Infinity and Beyond

Another one bites the dust?

 A picture taken from the blog of ‘the Stranger’ in Seattle. The Seattle P-I is on it’s last legs. I’ve also got wind of layoffs at CBS radio in Seattle not to mention the potential massive layoffs that Microsoft is flirting with. The decline of the Seattle market is a cannary in the coal mine. We aren’t through this yet.

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Rumor: AT&T may finally announce iPhone tethering this week.

For those who don’t know what this is, essentially tethering allows you to hook up your iphone to your computer and use it as a wireless modem–surf the web, play games, etc. through your phone’s 3G/Edge/GPRS signal.  Question though is how much extra will this be?  

14-year old already (first) inline for Macworld 2009 keynote.  

Way to go This Kid.  Blogger, school-skipper, Marriott-sleepr, Mac user.  Hopefully there will be some exciting “booms” for his wait.

Microsoft backed Obama during the 2008 elections.

Surprising, though that still doesn’t mean they make good products.

Norwegian podcast puts entire Beatles catalog online legally.

Sweet!  I know what I’m doing tomorrow at work..

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…and even fewer people care about it than when Windows 7 was announced.  The Techland blog from Fortune today talked about the new face lift given to Windows Live social networking.  Four years ago Microsoft tried its hand at social networking my releasing Windows Live “Spaces”.  Spaces was a place to blog, share your photos, and do other generic social networking things.  It was supposed to be something to drive large amounts of traffic and new users to the Windows Live platform which had recently relaunched (think MSN Messenger to “Live Messenger”).  Spaces never really caught on, just as the whole of Windows Live hasn’t ever really caught on.  

That being said, MS is going to make the new social networking service more like Facebook and have lots of status updates…which can integrated with a lot of other accounts you might have–allowing your status to be updated automagically when you write a blog post or a review or something.

I highly doubt that this service is going to take off like MS hopes.  Granted it is possible for new social network sites to take off and make it big, but at this point Facebook is so ubiquitous that I feel the switching costs for most users are too high to try and bother switching over to the Live network.  That being said, MS seems to be taking the approach of making the network more about providing status updates about what you’re doing on other sites.  This could either be really great, or fail miserably.  I suppose if they linked it to Facebook status updates it could be okay.  But this service doesn’t seem to really bring anything new or innovative to the table.  But then again…when was the last time MS did something new and innovative?

And you gotta love this: 

“For its fiscal first quarter, which ended in September, Microsoft lost $480 million from its online unit. “We have to get great at the advertising business,”  Hall said.

Hrm…they have to get great at the advertising business…isn’t that why they acquired aQuantive?  One would think that $6 billion would go a long way towards being great at something….

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Today Microsoft released an early test version of Windows 7 to developers and gave the most in-depth demonstration of the new operating system.  About 4.6 people around the world, who still use their Zune’s, actually cared.

OK, to be fair, on Wall Street quite a few people cared, sending Microsoft’s stock up about 4%, outpacing all the major indices.  But that was for, oh, about 45 minutes.  Now, the stock is back in trend with everyone else.  And it appears that Wall Street, much like those of you probably reading, have already stopped caring.  

Graph of MSFT on 10/28/2008

In case you’re one of those people who have eagerly been awaiting what wondrous possibilities could await you after Vista–or more likely are one of those folks who have decided to pass on Vista all together–you’ll be able to get your hands on a retail copy “by January 2010″.  That’s only a little more than a year away!  Of course, given Microsoft’s track record with releases, I’m saying November  2011 at the earliest.  Taking a historical look, Vista was birthed in May 2001, with an expected ship date of 2003.  In August 2004 the product still hadn’t shipped and the Windows XP code base was thrown out and Vista was rebuilt on top of Windows Server 2003.  Vista didn’t actually ship to retail shelves however until January 30th, 2007.  

