Oh, the horror! Wes Sandford reached ten years at Microsoft this week, and his coworkers celebrated by unleashing 1,275 balloons inside his office. John Lawrence posts some photos on his MSDN blog. John says:
The balloons are currently following a pattern of brownian motion around the building, and are clinging to everyone who walks past. The build up of static electricity is probably going to cause some problems later on 
Chris Shaffer, who masterminded the whole operation even went so far as to get some special hardening fluid to coat the inside of the balloons to stop them deflating - so they could be here for weeks to come
May 31st, 2005
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Humor, General |
one comment
Todd Bishop reports in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that Microsoft is dropping the “My” prefix from user folders in Windows, starting with Longhorn. This means no more “My Computer”, “My Documents”, “My Pictures”, “My Chicken”, or “My Severe Arthritic Thrombosis”. Microsoft started the whole “My” trend with Windows 95, and has decided, ten years later, that “My” is sooo played, with widespread use in websites such as My Yahoo, My eBay, MySwitzerland, and My Invasive and Embarrassing Surgery.
In fact, the very pervasiveness of the prefix is one reason the company is moving away from it, said Jim Allchin, who oversees Windows and related areas as Microsoft’s group vice president of platforms.
The company introduced the “my” prefix in part to give users obvious places for storing their own files, Allchin said. (Although users can rename the standard folders, and create their own, many tend to stick with the default Windows naming structure.) He acknowledged that the company also was aiming to make the experience more personal.
But now, the “my” prefix has become so ubiquitous in the technology industry that it’s no longer the distinguishing characteristic the company hoped it would be. In part, Allchin attributed the situation to the tendency of software developers to adopt the common Windows terminology when making programs that run on the Microsoft operating system.
“People got carried away,” Allchin said in a recent interview. “Anytime Microsoft does something, everybody wants to do it. … It became a worthless descriptor.”
Another change in the upcoming Windows version, code-named Longhorn, could render even the newly named default folders moot for some users. A new Windows search feature will let people create custom “virtual folders” that continuously gather files and organize them automatically based on keyword, file type and other characteristics.
(via Brian Chin > Findory)
May 31st, 2005
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Longhorn, General |
3 comments
Microsoft has decided that rather than making a small update to Windows Media Player, it is taking the ramped up Longhorn version of WMP and bringing it to Windows XP later this year, according to Paul Thurrott.
Exclusive: WMP 11 to Be Major Release; Beta This November
Microsoft’s original plans for Windows Media Player (WMP) 11– formerly code-named Aurora–were fairly low-key, with just a few minor new features. That’s all changed: Microsoft has canceled Aurora, and the company is moving the Longhorn media player to XP. Now code-named Polaris, WMP 11 will be a major release. There’s just one problem: Instead of shipping in November, as per the original plan, WMP 11 will now ship in a public beta during that month, coinciding with Longhorn Beta 2. The final release is roughly scheduled for early 2006. You heard it here first.
Yet another Longhorn piece moving into XP. At this point, unless Longhorn has a great UI and great performance, I’m not sure how much better it’ll be than XP with all these pieces installed. Of course, the Longhorn UI does look very innaresting.
(via Ian Dixon > Scoble’s linkblog)
May 30th, 2005
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Longhorn, Media Player, General |
2 comments
Back when Microsoft’s stock was booming, and lots of employees where cashing in stock options for megabucks, Microsoft was minting millionaires daily. Even secretaries where walking away from the company with absurd amounts of money. The New York Times is running a “Where are they now?” article on many of them.
Among the best parts of the article:
- Chris Peters, a programmer, bought the Professional Bowlers Association (and he turned it into a profitable enterprise).
- While the exact number is not known, it is reasonable to assume that there were approximately 10,000 Microsoft millionaires created by the year 2000,” said Richard S. Conway Jr., a Seattle economist whom Microsoft hired to study its impact on Washington State. “The wealth that has come to this area is staggering.”
- John Sage has been trying to displace Starbucks from college campuses with his own coffee company.
Its worth noting that the article author, Julie Bick, is a former Microsoft employee and was interviewing former coworkers for this piece.
(via Slashdot)
May 30th, 2005
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
General |
one comment
Dustin says that one of his blogs is being completely reposted on an MSN Space, and that Microsoft is giving him a lawyerly runaround at removing it.
