Brandon Wirtz's Digital Mix

I really like Century City.I'm watching it on Tivo Right now, the episode is essentially a remake of Flowers for Algernon (sp?) but as I'm watching I'm also reading CNN.

I grew up in a town where religous diversity meant Catholic vs. Protestant. But reading about Nashala Hearn being suspended for wearing a hajib, I realize I was sheltered. How can you teach diversity and tolerance in an environment that is hostile to those basic beliefs. That isn't to say that I think you should be able to break out your prayer rug in the middle of a math test, nor do I think you should you be allowed to burn incense during the math test.

I don't want to see a school system where we say you can't wear a cross, or a hajib, or kippa... If you are a budhist monk maybe you should have to wear a shirt in the class room, but for the most part if your behavior isn't disruptive it should be allowed.

Wired has an article about how P2P is not responsible for CD sales fall off.

RIAA needs to wake up to the fact that people spend their money on other things now. Video game sales are way up over where they were in 1999 every video game is 4 cd's that don't get purchased.

Clearchannel overplays music to the point you don't ever want to hear the song again.

All music sounds the same. The industry is turning out safe and predictable. Why buy the latest music it is just last years music with a different lyric.

Better efficiency per horse power per mile than any other Diesel Engine, but at 108k HP and 5.6 million pound feet of torque it still burns 1660 gallons per hour. So a trip to the grocery store is rather expensive.

Ok so it is meant for Cargo Vessels, but still very interesting read.

I'm just going to be lazy and Copy the text of Chris's blog.....

"You can use Typepad, Blogger, LiveJournal, or any kind of service your blogging heart desires. After years of lying dormant, we're finally doing sometihng with one of our domain names. If you'd like to be a part of Lockergnome.net, we're accepting registrations as of today. The system is running on Blogware, and Daze.net is handling any account support issues that might crop up. My hope is to provide instant promotion and interconnected tools for everyone who signs up under the LG label. Naturally, as the community grows, so will our ability to make it function and communicate better. Get your preferred subdomain before someone else snaps it up! "

With out going in to too much detail I just have to say that Virtual Server From Microsoft Rocks. It takes VPC and just stacks on the features. I love that I can have a box with no monitor, no keyboard, sitting in my basement and run 50 Virual Platforms on it. I love that it has fail over built in. I love that I can virtualize my entire farm throw it on a few machines, check what servers need more resources and throw them on to a bigger box in minutes. I could Manage 3-500 servers with out breaking a sweat with this tool. And doing backups would be cake because you can just copy the VHD's of the real box. Oh and did I mention there is SCSI support now? Sweet!

Christian talks about Enterprise Blogging and quotes that Visible Path will be charging $20k per year and scale up from there.

This goes back to my Exchange should do blogging thoughts from before. If companies want this why use several products instead of a monolith like Exchange.

There was a time when I hated to put all my eggs in one basket, but these days I want better interoptability and the easiest way to get that is to pick a tool that does everything. And right now in corporate America that is exchange.

And Since I'm going to have Exchange anyway, the cost of adding blogging is the cost of my IT staff turning on that feature.

I don't know who Wilcox is, but he keeps saying dumb things to press. Like....

"I chuckle at Microsoft's contention that somehow the WMA world is more open than Apple's iTunes, iPod and Fairplay AAC. Both companies' formats use proprietary technology. It's true more stores and players support WMA, but I wouldn't consider AOL and HP, two companies offering iTunes Music Store to their customers, as small-fry support"

Funny how I never heard of a Fair Play SDK. If I were wanting to sell lectures in an audio format... I could pick MSFT's DRM, or I could try and convince iTunes to carry my content... Which is more likely?

Or How about This comment?

"Our data clearly shows that portable video is not a feature consumers are seeking right now. For the foreseeable future, the greatest portable media player demand will be music. One of the biggest hurdles is conversion/consumption. Right now, video is where audio was in about 1997. The amount of time necessary to convert video for portable playback simply is too long for mass adoption,”
"I don't see an iPod killer from Microsoft on the horizon, not if it's Portable Media Center, which has a size and features geared for video,"

Has he totally missed the people buying Archos, or drooling over the Sony PSP? Having seen the Portable MCE's I'd buy one. And what kind of statement is it to say video is where audio was in 1997? In '97 college kids were sucking down MP3's like wild fire,

In any event this guy is clueless.

Wil Wheaton(that blue haired ex-Trekker) is pointing to a book called "Never Threaten to Eat your co-workers"

   "The Best of Blogs features the most provocative online writing by unknown writers and underground celebs. MTV's The Real World's cast member Neil Forrester gives new meaning to the phrase "Bite your tongue." Star Trek: The Next Generation actor Wil Wheaton gives his take on the Hollywood system and fleeting stardom. Web designer Heather Hamilton finds herself in the unemployment line after publishing work stories in her blog, Dooce.com. Humorist Choire Sicha gives advice on broken hearts and timeshares. Illustrator Mark Frauenfelder throws out his cell phone and uproots his family from Los Angeles to the sandy beaches of Rarotonga. Plus tales of creepy video store customers, online love lies, Iraqi politics, office pranks gone wrong, jury duty, a childhood meeting with Darth Vader and so much more. "

As an Aside: I'm using Wil's Amazon Reference, so he will get the credit. I hate when people do a referral to a product that they heard about some where else and then change the URL so they get credit for any purchases made.

Mary Jo Says MSN Execs are prepping a blog bot. I need some one to help me get this. The Blogs I read are people who's opinions I value, respect or have a 180 view from the way I do. I don't know why I'd search for blogs as a consumer. I could see searching if I were MSFT and wanted to know what people thought of things I was creating, or if I were Sean and wanted to see who was talking about coming to the MVP Summit but this doesn't seem very mass market.

I wish there was an RSS Feed specifically for interviews and thoughts from Bill Gates. I also think it is about time for another book from him. In the mean time this is a good interview from eWeek.

In the article Gates makes some really good comments about the state of education in the US.

