InsideMicrosoft

Ironic: Free Vista PC Arrives Broken; Plus, The Last Word

Long Zheng, who seems very disheartened over this Windows Vista free PC blogger fiasco, posts about the new Velocity Micro Media Center that he was sent by the PR folks. The ironic thing: His arrived broken, with various internal components smashed around during the shipping process. Cables were disconnected, the hard drive had broken loose, and the circuit board was generally fried. After all the crap Long has to go through, he didn’t even get a computer out of it. Crazy.

I was talking with one of the bloggers who got a free laptop, and I feel like I shouldn’t save the way I feel for just IM conversations. Here’s the fact: There is nothing wrong with bloggers accepting free stuff. Major news organizations have policies about not accepting swag because reporters fight over this stuff, and because there are lots of dishonest people who literally trade products for positive reviews. That is their fault. The readers of this blog know who I am, and if they don’t trust me, they shouldn’t be reading here.

Any blogger who feels he could not accept a free laptop and remain impartial is a blogger I’m not interested in reading. If you don’t have enough confidence in your abilities as a journalist to not be blinded by a laptop, then why should I, or anyone else, have any confidence in you? You don’t have to accept the laptop, but if you don’t believe in yourself, then neither do I.

The worst part about this is that it is bringing out the worst elements of the online community. The haters, the flamers, the assholes who only comment when they are mad. These aren’t the regular readers of Scott Beale’s blog. These people don’t hang onto Long Zheng’s every witty remark. They don’t rely on Brandon LeBlanc, they’ve never heard of Mitch Denny, and they don’t care how hard Ed Bott works. They hang out at community sites, working on their post counts, fighting with the moderators, and only venture into the blogosphere when something pisses them off.

I hope none of my favorite bloggers wind up hanging it up because of this. To all of them, I say: Your readers, your colleagues, we are all with you. We are happy for you, or we are jealous of you, but we do not respect you any less, nor do we hate you. We have faith in you, and that will not be shook by this fiasco.

For the record: I would have taken the laptop, and I would have kept it. Not only that, but I am looking for the right people, because I am going to request one. I am a huge enthusiast in Windows Media Center, yet I can’t do any half-decent coverage of Vista Media Center because the damn thing doesn’t run right on my laptop. My HDTV tuners require a more powerful processor than the one I’ve got, and I don’t have half the money to afford a new PC right now. If I can get it working with a little help from a PR firm, damn right I’m going to go for it.

Plus, my wife could use her own machine

January 1st, 2007 Posted by Nathan Weinberg | Vista, Windows, General | 15 comments

LiveSide 2006 Year In Review

LiveSide has a great recap of everything that happened in 2006, one that should help give a little perspective on the last twelve months. 2006 was the year Windows Live came alive, with a lot of great services, hints on the development of some really good stuff, and the development of Virtual Earth/Live Local/Live Maps into the killer app of the platform, with the 3D maps feature that no one else has. The branding confusion has got to be tackled in the new year, and Windows Vista is going to give Live Search a real boost.

Read the whole recap. It’s fun.

January 1st, 2007 Posted by Nathan Weinberg | Live, Windows, General | no comments

Top Xbox 360 Games of 2006

Xbox’s Major Nelson has released a whole bunch of lists of the top games on the Xbox 360.

First, the top twenty played games, based on unique users with Xbox Live connections, followed by the top-purchased games on Xbox Live Arcade (not including free demos), and finally, the top original Xbox games played, based on Xbox Live connected unique users:

So, of the top games overall, I’ve played seriously Gears (own it, too, but haven’t played my own copy for some weird reason), PGR3, Fight Night Round 3, and own Dead Rising and Texas Hold ‘em, besides other games I’ve briefly played or demoed. I guess I tend to buy from the bottom of the chart, or something. I’m a renter and a bargain shopper, so it’ll take a little deeper into this console generation before my shelf starts filling up with top titles.

I’d like to note: I’ll probably never buy a Madden game, since they aren’t worth $60, and by the time discounts come, the rosters are out of date. Shame about that.
(via TDavid and Joystiq)

Also, Xbox.com has started a top ten list of movie downloads on the Xbox Live Video Marketplace:

1. Mission Impossible III [SD]
2. Nacho Libre [SD]
3. V for Vendetta [HD]
4. Poseidon [HD]
5. Swordfish [HD]
6. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation [SD]
7. ATL [HD]
8. The Lake House [SD]
9. Clockwork Orange, A [SD]
10. Clash of the Titans [HD]

And the top ten TV downloads:

1. South Park [SD]
2. Enterprise [HD]
3. UFC  [HD]
4. Chappelle’s Show: Uncensored [SD]
5. Jericho [HD]
6. The State [SD]
7. Avatar: The Last Airbender [SD]
8. Robot Chicken [SD]
9. Drawn Together [SD]
10. The Venture Bros. [SD]

(via IGN > Digg)

January 1st, 2007 Posted by Nathan Weinberg | Xbox Live, Xbox 360, Xbox, General | one comment

Remote Desktop v6 Released, Connects To Vista

Microsoft has released version 6 of the Remote Desktop Connection client. The new version allows Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003 SP1 systems to connect to Windows Vista and Windows Server “Longhorn” systems, as well as several security enhancements. This page has seperate downloads for Server 2003, Server 2003 x64, XP, and XP x64
(via Greg Hughes)

January 1st, 2007 Posted by Nathan Weinberg | XP, Vista, Windows, General | 2 comments