I love my SlingPlayer (v1).  So it's nice to see that the kind folks at Sling Media are letting the Mac into the kiddie pool.

Engadget has all the details on the Mac OS X beta here.

It's back - HD-DVD Tuesday!  The movies coming out are accelerating, so I'm going to feature weekly releases:

October 30, 2006

• Mission: Impossible - Ultimate Missions Set (Paramount)
• Mission: Impossible III (Paramount)

October 31, 2006

• Excalibur (Warner)
• Under Siege (Warner)
• V for Vendetta (Warner)

via HighDef Digest

From Major Nelson:

Looking for official details on the Fall Dashboard update? Check out the Newsflash (or the complete list of new features) just posted on Xbox.com then look for the update to head your way after 0200 PT Tuesday morning (What time is that in my time zone?.)  If this whole ‘update’ thing is new to you, don’t worry…it’s quick, free and painless. Next time you login into Xbox Live you’ll get prompted to receive the update…it’s that easy. There is no way to force the update (and, regardless of what you have heard, it's not geographical based.) So sit back and relax and it get ready for the update sometime after 0200 PT Tuesday morning, October 31st.

Can you say, "Ready for HD-DVD" or "Ready for WMP11"? Nice work.   

Sometimes they just get it right IMO.  Microsoft kicked off work on packaging  for Vista and Office over a year ago (I know the person(s) who did it) and it shows.  No, it doesn't take a full year to get it right, but combined with other deliverables and a strong desire to incorporate feedback from many sources, the result is a new type of packaging that will extend to other MS products in the future.  Remember how Windows 95 and Office packaging just "felt" like they fit together?  Vista and Office are going for more of the same here. From Nick on the Vista blog:

 The packaging has been completely revised and, we hope, foreshadows the great experience that awaits you once you open it.

Designed to be user-friendly, the new packaging is a small, hard, plastic container that’s designed to protect the software inside for life-long use.  It provides a convenient and attractive place for you to permanently store both discs and documentation.

The new design will provide the strength, dimensional stability and impact resistance required when packaging software today.  Our plan is to extend this packaging style to other Microsoft products after the launch of Windows Vista and 2007 Office system.

Nice work. Now MacOffice isn't the only MS software product with cool packaging that screams, "pick me up".

For Windows XP SP2 and "N" versions. Check it out here and download here.  This is a significant update over the betas or Windows Media Player 10, and also includes support for music services including MTV's  "Urge" in final release.

Just in time for halloween, a trusted family member shares a frightening tale of issues getting a PC "fixed" that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.  If you value your PC, you may think twice about who you have look at your computer.  Read with the lights on:

As you know, I was having problems with my PC which mainly concerned the mouse "freezing" up. I took my pc to the Best Buy store in XXXXX XXXX, Ca. on Monday, Oct. 16, 2006. The tech at Geek Squad took all of my information and then began testing the mouse at the counter. The mouse remained unresponsive, even when using the GS mouse.

• The tech told me they'd have to run diagnostics on the hardware; turnaround time would be about 24 hours.
• Late the following day, I had not heard back, so I called the GS. I spent over an hour trying to get someone to pick up the phone. At times, the phone simply continued to ring; twice, however, someone picked up the phone and immediately hung up.
• Early the next day, Oct. 18, I again called the GS with largely the same results. That is, the phone rang continuously, but no one picked up. Later, that same day, I tried again. This time, someone picked up, but he seemed largely unaware of my PC problem. He said that he had to check with someone else and put me on hold. After 20 minutes on hold, I was disconnected. Upon calling again, I spoke to another tech who said that they had inserted a disc to "bypass" the Windows OS and that the mouse then was responsive. This led them to the conclusion that the problem was a software issue, but that they needed to run more tests that night. He assured me that someone would call the next morning.
• By the afternoon of the next day, Oct. 19, no one had called, so I called the GS. Again, I spent nearly an hour with no one picking up the line. I then called the 800 # for the GS to complain. After explaining my problem to the operator, she transferred my call. I waited 25 min., but no one picked up.
• The next morning, Oct. 19, I went in person to Best Buy to find out what was going on. I should add that I did this after again calling and waiting without success for 30 min. for someone to pick up.
• At BBY, the GS tech (someone named Xxxx) explained that he was the only one there and couldn't answer the phone because of so many customers in person at the store. He also mentioned that their phone system was inadequate, but that they were "working on it". This tech then explained that they had never seen this kind of PC problem before and needed to run more tests. He also told me that the original tech should never have told me that turnaround would be about 24 hrs. He explained that they were working with many pc's and that turnaround should have been about 5 days.
• I asked this tech to be honest...could they fix the pc or should I just take it somewhere else? He responded, "That's your decision. You can take it now if you want to". I told him to keep working on it, but to please call me the next day. He agreed.
• I then spoke with the  store manager (named Xxxxx) to complain about the poor service. While solicitous, I felt that he was just patronizing me. I should add that, in all of my conversations with GS personnel, I never raised my voice or became abusive.
• At about 7 pm the next day, Oct. 20, I received a call from a woman at the GS who said that the mouse was working properly and that they couldn't understand why I was having problems with it in the first place. I was stunned; it was clear that she had little or no real idea of what had gone on to this point. When I pressed her for a more detailed explanation of what they had done and found, she replied, "I'm just a secretary, let me have you speak to a tech". So, I was placed on hold, waited for 30 min. and finally hung up.
• With no word over the weekend, I again went to the store on Oct 23 and asked for a progress report. At first, the tech told me they couldn't find my pc and asked if someone else had picked it up. He finally found the pc, and said that they were still testing it. I told him what the "secretary" had said to me on Oct. 20, but he said he had no record of any such call or conversation. I told him that I just wanted my pc returned.
• Along with my receipt, the tech included a log of the diagnostics that had been done. The log was, putting it mildly, cryptic. There was very little detail and no hard evidence of what, if anything, had been done in the preceding week.