There has been a drop in kids going in computer science. So even though Microsoft gets a good part of that pool of good people, we're quite worried about kids in the U.S., less of them going into computer science, and less foreign students coming to the U.S. and joining these departments. And it is somewhat in contrast with the increase in computer science enrollment in China and India. Right now our hiring is very, very strong. In fact, and we have to make sure we're picking the very best people.

There are a lot of other interesting topics, but few are as easily pulled out. I can relate to the Analogy Bill makes between MSFT and the Yankees.

I found an ariticle from June of last year talking about Jobless rate. What I think is funny about jobless rates is that they aren't particularly accurate. They don't take in to account people like many of my friends who have a Masters in Computer Science and are working in fast food. They also don't take in to account people like me who are working as consultants, scraping by, but who would trade it all for a 9 to 5.

There needs to be a new Employment index that asks if you are doing a job at or near your level of qualification. That way IVY league grads who flip burgers aren't counted as employed. I also want the employment index to factor in if you are making more or less than you did 3 years ago. Nearly 75% of my colleagues are making less money than they did 3 years ago. So while they aren't unemployed they certainly aren't happy in their current job.

I am also amazed at the number of stay at home dads right now. There are quite a few people I know that the wife is the bread winner. That isn't to say that isn't ok, just that I'm not sure that these dad's are counted in the unemployment numbers, many of them would rather higher a baby sitter and go to work but can't find jobs.

Ang took a job in retail and loves it. She is probably one of the best sales people I have seen. She has low return percentage and high repeat customers, why? Cause she only sells what she believes in and she sells everything she believes in. Ang could be the Poster Girl for Tivo, Muvo, Fujitsu Life Books, Wired Magazine, and Media Center Edition PC's.

Philipp Harper Puts up Miles Davis as an Alpha Consumer, but in her space Ang would rock his world. One of the best things about the way Ang sells you on a product, she is much less technical than I am. Ang won't put up with a technology that doesn't just work out of the box. Don't get me wrong she is a smart girl, and she will take 4 hours to figure something out if she has to, or assemble the grill in record time using instructions off of the internet cause they didn't come in the box, but Ang won't likely recomend the product to some one else unless it has really changed her life.

I really need to get Ang Blogging more. I'm the ADD one but she is the one with out patience. I'm definitely going to have her blog up for the MVP conference so she can talk about watching us hardcore geeks.

Too Bad Bill isn't a snazzier dresser or his wearing of an item would be more of an endorsement. John Lawerence has a photo of Bill from VS Live, and you can see Bill's SPOT, but as Bill is easily the worst dressed in the crowd, is that really an endorsement?

Bill is the epitomy of Gadgets, we all dream of owning a home as e-home as his, so I think it is. I think it is a real show of dog fooding it, to have your CEO in public using your products. If I were Jobs I'd never be seen with out an iPod on my hip.

Bush wants broadband in every household by 2007. I'd point you at an article but there are so many I don't want to limit myself so just google it. He doesn't say who is paying for it, or building it, or how people like my dad who lives in the middle of no where will get to it. And you know what, I don't care if everyone has broadband. Isn't that awful?

I don't know as most people need more than e-mail. And there are still free Dial-up services, I could be happy with government supported free dialup limited to 2 hours a day. Could be implemented through libraries or other such places. Schools perhaps. The long and the short of it is that I'm not sure Porn is a inalienable right as yet. Why do I need to give more people access to their porn faster. Really unless you are playing games, or surfing porn, or a real computer geek doing things like server administration I don't think you need more than 56k. Might want, but not need. And I don't want to pay taxes to make some oneelse porn pipe larger.

I also look at the type of person who is going to get subsidized Broadband. Seems these are the people more likely to get infected with Virii, and turn all zombie. Right now those people's machines are only sending me Viagra ads a few hours a day when the person connects to the internet after their wife and kids go to bed, if they have an always on connection I'll just get more Spam.

If the government wants to help it should help put more fiber in to more communities. Get a stronger back bone so that Bandwidth costs less.

Standing on your porch in shorts and a T-shirt Grilling Steaks, may not sound like cause to be super excited, or particularly blog worthy, but when you are used to living 150 miles North of here it is a thing to behold for March.

Though I broke my Caffine Free Trend today... I had been doing better. Caffine is my Rittalin with out it my ADD is pretty bad, Ang has been ready to kill me a couple of times because I was bouncing off the walls. Pair Handels Icecream with the lack of Caffine and I was really bouncing off the wall. So were the cats but they were just excited about the weather, and the birds outside the windows.

I'm working hard to get my ducks in a row so I can take the days to go to the MVP summit on the 4-7. This is my first summit so I'm not sure what to expect. I'm bringing Ang so I'm hoping she has fun while we are there. Ang is a good networker and loves the MSFT crowd so hopefully she will fit right in.

It was funny she works at Ann Taylor Loft and they are all stressing out because their VP is coming to thier store... Ang is like big deal, she has met with VP's at MSFT, and since your rank in her mind is all about the size of your yacht those guys and gals at MSFT are bigger big wigs than anyone at the Loft.

Cleaner XL was the final straw. Final Fantasy XI I could excuse, and a few of the pieces of software I wrote, but the list was just getting a little too long, so I rolled back to XP. I'll miss the Image Viewer the most, and that is about it for right now. It was plenty stable on my setup, and I was sad to roll back.

Jake says Rob Glasner at Real is hypocrite for telling Apple to open the iPod to other formats. I have to agree. Real is one of the least Open of formats. I don't see where they get off asking for anyone to be more open. I also don't know of anyone with any sizable quantity of Real Audio, other than some Universities that were stooges.

Galan sent me this link. Oddly none of the MSFT employees I know said MSFT was a great way to get chicks. And while the Girls at MSFT implied you have to beat the guys off with a stick they kind of implied that was not necesarilly a bonus...

I really like the Nero Virtual CD, but not everyone has Nero in a Corporate Environment. My Laptop is an Ultra-lite and has no CD, and My Desktop sits 50 feet away from me in the basement so what do I use to swap CD's? MS's Unsupported Virtual CD Plugin for XP

Not as clean an interface as the Nero one but it works. And It works on Longhorn and Nero's won't. Double Sweet.

