I'm currently reading George Dyson's "Darwin Among the Machines" so it was interesting to see his short (20 min) presentation on computing history at TED. The engineers notes, seen in the later part of the presentation, will amuse anyone who has battled with computer hardware - old or new!
So that’s why my Internet was stopping after a few minutes. Blocked net meant finding the solution, to blocked net, was a bit of a pain. Installed the ZA patch and all is well again.
ZoneAlarm updated after Microsoft's DNS patch - CNET News.com
I’ve made a couple of changes to the site & wonder if anyone has noticed?
* Kiwis do speak English but I’ve been told it’s a slurred rounded vowel rapid mumble often mis-understood by other English speakers. Even by our nearest neighbours, Aussie, who speak something like English think we have a strange accent, bizarre eh!
I’m trying as part of my blog authoring process and so far it’s working fine!
Today’s space news and too long spent playing with blog design* this weekend made this cosmic blog‘toon seem rather relevant.
From the excellent xkcd - A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language - By Randall Munroe
* Only some of which made it to the published blogs
Michael Scherotter created the impressive illustration, and functional demo, below with Microsoft’s Silverlight & Expression tools. His post details the creation process, how it’s hosted and shared. It’s embedded here with a Windows Live Gadget.
Nice work, Michael! Now I’d like to see a cut-away view showing the internal mechanism…. 
Synergist : Beauty with Silverlight
I used Expression Design, to convert the logo to XAML, then set out to recreate the timepiece in Silverlight.
Here's what I came up with:
There seems to be plenty of news about clouds, even when the weather is fine!
It’s not about stormy weather, but rather “Cloud Computing”. It featured in Microsoft’s presentation at Autodesk University Technology Mainstage, just last December.
Since then they’ve released “Cloud” related technologies like SkyDrive, Mesh and a Silverlight update. None of that is news but this line, from an article on Exchange email hosting in the cloud, caught my attention:
Of course, they are chasing Google while still flirting with Yahoo!…“Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft said it continues to build up its infrastructure, adding roughly 10,000 powerful computer servers a month to its data centres.”
Microsoft braces for major email shift - Stuff.co.nz
I do LinkedIn but I don’t Facebook. However, thanks to this post on LinkedIn Vs Facebook I found out LinkedIn have added a personal RSS feed to the startup page. That’s cool!
Log into LinkedIn and click on the RSS icon by “Network Updates”. It will generate a feed link to add to your RSS Reader.
LinkedIn vs. Facebook 6 Months Later - ReadWriteWeb
“LinkedIn now provides an RSS feed into my start page, so I can quickly scan what my contacts are doing, adding a touch of serendipity as well as pure curiosity.“
I’m off-line until May. If you wish to leave a comment or trackback feel free but they will be held for approval when I return. If you’re wondering where I’ll be… click here
On the way to Autodesk University 2007, during my S.F. stopover, I had the pleasure of catching up with Michael Scherotter over coffee. I first got to know Michael when he was with Mindjet and visited him there after AU2005. Last year he moved to a new role with Microsoft which seems a perfect fit.
After studying Architecture, as in buildings not software, Michael found his real love was developing software solutions for new uses/niches. If you asked me to cite one characteristic that defines Michael it’s his passion for new technology and sharing that knowledge.
That is apparent in this clip where he talks about Microsoft Silverlight 2.0 and how it’s soon to be used in major media projects.
Michael Scherotter of Microsoft Silverlight at SXSW Interactive 2008
Michael’s Synergist Blog - http://blogs.msdn.com/synergist/default.aspx
This is way off topic but more US readers visit here than my other blog so here it is!
I “met” Andy through answering a question about blogging on LinkedIn. I guess this shows there are non-business uses for that business focused network. He’s soon to set out on an epic cycle trip for fun(!), and charity, blogging along the way. If you see him somewhere along this line in the next few weeks/months and feel like contributing say Hi, and you read it here!
Cycling for Charity [extract below click for full post] - Andy's TransAmerica Trail Cycle 2008
When I made the decision to undertake this trip, it was largely due to the personal desire to take on a challenge and an adventure.
