The Secret is Out.

Watch the video.

This just came around internally from one of the Beta coordinators for Longhorn:

Dear [VP name removed],

This is the first time in 10+ years involvement with customer beta programs that I’ve received an unsolicited bribe to get on the program– two pounds of inscribed chocolate showed up at my office via Fedex today.

People want Longhorn!

You've got to give the sender kudos for this one. I cannot comment on whether he got in, but bribery is not required- just a good business case and dedication to helping us ship quality product. I'm checking into how you can nominate yourself - will post more here later.

And to the guy who sent this out, the "Longhorn Shiproom" wants to say thank you very much ;)

James Doohan, the actor who played, "Scotty" on the original Star Trek, has passed away at the age of 85.  He was battling Parkinsons and Alzheimers. 
Doohan lived in Redmond, WA where Microsoft is based. From time to time you'd hear about sightings up until a few years ago.

From CNN: The Canadian-born Doohan fought in World War II and was wounded during the D-Day invasion, according to the StarTrek.com Web site. He was enjoying a busy career as a character actor when he auditioned for a role as an engineer in a new space adventure on NBC in 1966. A master of dialects from his early years in radio, he tried seven different accents.

"The producers asked me which one I preferred," Doohan recalled 30 years later. "I believed the Scot voice was the most commanding. So I told them, 'If this character is going to be an engineer, you'd better make him a Scotsman.' "

My favorite note- Doohan's last child was sired at the age of 80.  More power to ya Scotty :)

Chatting with Chris Pirillo who is currently at 30,000 feet aboard a Boeing jetliner outfitted with broadband.  Not just chatting, on Skype.  I can't even hear the din of the engines and breakup of audio is minimal.  I can hear conversations behind him.  Wow.   Time to head back to work.

I think Boeing has a winner on their hands from what Chris expressed.

Once again proving that Microsoft does actually license it's technology to competing platforms, Normsoft just released Pocket Tunes 3.1 Deluxe, a media player app for Palm-based devices that gives you full WMDRM 10 support including Janus supbscription support like Napster to Go.

From Engadget

Here's another one for Snopes.com. News.com Blog notes:

Using the term "podcast" is a big faux-pas in Redmond, according to a recent Seattle Post-Intelligencer story.

Podcasting is all the rage among the Internet-savvy. It involves downloading audio programs from the Web and listening to them on a computer or portable digital music player like Apple's iPod, whose popularity helped give rise to the trend.

But the folks at Microsoft, which developed a digital music format that competes with Apple's, apparently bristle at the term. Employees for the company have taken to using the word "blogcast," instead.

Let's separate hype from reality. What's Microsoft's position on the term podcasting?  Well, I'm not an official spokesperson but let's dig deeper using a novel feature called Microsoft.com search:

• www.wmplugins.com.  Microsoft-run site.  Look at the top toolbar- what does it say?  Podcasting!  Yes, that's a Microsoft site saying it.  Guess what, I helped make that happen.  I still work here and use the term... but let's dig deeper.
• WMPlugins Editor's Corner. Whoah.  A whole Guest Editorial on listening to Podcasts by Jake Ludington, author of the Podcasting Starter Kit and a Microsoft Digital Media MVP.  WAIT!  He's the producer of The Chris Pirillo Show too! The same Chris Pirillo referred to in the Seattle P-I article!
• TechEd Official MS.com site.  Wow.  "Getting Started with Podcasts" is the title. 
• Windows Mobile Official Site. Now who would want to listen to a Podcast on your Windows Mobile device? Maybe we should call them MobileCasts?  No...
• Xbox 360 Press Release. "To listen to a podcast or watch video of the keynote, go to http://www.xbox.com".  Rats, not again...
• On my blog!  Where I even have a category for Podcasting and have been using the term for better part of a year.

 The Seattle P-I raises the issue that others (in particular, Chris Pirillo) don't like the term. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. 

I spent six years in digital media at Microsoft and even wrote the foreword to Paul Thurrott's book on the topic in XP back in the day.

Big faux pas? C'est non, merci! in my interactions.  I have another one - I wonder if Jake Ludington will be fired by Chris Pirillo for writing a book and not calling it Podcasting?  (Both really good guys and you should listen to their show.)

Slashdot has a short post on the 10th anniversary of the MP3 audio file format.

"The Data Compression News Blog reports that on July 14th 2005, the name "MP3" celebrates its tenth anniversary. On this day back in 1995, the researchers at Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS decided to use ".mp3" as the file name extension for their new audio coding technology. Development on this technology started in 1987, in 1992 it was considered far ahead of its times, then MP3 became the generally accepted acronym for the ISO standard IS 11172-3 "MPEG Audio Layer 3" and no other coding method so far (2005) could uncrown MP3 as the popular standard for digital music on the computer and on the Internet."

The more things change, the more they stay the same. ;)

As reported by C|Net:

Microsoft will offer a wireless keyboard designed for computers running the home entertainment version of the Windows operating system, the world's largest software maker said Tuesday.

and Engadget:

Yup, it’s even got backlit buttons and an integrated touchpoint mouse, and should go for about $100; in other words, we’d totally hit it.