Robert plays devils Advocate and says that we should charge for our IP because it is very American, (ok he uses Capitalist but the two are interchangeable these days) to do so.

Eben's arguement that selling software might be immoral forgets one thing, and a think most open source people forget. Software does cost money to create, and the next version costs money to create. MSFT reinvests a huge portion of its profits back in to the research of new products, and it gives a lot of money to charities, and universities, and starving 3rd world nations.

One could argue that some of the employees of MSFT make vast somes of money and that they are meeting more than their basic needs with money made off the software, but the people making those arguments are just jealous they don't have nicer stuff.

If all of us geeks lived in our parents Basements and wore the same clothes for a week straight then yes we could afford to sell software for a lot less, or even give it away, But I figure we only have a few more years before all of those geeks die off, and as they don't seem to reproduce, a side effect of women not frequenting the basements on a regular basis, nor being attracted to those who wear the same underwear all week, there won't be any offspring to replace them.

I'm of course a capitalist, the $18 I got last year from my Google Adsense was so so rewarding. I don't have adsense on my Main Page which I'm sure doesn't help, but this is supposed to be my business site, but still.

In any event Robert doesn't even have ads on his site. So he isn't doing his part to drive capitalism, what a Commie :-)

Hey I'm in. I might even sign up. Mark I have to ask though, for the guy who brought us Broadcast.com why do I have to use Antiquated VHS to apply? How about Windows Media sent via E-mail... This isn't the 90's, and you aren't just any guy. I probablly will apply.

Jeremy got a fewer word response than I did. Must mean I'm more importatnt :-) or that my idea wasn't as bad as some people said it was. In response to my Exchnage as a Blogging tool I got...

"Thanks for the input Will share thanks "

And the message got CC'd to Steven Sinofsky. Steven hasn't written me, and I haven't had time to really draw up some mockups the way I would have liked to show what the product could look like... but since Robert was talking about this I thought I'd share my experience with you all.

As far as name dropping, sure I can say Steve e-mails with me every now and then...

I wrote a whole bunch of people I had lost contact with over the years, and asked them to join LinkedIn.

So if you got one of those mails from me. I'll see what I can do to refresh who I am. I don't know what I was thinking leaving Windows Media out of the description of who I was.

If you know me from a User group I'm that guy from WMTalk, WinNet Magazines Forums, The Windows Media 9 Launch,

From a Highschool function, Model United Nations, Quiz Bowl, Wrestling, Cross Country,

From Toledo at CDS, Stone, or Lourdes College

There are other ways you might know me, but this covers most of them. And like I said in my e-mail even if you aren't interested in LinkedIn drop me a line I miss you, well some of you ;-)

Jake is going to do a monthly Windows 3.1 Tips guide. I might have to send him my notes from Grade School.

In any event Vitrual PC would be a big help cause he wouldn't have to waste a few thousand megahertz on it. Though he may have to some software from that era will crash instantly on a machine as fast as current. Like FoxPro from that era.

What profound lyrics from Kelis...

Calvin Ross has some really good points about whether MSFT should be held liable for its security flaws.

"The issue, though, is fraught with irony. Microsoft was taken to court for antitrust violations and was essentially found guilty. Part of the settlement decreed that it couldn't "bundle" extra programs with its operating system, such as Windows Media Player, because it would unfairly disadvantage competitors.

Does that mean if Microsoft were to include a really effective Internet firewall with its Windows operating system, such that security became ironclad and virus invasion almost impossible, then the Redmond, Wash. software giant could once again become accused of unlawful bundling?"

The Truth is people just don't like winners. Too many people are jealous of success. Most of the products MS is top dog on are products that really are the best of breed. There are a few exception as there are smaller companies that are able to deliver a better product between version of the MSFT product but for the most part MSFT builds really great products at a really great price point.

Apple is at 50 million songs sold. While that is 4.5 million a month, they aren't getting rich. iTunes is a weird bugger. The point of iTunes is to sell iPods, so promotions like the Pepsi Music promotion is a way to get non-iPod owners to the iTunes site so they will buy an iPod to play their free songs, and then buy more songs. That is a great business model for year one and two, but what do you do when iPod reaches its saturation? Make money selling iPod batteries :-) ?

The problem iTunes faces is that it banked on some ideas it didn't think through. If you are 40 year old female School Teacher you drink 4 Diet Pepsi's a day that means you win free music about every other day. But you aren't even close to the demographic that is going to use iTunes or iPod. This is just one section of the Pepsi demographic that is going to toss their winning cap rather than redeeming it.

iTunes ally two is AOL. A 56K user isnot going to be listening to iTunes Radio that is one of iTunes biggest features. Sure there are AOL broadband users, but they are the minority.

I'll be interested to see the earnings report. 1/3 of iTunes sales supposedly goes to the Apple bottom line. That is way above the 15% we are supposed to hope for in an e-business. So with 70 million sales we should see atleast an earnings of 20 million. That would be a real coup for a site that is only supposed to exist to sell iPods, but I don't think they will make that. In fact I'm betting on a Loss, or a break even, depending on how Apple does its reportings.

Ed Is posting on XORP "The linux of routing"

I think Ed is right that OpenSource could be the next big thing in Enterprise level hardware. I mean Linksys has done really well with GPL on its home line. I think you will see Cisco taking what it learned at the consumer level and adapt that for their high end stuff. My linksys WRT54g is a Router, Firewall, Snort, AcessPoint, Filter that blocks ads and Cookies, and Provides VPN between me and my offsite webservers. That is a lot of power for $100.

One of the advantages of OpenSource for hardware is the Social Network that goes with it. There is a cult following of WRT54G users so my hardware keeps becoming more valuable as the network of users add functions. While a manufacturer could keep adding features it would cost them money, and so they would have to way the Return on the Investment, and I might not get a feature I'd want or need if only 10 other clients need it. As Hardware and software lines blur I hope more OpenSource software is run on my hardware.