So lets guess that MS started coding for Windows 7 as soon as Vista was released (Wikipedia says the first build was released in January 2008).  If they manage to cut the dev time in half for their new OS, we could in fact see a 2010 release.  If they go par for the course, we’re looking at late 2012 or 2013.  I’ll give them a little credit and stick with my November 2011 target.

But who cares when it comes out…just know that it’s on the way!  With such features as a new Microsoft Paint app, now featuring the familiar Office Ribbon!  Tripple w00t!  Now we’re cookin’ with gas–check out the hot new color pallet! (admittedly my favorite part of Excel 2007 is the much-improved default color pallet…)

Windows 7 Paint

And no more do you have to go into a menu to get to the zoom!  Just slide away in the lower-right and zoom to all the pixelated glory you can!  And Paint would be worthless without something to showcase your creation in, right?  Well step on up Windows 7 Wordpad!  Now with Ribbon!

Windows 7 Wordpad

I’m already saving up my $350 for the Super Premium Ultimate Edition–I wouldn’t want to miss out.  But I’ll be disappointed since Bill G. probably won’t sign the box.  But maybe I can get a cool Halo 5 Master Cheif Replica Helmet if I buy the right version.  

But that’s all fun and games.  What about the real meat and potatos of the OS.  Well to that we have plenty of screenshots over at Neowin.net.  Here’s my favorite:

Neowin: Windows 7 Desktop featuring Jump lists

Wowie Zowie!  No they didn’t!  Ohh yes they did!  You can right click an item in the task bar and…BAM! a contextual menu with your book marks.  OhhhhhhhhhhhhhhHHHHH SNAP!  And is that a transparent frame I see around the window, letting me see my Internet TV widget through the min/max/close buttons?  OhhhhHHHHHH SNAP!!!  

And forget Expose or any of that crap that Apple offers.  Why press a single button and see all your open windows from all your open applications conveniently at one time, when you can meticulously hover over each taskbar representation of a program, wait a few seconds, and finally be presented thumbnails of the page? DUH!  Clearly a brilliant design feature!

WSJ: Hover over windows preview

Damn!  Hot shit!  Just like the woman featured in the screenshot above, this feature is sure to be a real maverick when it comes to changing the game in the OS battles.  Take THAT you fat cats at One Infinite Loop!

Man ohh man am I excited!  I just hope that Nvidia comes out with some new GPUs so when I build my next-next-next Windows box I’ll be able to enjoy all these hot eye candy features (I damn well hope so because their stock is a heaping pile of crap right now, and not fit to be recycled in the spiffy new Windows 7 translucent recycle bin of the future).  Niiiicccceeeeee!

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Ever watch a video on YouTube and been inspired to buy the album? Instead of using iTunes to listen to :30s previews of songs do you often find yourself on YouTube listening to the entire thing? What about video game trailers; I know I geeked out when I watched ‘Halo 3′ ads when they first came out. I was watching anything I could with the Master Chief running around and blowing things up. Lucky for you YouTube has the answer to all your purchasing needs.

YouTube Blog

This past Tuesday YouTube announced on their blog that they would be ‘taking our first steps to providing YouTube users with this kind of instant gratification, by adding “click-to-buy” links to the watch pages of thousands of YouTube partner videos.” The post goes on to say that the links will be non-obtrusive and placed beneath the video with the rest of the community features that have led to YouTube’s great success. To start they will be ‘embedding iTunes and Amazon.com links on videos from companies like EMI Music, and providing Amazon.com product links to the newly released video game Spore(TM) on videos from Electronic Arts.”

This is naturally just the beginning as the site slowly shifts to become a strong eCommerce platform for the company. When Google purchased YouTube it wasn’t entirely clear what their motivation was. Why spend so much money on a site that was drawing huge traffic numbers, but not as many advertising dollars? Well, I think we’ve found our answer. As this develops further and we see more and more product links attached with videos the site will become half user generated nonsense (as it always has been) and half corporate sponsored commercials. If only MTV had a way to have done this for television 10 years ago.