My Blog is hijacked by MSN Spaces
I just noticed that a spam site has been copying ALL of the posts from one of my blogs (www.raincityguide.com) onto a new blog using MSN Spaces. When I contacted Microsoft to ask them to remove the spam blog, they say that I’ll have to file a copyright infringement claim in order to get the specific postings removed…
I noticed some referral spam yesterday from a hijack Space that was reposting from Greg Linden’s blog. That blog kept the link to me, but never linked to Greg’s blog. Greg said he contacted MSN, so we’ll see how that goes. Hey, I know I have readers who work on Spaces, so why don’t you guys help out and create a better system for removing these blogs?
May 29th, 2005
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Spaces, MSN, General |
5 comments
Microsoft’s J. Allard told TheStreet.com that the Xbox 360 should hit stores at roughly the same price as the first Xbox, around $300. The Playstation 3 is expected to have a similar retail price.
(via IGNIQ > Findory)
Meanwhile, CNN predicted the next generation of consoles to cost you about $1700. This using what I like to call “moron” economics (and only because I don’t like cursing). This “calculation” predicts consoles at $400, a $1000 HD TV, a $250 sound system, and a $60 game. Using my actual brain, I determined that most people own televisions (hard to believe, huh?) and that if they choose to buy an HD TV, it will be for many reasons, and only because they can already afford it. No, the TV is not part of the cost of gaming, Chris Morris.
What is part of the cost are the number of games purchased and peripherals needed for most gamers. While the previous generation had $300 consoles and $50 games, and Xbox required you to pay for DVD playback and Xbox Live, the next generation will have $300-350 consoles, $55-60 games, free DVD playback, more expensive wireless controllers, and partially free Xbox Live (plus massive multiplayer games with monthly fees). Additionally, this generation may see less games than the previous one, because of rising production costs. Do not be surprised if you pay the exact same amount for this generation of gaming as you did for the last one, whatever that is.
May 29th, 2005
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Xbox, General |
4 comments
Microsoft Friday launched Smart Network Data Services, an attempt to compile and use the vast amounts of data on email spam Hotmail has to drastically reduce the sheer volume of spam. Microsoft’s theory is that since Hotmail gets such a large percentage of email for its 200 million users and blocks three billion spam messages a day, it has invaluable data that service providers can use to prevent the spam from being ever sent out in the first place. Service providers will be able to see what percentage of their email goes to Hotmail, and just how much of it gets flagged as spam.
From Computer Business Review Online:
They can then “take appropriate action, such as identifying and cleaning compromised machines, increasing the security measures for the host or network, or working with the party that sent the messages to determine if it is spam or legitimate,” Microsoft said.
The new service comes as part of a broader launch, MSN Postmaster, which offers more information to email senders on how Microsoft handles emails, such as details of its SmartFilter and Brightmail email filters.
The company also said it will start to promote the Sender ID Framework directly to Hotmail users, by alerting them with messages such as “The sender of this message could not be verified by Sender ID” when they open email.
This is all part of Microsoft’s new, larger MSN Postmaster initiative, which aims to provide tools for all email senders, not just on spam but towards troubleshooting, valuable tools, and communication with Hotmail, which plays such a large role in electronic communications.
(via Slashdot)
May 29th, 2005
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
MSN, General |
one comment
The New York Times’ David Pogue has an article laying down five simple rules everyone should abide by before arguing ad infinitum which company is better, Microsoft or Apple. They’re all good (and entertaining). My favorite:
2. No condemning something until you’ve tried it.
If everyone abided by this idea, about 95 percent of all the Windows-Macintosh diatribes would evaporate overnight. But here it is: If you haven’t tried something, then you really have no basis to comment.
(via Slashdot)
May 27th, 2005
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Windows, General |
no comments
I believe this constitutes the first high profile blogging being done at MSN Spaces (not counting Microsoft employees): CNBC’s Squawk Box, their flagship program (according to their profile) now has its own Space, with the anchors from the program blogging at SquawkBlog. They list their Favorite Things as:
Top Tier Guests :: Instant Coverage of Breaking News :: Comprehensive Analysis of Important Issues Before the Financial Markets :: A Raucous, Free-Wheeling Discussion and Debate on the Issues of the Day
Although comments are disabled, they do print letters to the blog (and answer viewers questions). They even have favorite songs lists for all the anchors. Very cool.
Now that MSN Spaces is the number one blogging service in terms of users, expect more of these (although lets hope Spaces gets more than just Rosie’s blog). Did you know Rosie abandoned Blogger for WordPress, just like so many others?
