Interesting stuff at the Game Developer's Conference (GDC).  Josh Rubin's Cool Hunting spied this cool stamp that embeds personal info into a cameraphone-readable format that can be easily imported into mobile phones.  If IR was just easier, would we really need this?  I don't know but it's still pretty nifty.  Reminds me of those EyeCat? wand-thingies that Radio Shack and others were giving out where the idea was you'd scan an ad in a magazine and visit the website.  Er... nevermind.

Photo courtesy of Josh Rubin's Cool Hunting

Took a short blog vacation but I'm back.

A few of you mentioned you'd like to see a geek dinner in the UK. It just so happens that I'll be in London on May 5th and based on the success of the San Francisco Geek Dinner, why not?  Anyone local wish to help host and recommend a venue?

Waiting to board my plane here at SFO, I decided to get Lost on my Tablet PC with Orb. A lot has been made of Orb's ability to play back video on Windows Mobile Smartphones by streaming it from you, but for me the killer scenario is the DVR experience even when on busines travel. My Media Center PC back at home does all the heavy lifting- all I need is a WiFi connection and I'm catching up on last night's episode of Lost sitting outside Gate 20. The only bummer is I cannot skip commercials.

While Orb is best with a Media Center PC, you can check out the new beta for Windows XP today.

All I can say is wow.  Thanks to everyone who came out to our MCE Geek Dinner in San Fran last night. I've heard a lot of good feedback from others and we had some really cool giveaways from ATI (TV Wonder Elites), Niveus (remote controls), and even MSN Music gave away free downloads. While I don't expect that's a normal thing at Geek Dinners, what a great way to kick off a new Geek Dinner in a new town.  I hope Thomas and others keep it going. Thomas wrote such a good recap it's hard for me to add much more other than to say I'm hooked. We literally shut down the restaurant and then headed up to O'Brien's Pub for a pint with a few folks. Ed Bott  wished he could have been there, but he's in Seattle next week so it looks like another Seattle MCE Geek Dinner is being planned. Details to come shortly.

By the way Ed was Slashdotted today for an article in which he compares his Cable DVR, TiVo, and MCE- cut to the chase, none is perfect but MCE wins in his opinion.

Thanks again everyone who attended and here's to hoping you keep it going. :)

Sitting in the Q&A after the Intel Digital Home Keynote at the Intel Developer Forum.  A few tid-bits:

• Joe Belfiore, GM of Windows eHome Group talked about collaboration and importance of partnership on device interoperability.  Call to action was to participate in the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA)
• Dual-Core processors are going to deliver great new scenarios for home entertainment.  Demo'd an Intel-based LRPC with Pentium-D dual core processor and Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 playing back WMV HD video while also processing a 3D game (eg. Doom3), recompressing the video into MPEG-2 and distributing it to another device & TV for play in the home.  Not a hiccup in video performance on either system.
• Disney is getting into the Media Center pool with their MovieBeam service coming to MCE customers.  Previously available only as a set-top box in the US, the service uses datacasting to download (cache) movies over-the-air.  They plan to offer support for Media Center PCs via a discreet plug & play antenna and demo'd new UI for Media Center.  Also noted plans to support High Definition playback in their next version of their platform.
• Intel showed cool new small form-factors that will support dual-core and noted Dell is first to be shipping a P4 Extreme Dual Core system (giving away 4 at the event).
• Optical Drive, low power dual-core procesor. Lots of comments about "smaller than Mac Mini".  There was a crush of people trying to get pictures immediately after. One of my co-horts snagged a pic shown here.

More to come I'm sure on these developments/announcements. Soon.  I'll see if I can scare up some screenshots between meeting

Just a reminder that Thomas Hawk and I are hosting a geek dinner tonight with folks from the Media Center team. We are going to get together at the 110 Natoma Henry Hunan's at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday March 2nd.

The restaurant is very scalable so no need to RSVP unless you want to drop a comment and let us know that you are coming.

If you want a preview on Henry's menu click here and then click on any menu item. This guy has written a review on everything on their menu. If he is not a Henry's fanatic I don't know who is.

Keep in mind that Henry's has four locations. The one we are going to meet at is on Natoma which is kind of in an alley just off of 2nd Street between Mission and Howard. See map.  Remember this is completely casual and not an officially sanctioned event, just good food and good conversation. See you there.

Update: That would be "hosting" not "hosing" :)

Thomas Hawk contacted Charlie, Matt, and I about the idea of doing an interview on Media Center and digital media topics a few weeks ago. The resulting interview was so big that we ended up splitting it into two parts, the first of which he's published today.

Thomas Hawk writes that my interview w/ Chris Pirillo, "is a great podcast". Thanks Thomas. He also links to a look at Niveus' high-end Media Center PCs and provides some thoughts on what he'd like to see. Word is some of our friends at Niveus will be bringing a system or two to the geek dinner on Wednesday in SF to show everyone what it's all about.