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Bah, this is typical Microsoft IMHO.  Apple provides the Mac Genius service in all of its retail locations, which allow customers to set up appointments for face-to-face consultations with tech support (and in some stores for creative support and consultation).  The Genius can make repairs on the fly, check hardware in for repair, answer general questions, provide 1-on-1 instruction, etc. etc., for already-purchased products.  Sweet.  I’ve known many personally, and have used the service a few times–I’m pretty technically savvy but sometimes I need help beyond my knowledge, and it’s nice to be able to drive down the road to my Apple Store and get that help.

Microsoft’s approach is different.  Via TUAW, Microsoft will staff Best Buy and Circuit City stores with “Gurus.”  Will these folks help you out with your existing Microsoft issues?  Nope.  But they will be there to convince you that Windows Mojave Vista is really sweet and absolutely what you need.  I wonder if they’ll wear blue or red polos like traditional BB/CC staffers, white shirt and ties like Mormons on a mission Geek Squad team members, or something altogether different (like the brown Zune)?

I just really can’t see these Gurus adding much value to in-store interactions.  I suppose it all depends on who they hire.  Will they be full-time MS employees?  Will they have a vested interest in Microsoft products, and actually be passionate about what MS can provide?  Or will they be like those dudes who you see sitting in the middle of the mall pretending to tell customers about the awesome powers of a Microsoft Media Center PC-enhanced living room?  Because I’ve actually talked to those people before, and they’re totally non-technical and know next to nothing about the products they’re trying to sell.  If the Gurus are standard Best Buy employees who go to a few training classes and wear a button down shirt instead of a polo, then I think this venture is bound to fail.  However, if they’re actually knowledgeable individuals who aren’t feeding consumers a bunch of crap, it might help to raise awareness of Microsoft’s product lines and their interconnectedness, which could prevent the need for future Mojave Experiments.

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Chrome freakin’ rocks.  At least that’s my first impression so far.  

After a relatively quick download and install from the Chrome Beta site, I was up and running last night with Google’s new browser.

What I was instantly blown away by was how snappy the browser was.  From loading the browser in the first place, to opening new tabs, to opening heavy pages on the Internet, Chrome just seems zippy.  Forget that…it doesn’t seem zippier, it is.  Especially on JavaScript and media heavy sites.

 One of the first thoughts I had when I started using the browser was, “Ohh, so this is what Web 2.0 is supposed to be like.”  No long waits for bloated websites to sluggishly try and render in IE.  Remember back in the day when you first experienced the web over a true high-speed Internet connection?  It’s like that again.

My companies website, which I know is very JavaScript heavy, loads much, much faster in Chrome.  Gmail seems to open almost instantly.  I’m reminded of arriving at the University of Washington and downloading MP3s via Napster–often the download would be done before the % complete bar would even display.  That’s the feeling I get surfing with Chrome.  

The UI is very minimal.  Or at least it feels that way.  Perhaps it takes up just as much toolbar space as IE 6 and 7, but it doesn’t feel that way.  The integrated address/search/everything bar is pretty slick as well…just start typing what you want.  The bar is smart enough to know if you’re searching or looking for a website in your history.  Furthermore, Google’s top-search suggestions are displayed when it recognizes you’re typing a search.  And the intelligent filtering seems to be a lot smoother than the jarring redraws you see with Firefox 3.

The new tab window seems just…smart.  Why wasn’t this done before?  When you open a new tab, Google displays thumbnails of your most-frequently (or most-recently?  I’m not sure yet…) sites, so with a simple click you can navigate to your favorite locations.  If you think about it, you’re really often only going to a handful of sites each day, and now those will be easily accessible.

