Expert Texture
The blogged wandering of Robert W. Anderson
Archive for December, 2006
December 29, 2006 at 7:18 am · Filed under Miscellaneous
When I saw Jim was bitten by the Five Things tag (see The Curse of Being Demonstrative) I had a sinking feeling. I read his post slowly to stave off what I felt certain: he tagged me.
I could be a curmudgeon and ignore it, but I’ll go with it.
Five Things You May Not Have Known About Me:
- I sing around the house almost constantly. The louder the better. My kids ask me to stop. Unless they’re both around, in which case one asks me to stop and the other asks me to continue.
- Perhaps the most incredible sites I’ve seen is the tomb of Nefartari in the Valley of the Queens. The beauty of it moved me deeply — more so than any other art (visual, aural, etc.) that I have experienced.
- My first published writing was in 1985 for 80 Micro on how to produce tones from a TRS-80 speaker using a mix of BASIC and assembly with poked machine code. They paid me $125!
- I lived in the co-ops at Berkeley. My buddy David says that it was basically a fraternity for hippies, but he was a bit off. One of the worst things you could say about someone in the house was that he or she was being “uncooperative.” That word was not used lightly.
- I used to have quite long hair — down to the middle of my back.
And now to share the curse: John T. Powers, Steve Gillmor, Cori Schlegel, Chad Williams, Savas Parastatidis.
Tags: 80-Micro, BASIC, Chain-Letters, Five-Things, Hair, Nefartari, TRS-80
December 22, 2006 at 9:10 am · Filed under Attention, Web 2.0
Steve breaks radio silence and admits he is a pooka (from Bad Sinatra).
A lot of good stuff in this post, but I want to highlight one part.
I posted the other day about the deprecation of the Google API. My take: good for the Google; bad for the gaggle (i.e., the application developers). Fun to talk about, but there are pragmatic solutions to this. Something to be scared of? No.
We (the users) needn’t be scared of vendor choices like this. Why not? Because nobody is forcing us to use these services. As Steve says:
Who am I supposed to be scared of? Google? Nope, if the Ajax API and the terms of service around including unaltered adsense are so counter to user interest, that will precipitate a decline in usage and therefore less adoption of Google properties. Seems self-correcting to me: user votes, user wins. Why do we need saving here?
Exactly.
Tags: APIs, GestureBank, Gillmor, Gillmor-Gang, Google, Pooka
December 21, 2006 at 12:38 pm · Filed under Miscellaneous
It looks like Dan Ciruli has decided to challenge a whole slew of bloggers. The challenge? 66,795 pushups and crunches next year.
Savas and Pirillo: I know you both lost a lot of weight in 2006–maybe you’re looking to firm up those newly svelted bodies? Shahar - how about getting the Excel Services team on board? Jim Benson, your cousin Robert sure did a lot of pushups this year; think you can top him next year? Brad Feld, you certainly know a thing or two about athletic goals (50 marathons in 50 states before he’s 50), I’m sure you could do this without sweating. Carl Franklin, you think .NET rocks, but did you know that pushups rock? Dan Fay, Joe Duffy, Mark Schmidt, David Gainer: they won’t be calling you Microsofties in 2007. Jason Follas, think you can manage 19 pushups the second day of CodeMash? Nick Carr, IT may be dead, but calisthenics are alive and kicking! And of course: Scoble made some big changes in 2006–how about making some more in 2007?
What’s next? An arm-wrestling match?
Tags: blog, crunches, pushups, resolution
December 21, 2006 at 9:35 am · Filed under Miscellaneous
The GestureBank beta 2 went live yesterday. This beta is open. Go to http://attentiontrust.org/gesturebank for more info. Special thanks to Cori Shlegel for his work to get this done.
The GestureBank will be rolling out new Affinity Service capabilities next. This is where it will start to really resonate.
By the way: IE is not supported in this beta (as it was previously); it will take a bit of effort to get a new IE port. This is because managed extensions are kind of a dead-end for IE. So the existing managed port will be discarded in favor of an (eventual) unmanaged one written from scratch. See this (techie) thread for more information: Create a Shell Extension Handler thumbnail extractor with .net?. In this thread you can think of the words Explorer, Shell, IE, IE6, IE7, and Excel as synonyms.
Tags: AT, AttentionTrust, BHO, Firefox, GestureBank, IE7
December 21, 2006 at 2:18 am · Filed under Web 2.0
Two guys who know a thing or two about web services and APIs think the new Google Search API is a step backwards. I agree.
