The Motorola v600 has a "currency converter." You enter in the exchange rate, and it computes the amount of money after the exchange. In other words, it's a calculator, renamed.

Mobile phones already receive updates over the network. These updates frequently concern the way the phone communicates with cells. Why not take it a step further? The phone should receive updated currency exchange information for the country you select, so you automatically get a good estimate without having to look anything up.

"Yankees Classics" on the YES Network began as a great idea. It meaning has gradually eroded with time.

If I flip to YES, I can pretty much recognize the game in which Ron Guidry recorded 18 strikeouts or Dave Righetti's no-hitter. But tonight I turned on YES and saw that this "classic" was from June 13, 2004-- the return of David Wells to Yankee Stadium with the San Diego Padres.

Classic? Come on. Maybe they should just start showing the current game instead.

At its core, much of weather is attributable to the atmosphere trying to achieve the impossible: equilibrium. With that in mind, following a week of extremely quiet weather here in New York City, it's no surprise things are turning unusually active.

At least some parts of the area--along with southeastern New England--have a chance of very heavy rain and gusty winds Monday night into Tuesday. This is the result of not one, not two, but three separate influences including two tropical systems.

First, a cold front is moving in from the west. That's nothing new. But second, remnants of Tropical Storm Gaston are moving north-northeast from the Carolinas, and the tropical moisture interacting with the cold front is likely to amplify any rain.

But that isn't all. Today, another tropical storm formed--Hermine, currently located between Bermuda and the Carolinas. The storm center should stay relatively intact over the warm water south of Long Island as it moves north. Even if it curves out to sea, upper level steering winds should take some of its moisture and throw it into the already active mix from Gaston and the cold front.

Last weekend, forecasters were smiling at a virtual guarantee of five or more dry days in a row. But by the very cause of weather, there is never a free lunch.

Krispy Kreme has once again reported dismal results, falling well short of second-quarter expectations. This isn't surprising given last year's unwise acquisition of Montana Mills, a cafe chain that Krispy Kreme more recently shut down. That acquisition was the first symptom of a management team losing focus on making doughnuts profitably and instead giving in to empire-building temptations.

A more local example of this phenomenon has occured on Columbus Avenue and 71st Street. Two years ago, Harry's Burritos decided to open an ice cream stand in the miniscule storefront between 71st and 72nd Street. At first, it was a beautifully basic business model: you could get chocolate or vanilla soft-serve cones. Those were the only two choices, and demand was strong. Costs of running the business were cheap because they didn't even need cups. Among all kinds of gourmet ice cream shops nearby, the little ice cream stand was an oasis of simplicity.

Over time, this ice cream stand became too ambitious. First it added cups; then it added other flavors; and then it added all kinds of toppings and mix-ins. The number of labor permutations required for each customer multiplied exponentially, and the vendors had trouble articulating all of the choices on the menu.

When the winter of 2002-2003 arrived, they added soup--five or more flavors, to boot--and renamed the store "Soup and Scoop." Anecdotal evidence from my daily walk past this storefront suggested demand had plummeted--on many days it was too warm for soup, but too cold for scoop. And looking at the menu was becoming a dizzying experience with all of the choices.

By early 2004, Soup and Scoop closed. If they had stayed with the same basic business model of chocolate and vanilla cones, with low costs and high margins, I think they would still be in business. They could have adapted this basic model for the winter season by offering two kinds of soup in one size.

Making doughnuts doesn't mean you know how to run a restaurant chain. And maybe a simple ice cream stand will arise from people other than burrito experts.

He did it! Bruce Hornsby's new song, "Gonna Be Some Changes Made" (with Sting), has hit #1 on Triple-A (Adult Album Alternative) radio. Here in New York, it's been heard on WFUV-FM 90.7 and on WLTW Lite-FM. This song is just the beginning of a superb album featuring Elton John and Eric Clapton with more hits sure to come.