I haven’t checked, but I assume that Google has provided me a way to access these sites without having to pick up my hands from the keyboard and use the mouse.  I need to explore what kind of keyboard shortcuts Chrome offers.  The keyboard shortcuts are one of the reasons I find Gmail so easy to use–I am constantly frustrated when Outlook doesn’t understand “g-i” means I want to go back to my Inbox.  Bah!

Now, Minyanville ran a story regarding IE 8’s new “porn mode”–aka private browsing or what MS refers to as “InPrivate.”  This feature is not new to the browsing world, with Firefox, Safari, and Camino all having had similar features for quite some time.  Minyanville, referencing a Financial Times article, insinuated that this would somehow take a hit out of Google’s search engine revenue.  Because of course all those people out there in Teh Internets are constantly being mindful of their browsing behavior and the kind of data that Google is collecting–and thusly they’ll always browse “InPrivate”–cutting off some valuable data for Google’s search algorithms.

I dont’ think this really going to be an issue however.  Firstly, even if you’re browsing “InPrivate” and you make a search via Google, Google’s obviously going to have your search term, and can still target ads.  Furthermore, Google built in an “Incognito” mode into Chrome.  And they did some interesting things with it.  Their implementation is not all-or-nothing.  You can start a new window in “Incognito” mode, or you can right click a link and open the link in a new window that way.  The mode is denoted by a rather incognito looking dude in the top of the window and a different colored frame than the default browser.  The mode will not keep a history, and will automagically delete all associated browsing data, including cookies, when the tab/window is closed–not just when you restart the browser.  So you can surf half your windows privately while keeping the other windows in a normal mode.  Buying a surprise gift?  Surfing hot trample porn?  Sweet!  No need to clear your entire browsing history and leave a telltale indication to anyone who is snooping you history.

And to end my first impressions of Chrome, while I have to say the browser feels faster and snappier overall, it does appear to use more memory than Firefox.  Google claimed that because of the sandboxing of each window and tab–each run as a separate process, allowing a crashed tab to not bring down the entire browser or OS–there is a larger memory overhead to being with.  But as they’ve revamped a lot of the garbage collection in the code, over time the overhead will pay off because other browsers will get bloated and not reallocate unused memory.  In initial testing, I opened the same windows in Chrome and Firefox 3, and got about 100MB in memory usage out of Chrome (across all Chrome processes) compared to only about 63MB of usage in Firefox.  What I haven’t had a chance to do yet is run both FF and Chrome all day, and find out which is more bloated after a whole day’s usage (I doubt my Windows box will get through the whole day without some other issue or update causing a reboot, so this test might best be left to someone else). 

In all, Chrome rocks.  Download it, use it, love it.  At least for now.  And at least until IE 8 comes along and you’re forced to use it to log into some arcane corporate intranet tool.  Damn those IE-only sites…

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Google threw up this article on my Gmail news ticker–Frogger, anyone?  Old-school gamers revel in nostalgia.  I thought it was a pretty sweet idea to turn a garage or spare room into an old-school style arcade.  I remembered a site I came across when I was trying to get into physical computing which sold a ton of sweet arcade buttons and joysticks for creating your own stand-up arcade boxes.  The site even has templates and layouts for your reference.

This makes me want to get back into physical computing projects.  The board I’ve used in the past is the Arduino board, which is pretty cheap and has an easy USB connection (no painful USB-serial converters necessary).  A good reference book that I’ve got is Physical Computing: Sensing and Controlling the Physical World with Computers, by Tom Igoe and Dan O’Sullivan.  It’s a little outdated, but the basic concepts are all covered, and there are a lot of code examples which can easily be adapted to the Arduino.  They cover basic tools needed, soldering, all the various kinds of components you’re likely to use, explain how to read diagrams, and much more.

But, physical computing projects aside, this brings up the point that I tend to agree with the assessment that most gaming companies these days seemed driven to provide only the best visual gaming experience, while they often seem to ignore the actual gameplay itself.  Which is perhaps why the Wii does so well–the games don’t look the absolute best, but many are geared to have a quick learning curve and are focused on fun.  Wii Tennis for instance is arguably an awful looking game when compared to the graphics of nearly any Xbox 360 game.  But that doesn’t matter, because the gameplay is super easy to learn and you can start having fun immediately.  This has always been one of Nintendo’s strong points.