My guess is that some high up at Google thinks of it as a step forwards. Perhaps someone asked the question:
Why are we providing search results into arbitrary applications, when in fact, we are in the business of serving ads on Web pages?
An AJAX-only API is a fine way to do just that; but like Don Box says:
No matter how you define “web service,” I don’t think this newest offering qualifies.
I’m hoping this is just an anomaly and not a trend, lest we all fall back into the world of opaque/closed protocols.
Google doesn’t have to provide open and interoperable APIs to the world; but, I bet others will.
Tags: ajax, APIs, Google, Search, SOAP, Web-Services, XML
December 18, 2006 at 8:51 am · Filed under .NET
Jamie Cansdale, author of the excellent TestDriven.net, has organized several charity auctions to help people in Malawi. In his words:
I have decided to organize a charity auction of a number of licenses for .NET developer tools. All proceeds of the auction will be given to Wells for Zoë, a charity dedicated to increasing the availability of safe drinking water and water for irrigation in rural areas of Malawi. You can read more about the project on their website or blog.
One unusual thing about this charity is that all travel and admin expenses are paid by the charity’s founders themselves. Therefore all donations go directly to sourcing the much needed equipment on the ground in Malawi. You can find out more about the equipment that is needed on the donation page here.
The software is being auctioned on eBay (they complete at the crack of dawn Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday):
If you want any of these excellent products, bid away!
Tags: .NET, .NET3.0, c#, CodeRush, DXperience, MegaPack.Net, MSDN, SourceGear, TestDriven.NET, Thycotic, TypeMock, vs2005
December 17, 2006 at 7:02 pm · Filed under Miscellaneous
A few things:
- VS2005 SP1 is out. I am pleased with how quickly this turned from a beta to a release. Good job guys.
- VS2005 SP1 for Vista Beta bits are out now. Good news.
- I’m hoping that the Vista beta bits turn final soon too.
As is probably clear, I’m waiting for stability here before I go to Vista. This time I can’t help with the beta testing, so thanks to those out there that have taken one for the team.
Tags: Microsoft, SP1, Vista, vs2005
December 11, 2006 at 9:29 am · Filed under Miscellaneous
If you are in Redmond and want to learn about Digipede (from John):
Digipede Evangelist Kim Greenlee will give a presentation on Concurrent Software Development at the .NET Developers Association meeting on Monday, December 11. The meeting is on the Microsoft campus – in Building 40, the Steptoe Room (#1450). She blogs about it here; be sure to bring this meeting announcement with you, or Microsoft security may stop you.
Come early for the free pizza — stay for the demo of the Digipede Network.
Tags: .NET, Digipede, Excel, grid
December 8, 2006 at 7:12 pm · Filed under Miscellaneous
I listened to the Dave Winer / Peter Rojas / Jason Calacanis on their ideas for a podcast player (from CalacanisCast Beta 7).
Several points (as a follow on to my previous post):
- I better grok why DRM kills this project. It just isn’t necessary for a podcast receiver, the complexity is too heavyweight, etc.
- I think I’m coming around to the “no synchronization” approach. But only if the device can get all of its own content directly. If your desktop machine has to be a conduit for it; then synch is a necessary evil. That said, I would hate to have to use the device to enter feed URLs. Better would be to address a web server on the device with a UI that you can access from your desktop (or your smartphone) — of course, this opens up a whole different can of worms.
- Dave Winer calls this device the xPod. I like it. Of course, Apple has shown that they won’t allow products with the word “Pod” in them. Why not call it the xRadio? Dave Winer says that this is like an Internet radio afterall. Or how about myRadio?
There was some discussion of the economics of the cheap device versus the powerful versus the right device. I’m with Dave Winer on this one. We want the right device, but I think that comes down to the software.
So, why worry about the hardware right now? Why not first write the software?
Here is what I think:
- Choose the existing software platform. Probably Rockbox, but also could be WM5 or Palm OS or Mobile Linux.
- Build the player and recorder software on this platform.
- Let hardware geeks get this to run on their existing devices.
- Then (and only then) revisit making a hardware reference platform and then (possibly) getting involved in manufacturing.
Like Peter Rojas says: Rockbox could use a champion. These 3 guys could easily be it. Spec out the software for this, get it written (for money or by open source contributors). People will adopt it.
This is one case where I think if you build it, they will come.