Of course, Bruce has never been about the radio hit. Since a string of chart-toppers in the late 80s, Bruce has been far more interested in exploring different music genres and improving his technical piano skills. He has said he gets bored while listening to songs like "The Way It Is," the breakout single for which he is best known. Nonetheless, the return to radio charts is welcome news for somoene whose marketing was completely mis-handled by RCA Records, his previous label. Hornsby's last album with RCA, Big Swing Face, was ripe with several radio-friendly songs. But RCA couldn't find a message and allowed people to be confused and categorize the effort as a detour.

Columbia Records, Bruce's new label, has been smart: they pre-released "Changes Made" on the iTunes music store, and allowed incentives for pre-sale (such as free streaming access with pre-purchase on Amazon.com). It's about time someone got it right. A good change has indeed been made.

What do you know. The best customer service I've received from anyone, anywhere recently was from someone at Verizon yesterday.

This started when I contacted MCI to move my phone service on my moving date in the near future. MCI said this would be done "in the next three weeks." I said I would be moving on a specific date and needed this done on that specific date. They said they could only put this into the system for "sometime in the next three weeks," because "it's not our network," and there are "legalities" involved.

At that point I decided to switch back to the company whose network it is.

The Verizon representative I had was wonderful. She kept all the information straight--different preferences and calling packages for two different phone lines. When she put me on hold, she came back after 2 minutes to assure me that she was still there, but that it took extra time because of the two lines involved, and it would be just a little longer. 2 minutes later she returned and everything was done properly.

Granted, maybe it's because Verizon has such a lousy reputation that this service seemed especially good. That said, I think this particular representative was objectively superior to any other I've called.

I'm back from vacation and Maine was marvelous. The southern Maine and New Hampshire coastlines are absolutely spectacular. You can drive or walk right up against them and see geologically fascinating beaches close up. Portland is still a charming small city with incredible seafood, of course. Fortunately, there was no real effect from Hurricane Charley, except for rough surf at night on Saturday the 14th. The only bad thing was that EZ-Pass isn't compatible with the New Hampshire and Maine toll systems.

The saga is over for now--Time Warner is once again showing MSG Network, Fox Sports Network and MetroTV. So it's a good time to review the cable dispute scoreboard:

1) Disney vs. Time Warner: tie. Lots of finger pointing marked this dispute in which Time Warner shut off WABC. Based on unscientific polling, most people seemed to feel that both parties were to blame for denying viewers "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire."

2) Cablevision vs. YES Network: Steinbrenner rules. There was no contest here--who are you going to root for, the best sports franchise in history or the company that owns the Knicks and Rangers? By the time the Yankees were back on TV, most people had concluded this was just about bitterness for losing the privilege to broadcast their games.

3) Time Warner vs. Cablevision: Dolan's doldrums continue. Time Warner contended that the value of MSG programming had dwindled. Who can disagree? Personally, I felt better off with the $2 monthly refund than with the Mets and tired sports collectible auctions on TV.

The latest standings:

Time Warner- 1 win, 0 losses, 1 tie for 3 points
YES Network- 1 win, 0 losses, 0 ties for 2 points
Disney- 0 wins, 0 losses, 1 tie for 1 point
Cablevision- 0 wins, 2 losses, 0 ties for 0 points

Good article in The New York Times today about problems at Kraft Foods. To see this in a nutshell, simply go to the Oreo section of your local grocer. Enjoy trying to figure out which of the 3287 varieties of Oreo you want-- original? Double filling? Half chocolate and half creme? Half mint and half creme? Inverse Oreo, with vanilla cookie and chocolate filling? You get so confused that you wind up ditching the original plan. Looks like Kraft has produced everything that nobody wants and nothing that anybody wants.

Postscript to the previous post: Apple has just released iSync 1.5, which supports the Motorola v600.

My Motorola v600 arrived, and so far, so good. I'm in a marginal zone of AT&T Wireless GSM coverage, but this phone dramatically improves the situation. It's 7 for 7 receiving landline-placed test calls, and 6 for 7 on outgoing calls (one failure due to typical network congestion in my area). With my older T721, the numbers were more like Kurt Thomas shooting from the field.