Thinking about this makes me want to build a stand-up arcade and put on some of the classic Nintendo and Atari games.  Maybe some Super Mario Bros, Frogger, Pac Man, Lolo…perhaps even some Super NES games like F-Zero…or better yet, a 4-player arcade version of the original Mario Kart.

Now all I need is a crappy TV, the Nintendo from the closet in my mom’s house, and a spot to put it.

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An alliance has been forged. Microsoft and it’s Xbox 360 has teamed up with Netflix to deliver downloadable movies straight to their console (check out a video of the announcement here). The deal includes 10,000 movies and tv shows and was announced Monday  at the E3 Media and Business Summit in L.A., which I’m sure we’ll be invited to next year.

“This generation of consoles will change the face of home entertainment more than any other generation before,” said John Schappert, corporate VP of MSFT’s interactive entertainment division. This tool will help allow Netflix to move furhter from the computer towards the television screen, a line that was blurred even further after the success of Roku. This will allow more of Netflixs’ 8.2 million subscribers to stream video content and not be forced to watching it on the computer. About 8,000 more titles should become available in the next few months and Netflix is hoping this new venture is just as successful as Roku has been. Now if only someone could mention this new fangle technology called ‘the internet’ to the folks at Blockbuster they might be able to keep the battle for video home rentals alive, but much like the recent format battle, the companies that develop the best technologies and form the strongest alliances will go home the winners at the end of the day. As Blockbuster continues to sink further and further into a 10-year low stock price. I’ve been saying it over and over but Blockbuster has been making the wrong decision time and time again while Netflix continues to evolve and advance moving into every possible corner of the market it can. When it comes to streaming legal content online through second party devices I think Netflix takes the cake. “The company already has announced that LG electronics will include streaming capability on a Blu-ray DVD player that will debut this year.” Netflic CEO promised “at least one more major consumer electronics company will unveil a set-top box for Netflix before 2009.”

Netflix isn’t the only company embracing the future. This announcement came on a day when MSFT is trying to makeover the Xbox 360. With the HUGE success of Nintendo’s ultimate gaming device, the Wii, MSFT is trying to regain some the market share it has lost to its local rival (Nintendo of America’s headquarters is across the freeway from Microsoft in Redmond, WA). Moving from a hardcore gaming console to appeal to the ‘casual’ gamer the Xbox is becoming a “multipurpose entertainment machine to watch movies, TV shows, and listen to music.” With the demise of HD-DVD the ailing console has been needing a boost to bring it back into the limelight. While partnering with NBC/Universal to stream TV shows like “30 Rock” and movies like “The Bourne Supremacy” to the console might help, its ultimately going to be its diverse capabilities that draw the larger audience. If that doesn’t help get the attention of the average family then hopefully that $50 price cut will at least bring it within $100 of the cheaper Wii.

 We’ll find out how Nintendo intends to counter this new development tomorrow when they take the stage for day two of the E3 conference, which as I said before, we’ll for sure be going to next year? That and ShoWest.

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Ohh yeah! Potential Microsoft Windows security breaches? What? I don’t believe it.

Citibank had a huge ATM breach where hackers were able to steal the closely-guarded PIN numbers of customers’ ATM cards. The breach reportedly allowed the hackers to net millions of dollars from the victims. Attacks on the ATM network have been increasingly lately, and surprisingly not all banking systems use a high level of encryption on their PINs. And more and more of the systems are being run on flavors of Microsoft’s Windows operating system, never known to be the most secure thing in the computing world.

But not to worry, I’m sure the banks will find out some way of recovering the lost money. Likely through more fees for everyone else, but that’s just the way things go.

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