Embeded OS's give the Advantage of Fraction of a Second Reboots so Downtime can be reduced, They have no GUI so they can save precious cycles for what is important. But Dan Dowd still thinks Linux Based Embeded Devices are a Myth. And he makes some really good points about how you don't run Redhat on your Router, ect.

Right now I think a lot of Enterprise level Open Source solutions have a black mark because so many of them suck. Robin Miller aggrees. There are a lot of solutions out there that are meant to be deploy and forget that aren't. Part of the problem with most Linux geeks is they like to coddle their servers so ongoing maintentance is a good thing in their mind. My servers run at between 99.999 and 99.9999 depending on how many patches I opt to apply or decide not to... Many linux geeks are lucky to cross 99.9 because "our servers never crash, so 100% of our downtime is us making configuration changes" I switched ISP's because My server was down for 12 hours every month as "Improvements" were made in that downtime.

You know what would be cool? If life had a soundtrack. One of the things I'd like to see happen in WINFS is that I can associate music with my files. This has lots of very interesting varyations. I think the Meta Tags should be moods and Key words...

Think how cool it would be if you fired up your Microsoft Money and based on your finances your music changed. Ok maybe not the best example, but pictures. If you could associate your image library with music that would rock. Especially if that were Direct Music so that you could have a kind of Theme song all of your own and based on the photo being displayed you might get your theme song sad, or happy, or Happy, but in a Minor Key... Or you get the theme song of the person in the photo, but in your style.

I get images of Kronk doing his own theme music A few of us had been talking how cool it would be do do this with Movie Maker so that you could use a script for your interactive music that tied in with in your home movies, but I don't see why you should have to stop there. You'd be playing your movie click the appropriate style and Voila you have a custom soundtrack... Daughter learns to ride the bike... Anticipation music as she gets on, Fast exciting happy music as she glides down the sidewalk, dramatic music as she plows in to the neighbor boy who didn't see her coming..... or I could just get a mic and do a Kronk :-)

Why not have music based on the task I'm performing or the upcoming appointment, Maybe I'd get bored with it all after a few hours hard to say. Then I'm spoiled having an entire office. I guess if you worked in a cube the spill over of the music would cause problems.

People have custom ring tones as caller ID, why not Custom sounds by e-mail address? I realize I can do this with rules already but it takes a lot of work.

More unique sounds for feed back from windows. Why does the Your application just crashed and no you can't save message have the same sound as the pop up telling me my download finished? You Clicked a link and the IE page finished loading are the same sound. It is stupid.

Delca has very good ambience. Feed back is provide not just by the way the voices sound but the ambient back ground noises too. This could be useful in environments where you need to know the status of a process but don't have the screen realestate to give a status icon, or if you are working with multiple PC's simultaneously. Besides we need some sound to drown out the whir of the fans in today's PC's.

Ang has wanted to run her own camp for ever. Now she has the perfect place picked out.

Sure they want $4million but it is in Washington state, we'll have all those MSFT staff send their kids to her camp. The 155 foot climbing wall and 100 foot deap scuba training would be quite an attraction, combined with horses and such it would be sweet.

So Ang is accepting donations... Going to have to be fast the e-bay auction won't last for ever... So send money now :-) the first 400 people to send $10k get a life time membership for their kid. That is a sweet deal a summer at camp will run you $2k a year times 12 years of camp you'd save 50%.

Ang is 25 today! So happy birthday to her.

Bill doesn't get it. Though neither to the people in the examples he sites. Bill is right the problem with VC funded Social Networks is there is no purpose. And with out a common thread to link the users the network won't last... but whal Bill is missing is that there are many reasons for Social Networks to succeed. Craig's List is a loose group of individuals but a general good will unites them.

The future Bill is in Social Engineering. Building networks that suceed because the community is linked and the members reap rewards. This is like the old User Groups of the 80's or BBS's you build communities based on Locale, interest, or common need. Social networks will be an online version of the Vette club, or Orange County Chopper's or Elk's Lodge. Sure these already exist as Newsgroups and forums but the level of interaction is limited. With a well engineered Social network you get more personality, more interaction and more reason to visit on an ongoing basis.

Social networks are throw backs to the days when you used to sit on your front porch and talk to your neighbors as they went buy. I have lived at my new place 6 months and while I could tell you what BMW, SAAB, And Volvo goes with each house on my street I couldn't tell you the owners name, or even the color of their hair.

Social Networks are coming Bill, because people like to be social, but we don't have front porches any more.

I ran Norton Ghost on my Desktop to create a backup. Only troube was on reboot I had to activate again. And with the TCP Ip stack buggered in 4051 this meant a call to MS. So I thought does this happen every time? Yep set up to do a back up aborted it and on reboot I had to activate again. So Much for Ghost as a Back up System. I don't think I want to call MS every time I back up.

Seattle pi says Real is suing Major League Baseball because they are running exclusively in Windows Media for the PreSeason. This is interesting because Real is losing money on the MLB contract. If you sue for Damages and the Damages are you saved $2million dollars who pays who?

The dispute is about when the Season Starts. Real Argues that the first pitch of the PreSeason is part of the Preseason... Seems to me that if you use Preseason to describe the start of the season your grasp of Prefixes and Root words is a bit weak.

Real's contract doesn't specifically prevent the use of Windows Media, it simply says that all streams must be presented in real also.

Ed Sim a VC and Blogger Evangelist Linked to me. So he spelled my name wrong :-)

Ed doesn't necesarilly agree with everything I say, but I don;t always agree with everything I say so who can blame him.

I do have to say that I do beleive in the "American Idol" for Big Business. Look at it this way. You have Bill and Steve and your Favorite VP, Will Poole in this example. They are Simon, Paula, and Randy, use a Robert Scoble, or Sean Alexander as a Ryan Seacrest. The Metaphor ends when some one says and Brandon is Kelly Clarkson... Features and product ideas are the contestants. People like me are the loonies who call in 900 times to make sure Ruben makes it to the next round.