In summary, my experience with the Geek Squad has been the most frustrating and unrewarding experience that I've ever had with any retail business. I have no way of knowing whether they're technically competent. However, from a customer service service standpoint, the GS is easily the worst business I've come across. I would never use them again, and I intend to discourage others from using them.

I'm sure we have all had experiences like this so perhaps it should come as no surprise.  In fact, just yesterday on a trip to LA an associate told me of another chain that offered to "Fix" his broken Sony Laptop instead of sending it directly back to Sony- for just under $100 he would get a written estimate.  His Sony motherboard was fried (or so he suspected) and with a few more questions, got the tech rep to admit they were just going to send the machine to Sony (which my associate could have done himself) and charge him nearly $100 for the courtesy!

And we wonder why those of us who are technically competent continue to support family and friends? 

Postscript: The family member called "a local guy" recommended by his real estate agent who had the issue fixed shortly with another brand of mouse.  Go figure.

If you haven't seen U2 and Green Day's music video, "The Saints are Coming", please take a moment and check it out here on MTV. Done as a part of the Music Rising project to bring the music back to New Orleans, the song debuted on ESPN, a cover of the Scottish punk band, The Skids.  

Watching this video is like watching an alternate universe, or a DVD where the alternate ending was so much better you felt somehow shorted by the director.  Only in this case, the original ending was reality.  Watch and you'll understand.  I wish more musicians used their influence to this kind of good measure.

I've thought long and hard about the test I was running with ads on this site.  I've decided to remove the ads as I've learned everything I can about the ad-serving solution I was testing.  I hope you enjoy.

Also, the banner image now links back to the homepage- an oversight on my part.

  Ditch the tape, Furrygoat (Steve) points to the Sony HDR-SR1 camcorder that records in High-Definition, 1080i quality on a built-in 30GB hard drive (which loosely translates to around 2 hours of recording in highest quality).  This should work out of the box with Windows (Vista) Movie Maker which has support for HDV editing (yes, my Mac does that too thanks).  Though I understand the new camera uses the MPEG-4/AVC/H.264 codec so you may still have to do some conversion. It also takes adequate 4 megapixel stills, and has dolby digital 5.1 recording.  you can even snap 2.3 megapixel stills while you're recording video.  Sony still seems slave to their own proprietary Memory Stick format, but otherwise, this sounds like a winner.  As Furry says, "Must. Resist. Temptation."  At $1300, I'll be resisting unfortunately for a while.  I do wonder though- should I put it on my christmas list and hope that my wife reads my blog, amping up the whole "our son will never get any younger" argument for purchase? 

More details and a preliminary review can be found at camcorderinfo.com.

For those like me who thought this season's Battlestar Galactica has been a bit weak (the whole planet thing), it looks like they've just righted the ship.  An amazing episode last night that had me in awe at moments. Hats off to the production team.

Run, don't walk to get the final release of IE7 for Windows XP.  If just for the security features - anti-phishing and whatnot.  congrats to the IE team.  You can see a video w/ Dean and team at http://on10.net.  Yes, it comes across as a PSA (sorry guys) but it's got lots of goodies about add-ins for IE7.

Things have been incredibly busy at work lately- so much so that I haven't had any time to post here. I'l try to get better about that. 

In other news, friends over in the eHome team are celebrating. Is it Vista related?  Almost ;).  They're celebrating a major milestone - 20 million Windows XP Media Center PCs have now been sold.  Some might recall that just last April, the stat was at 10 million. Talk about a ramp rate. By comparison TiVo has just over 2 million stand-alone units out there (which I also own and enjoy).

Speaking of Vista, I've started getting questions on when the right time is to buy a PC for Vista. My father is still hobbling along on the Windows XP PC he bought 5 years ago right after the launch of XP (and he's never reinstalled). The hard drive is starting to go, but we're using chewing gum to keep it going. My neighbor's PC also just died and he's hobbling along on an old PC of mine right now.  Buying a new "Vista-ready" PC is pretty easy when you see the logo, and I expect there will be some pretty amazing deals this holiday season.

Which brings me back to Media Center.  Friends over in eHome-land told me that they worked will all the Media Center PC manufacturers to make sure any MCE PC sold this holiday season will be Vista Premium-ready.  So if you have to buy, look for the Vista logo, or just get an MCE PC.

One last comment on Vista for home users- I've noticed that if you connect a Vista desktop to a UPS, the PC will run in "Balanced" mode, just like a laptop.  At first I thought this was a bad idea, but then I realized that for the overwhemling majority, this is fine- and a more energy friendly way to do things.

I'll write more this weekend- thoughts on using a TiVo Series3, and taking Flight Simulator X (Final release) for a whirl.

On10.net has a good demo of wirelessly sharing photos and the like with the Zune, though formatting for the page is broken in some browsers (just scroll down).  They've also started offering their videos formatted for the upcoming Zune.  Nice to see sites are already preparing for the format.