In working out the costs for such a trip, I started to give some thought to the amount I was spending and realised that it was a bit wasteful to spend a few thousand pounds on a bike, camping equipment, panniers, racks and cool gizmos for the bike without trying at the same time to raise some money for a good cause and hopefully draw attention to a worthy charity
That charity is the National Association of Colitis and Crohn's disease (NACC) which I got to know through the experiences of a number of close friends and family members who have suffered with Crohn's, Colitis and associated illnesses over the years.Andy's TransAmerica Trail Cycle 2008 – Homepage and RSS Feed
I am a 29 year old from London and the plan is to set off in mid April to cycle the 4247.5 mile TransAmerica bike route from Virginia to Oregon, getting back to England in time for my 30th birthday in the middle of June.
I’ve had a profile on LinkedIn, the business focused social network site, for quite a while. It recently had a major make-over and I find the new interface much more approachable.
It also seems like it has taken off as I’ve seen much more activity recently. I’m not sure if this the new UI working, more people experimenting with business focused social networks or just because I’m using it more myself?
It has been handy to keep in contact with former colleagues, find new contacts in related industries or other areas of interest. I’ve also been able to help a few others as LinkedIn relies on a trusted referral model. Seems odd that someone in Idaho was introduced to a contact in the U.K. via a referrer in New Zealand. I knew both, but they wouldn’t have known I was a mutual contact without LinkedIn..
If you’re considering joining, or already using, LinkedIn and Outlook be sure to get their free Outlook Toolbar. In addition to adding LinkedIn integration it’s got a handy “Grab” tool, powered by anagram, which allows you to transfer contact information from an email directly into an Outlook Contact (in the correct fields).
An example of Outlook integration is this info button. It appears on emails and enables you to see if your contact uses LinkedIn, showing their chosen public profile, or invite them if they don’t!
If you’re a TypePad Blogger LinkedIn can be integrated with your side-bar using, literally, a single tick-box. They also offer a variety of HTML badges for any web page or blog post!
What is former Apple Evangelist, Venture Capitalist and “Democratizer of information” Guy Kawasaki doing at Mix?
Armed with a MacBook Air, he’s talking to Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, about Yahoo!, Vista, Google and more. It’s an interesting informal “chat”, at one point Steve even gives out his email address. Guy, seemingly surprised, then asks if he answers his own mail, which he does.
A couple of years ago I watched another video of Steve speaking, I think at UTC, and towards the end he doubted anyone was still watching, giving his email address for follow-up. I sent a short email saying at least one person had seen it to the end and got a reply within a few hours. At the time I thought it was probably from a PA, maybe it wasn’t!
How to Change the World: Mano-a-Mano with Steve Ballmer
In one of the more unusual appearances that I've been a part of, here is a "fireside chat" with Steve Ballmer at Mix 2008…
“UX is an acronym for User experience" but many of the principles discussed in this ChangeOrder post apply to all design projects, especially the tips about design presentations.
ChangeOrder: Secrets of UX Design Productivity from Google
Last Thursday, I attended a free session organized by SIGCHI, Puget Sound region at Google Seattle HQ. Jake Knapp, a very well-spoken user interface designer, entertained a packed house with a speech on 17 tactics that he uses for creating strong UX work in "the flood" of projects that pour through his UX department from month to month…
- Have Strong Project Foundations
- Let the Code Be the Mockup
- Be Smart About (Re)using Research
- Designers Need to Create Memorable Presentations
- Have a singular goal for your presentation.
- Start on paper, and see the big-picture story
- Make horizontal and vertical storyboards
- 3 words or less per slide
- Follow the 10/20/30 rule, per Guy Kawasaki.
- Be careful how you present mockups
- Drawings invite people to participate – Keeping the design work rough cues everyone to know it's a work in progress -- and treat it as such in discussions.
As a Google user, isn’t everyone on the net?, I have pondered one aspect of their Homepage (it’s even seen in the ChangeOrder Post!). While I understand their drive for simplicity it would be nice if the menu could sense, and cope with, a wider screen. Flying out a menu when there’s ample space for it’s contents doesn’t enhance my Google UX!