I had the opportunity to play around with a prototype (codenamed, "Kirk") a few months ago.  Here are my thoughts:

• It feels good in your hands or on your lap
• The backlit buttons are GREAT
• It works up to 30 ft away
• The eraserhead-style mouse works great on the rare occasion you want to use it
• A master lock so that my kid won't reprogram my PC banging on it!  My washer/dryer/refrigerator/microwave/oven have this.  All major devices designed for home living spaces should do the same.

Feedback I'm sending to the team:

• IR is good, but BlueTooth would be even better IMO.  I understand why IR, it helps keep costs lower (for PC Mfrs and consumers)
• I would have put the green button further up on the r-hand side.
• A small, LED-based battery meter on the underside would be ideal.

Available in September, more details here.

Chris Lanier did a nice writeup of Podcasting Plug-ins for Windows Media Player the other day.  I wonder if he saw the Podcasting category of plug-ins that was added to www.wmplugins.com, the community site for WM Player about a month ago?  Maybe he saw Jake Ludington's Guest Editorial on the same site. 

Well, technically Dave Winer started a few hours after they launched, but Jake McKee, who runs the "Community Guy" blog, has an incisive run-down on his experience trying to get his podcast listed in Apple's directory:

"Community work is simple - just treat your community like you'd want to be treated. I can't imagine a developer or project manager inside of Apple who worked on iTunes 4.9 who would want to be treated the way they're treating the community."

I'm actually going to defend Apple here.  I suspect they've just been inundated with requests and it takes time to hire on new staff to review and approve items into the system. We can all learn for experiences like this- a status blog and community developer forums could be a simple way to help address.

While Hurricane Dennis was a very dangerous storm, Chris Pirillo has an interesting and humorous take on US news coverage of the Hurricane.  Then he topped himself with his own audio "News Report".  

Does anyone even care that large news organizations are run together as "News and Entertainment" orgs? I find myself watching BBC News more and more.  Not that they're not without their own faults, but US Nightly News has become so ridiculous...

This is pretty darn funny... 

http://www.nytimes.com/video/html/2005/06/29/technology/highbandwidth/windowsmedia/20050629_GUEST_VIDEO.html

Via ThomasHawk.com:

The Windows Media Center Show - The Windows Media Center Show #16 The Windows Media Center Show #16 is out. This week Ian interviews Stuart McMillan from Gigtek and with Garry Whittaker talks about Media Center hardware, displays, fans and getting the most out of your Media Center hardware.

If you like Ian's show vote for it on Podcast Alley.

Phil Torrone over at MAKE Magazine should do an article on this one.  Via Alexander Grundner at eHomeUpgrade, the in-dash Media Center-capable PCs are coming. As he notes (via engadget):

Details are still coming out (mostly due to translation issues Korean language + Flash files = pain in the ass), but various sites have been able to deduce that the INFILL T3 is powered by a 1.0 or 1.6Ghz CPU and offers 40GB of storage, DVD drive, TV tuner, GPS, voice control, USB, remote, and one empty mini PCI slot (where's the Wi-Fi?). Moreover, the T3 is either pre-loaded with Windows XP and/or can be upgraded to MCE. Again, details are forthcoming, so don't shoot the messenger

I'd love to put one of these bad boys in my car but it won't fit. Meanwhile, I'm trading in my cherished Honda "I want a sportscar before kids and my midlife crisis" S2000  for a Toyota "I'm a responsible parent toting the kids to Gymboree" Prius.  Maybe I can hack it to add Media Center? We'll see..

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A bit belated due to my being on a blogging break, we've heard from our friends in London that they're safe and sound in the aftermath of last week's bombings. The fact doesn't diminish the sincere empathy we feel for those who suffered or lost loved ones. Nor does it diminish our conviction that we must continue to move forward in the face of, as British PM Tony Blair put it, "barbaric" acts.  United we stand. 

It seems every time I upgrade my media center, this happens. Sure, I can go for a year,  maybe longer without any major developments, but with the advent of dual-core processors, I find myself wanting.  Never is that more true than with HP's new Media Center PCs including the new Athlon64 X2 Dual-core processor.  Sure, MCE isn't native 64-bit today (but start asking your hardware manufacturers about drivers for the future) but you'll still get great performance.  I don't even mind that these look like Apple.  White and silver are the "new" black.  How long until Black is the new white and silver again?  I give it 10 months... tops.

Update: Thanks to Brian Hoyt for pointing out I was baited on this one. While HP's site says clearly "From $799.00 (after rebate)*" and directly underneath calls out "Powerful Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core" the combination of fine print and their configurator for purchase adds over $500 for the dual-core, putting the price at over $1300.  Ouch.

Catfish as large as a Grizzly bear caught in Mekong River.  646 pounds! Reports that the fishermen waterskiied behind it are unsubstantiated.