fine, but the arrow keys stopped working. A hard blow to the case made that problem go away, and it's been fine since. The replacement part showed up a few days later, but until more problems crop up I won't disassemble the keyboard to use it. Still, it's a nice security blanket, and great service from Kinesis.

I also picked up some new headphones to replace the uncomfortable and defective iPod earphones. Most of my listening is in one of two situations: on my bicycle, where I listen to books on tape but only with my right ear; or on the train, where I want to drown out the cell phone conversations, redundant announcments, and snoring. I ended up at the bottom end of the in-canal products, the Ultimate Ears Super.fi 3. Ear canal headphones get put inside your ear like an earplug, and block out all of the other sound, like an earplug. The two big brands are Shure and Ultimate Ears. You can spend up to $900 on these, and if you go above $200 you have to get custom molds from an audiologist. The pair I got is $100, and they work exactly as well as I imagined. When I got them, I opened them up, read the instructions to figure out how to get them in my ears, plugged in the iPod, turned the volume way down, went out to the balcony, started the music, and got a big big grin on my face. The sound quality is excellent, both because the earphones are very high-quality and because they block out other sound. I was able to hear for the first time the electrical noise in the iPod circuits, a squealing and hissing when it's on but nothing's playing.

So far, the only problems I've found are inherent in the design:

• They get a bit uncomfortable after 30 minutes or an hour, just like earplugs do. They are more comfortable than the iPod buds, though.
• Even if you stop the music, you can't hear very well unless you remove them from your ears.
• Bumps and scrapes along the cord, such as when you turn your head, get transmitted into your ears.
• If you are walking, especially on pavement, the thud-thud of your tread is very noticable. I suspect this would be much worse for jogging, though on a bicycle they are okay.

In case you missed the diplomatic incident between fictional Kazakhstan reported Borat and the real government of Kazakhstan, and you missed the MTV Europe music awards that ignited the feud, here are some of Borat's comments:

At the press conference
"My 13-year-old son is travelling here by foot, with his two wives and his three childrens." "If he survives the journey I have promised him that he can make penetration with Colombian prostitute Shakira."

In interview with the BBC
"Unfortunately my wife was unable to leave Kazakhstan as she is a woman... this is a good news, she is a boring. High Five!!!"

To finish the show
"To the world, I love you! Apart from Uzbekistan. Assholes."