This is what made Robert Scoble cry and Buzz Bruggeman, CEO of ActiveWords, called "the best thing he’s seen in years from Microsoft" a couple of weeks ago.
Science educator Roy Gould and Microsoft's Curtis Wong introduce the Worldwide Telescope at TED:
From: The Worldwide Telescope - www.worldwidetelescope.org/
"The WorldWide Telescope (WWT) is a rich visualization environment that functions as a virtual telescope, bringing together imagery from the best ground and space telescopes in the world for a seamless, guided exploration of the universe"
Microsoft have released SkyDrive, their “cloud” storage solution, from beta and now offer 5GB storage in 38 countries, including New Zealand. That’s a ray of sunshine on a gloomy Auckland day.
Windows Live SkyDrive Team Blog
You've made two things clear since our first release: You want more space; and you want SkyDrive where you are. Today we're giving you both. You now have five times the space you had before — that’s 5GB of free online storage for your favorite documents, pictures, and other files. SkyDrive is also available now in 38 countries/regions.
I’m not sure what to make of “Microsoft Yahoo!” which led the business news when I woke up this morning. Wasn’t it last year that Steve Ballmer said Microsoft were going to be doing small acquisitions for the next five years. Still $44.6 billion isn’t that much I suppose!
It’s kinda funny that months after Xtra, my ISP, switched it’s partner allegiance from MSN to Yahoo! they may be merging back together. I hope the proposed merger goes better than the XtraMSN to Yahoo!Xtra transition which was far from seamless for many of its 1/2 million subscribers.
Perhaps the real problem for both Microsoft and Yahoo is having heard the radio news, like many I suspect, I used Google Search, News, Blog Search to find out more about it!
Microsoft makes unsolicited $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo - Feb. 1, 2008
“Software giant offers $31 a share - a 62% premium - in deal that could reorder online ad market. Microsoft's Ballmer: 'Major milestone.”Microsoft makes bid for Yahoo | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com
“Microsoft said Friday that it is making an unsolicited offer of $31 a share, or $44.6 billion, to buy Yahoo in a move that would give the software giant more market share and become a significant threat to Google”
“Microsoft sent the following letter to Yahoo. Realistically it’s hard to see how Yahoo could say no”Running the Numbers on a Possible Yahoo/Microsoft Merger | Epicenter from Wired.com
With Microsoft's surprise $44.6 billion offer for Yahoo this morning, we thought we'd look at some hard numbers to get a better sense of what the potential merger would mean for both companies...and the rest of the tech sector.“Value of each Yahoo visitor based on Microsoft's $44.6B offer: $1,200/visitor“*
Does that mean this blog with approx 700 subscribers is worth us$840,000?
So that’s what they’ve been doing in the server room 
Jade helps The Warehouse ditch mainframes - New Zealand's source for technology news on Stuff.co.nz
The retailer's mainframes, which were managed by Unisys under an outsourcing arrangement, have been decommissioned and replaced with IBM servers running Microsoft Windows that will be supported by Jade.
UPDATE 23–01–2008:
Computerworld > Warehouse's Jade ERP upgrade to save $4 million
The company went live in September with a new Jade system and Wintel platform, after switching off its Linc legacy system
Jade Software Corporation – Established in 1978 by Sir Gil Simpson, Jade Software Corporation is an information technology research and development organisation that produces innovative software services and solutions.
It looks lovely, but then you see at all the compromises in spec and wonder…
If Apple are so smart why can’t, or won’t, they design a user replaceable battery?
I’d rather have one of these
UPDATE 2008–01–17: And then you read Sony did it four years ago.
After the mess of the Yahoo!Xtra Bubble transition it’s nice to be able to compliment Telecom New Zealand Broadband – currently branded as “Yahoo!Xtra”.
I awoke on Saturday to find no broadband and a noisy phone line. After checking the hardware and connections I rang Xtra to see if there were any network problems. After a brief interaction with the automated system I got through to a real human operator with no waiting. They went through the routine of checking settings, connections then said a line test would be required and they’d call back in an hour or so. I had to go out so rang when I got home, again straight through to human, to find the line had checked out fine.
