Month: February 2006

Microsoft designs the iPod box parody

I love the music and this is so true.

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?videoUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fvp.video.google.com%2Fvideodownload%3Fversion%3D0%26secureurl%3DowAAAP10M2l8RngrYq8qxaeKa1DEdnBQ__oQ8JUohTmidlWAUbza4FBu7OC1__B9Xa9ugoCRlCK78Wt5bnSL9u1CjQ0XDxXNkvpdeOznrG2bXFGc3CEQq-52Z3ryE6MyPnq7pdw9XZb64kuyebUwHg4Mjq_qfaMVdc1DEhgrRXKqUduTuEKZtM9ax1uxLGdmAGyI4qKkJXTEjttGAG5jQA_S0YBSVz5shuYS-r6SKxM7Rgxk%26sigh%3DA8ER2hpQOTI85ASN-hTXDw_Ncdo%26begin%3D0%26len%3D175300%26docid%3D-586467418825830089&thumbnailUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo.google.com%2FThumbnailServer%3Fcontentid%3Dcd250825f609fb9%26second%3D5%26itag%3Dw320%26urlcreated%3D1142922235%26sigh%3Dba1iso2ssIDtaCX2K1G9Mnh9k7Q&playerId=-586467418825830089
Update: Microsoft confirms they were behind parody.

What I learned from watching the Winter Olympics

  1. Snowboarding is an awesome Olympic sport. Go Tomato, go!
  2. Most overrated event? Pretty much any skiing competition.
  3. Partying and booze do not equal Olympic success.
  4. Sasha Cohen looks like Natalie Portman
  5. Curling looks like a sport a couple guys would invent if standed on a frozen island.
  6. A huge lead in the four-man bobsled is 1/10th of a second.
  7. Any Olympic team event with professional athletes (Hockey) is absolutely boring.
  8. Short track speed skating is possibly the most exciting event.
  9. A small nation winning a gold medal is so much cooler than a large nation winning the same.
  10. Don’t hotdog it until you’re over the finish line.

CURLING2.jpg

What other Microsoft products should only run on Vista?

Microsoft continues to anger some of its customers by announcing the upcoming Halo 2 game will only run on Windows Vista. This seems a bit odd considering Vista won’t launch until the end of the year at the soonest. Will anyone still be talking about Halo 2 at this time? Scoble adds to the list of reasons saying the game will push the CPU and sound past the limits of XP.
But this whole episode begs the question: What other Microsoft products should only run on Vista? I nominate the following:

Windows Messenger – It’s MCI’s “Friends and Family” campaign all over again. Microsoft could show a tiny Vista icon next to the name of those friends who haven’t upgraded to Vista yet and send a friendly email reminder so you can chat with them again once they do.

Office 2007 – Just imagine an updated “Clippy” taking advantage of WPF. You may not welcome his help but his exit animation would blow your mind.

clippy.jpg

37 Signals release Campfire

The 37 signals team has created an easy to use group chat service called Campfire. How does Campfire differ from Instant Messaging? In their own words:

Instant messaging is great for one-on-one chats, but it’s not optimized for group chats of 3 or more people. Further, instant messaging is network dependent — if you are on AIM, and your client is on MSN, you can’t instant message. Campfire, on the other hand, is all about simple and quick network-agnostic group chats. It’s a self-contained, password-protected web-based chatroom that allows groups of up to 40 people to chat and easily share files together. No instant messaging software is required — all that’s required is a web browser.

Campfire

Update: 37 Signal founder answers questions about Campfire. His favorite answer to nearly any question? “It just doesn’t matter”

Xpize your PC

Sometimes the small utilities are the coolest. That’s the case with XPize, a “GUI enhancer that replaces most of the non-XP icons, avis and bitmaps that Microsoft has always overlooked”. Give it a try and spruce up Windows XP while you wait……and wait….for Vista to arrive.

Xpize

How not to teach your 9-year old about honesty

If you found a camera that belonged to someone else would you:

1. Return the camera to its rightful owner

2. Give it to your son but offer to return the pictures

This is obviously a difficult choice for some people.

When I moved to Seattle I rented my first apartment was near the University of Washington. I spent some time driving a U-Haul trying to locate my apartment. I pulled into a gas station to ask for directions and fill up but ended up leaving my wallet on the back bumper of the U-Haul truck. I pulled out of the gas station and didn’t realize my mistake until few hours later. I returned to the gas station and found out that someone had found the wallet alongside the road, a block or so from the station and left a number to call. I called and not only did I get my wallet back with nothing missing, but this kind woman brought the wallet to me when I told her I wasn’t familiar with the area. I tried to give her the $40 I had in the wallet but she refused it.