When looking at the product developement lifecycle you obviously don't dial an 800 number for feed back, but you use the audience to help you design the product. The core panel still sets the tone and influences the path products take, but rather than setting a hard road map you let the feed back direct the feature set and time tables. In a lot of ways this is how Linux works already. Popular features and ideas build small communitties that move the developement along, unpopular features don't get support and don't get developed. It is a Darwinian model for developement.

Ed Mentions that all my examples are consumer level, and that is true, but I think that this works for enterprise products too. I think their is a minimum user base required for the model to work. Certainly MS Exchange could use community feed back, but a product like MS CRM has a smaller user base it might not have been possible to have the community give enough feed back for version one, but after the initial release you could build a community around the product.

Some products that have a very minimal install base but extreme investment cost have had communities for support since the dawn of time. Much like the guys who have classic mustangs swap stories, tricks and tips, WISP support groups, Cisco support Groups and support groups for Applications like Great Plains, Lilly Visual Manufacturing and others have existed for a long time.

I think the model works for just about everything.

I e-mailed this to Jake, and totally forgot to blog it myself... Oh well.

Robert pointed to this so I thought I'd take a listen... Only Trouble is I don't use Real. You'd think that any interview with Bill ought to require that it be published in WM. Maybe not exclusively in WM, but in WM also.

Oh well I might listen to it on Ang's Machine I could install Real on that, And later when she beats me I could uninstall it ;-)

Screw this whole Open Standards thing. The way to go about this is put a panel of experts at it. Don't get me wrong Dave RSS is great for what it is. The Problem with RSS is that it isn't realtime. Sure a 30 minute delay is "Near" Real Time but it isn't. The other problem is that people don't actually get content pushed to them they just ask to suck a lot. If RSS were based on a Peer-to-Peer Platform life would be cheaper for the big guys and they could let up on the 30 minute resolution.

How I see this working:

There are a lot of really nice RSS compatible software so lets not muck that part up. Instead why not build an RSS Proxy as it were. A Peer-to-Peer client that recieves messages about your subscribed content letting your Proxy know when to update. The Proxy then updates a local XML file that follows the existing RSS format. Just give your News reader a URL like 127.0.0.1/Scoble.XML or Localhost/Slashdot.XML and it doesn't know it isn't getting the feed from the outside.

This simple solution solves all of our problems. Now while there is no reason it has to be owned by MS. Robert asked what MS should do. And this is it. Create a propietary back end that allows MS an advantage in building future Peer-to-peer push technologies, but keep a compatibility mode for the technology you supersceded.

I haven't figured out how to Monetize this or I'd have written it. I need to win the lotto then I could work on all of these fun side projects that I never get around to.

Just works is going to be my new montra. You see that is why I push Windows instead of Linux, Why I drive my Wrangler on a day to day basis and the '50 Merc is a once in a while car. It is also why I some times Paper over Silicon. Keeping track of who voted is easy with paper. One person goes into a booth once ballot comes out. In the old days when they handed you a pencil and you checked the boxes it was easy. We saw what a fiasco hanging Chad's were, so computers can make it all easier right? Oh, Yeah... What is the saying. To err is human but to royaly F things up takes a computer?

Yahoo Reports that Orange County had better than 100% audience participation. It is nice when turn out is so high. Makes you proud to live in a democracy.

Ang Really likes her Creative Muvo. She installed it herself, and it just works. She was really impressed with the AudioTron from Turtle Beach. It to just worked. I have a Password on the network so we had to tweak one setting but other than that it just worked.

Windows Media Center didn't Just work for me last night however. I wanted to copy a VHS tape to it so I went in through S-video.. I couldn't figure it out.

I'm off to have a Mt. Dew. one of my favorite just works products.

Chris (LockerGnome) Passed this to me.
I don't know most of the people on the list as I'm new to being an MVP. I can say that there is definitely different levels of participation from different MVP's but to thumbs up thumbs down the entire list seems a bit presumptuous.

I think the author of this page is not really being fair. Just because you aren't in a newsgroup doesn't equate to you are inactive. I was a WMTalk, AVSForum and WinNet Magazine guy. I avoid the newsgroups like the plague, but I don't think that makes me a bad MVP.

I also think that MS appreciates my support with clients too. I do a lot of evangelizing to big companies pointing out the advantages of WM over Real or QT. I don't know how another MVP or some one who didn't correspond with me on an ongoing basis would know that.

Part of being an MVP is the feed back you supply MSFT too. I think a lot of the guys at building 50 are ready for feed back from someone other than me at this point be cause I provide it in mass. The point is that you can't just judge an MVP by what you see in your community. Some of the MVP's in Russia could be making posters and running Users groups and we'd never know back here in the States.

Conversely I live in the states and put MSFT tech in to schools and talk to teachers about how to use those technologies, how would the creator of this list ever find out about that? My MVP Leads only know because I occasionally say something like "This school I'm working with has a 6th grader who is doing this neat thing with Movie Maker... You think we could get him in to the Beta for the next one?" or "I'm using VPC to migrate Exchange for a school district while I'm at it do you know of any good content filters for Exchange...."

In short I don't know why Jacek Rutkowski thinks he is in a position to judge MVP's. I know I'm not qualified to judge my Fellow WM MVP's, and we are a closer group than most.

I got to thinking about the recent Wired article on the "Viral" nature of information and ideas in our culture, and realized that this was a great argument for blogging internally in a company.

It might be a bad idea for some one like Bill Gates to blog to the public. What is going through his mind personally could have too much influence on MSFT stock. Like wise the trials and tribulations a developer experiences coding Longhorn might put out bad PR for the product. But internally there could be a lot of use for trickle down and trickle up information exchange.

A company like MSFT has a better than average "Suggestion box" system, but most companies don't. When working with several of my Fortune 1000 companies I have found that the best and brightest in their company often get no recognition because if they have a good idea and pass it to their manager the manager just takes credit for it. That isn't to say that never happens at MSFT, but I see a lot less of it in the people I have worked with there.

Blogs could help with this a great deal. A blog would help to establish time lines that can show how an idea developed. From the conception of some one saying we should have a way to do X, to realization as someone else says why don't I code that up for you in an ASP.Net page as a patch until we can get it added to the Core App.