After talking to several people in the broadband and line divisions, four dealt with my call that day, the final solution was deemed to be a site visit to check the splitter. I have two lines with a splitter, dedicating one to broadband, rather than one line with filters. They said that call would happen within 24–48 hours which meant either Sunday and Christmas Eve.
To be honest I expected to have no broadband till after Christmas which presented a few problems. It only takes a day without broadband to work out how much you use it! Apart from the obvious, email, I couldn’t check weather for the Sunday bike ride, do net banking, look at the TV schedules or even read the news without wandering up the road to buy a dead tree smeared with ink. I suppose dialup was still an option but didn’t get that desperate!
I arrived home from work on Christmas Eve to find the broadband fixed, working fine. Thanks to Raj, Rashida, Liam and the others I spoke to, and whoever actually fixed it, at Telecom New Zealand Broadband Support!
There are some great tips about caring for your memory cards, especially the last one which might even help if you loose one!
13 Tips for Using and Caring for Memory Cards - digital-photography-school.com
How should I care for my digital camera’s memory card to make it last as long as possible?
The whole PC vs Mac thing isn’t really worth thinking about for me. The software I use most is Windows/PC so why bother but some Mac’vangelists still insist Windows won’t run an hour without crashing. Perhaps that’s why Apple do stuff like this…
Anil Dash: Smug Ugly
Although I've been accused sometimes of reflexive contrariness, the truth is I'm just pretty consistent in my assessments of technology, with little regard for the perceptions of the companies or people who provide those technologies.
The best case in point I can use to illustrate this is an example of the worst thing about Apple. There is simply nothing less attractive than a person who is both flawed and smug…
Robert Scoble has an interview with Chris Alden, Michael Sippey and David Recordon of Six Apart. Their TypePad platform powers this blog so I was interested to see what they are thinking and planning.
TypePad is great but has not really seen much core development recently. There have been lots of small refinements but things like it’s media features (photo albums* & library) need a big overhaul. It’s a little frustrating that Six Apart’s, newer, free Vox platform is currently better at this than “Pay to host” TypePad!
TypePad is a hosted solution running on 6A’s Movable Type (MT) platform. It was recently updated so maybe more of the good stuff seen in it will turn up in TypePad. I’ve considered using MT but, being lazy, prefer a hosted solution even with it’s limitations. A few of my TypePad wishes from 2006 have appeared but would be good to see more work on the platform.
The future of Moveable Type, Vox, TypePad, and Live Journal « Scobleizer
With who? Six Apart’s CEO, Chris Alden, and VP of Products, Michael Sippey, and Engineer David Recordon.NOTE: Robert has the full one hour interview & six minute highlights edit.
TypePad Trivia: When I first found TypePad, via Shaan Hurley, I wondered why the company name was “Six Apart”. The name comes from the gap between founders Ben & Mena’s birthdays!
* I’ve considered moving all my photos to Flickr, which can be integrated with TypePad, but then face the nightmare of recreating hundreds of titles & comments from the TypePad albums.
I’d finished my email, just done some Internet banking, checked out a few things on Amazon and decided to get back to reading that book on Google. It’s been on my “must read heap” for far too long but first I checked out a few blogs. One was Steve Lacey’s, who works for Google, which led to this:
I was one in 1967, now we are living the future!
There has always been some speculation about the name of the “Junior AutoCAD” and the meaning of those letters “L” and “T”:
I was trying a recent post with the Talkr blog reading feature and it offered another version. Click the link below to hear Talkr’s interpretation:
IBM are manipulating atoms aiming to get a thousand times current storage densities. Imagine your server, on your iPod…
IBM Nanotech Breakthroughs Point To Tech's Future Building Blocks: Scientific American
New research explores using atoms and molecules to pack more data storage and computing capabilities into smaller spaces.
This is brilliant, from SnagIt to TypePad in a click!