Tags: Calacanis, iPod, myRadio, Podcasts, Rockbox, wWM5, xPod, xRadio
December 3, 2006 at 9:26 pm · Filed under Miscellaneous
I’ve been following (fellow ex-Gang member) Jason Calacanis on building a better iPod. This concept strikes home for me because I’m the kind of “power-user” geek that doesn’t own an iPod because it isn’t flexible enough for me. In the past I looked seriously into other products and decided that nothing out there would handle the things I wanted.
Jason says his key features are:
1. Open source software.
2. Wifi
3. No DRM
4. Removeable media (i.e. Compact Flash)
5. Preloaded with three shows from the top 200 podcasts
My key features are:
- Open source software. Because I think only a community of audio geeks can create something flexible enough for me.
- Great tagging support. I am an “album oriented rock” kind of guy. I want my music to play back in the right order; and more elusively, I want my albums to be sorted in the right order. After all, Magical Mystery Tour came out after Sgt. Pepper’s. Not the other way around. Tags (specifically ALBUMSORT) can solve this problem.
- Full synchronization between the device and a desktop player. I want playlists, ratings, tags, tracks, etc., to flow between the two. Of course, this means that there needs to be “don’t sync” and “smart sync” options for tracks / albums / tags so the desktop player isn’t constantly flooding the device.
- Recording function. Podcasts on the go.
- Bookmarking podcasts. It should remember your position in a track even if you play something else and then go back to it.
What I don’t care about:
- DRM. Let there be DRM. I see that Dave Winer is out if there is any DRM, but I don’t get why DRM kills the project. I honestly don’t care because I’ll never use it. The iPod doesn’t force you to use DRM. The iTunes store does. I know everyone wants a DRM-free online purchasing experience. I am not voting for DRM and I don’t desire it, but I don’t see it as a player issue.
Nice to haves:
- Wifi. Yes, it would be cool for synchronization through Wifi. Sharing podcasts through Wifi cool too. A must? Nah.
- Removable media. This would be cool. I imagine Jason is talking about additional storage (so, it comes with x Gigs, but you can add additional storage with a CF card).
- Preloaded with podcasts is a cool marketing idea.
- It is also a PDA phone. OK, kind of a joke, but I really only want one device. This begs the question: is new hardware necessary? How about just a killer mobile app running on WM5? All storage on removable media (not cheap, but dropping in price all the time).
Anyway, this is really fun stuff. I just love gadgets.
Tags: Calacanis, DRM, iPod, WM5
December 3, 2006 at 9:10 am · Filed under Miscellaneous
One of the things I thought I’d get to this weekend is to upgrade my laptop to Vista again. It is a pretty easy background task and with Norton Ghost is quickly reversable if need be (as it was the last time I tried).
Unlike some (e.g., J. LeRoy who thinks XP is adequate), I really want the new UX and (the promise of) faster power state transitions, among other things.
But, before the installation I need to be sure of two things:
- Support for the VPN at Digipede (and the networking software required on my laptop). This is no longer reported as incompatibile in the Vista Upgrade Advisor. So, this is worth a shot anyway.
- Support for Visual Studio 2005 (not to mention 2003 which I still use occasionaly). I looked into this more today and while Vista may support VS2005, it won’t support the coming SP1. I really want the fixes in SP1 so I have to choose between sticking with XP or sticking with the pre-SP1 VS2005. A blocker.
Of course, Visual Studio 2005 SP1 trumps Vista, but I’m not happy about it.
J. LeRoy (AKA, Cousin Jim) recently posted on What Color is your Vista? with a terrific quote:
So when Microsoft says that they “deliver the right balance”, that’s not your balance they are talking about.
Exactly (and I know I’m taking his point completely out of context).
Tags: .NET, Microsoft, Vista, Visual-Studio, VS2003, vs2005, VS2005-SP1
December 1, 2006 at 8:13 am · Filed under Miscellaneous
John and Nathan will be presenting at a Microsoft event in New York City this coming Wednesday. The event targets fHPC for financial services companies.
John and Nathan will . . .
. . . present information on how the Digipede Network integrates with and adds value to Microsoft’s entire technology stack, including the new Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 (CCS), Visual Studio 2005, .NET, Excel 2007, SharePoint 2007, and more. (They’ll) run through some real-world examples of how our financial services customers use the Microsoft / Digipede solution to make more money by dramatically improving application performance and scalability.
One of our customers will also be a speaker at the event.
You can read more about this (and find registration information) on John’s blog (here: HPC event in NYC).
Tags: Digipede, finance, financial-services, grid, Grid Computing, HPC, Microsoft
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