(via Steve Rubel)
May 27th, 2005
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Google, MSN, General |
3 comments
Tony Gentile has a post about how Microsoft can make the Xbox Live community more dynamic in the next Xbox by integrating it with MSN Spaces.
It’s not hard to imagine XBOX 360 flowing a gamer’s “verified” high scores, feats, wins, etc to their MSN Spaces ‘blog’. Think Google Video, then think 3 minute snipets from a duel or frag fest (along with the necessary “I rOxOred u” smack talk) published to Spaces; the only thing better than winning is showing off your moves to the entire world in perpituity, no?
Of course, the XBOX 360 isn’t all about gaming; it’s also going to be about photos, music, movies and more. This meta-data (music playlists, movies watched/reviewed/rated, etc) can and likely will automatically find its way to Spaces (where the user can selective chose what gets published and who can see it).
Sounds like a plan. Of course, Halo 2 outputs your stats as XML, which you can easily plug into your blog (you can see it in Major Nelson’s sidebar). I think everybody would love it if Microsoft put some of Tony’s ideas to use (and it would make the 360 more popular).
May 27th, 2005
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
General |
no comments
This fall, you’ll be seeing this Xbox 360 kiosk in a video game store near you, letting you play on a 360 and transfer game updates to a memory card. The memory card feature means those who can’t connect their ‘box to the internet can still take advantage of Xbox Live downloads. Sounds like a good idea to me.
(via Xbox365 > Engadget > Findory)
May 27th, 2005
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Xbox, General |
one comment
Tony Schreiner has posted a bunch of details on the technical aspects of tabbed browsing in the upcoming Internet Explorer 7 beta at the IE blog. This represents the deepest level of detail we’ve seen yet on this major browser update.
Among the details: Each tab will be in a seperate memory thread, resulting in a higher memory load, but improved compatibility. That compatibility will come in the form of running each tab almost as its own IE window, with all third-party toolbars and add-ons running within the tab, while the address bar and file menus run outside the tabs.
CTRL-clicks and middle-clicks will open links in new background tabs, and you can switch between tabs with keyboard shortcuts (might I recommend something situated on the keyboard near Alt-Tab?).
As for pop-up windows (those you don’t want blocked), if the windows is set to open in an altered browser (specific window size, no toolbars, that sort of stuff) it will open in a new window, while unaltered windows will pop-up in a new foreground tab.
Its good to see they are concentrating on the little things that complicate tabbed browsing, and not on adding a billion new (and half-baked) features.
May 27th, 2005
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Internet Explorer, General |
one comment
CNN’s Chris Morris has a most excellent article about the ridiculous claims both Sony and Microsoft made last time around when they were releasing the Playstation 2 and Xbox, and how the hype this time around isn’t any more believable.
Yeah, guys, I get it.
(via Slashdot)
May 27th, 2005
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Xbox, General |
no comments
Slashdot notes how Netscape 8 has been a complete disaster for AOL ever since its very recent release, with bug fixes and broken operating systems.
|
|
 |
Netscape 8 Breaks IE XML |
Posted by Zonk on Thursday May 26, @12:13PM
from the thats-an-oops dept.
An anonymous reader writes “Microsoft has alerted users that Netscape’s latest browser appears to break the XML rendering capabilities in Microsoft Internet Explorer. Dave Massy, a senior programme manager for IE, warned users in a blog posting that after installing Netscape 8, IE will render XML files as a blank page, including XML files that have an XSLT transformation. What a week for Netscape 8.0; first the browser needed several fixes hours after its release, then it was discovered that without IE installed, Netscape 8.0 will not install, and now IE needs Netscape uninstalled to work.” |
It’s a shame that AOL Explorer was such a resource hog, and that the new Triton AIM client I’ve been beta testing these last two weeks is just as bad. It makes you think that AOL knows how to create good products, but can’t write efficient code if their corporate life depended on it. And it does.
May 26th, 2005
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
General |
no comments
WindowsForDevices.com has the scoop on the operating system powering both iterations of the Xbox. The skinny: Its Windows 2000, with major portions hacked out, then layered on with new portions appropriate to gaming. Windows 2000 was the code base they started out with, but over the years evolving from the Xbox to Xbox 360 so much has changed that you wouldn’t recognize too much of the guys anymore. There are more details in their article.