Versions for WordPress, Live Journal, Movable Type and TypePad at:
http://www.techsmith.com/snagit/accessories/blogging.asp
via blognation
I was a little mystified why I missed the Yahoo!Xtra Bubble announcements apart from the mail disruption notice seen in this earlier post. A visit to a relations place in the weekend had me setting up her Bubble and I saw this in the in-box:
Her XtraMail was set to mark all spam with [SPAM] rather than delete it. It appears Xtra’s old spam filter picked it’s Yahoo!Xtra Bubble announcement up as Spam. Probably quite true but perhaps it explains why many didn’t know about the impending changes.
Sure enough, a look at my MailWasher history showed the Yahoo!Xtra Bubble announcement was deleted, tagged as spam, on 18/07/2007…
Last week several hundred thousand subscribers, including me, got an email from the ISP Xtra which said:
From: Xtra
Sent: Wednesday, 15 August 2007 16:36
To: Xtra Customers
Subject: Service Announcement: Xtra Webmail will be unavailable for 24 hours
Dear Customer
We are making a significant upgrade to email this weekend, and as a result webmail will be unavailable for up to 24 hours over the weekend. However you can still send and receive emails using email software like Outlook. To find out how to set up Outlook please visit www.xtra.co.nz/help .
For more information over the weekend about the changes and the status of the upgrade please visit www.xtra.co.nz/updates
Kind Regards
The Team @ Telecom Xtra
Based on my experiences this week it should have said:
Dear Customer
We are changing our email service from Xtra New Zealand to Yahoo! Australia servers in this weekend and as a result;
- If you have an existing Yahoo! account;
I had a huge reduction of email volume since the “mail upgrade” and wondered what had happened. It wasn’t until tonight that I found this missing mail. It required accepting the Yahoo! terms and logging into Yahoo!Xtra Bubble webmail. Over six hundred messages were being held in a “Bulk” spam folder and were not seen by Outlook or other software using pop3 access.
I had used XtraMail’s spam feature to tag, but not delete, spam messages as it had a fairly constant 2% error. If I’d used the “delete spam” option I’d never have seen those messages. MailWasher allows me to preview and accept this valid “spam” before deleting the real spam and retrieving my messages.
The weekend upgrade meant Yahoo! SpamGuard Plus took over spam filtering. It had moved 653 messages to the “bulk” spam folder, of which 68 were valid. I had missed messages from friends, readers, event ticketing, sports newsletters and service updates from TypePad who host my blog. Xtra’s 2% spam error had leapt to over 10%. What’s annoying is I’d never have known those messages existed at all without logging into Yahoo!Xtra Bubble Webmail.
Doing that required quite a detailed sign-up and care to avoid install of Yahoo! Toolbar and Messenger, neither of which I want. Once in I had to disable SpamGuard and manually move the messages, 12 at a time, to the webmail in-box folder. Even this was hindered by the default “new Yahoo! mail UI as found I had to go back to the older mail UI for the message moves to stick. Once that was done MailWasher could see & process these messages. It’s filter mechanisms correctly identified most of my valid mail, allowed me to pick the others I did want and then got rid of all the real spam.
Note the big dip in volume when the bubble arrived...
If you’ve sent me a message that got stuck in the Bubble sorry for the delay in responding. I’ll catch up with them over the weekend. Then I’ll figure out how to bill Xtra for the time I’ve spent sorting out their troublesome Bubble.
Xtra, my ISP, broke loads of it’s subscribers email this weekend while implementing a “new enhanced service”. Stuff like that can happen with upgrades, especially when it’s a complex system with several hundred thousand users. It shouldn’t, but we’re getting a wonderful new service so it’s worth the pain, right?
“Yahoo!Xtra Bubble” claims to be to be “Your window to the Web” so I had a look. It just seems to be re-packaged MyYahoo! with all the usual Yahoo! crud. Do I really need Yahoo! Horoscope?
Then, looking closer, it all seemed very odd. I wonder why a service from a New Zealand ISP for a Kiwi customer had defaulted to showing:
“Yahoo!Xtra Bubble” sure isn’t my window on the web, whose is it?
Yes, I could spend time customising all this for local content but you still get the Yahoo! crud. Forget the Bubble, a blank home-page looks like a good option right now. Thank goodness this rubbish is provided at “no extra cost”!