A blog could also be a way for employees to vent. How often have you just needed to vocalize that an idea is stupid. And not had a forum for it? But if the stupid idea is about your "Bet the company" product you can't talk about it on you public blog.

A blog could be a way to look at the psychology and morale of the company too. If all of your employees are blogging about jumping ship maybe it is time to do a ski trip while you redecorate the office. Or maybe you now have a list of who to downsize :

Companies are just micro-cultures and while information flow does happen right now, I'm sure it is a lot more inefficient than it could be.

Project hurricane could be really sweet in a corporate environment. Now I just have to go sell the idea to one of my clients…

What Robert doesn't realize is that he is the Slash Dot for Execs and VC's. When the Scobleizer points to me my brandwidth goes way up. I got almost as many Refferals from Scoble pointing to me as I did Lockergnome. (No offense Chris).

And Value wise the people who contact me after Robert Links to me are worth 100 of Chris's followers. The People who read Scoble are making things happen in the tech community. People who read Lockergnome are catching up on what the tech community is doing. While I haven't been able to monetize a referral from Scoble, It has helped my street cred.

Robert if you wanted to leave MS you'd triple your salary working with VC's as a consultant and advisor. Anyone can master a technology, but realizing how it will be applied in the world is something you either get or you don't. And you get it. That makes you worth a fortune.

If you think your site is only in PR, you need to look at your archives. See how many technologies you implied could be successful now are. Yes, You are the poster boy for how a community can expand your brandwidth, but you are also a poster boy for future tech. You don't see the world the way the most people do. One of the biggest failings with People at MSFT is that they look at how are we going to do something, not how will people use it.

You know me well enough to know that I don't kiss ass, so if I say something nice about you it is because you've earned my respect.

I was given a Dell DJ as part of a Parting gift when visiting the Redmond Campus a few weeks back. As my luck is what it is the LCD started acting funny. It would display the Dell Logo, but never any menus.

Being a very independent type, I looked at the Dell Forums for Help, Tried all the usual things, and then started a new thread that received one response indicating my Dell DJ needed to be replaced.

Next I called Dell Support, after spending 87 minutes on hold I was told that my service tag was for a corporate account and that I needed to be transferred, after 96 more minutes I reached a TSR who told me that my product was not supported by that department but they would transfer me, at which point I hung up and started to work by e-mail.

Follows is an Abbreviated version of the conversation, but 16 e-mails from Dell later they have resolved that it is a hardware issue, But because I don't have the contact information for the purchaser I can't do an RMA.

I included some of the High Points like Being told to reinstall Windows Media Player, and to remove the Screen Protector from my Axim.

So far I have 6 hours invested in Tech Support. I guess if you just paste in the same responses from the KB Tech support is cheap, and can probably be handled by an Eliza Script.

I'd never buy anything Dell again.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

What I sent them First:

I was in the process of copying 18 gigs of Audio in 3500 files via Windows Media Player 9 version 3075, and the transfer stopped, and locked the WMP. I waited about five minutes to make sure it was really not coming back to life, Then End Tasked and disconnect the DJ.

At which time I tried to browse the songs and see how they sounded on the player. I realized I had only a backlit display and no interface.

PowerCycled the DJ, No joy.

Tried the Reset Get a back lit Dell logo, but no Joy.

Did a Firmware "upgrade" from windows, it transfered just fine and the dell acted like it was rebooting, but still no joy.

Using Dude box as a remote control I still have full functionality. If it were for the fact that the Dell Display still comes up I'd have said my LCD was toast.

If I reset the DJ I can Play a song, but get no display on the LCD.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Their Response:

As per your mail, what I can understand is that you are expriencing problem with Wndows Media Player.
'
To resolve this issue follow below steps.

The steps are:
1. Click Start.
2. Click Control Panel.
3. Click Add/Remove Programs.
4. Click Add/Remove Windows Components.
5. There uncheck the option Accessories.
6. Click Next and follow the path.

The steps are:
1. Click Start.
2. Click Control Panel.
3. Click Add/Remove Programs.
4. Click Add/Remove Windows Components.
5. There Check the option Accessories.
6. Click Next and follow the path.

In case if you have any other queries, you are welcome to revert back to us.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Obviously not going to fix my DJ by Reinstalling WMP.

So I sent this:
The Problem is NOT Windows Media Player. It is that the LCD on The Dell DJ No Longer Displays a Menu, Now Playing, or Docking Screen. It will only display the Dell Logo.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Dear Brandon,

Thank you for more information and replying back. To resolve this issue we have to perform a reset. To perform a reset, insert the end of the thin object, such as straightened paper clip, in the reset button. Please use the reset button on your MP3 to perform the reset.

Thank you for choosing Dell. Have a Nice Day!
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
As I said in the Original E-mail I have attempted a Reset, but the rescue menu won't appear. (paper clip and Play button)

I tried a Firmware "UPGRADE" and while it appears to have done the upgrade and the reboot appears to happen it does not resolve the issue.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
If I understand the issue correctly, your dell Axim MP3 Player is not working . To resolve this issue, please follow these steps.

2. Removed any screen protectors.
**Screen protectors come in two types: a temporary adhesive that ships with the Axim and a permanent screen protector that is purchases after-market.

Dell-Shipped Temporary Screen Protector

The adhesive side must be removed when the Axim is originally shipped **To remove the adhesive protector, peel the bottom corner of the adhesive strip off the LCD screen. The adhesive protector will come loose as the corner is slowly lifted.
******Permanent Screen Protectors******

A more permanent after-market screen protector may also be added by the customer. To remove the more permanent screen protector, perform the following steps:

*Use the stylus and place the tip under any corner of the protector.
*Push the tip of the stylus gently to loosen the protector.

NOTE: The stylus should come loose from the chassis.

*Remove the whole protector off the LCD screen.

3. Verified that the Axim screen is clean.
*To clean the hand held's built-in LCD display, perform the following
steps:

Apply acceptable cleaner to a soft, clean cloth.