(via Slashdot)
May 25th, 2005
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Xbox, General |
no comments
C|Net points out Microsoft is offering, as part of its Start Something campaign, a chance to meet Bill Gates. All you have to do is show how well Windows has worked out for you. Just “Tell Your Story” and get a Start Something Amazing Award. Prize packages include a National Geographic Expedition overseas trip for two, a VH1 weekend in New York City (and the opportunity to program an entire hour of music on VH1), a trip to a movie premiere (and $500 spending money), a HGTV consultation and $5000 for home improvement, or a trip to New York and a meal with a pro athelete and tour of ESPN’s facilities. All prize packages include a trip to Redmond to tour Microsoft’s campus, a meeting with Bill Gates and $5000 of free technology (including a Media Center PC and a Tablet PC).
One suggested thing to do if you want to win: Put a Windows tattoo on your back, involving eBay if necessary.
(via Slashdot)
May 25th, 2005
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Windows, General |
6 comments
Wired talks about a most excellent plugin for Winamp that lets you use Winamp instead of the bloated and annoying iTunes for music management on your ‘Pod. ml_ipod lets you upload music to and arrange music on your iPod, as iTunes does. It also lets you download music from you iPod, something iTunes does not. In addition, you can route copy-protected songs through Hymn in the plugin to strip out iTMS DRM. ml_ipod supports all versions of the iPod, even the Shuffle, and it adds one feature to the Shuffle Apple hasn’t been able to implement in iTunes: play counts from the device. It even supports multiple devices and Windows 98/Me. Most of those features are enough for me to switch, although even if the program stank I probably would anyway, since iTunes on Windows is just an atrocious, bloated, illogical piece of crippleware.
download it here
You know what would be perfect? A program that took songs downloaded from a Windows Media-based online store, re-encoded them as MP3s and uploaded them to an iPod, all in one step. Preferably, it would have an “honest mode” that put the songs on the ‘Pod without creating a local copy, which is practically not illegal (I say practically, because it still is), and certainly isn’t “wrong”. Then everyone could use the cheaper services, like Yahoo Music, while still using their iPods. Even better would be designing this as a plugin for the Yahoo Music Engine, letting you download a song from Yahoo and sync it to the iPod, without all the annoying steps in between.
(via Slashdot)
UPDATE: I’ve been using this plugin with my Shuffle, and all I can say is “Wow!” Not only is it faster and more stable than iTunes, the Winamp plugin is superior to iTunes. Adding and removing tracks is a simple endeavour, something iTunes just can’t do. If I downloaded an Opie & Anthony show, it would take several minutes to add it in iTunes, and if my computer was doing other stuff, as many as ten minutes. Now? 15 seconds to add 100 megs of great radio. iTunes, see ya!
May 25th, 2005
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Yahoo, Media Player, General |
no comments
Major Nelson (yes, I know his real name is Larry) points out some nut who is planning to tattoo an Xbox 360 mural on his back, and wants eBayers to help out. Before I post some quotes from his listing, I’d like to note the strangest part: This isn’t some brainless adolescent. No, we’re dealing with a grown man who somehow has a six year-old son.
Selections from the eBay listing (I’ve corrected the annoying all-caps text and line breaks, but left misspellings and improper punctuation):
I need the eBay community and anyone else interested to bid on me and help me become the worlds first official human billbaord for the new Microsoft Xbox 360 gaming system!!!!!!
My goal is to get the Microsoft Xbox 360 logo and name proffesionaly tattooed on my entire back, arm, or leg to advertise what I believe will be the greatest system of all.
I hope to make enough cash to get the tattoo done and draw enough attention to get Mr. Bill Gates himself to personaly sign the transfer paper to have it also tattooed next to the Microsoft Xbox 360 piece I get done.
… my biggest dream of all if it becomes possible I hope I can meet and shake the hand of Bill Gates and personally thank him for the amazing system that keeps me and my 6 year old son so amazed and glued in front of our T.V. I cant wait until he releases his new system. !!!!!!The Microsoft Xbox 360.
And you guys had the gall to call me fanboyish!
Here’s a picture of the lovely feller (click to enlarge):
Well, I’m not sure if he’ll get to meet Big Bill, but he’s caught the attention of both Major Nelson and Trixie, who work at MS on the Xbox, and says he will be doing an interview with them soon. Bidding is up to $31, and there are 71 hours left to get your name on this weir- I mean human billboard. I hope Matt Meadows from Grants Pass, Oregon doesn’t regret this as soon as the third-generation Xbox is announced.
May 25th, 2005
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Xbox, Humor, General |
one comment