Xtra emailers' weekend of misery - NZ Herald
The company says it is enhancing the overall service to more than 500,000 Xtra customers and had tried to notify people of a 24-hour webmail outage.“The result of a partnership between Yahoo! and Telecom, Bubble is touted as providing "an exciting range of new services that will change the way you use the internet" for no extra cost”
Bubble bursts for Telecom service - Stuff.co.nz
Telecom's website announced the arrival of a new internet service with the words "The wait is over!" but for many customers that's all they did over the weekend - wait.
Not sure if Air New Zealand will match this but it’s a great reason to consider the flying Kangaroo. Qantas new Airbus A380s – regardless of class - will have laptop power sockets and onboard WiFi from August 2008. Retrofitted 747-400s will also go into service from February next year…
RobiNZ Personal Blog: Qantas adds inflight WiFi to all flights
This is great news for someone who’s a long-haul flight from everywhere!
It started with this message:
“Your AntiVirus subscription is about to expire…”. Then there was the stupid decision not to just renew the subscription but also, since the cost was almost the same, “upgrade” to the latest version.
The Upgrade:
It started OK, the download took a while but then the update began installing, slowly. About four hours(!) later the otherwise idle machine finally finished the install and requested to re-boot.
The First Run:
No problem, well it took about ten minutes to restart, and then ran Auto-update demanding some patches were installed. Not just virus definitions, which I could understand, but also multiple application and update application components. What’s that about when I’d just downloaded the “latest version”? I let it install the patches.
After the Patches:
After another re-boot it demanded a full scan, to complete the install, but about halfway through Auto-Protect failed. It required an auto-update which installed some components then demanded a re-boot. You might be able to guess what happened about halfway through the scan…
Help, there’s a fix!
After repeating that process half a dozen times and I gave up and resorted to the support site. It was nicely set up and after requesting me to enter the error code it suggested yet another fix-up patch.
I had forgotten the error code but by this time Auto-Protect failed again so didn’t take long to get it. If you build a support site around cryptic error codes why can’t the software log them for the Support Site to retrieve?
But the fix didn’t…
After another re-boot it demanded a full scan, to complete the install, but about halfway through Auto-Protect failed. (OK that sentence was a copy/paste from an earlier paragraph but that’s what happened again!). It was back to the Support site. The advice “If the fix hasn’t fixed things” is to download an un-install tool, completely remove the software and start again. So I decide to do that, the next evening…
The re-install:
So I install the software again which seemed to go OK. After another re-boot it demanded a full scan, to complete the install, but about halfway through Auto-Protect failed. (Yeah, it’s another copy/paste sentence). Back to the support site again and decide it’s time for some live interaction. You can phone, for a price, or chat via IM for free so that’s what I do. After establishing the problem, that the fix doesn’t work and that a re-install didn’t work the technician advises a simple mix of disabling Auto-Protect, rebooting, then re-enabling Auto-Protect and it’s all sorted.
Finally Fixed!
The endless initial scan runs yet again this time completing with a little 
I’d hoped to see twenty four hours before, when I ticked upgrade on a fully functional trouble free installation. Finally shiny new AntiVirus protecting my machine and all was well with the world.
Until…
Four days later I get “Your trial has ended purchase a permanent license here…”.
Back to Support and find the entry for “You purchased a license but now get trial ended message” which gives another “fix” to download. It demands a re-boot and the trial is magically transformed into the permanent license it always was. That was about a week ago and so far, hopefully forever, I’ve seen that lovely or a dialog I thought I’d never see ever again...
The Outcome:
I can report Norton’s AntiVirus Support site is well organised and their IM Support Technician was great. The sad thing is I had so many opportunities to experience it.
If Anti-virus is this much hassle I hope it works and I never get a virus!
UPDATE 08–09–2007 : It still doesn’t work!
The “working” Norton AV never managed to retrieve a Virus Definition update. It tried, failed then launched into a process which required a 18mb manual patch download, every time. After two of those the support site led me back to the total re-install process. At about that time a promo offer from ZoneAlarm offered the addition of AV for 1/4 of the upgrade cost from Norton. I have uninstalled the Norton Product and requested a refund. ZoneAlarm is working fine.
