Apple Headphones Snafu, iTunes U

I have an iPhone, given as a gift to me around Christmas. I had quite a few gripes where I felt let down by it, and will probably move back to a much less featured phone when this one gives up the ghost.

So, a friend had an iPod Shuffle. They lost it for a few weeks - the thing is really, really tiny. They bought a new one. A few weeks later, they found the old one, and decided to give it to me, as I can use it when I go running.

After figuring out the cord had gone bad, I ordered a 3rd party one ($5 on Amazon, instead of $25 to Apple). That worked, and after loading it up with songs... nothing. Some quick trial and error later, I realized the Apple iPhone headset doesn't work at all with the iPod Shuffle, but plain headphones work just fine.

It's a minor frustration, but seems a design flaw; the iPhone headphones are pretty darn standard. Other than that, the Shuffle works as promised.

Scrolling through iTunes, it looks like they recently added iTunes U, which is an aggregation point for free educational podcasts. Of interest is MIT's Algorithms course, based on CLRS, which always seemed more learner-friendly than Knuth's books. For those playing along at home, Knuth's books (starting in 1968) are the original authoritative text on the subject, but much slower going for the student, IMHO. Also good, CMU has put up Randy Pauch's speeches, both the Last Lecture and the Personal Productivity.