The hallmarks of bad design, courtesy Sony.

I have a portable CD player for listening to music at work and it has a really irritating feature. Whenever you press a key to adjust the volume, start, pause, or skip a track, it gives off a few beeps. Why on earth would any music listener want something that annoying while listening to music? Three clicks on the volume "+" button brings an electronic doodle-oo, doodle-oo, doodle-oo right in the middle of my tunes--and it's not a subtle, unobtrusive thing like iPod clicks. What's more, it's the default setting of the device and if you want to disable the noise, you have to insert the batteries while awkwardly holding down one of the control buttons (yes, every time you switch batteries).

The iPod permanently disables the clicks if you don't like them and it has three settings, to boot.

CDs listened to today:

• Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 8
• Various Artists: Sounds Of The Seventies: 1976
• The Earlies: These Were The Earlies
• Anton Webern: Six Pieces For Orchestra
• My Morning Jacket: Z
• Franz Schubert: Piano Quintet In A, "The Trout"