This is a graphical map of my blogs structure generated by:
Websites as graphs - an HTML DOM Visualizer Applet
See this image grow at Websites as graphs
See this image growing captured with Jing.
What do the colours mean?
blue: for links (the A tag)
red: for tables (TABLE, TR and TD tags)
green: for the DIV tag
violet: for images (the IMG tag)
yellow: for forms (FORM, INPUT, TEXTAREA, SELECT and OPTION tags)
orange: for linebreaks and blockquotes (BR, P, and BLOCKQUOTE tags)
black: the HTML tag, the root node
gray: all other tags
I’d like to be going to Microsoft New Zealand’s Tech Ed New Zealand 2007 (13 - 15 August at SkyCity, Auckland) but it’s sold out. I’ll just have to watch the web, official & unofficial, for news…
Official Site:
Microsoft Tech Ed New Zealand 2007 - www.microsoft.co.nz/teched
Tech Ed 2007 has now SOLD OUT so thank you to all those who have registered. If you missed out, all is not lost. Content will be available here during & after the event, plus Tech Ed 2008 is only a year away.Unofficial Tech-Ed related Blogs:
Darryl Burling @ Work – TechEd07
I am a technology and gadget geek living in Wellington, New Zealand and working for Microsoft.The Unofficial Tech Ed Blog - www.geekzone.co.nz
This blog is written by Mauricio Freitas and published by Geekzone and is not associated in any way with Microsoft New Zealand or Microsoft Corp.
July 4th 2007 was a significant day as, 50 years after the original, Fiat released the new Fiat 500.
Fiat Chief, Sergio Marchionne, was widely quoted "I want Fiat to become the Apple of cars" and “the Cinquecento will be our iPod". Is it IT irony that when you connect an iPod to your new 500, seen right, it’s hooking into a Media & Navigation system that runs on Windows Mobile (note the logo)!
Fiat 500 Microcar Powered by Windows Mobile
The new Fiat 500 was recently revealed and one of the most noticeable features of the tiny hatchback is the Microsoft logo in the cabin..Software Development : Blue & Me - Fiat and Microsoft Collaboration
Instead of costly and rigid hardware, Fiat Auto and Microsoft is offering a platform that can be adapted to most mobile phones, digital media players and other mobile devices. The customer is free to change them with new models without compromising compatibility with the car.Fiat wants Cinquecento to be the iPod of cars - Jul. 4, 2007
Fiat hopes its new version of the three-door Cinquecento will become as popular as Apple's device.
Marchionne was really referring to the new 500 joining the old one, the legendary Bambino, as a design icon. There is no doubting they’ve done a stunning job bringing the classic 500 lines into the 21’st century. It was a challenge when you consider the original was a tightly packaged rear engine car, the new one is front engined & front wheel drive.
I love that in spite of being 5 star safe, front wheel drive, and having 21’st century packaging the 500 is still small. It’s about 100mm shorter than a new Mini, which isn’t very mini. With around 69 – 100bhp from 1.2 or 1.4 Litre engines it should zip around town, certainly more fun than a Prius. If that’s not enough wait till the 500 Abarth (seen testing here) arrives with a rumoured 1.4 Turbo and 140+bhp.
There is more on the most important car since the invention of the wheel on my other blog. I can’t wait for the New Zealand launch!
It’s 02:35:03 and I get an email from a Kiwi in Finland:
..wake up dude...we're set for racing!
..and its really shifty!
I was awake, go to go, 5 minutes to race start
And then it’s off, but… maybe…
03:00:56, 10 minute gun, try again… !
04:56:33 Amazing race, 2 -1 to Emirates Team New Zealand, Who said yacht racing was boring…
It’s strange what you find on a CAD Discussion Group. It started with a question about the AutoCAD Architecture Tool & Catalog system, a serious answer mentioned “XML Schema”, then a comment about it being “developed by monkeys” led to this amusing site:
Credit to “the Other Frank”. Thanks for making my day!
