After a marathon memorial day weekend of edging, hauling, de-weeding, flower planting, and laying out nearly 8 cubic yards of mulch (thanks Larry), we're almost ready for summer.  I must have dumped nearly 500 lbs of 3in deep grass & refuse in the back half of yard (hidden from picture), away to compost.  The french drain that runs through our back yard was so overrun that we had to dig out all the old mulch down to the black matting.  I really should have done a before and after picture. 

Then, our 5 year-old Samsung HLN-507W starts screaming like a banshee.  The darn color wheel has burned out multiple bearings.  After doing some research, I learn that the replacement is no small feat - a simple $100 part, much more in labor.  For that price, I might as well get a new TV then attempt to fix the Samsung myself, moving it upstairs or reselling.

So I've gone throug the obligatory RPTV vs. Plasma vs. LCD debate.  The Samsung was bought for our old house and I discovered for our viewing distance, I need a larger TV (darn). With the budget I had, a Sony Wega 60" 1080p SXRD was the way to go. I had a coupon for BBY that brought the price down to $2000.  After setting up the TV, I have to say it's phenomenal.  I hooked up my TiVo Series3 and a Toshiba HD-A1 HD-DVD player via HDMI and even at 1080i, once calibrated (through my meager efforts) it looks vibrant, much brighter than my 5 yo set before, and no more rainbow effect when playing Halo 3.  My only complaint is video garbage when the TiVo is switching between menu and native mode TV playback (I could set the TiVo to manage but want a pure signal). 

As for gaming, even over component, there's so much more detail in Halo 3 than I saw before, part of it due to better color reproduction, upsampling and contrast.  (Any ISF-certified techs who want to be showcased in a video on your calibration services, please let me know. )

Now I just have to find a way to try out an Xbox 360 Elite to see 1080p in its glory.

Speaking of calibration, my father is really getting into digital photography and needs a good calibration solution for his monitor/printer.  I've heard good things about the ColorVision Spyder2express - any thoughts out there?

I've been doing a lot less Twittering and spending a lot more time in Facebook.  Given they're adding over 100,000 users a day and the fastest growing demographic is inthe 25 and over crowd, I guess it isn't surprising- they're nimble, offer a whole host of social networking features and a lot of my friends and coworkers are now over there.

And yesterday things got a lot more interesting.  Microsoft and Facebook announced a  new partnership.  Microsoft already powers the ad engine on Facebook, and now is working together to bring Silverlight and Popfly en-masse to the Facebook community. 

The Microsoft and Facebook partnership means Facebook are now empowered to customize their Facebook pages in richly interactive ways. Even if they have no development experience, Facebook users will have tools that let them create pages that reflect their personality with Popfly and Silverlight delivering cross-platform, cross-browser goodness.

Also announced:

• Distribution of the Facebook Developer Toolkit.  The FDT was developed by Microsoft to wrap the Facebook API into a managed component.  Through this component, developers now will be able to drag ‘n drop a Facebook component onto the component tray in Visual C# Express , Visual Basic Express and Visual Web Developer (for both Whidbey and Orcas).  Users will be provided all the source code, sample applications including a WPF app and detail documentation. 

• Co-branded Landing Page on the Facebook developer website.  At this site, visitors will be able to see Microsoft Visual Studio Express and Microsoft Popfly links.  Additionally, a series of new pages were developed called Showcase on the Visual Studio Express site.

And of course now I'm playing with applications on Facebook such as the Flickr Importer and iLike (the name the song game is addictive).  Fun times and diversions for the holiday weekend.

I want to be more social.  I really do.  The problem is my trusty little Zune rarely has its WiFi radio turned on in order to save the battery when traveling.  There's nothing I like less than when my video ends abruptly for lack of juice.  So it's a personal sacrifice I make.

Here's a simple idea that would turn the social aspects of my little Zune. It's time for ZuneFinder.  ZuneFinder would be a small Sidebar gadget or systray app that notifies me when a Zune is found in general vicinity I'm in. This would be great in airports, where I often camp out between flights near an AC plug. The big question is whether a Zune can be uniquely identified via your WiFi adapter.  I have to imagine this is possible.

Then taking it a bit further, I could see ZuneFinder mashups- with a GPS, you could drive around and geomap all the Zunes you find in your area, automatically.  Of course, the snarky will retort, "You won't find any."  But being social should be passive, then active in nature.  This is the appeal of Facebook. 

Sadly, ZuneFinder doesn't exist (that I know of). Has anyone been able to uniquely identify Zune devices from an app?  Developers inquire within. :)

Charlie Owen has a great writeup on how to optimize your pictures for viewing on the Zune. 

My favorite home audio receiver Sonos is reportedly about to release version 2.2 with Pandora support.  I'm looking forward to this in a big way.  Now if only XM  would do a deal with Sonos, I would be a very, very happy camper.  Until then, I continue my Media Center->Xbox->Sonos workaround for listening to Flight 26 from my home theater.

Update: Version 2.2 has now been released.  Unfortunately with it comes the cryptic news:  Pandora (a free, ad-supported service on PC) comes with a subscription requirement after 30 days for Sonos.  This is a little disappointing as the only value you seem to get for your $36/year.  That's not much, but the only value offered is 100% free of advertising?  How about being able to play a specific song when I create a station based on it?  I'll probably still drop my Rhapsody subscription in favor of this cheaper alternative.  Sonos- if you want to talk to XM, give me a call ;)

Home sick and head is swimming in sudafed- a good time for a diversion.  Pete asks what my Top 10 Sidebar Gadgets are.  Here is my latest list:

1. Weatherbug
2. Traffic by Live Search
3. App Launcher
4. Gas Price Information
5. Outlook Info
6. Traveler's Toolkit
7. iTunes or The Zune
8. Multimeter
9. DriveInfo
10. The Magic Folder (great idea, but buggy on my system)

Ok the blog is back up with some load-balancing features so I can talk about Popfly!  This is for the YouTube & MySpace generation- interested in mashups that bend to your will, combining mapping, Flickr, and bLaugh with unintended consequences.  Given all the new API's starting to show up, this has tremendous potential for the developer challenged.  Just connect the dots (literally) and create your own. It will even roll the code into a Windows Sidebar Gadget or enable you to embed easily into your own site. This is just an Alpha and LOT more is planned.  But I have to hand it to John, Dan and team this is an awesome use of Silverlight.  Watch the video and let the mashing begin.

Earlier this week, Roxio launched a beta of Roxio Buzz with Silverlight Streaming support.  What is Buzz? It's a simple tool for editing and publishing user-generated video to the Web. This thing is so simple my mother could use it.  Built with .NET (WPF), Buzz will encode and publish your video to a # of user-generated sites, or now, your free Silverlight Streaming account for embedding on your website.  Bloggers can now go forth and enjoy the 4GB of free goodness.  Could a Windows Live Writer plug-in be around the corner? A friend tells me, "Yes".  

S itting in Newark Liberty Airport and catching up before my flight.  As announced in Bill Gates' keynote at WinHEC this week, 81 entries into the NextGen Windows PC competition were entered, and the three winners were announced, complete with a few physical prototypes showcased by CNET. It's great to see this program live on from when we first launched it two years ago.  The entries are definitely evolving into some very cool designs.

This is what happens when my worlds collide.  Feel free to listen in on my chat with Ian Dixon of The Media Center Show about Silverlight.