NOTE: If the display contains grease or some other contaminant, use a soft, clean cloth with an acceptable cleaner listed below or a commercial window cleaner that does not contain ammonia, wax or abrasives.
The following cleaners are acceptable:
  Water

  IPA (Isoprophyl Alcohol)

  Hexane

  Petroleum Benzine

*Stroke the cloth across the display in one direction, moving from the top of the display to the bottom.

4.Aligned the Axim screen.
To align the Axim screen, perform the following steps:

*Press and hold the toggle button on the left-hand side of the Axim.
*Press the power button.
*Release the toggle button.
*The Align Screen wizard starts.
*Tap the center and four corners of the screen according to the instructions in the wizard.

NOTE: If the screen is still misaligned, repeat the process at least 4 times to ensure that it was done correctly.

5.Hard reset the Axim system.
Hard reset the Axim system.

NOTICE: Performing a hard reset of the Axim system will erase all data on the system. Please ensure that all necessary backups have been created prior to proceeding.

NOTE: This step can also be relevant IF the system is displaying NO POWER symptoms but truly does have power. Try to perform a hard reset as if the system has power as listed below.
-*Hold the power button down and press the reset button at the same time.
*Press the contacts button to reset the system.
*Press the mail button to cancel without losing data.
*The Contacts button confirms the reset and the Mail button cancels the operation

In case if you have any other queries, you are welcome to reply back to us.

Thank you for choosing Dell.
Regards,
Nicole
368789
Dell US Hardware, e-Support & Services
My schedule is 1430 - 2330 CST, Thursday - Monday Dell Email Support operates 24/7. If you need to reply to us, please use the REPLY function of your email program. This will keep the SAME SUBJECT of the response, ensuring quicker service.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
NO! It was working when I got my DELL Digital Jukebox , and it did not include a Screen Protector. I am not so dumb as to think that a piece of cellophane is my LCD. The LCD Works only when you do a Power On, or a Reset, and Only long enough to display the DELL logo. The Rest of the time I get the blue "Indiglo" backlight and No LCD For Menu, or rescue. The Dell functions in all other ways if you operate it with out the aid of the LCD. (If you can operate the device blind it still works as only the LCD has issues).

Follows is a resubmit of the Steps I have already taken.

I was in the process of copying 18 gigs of Audio in 3500 files via Windows Media Player 9 version 3075, and the transfer stopped, and locked the WMP. I waited about five minutes to make sure it was really not coming back to life, Then End Tasked and disconnect the DJ.

At which time I tried to browse the songs and see how they sounded on the player. I realized I had only a backlit display and no interface.

PowerCycled the DJ, No joy.

Tried the Reset Get a back lit Dell logo, but no Joy.

Did a Firmware "upgrade" from windows, it transfered just fine and the dell acted like it was rebooting, but still no joy.

Can't get to a Rescue Menu. I only get the Dell Logo with back light.

Using Dude box as a remote control I still have full functionality. If it were for the fact that the Dell Display still comes up I'd have said my LCD was toast.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
As per your mail, what I can understand is that you are not able to use the Dell DJ. However, to resolve the issue we need to follow some of the steps as given below :

The Rescue Menu
=================

To access the rescue menu follow the steps outlined below.

*Power down the Dell Digital Jukebox.
*Press and hold the Play button, then gently insert a paper clip into the Reset hole located on the left side of the player.
*Continue to hold the Play button until the system boots up.
*The rescue menu will appear.

Checking the Hard Drive for Errors
====================================
The Dell Digital Jukebox has the capability to run scandisk on the hard drive. Follow the instructions listed below to run scandisk on the hard drive.

*Power down the Dell Digital Jukebox.
*Press and hold the Play button, then gently insert a paper clip into the Reset hole located on the left side of the player.
*Continue to hold the Play button until the system boots up.
*The rescue menu should appear. Select 1. Clean Up from the menu.
*A pop-up box will appear.
*Use the scroll button to select "Yes" to continue or "No" to cancel.

Formatting The Hard Drive
==========================
WARNING: Formatting the hard drive will erase all music and data files including pre-install content from the Dell Digital Jukebox.

The hard drive on the Dell Digital Jukebox can be formatted.
Follow the steps listed below to format the hard drive.

*Power down the Dell Digital Jukebox.
*Press and hold the Play button, then gently insert a paper clip into the Reset hole located on the left side of the player.
*Continue to hold the Play button until the system boots up.
*The rescue menu should appear. Select 2. Format All option from the menu.
*A confirmation pop-up box will appear. Use the scroll dial to select "Yes" to continue format or "No" to cancel format.

Reload Firmware
===============
WARNING: Selecting the Reload Firmware option on the rescue menu will ERASE the firmware from the unit. The firmware will then need to be flashed before the unit will function. Do not select this option unless the firmware is available to reflash the unit.

*Power down the Dell Digital Jukebox.
*Press and hold the Play button, then gently insert a paper clip into the Reset hole located on the left side of the player.
*Continue to hold the Play button until the system boots up.
*The rescue menu will appear. Select 3. Reload Firmware option from the menu.

Flashing the Firmware
======================
The firmware of the Dell Digital Jukebox can be flashed using the USB connection. The drivers for the Dell Digital Jukebox must be installed on the system that the unit is attached to.
Flashing the firmware will not cause any data loss. A firmware flash can be done over a missing or corrupt firmware. Go to support.dell.com to download the firmware.

*Connect the Dell Digital Jukebox to the computer where the flash resides using the USB cable provided. This computer must also have the Dell Digital Jukebox drivers loaded.
*Double-Click on the firmware flash utility *The firmware flash will be downloaded to the Dell Digital Jukebox.
Once the flash is completed the unit will reboot.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.

Robert, I should have better clarified, that I didn't really want blogging in office, I want blogging in the next version of Exchange. Opitmally you don't do anything to office. You add it to exchange. That way people already know how to use the tool. You are just automating the Process of doing the posts. Sure I could build an ASP.net Solution in 6 hours that would check a mailbox and post the e-mails Blog style, but it is a lot of the OWA features I want. I want the ability to make bio and appointment information available, I want to be able to quickly put an Excell sheet in my blog, or use the Video Message feature of Outlook to do a Vlog.