I’ve upgraded to Office 2007 Pro and have been adjusting to the “Office Fluent User Interface”, sometimes known as “the Ribbon”.
For decades every application interface has had those comforting File, Edit, View, Insert, Format, Help Menus. Maybe there were a few more, specific to the application, but the basics were always there as a familiar reference.
Launch Office 2007 you experience what I term “Ribbon Shock”. It’s all changed with the “Office Button” replacing many of those menu functions, others moved to context sensitive “tabbed ribbons” which replace toolbars.
If you’re familiar with the old interface it’s a little strange but the adjustment doesn’t take long. After a while going back to earlier versions, I still use Office 2003 at work, makes you realise how fluent the “Fluent UI” really is.
That’s all wonderful but what about other applications? Microsoft are licensing the “Fluent UI” for “non-competitive applications” so it’s possible you’ll see it outside of Office. Given it’s the result of thousands of hours design, testing, and user feedback it’s great it’s been shared at all, understandable you can’t use it to build a direct office competitor.
Take a look at the Fluent UI’s below (click for full size image). One of them isn’t from Microsoft, yet in my opinion it’s the best “office application” there is…
PS: It’s a pity the Ribbon didn’t make it to the Outlook 2007 main window (it’s there in the mail editor and other interface elements)….
UPDATE 09–06–2007: Jensen Harris discusses Outlook UI in his post: Outlook and the Ribbon
I finally got around to updating my Home PC so it’s now running Office 2007 Pro (coming from Office 2000 Pro I'm liking it a lot), AutoCAD Architecture 2008 (from 2007), Viz 2008 (also 2007) and I.E. 7 so now I’m in the modern world.
However I.E. 6 put up one heck of a fight to the point where all the tips recommended by Microsoft (which included registry hacks, permission changes etc) didn’t work.
I finally got a clean install by setting up a new user account, logging into it in safe mode, then running the install. Sorted!
Remember Autodesk Point A?
I do from AutoCAD 2000i days when it arrived as the web portal for all things Autodesk including VIP (subscription) accounts. Time moved on and eventually Point A was merged back into Autodesk.com.
Today I visited the Autodesk Subscription site & noticed in places it still reverts to the old http://pointa.autodesk.com/ URL. It’s a long time since Point A branding was was used but it lives on in the URL.
Even my own blog captures old product names in it’s permalink URLs. When renaming the category TypePad retains the old URL to preserve external links. Click on the AutoCAD Architecture category and you still go to …/architectural_desktop/index.html. AutoCAD MEP will take you to …/building_systems/index.html. “Architectural Desktop” & “Autodesk Building Systems” might be history but not on my weblog.
Maybe in the future “Permalink Archaeology” will be used research brands & products long since forgotten. They are like the persistent DNA markers used by the Genographic Project to research human migration.
It seems like I wasn’t the only one thinking about Autodesk names today*. Just after snagging the images for this Mark Kiker’s post about Autodesk Trademarks, old & new, appeared in my feed-reader!
* I wrote this draft on 15–05–07 but didn’t press post. Given where Mark and I are located, technically it was already tomorrow here!CADDManager.com Blog: Trademarks of Autodesk
I was looking through the readme file for AutoCAD 2008 and stumbled onto a list of the trademarks that Autodesk has used and is using.
Some of these are active and some are nostalgic in nature.... I still have an Actrix box on my shelf.
Robert Scoble has posted a series of videos about Adobe products. They are informal chats & demo’s by members of the respective product teams. I’ve watched a few and they are a good way to learn about the applications and meet some of the people who make them.
ScobleShow: Videoblog about geeks, technology, and developers
Here’s my whole collection of Adobe videos so far:
- Adobe Premiere CS3 49 minutes.
- Adobe Photoshop CS3 53 minutes.
- Adobe Illustrator CS3 47 minutes.
- Adobe Flash/Flex architecture overview 30 minutes.
- Adobe Flex goes open source 25 minutes.
- Adobe Flash CS3 overview 55 minutes.
- Adobe Apollo overview 43 minutes.
- Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 34 minutes.
- Adobe Connect overview 29 minutes.
- Adobe Acrobat 8.0 19 minutes.