The next test will be static. The T721 suffers from extreme static when you are in certain areas (fortunately, this static is only noticeable to the user and not to the person at the other end of the call). I have all my trouble spots noted and will subject the v600 to testing in these same areas.

One wrinkle: Apple's iSync, which sends Address Book data to other devices. It's hard to believe iSync doesn't support the v600 yet. Common sense tells me the v600 has largely the same user interface as all other Motorola phones and therefore can't be much harder to program for iSync compatibility.

Finally, the cold outbreak is over in NYC. What an unusual spell for early August.

The key to this cold was an abnormal upper level low spinning over Quebec. More typical of weather between October and April, this cold pool dropped down into the northeastern United States. This morning's upper air temperature soundings showed a temperature of 6 Celsius over NYC at approximately 1,000 feet (850mb)--the coldest reading at that height anywhere in southern Canada or the United States.

The cold air aloft also explains why the days started sunny and then brought thick cloudiness. As the sun warmed the earth, the air rose and quickly condensed as it met cold air aloft. This is what made for the especially raw day on Saturday, bringing full cloud cover to close off any further daytime heating and keeping temperatures near 70. Brrr.

Phish appearing on the Weather Channel local forecast is the ultimate fusion of two of my interests. Beginning a few years ago, Phish started to appear in the rotation, but now we're on a streak. The last three times I have tuned into the local forecast, the background music has been:

1) "Magilla" (guitarist Trey Anastasio's live version from his album Plasma, originally on the Phish studio album A Picture of Nectar)

2) "If I Could" (from Live Phish 20, originally on the studio album Hoist), and

3) "Guyute" (the orchestral version from Trey's album Seis de Mayo, originally from the studio release The Story of the Ghost).

When Phish first appeared on The Weather Channel, groupies expressed shock in the Phish newsgroups that their uniquely un-commercial but cool music was relegated to background music behind radar loops. But from my perspective, who cares? Steve Hurst, the guy who programs The Weather Channel's music, is obviously a Phish fan and it's better background music than the new age nebulae that dominated The Weather Channel for so long.

It's nice to know that even after Phish gives its farewell concert this month, their music will live on in at least one important place.

Weather.com, the Web site of The Weather Channel, shows low grass pollen levels in New York City.

Pollen.com, which is operated by a consulting firm connected with the pharmaceutical industry, reports moderate to high grass pollen levels in New York City.

Apple's Airport Express seemed like such a great idea--stream music from your computer to your stereo. Until I saw the fine print in 4-point type in very light gray on white:

Requires OS 10.3.

I'm on 10.2.8. So much for that. Panther is supposed to be great, but the reason I haven't upgraded yet is the same as why many corporate IT departments are still on Windows 98. Upgrading an operating system is risky. If all goes well, it takes an hour and then time to figure out new features. The downside is much worse. And I haven't seen anything in Panther that makes it a reward worth the risk and interruption to my productivity.

I stuck with OS 8.6 for years past its prime, so I'm probably more risk averse than most Mac users. But my feeling is that if your situation is 90% good, you're doing well. Yes, my printer connection occasionally flakes, but deleting and adding back my printer in the Print Center solves the problem. Envelopes also occasionally print incorrectly from Word onto my LaserJet 2100M, but my time-tested fix is deleting and adding the printer and restarting Word. Who knows what random problems would pop up with Panther?

Apple isn't wrong to make Airport Express work only with Panther. They are wrong to put that information in tiny light print you only notice after you get home.

I like this deal where I'm saving $2 per month because Time Warner Cable is not showing MSG Network. Time Warner doesn't have to make excuses--there's nothing of value on MSG anyway.

It'd be great to opt out of MSG entirely, but for now, this is fine with me.

The comparisons between the weather of July 2002 and July 2004 are staggering.

In July 2002, the high temperature at Central Park was 90 or above on 12 days. We didn't touch 90 in 2004.

The extreme heat in 2002 resulted from a prevailing strong upper level ridge with dry west-northwesterly winds, keeping rainfall to a paltry 1.05 inches. In 2004, unusually strong upper level instability made it easy for the strong sun to set off heavy downpours. We wrapped up this July with 7.64 inches of rain.