Last thursday, my wife was hosting an evening get-together for the local, "Mom's Club" which meant I was free to hide upstairs tinkering on my PC.  Chris Pirillo popped on IM and asked if I'd like to join his talk show for a chat about all sorts of topics- MSN Remote Record, my new gig, customer feedback, and the upcoming SF geek dinner. I had a bad cold and my voice was hoarse but I figured why not.

Well, after an Internet brownout on Comcast's network, and VOIP bridge issues, I heard Chris faintly on what sounded like an 8-bit audio connection and we did the interview. Fortunately things got better over time but I could only hear about 1/2 of every word he was saying which made things interesting. My favorite part was Chris' fiancee Ponzi and I using an IRC channel to re-connect. :)

Listening to the interview, I'm coming to the realization that I probably wouldn't make a very good podcaster. I have that East-Coast, "Talkasfastasyoucantosayasmuchasisgoingthroughyourheadasquicklyaspossiblewithtoomanyumms" challenge.  Sure, I can slow down for keynotes (strangely enough I slow down when I'm not as relaxed), but this was casual and Chris and I have a way of amping up the speed when we talk.

Anyway, have a listen and give me your feedback.  A few folks have approached me about doing a weekly MCE show.  Is there interest in this?  Maybe as a segment on Chris' show if he's willing? I'm not the right guy to host, but maybe I can be a fill-in guest on the couch :).

Adam Curry podcasts this weekend using the built-in microphone of a Creative Zen Micro and it sounds great. When I heard Adam mention last week that he left his music player back in the UK on his show, "Daily Source Code", I thought this would be a good opportunity to get his feedback on my current favorite device for podcasting, and suggested we supply him with one during our meeting. Unfortunately the only color we had was the one that no one else wanted :). The rest is history, and the first podcast from 42,000 feet sounds pretty good, as does his review of the Player ;).  Adam also discusses the movie Kinsey - FYI, this isn't work-safe material. 

It was great to meet Adam in-person, he's truly one of the great visionaries who shares a passion for digital media.

One of the latest additions to the Media Center Flickr Pool, Steve Owens' Media Center is going to hard to beat in the high-end home theater realm.  The guy has a touchscreen, a massive front-screen projection system, and more hardware than you can shake a stick at. 

Steve has a Replay, a TiVo, and a Media Center for the person who just can't decide. Okay, turns out that Steve owns a home theater installation company called Oasis AVI so this is his day job.  But I have to give him credit for an outstanding example of what you can do. 

I had a co-worker the other day asking me if you could control a Media Center via touch-screen panel and here Steve has shown us how to do it with a Xenarc 700TS 7" touchscreen panel. Here's one for the Engadget crew. :)

Our Media Center Flickr Pool is up to 77 images now. Remember you don't have to have a pro home theater to be highlighted.  It's all about how Media Center fits into your life - family or otherwise.  I'm thinking about having some Media Center t-shirts made up as giveaways to the winners. Hmmm. SWAG.  We need to rediscover the lost art of swag.  Another topic for later I think. Off to another team offsite meeting now.

One of my co-workers, David Caulton, has joined the blogosphere. David is a great guy with lots of passion for digital media, analytics, and competitive analysis.  I recruited him hard "back in the day" to join our team and it's so great to see him jump into the pool. In his own words,

An avid hiker, biker, and father of three, I also work doing industry analysis and strategy for Microsoft. In previous lives, I've worked on the Windows Media Player, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Project, and Microsoft Team Manager 97, been a researcher in Cognitive Neuroscience, a grad student, and a kid.

Yesterday during a discussion over lunch with some folks on a wide range of topics including Podcasting, the point was made that metadata is everything in a world where audio content often doesn't include closed-captioning to search for context.  David outlines the problems/challenges with tagging today in an article he wrote for Digital Media reviewers. The information here is topical and outlines the issues many of us have seen where the artist/album/title information just doesn't match up. Educational and insightful.

My sister has a Ph.D. in Microbiology and is currently working at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). We've often talked about how alike microbiology and programming code are. Yesterday's announcement just reinforces this. I'm looking forward to discussing it further with her:

Microsoft Research is working with leading doctors and scientists to use advanced computer science techniques in the fight to slow or stop the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Microsoft researchers are applying software algorithms similar to those used on computing challenges such as managing computer databases, compressing digital files or blocking spam e-mail to overcome roadblocks in the hunt for an HIV vaccine.

More here including a video interview.

I'm happy to announce that today, the MSN Remote Record Service for Windows XP Media Center Edition has officially launched. Now you can set your Media Center to record with a Passport account and your browser - just select a program in the Program Guide (EPG) on MSN TV Entertainment and click to record. Setup will handle the rest with you  step by step. Never forget to record that special when on the road or in the office. Note: Only one Media Center per Passport account at this time.

Update: Here's the MSN Remote Record FAQ

Over at TGB, you can find details on two new plug-ins being developed by the eBay community, MCeBay, and eAuction. Features include searching entries, bidding, and picture support. Read the criteria and decide if you would make a good beta tester. Great to see folks working on this- I hope they have a feature to pop a notification in MCE (aka toast) when you've been out-bid. :)