Yes I could write the bits to make all this work in a day, but that doesn't move the technology in to the Just Works Category, because I am not an 800 lb Gorrilla.

I don't want MS to steal what NewGator has done, and what I'm proposing doesn't Mirror Greg Reinacker's work because I am not looking for the ultimate in blog Readers, I'm looking at ways to improve the Site experience and Making Posting as easy as e-mailing from any e-mail client, Cellphone or what have you.

Phillip Torrone Thinks this should be implemented as a Print to Blog, which is an interesting concept, I think E-mail as a medium is an easier method but there is room for both.

As an Aside: There should be a better way for us to comment on each others threads cross site.

I was sitting and contemplating what could be Office 12 that I will be seeing in a few weeks that would get me excited. A lot of people can't see any improvements in Office 2003 over 2000, so what does MS have that could make it worth while. I don't rightly know, but I decided the feature I want. Blogging.

Lets face it part of the reason people don't blog more is that it isn't a Just works technology right now. MSFT has the power to change that. Imagine a Blogging site that had all the features OWA offers, and if posting to your Blog was as Easy as sending an E-mail to YourName@Blog.Microsoft.com you could blog from anywhere.

You could share some of your appointments so others could look at your blog and realize "Oh, he met with Richard Tallent the other day, no wonder he blogged about the funny things people do in church."

And Outlook/Word is so easy to create Rich text and articles in. Making a bulleted list in most Blog solutions is not easy, and you can forget about attaching a picture and getting it formatted right. Blog are even already structured like e-mail (Subject and Body as HTML or Text Snippets) so it is cake to implement.

But it is also about more than all those functionality issues that as a blogger I appreciate, it is about showing the world that MSFT gets it. That it understands what the trends in text based communication are and what is happening in the web space.

I was really proud of the 800 lb Gorilla when a group of us met with parts of Building 50, every team we met we told them "You need an RSS feed for that", and you know what they put them up. MSFT is getting it. They are a Silverback and they need to show it by leading every chance they get. A great blogging tool integrated with Exchange could be a chance to show that MSFT is the leader, but that it is responding to what users want and need.

Maybe I'm too late and this is already on the road map. I'm always the last to be told about every thing, but I think it would be really cool.

Did you ever wonder where Blogging comes from? I got asked this just last week. You see blogging wasn't always popular. So where did it all start? I don't honestly know. So in the grand style of Andy Rooney, I'll make it up.

Blogging is kind of like having a paper that always runs your editorial. Or like a TV show that lets you ramble on about what ever you want for the last five minutes. That isn't to say Andy Rooney, or blogging is rambling, but lets face it we aren't delivering real journalism.

Andy tells you what is on his mind. And that is usually news related, but sometimes it isn't so much so, but it is always what he thinks. Blogging is really just a way to play Andy Rooney a few times a day. I realized this when I was reading "Is it a Real Deal" this not news. The same article could have been written 3 years ago and been equally true. It is editorial.

Whether you are Rooney, or Scoble you aren't reporting the news you are commenting on it. So when people ask me "so what is a blog?" I tell them it is like doing your best Andy Rooney impression but with out having Gypsy constantly judging you. If the person still doesn't get it thats ok. A lot of people don't get Andy Rooney. And even fewer get MST3K references.

If you really have to know the real history of weblogs is at Dave Winer's Site.

Any article that starts with "If the Calendar Girls were making cars, this is what they would look like" is off to a bad start. A car designed for women by women doesn't sound so bad at first, and then you read about the stereotypical things they do to the car, like give you seat covers you can change to suit your mood or apparrell. I don't think that is particularly an innovation, I have seatcovers they can change with my mood already, they don't but that is because I'm always calm cool and collected. They give you a fill for your washer fluid next to the gas fill, but assume you don't need to check your oil, or change your air filter your self. It sounds more like a way to guarantee you will only get your car worked on at Volvo. Won't be selling one of these to my mom. The nearest volvo dealer is over 100 miles away. I very much feel it is idiotic, and that you should always allow people choices, Volvo has limited my choices by not giving me the option to pop the hood, and actually as a guy limited my choices as I'd have to be pretty secure in my masculinity to buy the Car for women, by women. It will be interesting to see if women embrace this car or boycott it for being so sexist.

A good friend and colleague got me a set of speakers. The Klipsch GMX D-5.1 's They are big, and ugly, but they sound great. I like my speakers heard and not seen, but I'll hide these and put black cloth over them and it will be all good :-)

This Image from the manual says it all... But go ahead and Caption it anyways....Oh and this is the "ideal" speaker placement...

"I just got this great job at Microsoft and picked up a sweet TV and this kicking sound system...If only I had Furniture"

"I traded my the Ethan Allen Living room set my Mom gave me for this kicking Home theatre"

"The Guy at Best Buy said these speakers would have the ladies bangin down the door to get to me, but alas I still have a spare controller"

" By placing your speakers with wires running all over the floor you allow the sound to "entangle" your audience."

I'm fond of DRM, So this is exciting to me. Most people hate DRM so they won't care. But MS released DRM for web pages. And you can get it here or read about it here. One of these days I should DRM my e-book.

Reuters has an article on Intel's new entertainment PC. How this is better or different from an MCE from HP, Dell, Alienware, or Gateway I don't know. But at least Intel isn't putting PC's in TV's like Gateway tried a while back.

This is a link that Rob Morris sent me. This is a sweet setup, I'm more interested in one based on Media Center, but glad to see that people are using Windows.

This is even cooler if you pair it with some WM HD content. I've been looking at putting 3k of upgrade in my home theatre. I have the space in the Basement, and Already have the audio and PC, just need a projector and 2 walls, and seating. Add some 7.1 audio content and you can see why VC-9/WM was chosen as a mandatory format for HD DVD. I can't wait for Lord of the Rings to be re-released in HD.

As an aside with TV and Home Theatre content going to be in HD this is the end of 35mm, you are going to have to shoot in 70MM or in 1080p for theatre. Anything else will look like a snuff film.