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Obama’s Mobile device, Windows 7, Raymond Chen as Chick Norris, Tom Colicchio and more of what I’ve read

In these economic times, always to get more than you expect. Well, here’s another installment of what is usually a weekly post on articles and posts from my reading pile.

Is Microsoft working on software center for Windows? By Andrew Lyle, Jan 21, 2009 — "Questions arise as to why Windows Vista and Windows 7 have renamed the "Add and Remove Programs" to "Programs and Features", alongside "Windows Updates". "It is possible that Microsoft is planning to release a software center that will be able to find updates for all your programs that are deemed safe by Microsoft, right inside Windows Update. This type of software already exists in programs like FileHippo.com’s Update Checker that scans installed programs on your machine, and compares the updated version onFileHippo.com."

Truemors :: Obama Keeping Blackberry Thanks to Super Encryption Package, Jan 21, 2009 – "Barack Obama often joked, in a dead serious kind of way, before taking the presidential oath of office about his Blackberry addiction, once telling reporters, “they’re going to pry it out of my hands.” Speculation flew about whether or not the new prez would get to hold on to his beloved CrackBerry, and now, thanks to a super-encryption package care of the National Security Agency, it seems Obama won’t end up in a headlock as agents try to pry the gadget from his belt. No word if Obama already has his hands on the new, uber protected device, but, if not, you will likely spot Bam Bam unconsciously air texting over the next couple days."

A new way to get Hotmail on your phone – Windows Live — Thanks to Carnage4Life today on Twitter, I saw that Hotmail now provides POP3 access. More news at http://bit.ly/yWgF: "We are happy to announce that POP3 technology is now available to Hotmail users in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France, Japan, Spain, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. If you don’t see your country or region in this list, never fear, we’ll be rolling POP3 out to more parts of the world later this year. "What is POP3? It is a protocol that allows almost any e-mail software program that you’ve installed on your mobile phone or PC* to get messages from your e-mail inbox on the web and deliver them in the designated program. "Although you always could access Hotmail on your web-enabled mobile phone by going to mobile.live.com, now that Hotmail has POP3, you can get to it more conveniently using the e-mail software on your PC or mobile device* such as a Windows Mobile phone, iPhone, or BlackBerry."

Giz Explains: Why the Windows 7 Taskbar Beats Mac OS X’s Dock, by matt buchanan, 2:01 PM on Wed Jan 21 2009, 43,267 views — "Yeah, I said it. The Windows 7 taskbar is the most important Windows UI change since Windows 95, and it will dramatically change the way you use Windows. And it’s better than the Mac’s Dock. "That’s because the "superbar"—as the taskbar is known by developers—jerks taskbar functionality in a new direction. It’s no longer merely a window manager—just a place to manage open windows and by proxy, open applications. It’s now a bona fide application launcher. More than that, it blends the two in ways that will remind many of the OS X Dock—apps that are running and those that aren’t can live together. True, you’ve been able to launch apps from the Windows taskbar’s Quick Launch ghetto for ages, but that’s been demolished so that Microsoft could completely and seamlessly integrate the launching of new apps and the managing of running ones."

Group aims to sort out home networking morass, By Brian Santo, CedMagazine.com – January 21, 2009 "The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions’ (ATIS) Home Networking (HNET) Forum has released a Work Plan aimed at developing a cohesive home networking infrastructure to support VoIP, IPTV and other IP-based services. "The effort focuses largely on the needs of phone companies and other IPTV providers, but the group appears welcoming of any cable participation in an open meeting scheduled for Feb. 3. "The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions created the Home Networking Forum in December to sort out the bewildering and growing array of home networking standards. "The forum is new, but ATIS has been working on the plan for more than a year with the participation of representatives from Cisco, Verizon, AT&T, Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Qwest, Sony, Hitachi, ADC, Corning, Haywire, Intrado, Conexant Systems and Widevine.

Change Has Come To WhiteHouse.Gov – by WSJ.com’s Marisa Taylor — "At noon Eastern time on Tuesday, the very moment that the president-elect Barack Obama officially became Commander in Chief, the presidential Web site also made the switch from outgoing President George W. Bush to Obama. The new whitehouse.gov site promises more interactivity than that of the Bush administration, with a presidential blog as well as a briefing room, where President Obama will give a weekly video address. A “citizen’s briefing book” will allow users to add suggestions to posted proposals so that heads of agencies and the president will see them, and another feature called Your Seat at the Table lets users follow the proceedings of government meetings and add their commentary.

Why Microsoft should forget about Yahoo and buy Palm. – By Farhad Manjoo, Slate Magazine — "Does Microsoft need to be in the ad business now? Only if you believe that advertising is somehow a threat to revenue from software—in other words, that the economic future of software depends on advertising rather than paying customers. But that’s a foolish bet—and buying Yahoo will only magnify the foolishness. Instead, I’ve got a better idea for Ballmer: Abandon the Internet ad business and focus on your main market, developing and selling software. I’ve even got a great way to jump-start that strategy: Buy Palm!"

Women and IT at Microsoft Tech Days – Techvibes Blog — Posted by Warren Frey on Wed, January 21, 2009 2:20 PM — "Qixing Zheng is a Microsoft User Experience Advisor. But she’s also the driving force at Microsoft behind both encouraging more women to join IT and to help them gain acceptance once they’ve joined the industry. Zheng has been traveling across Canada all year as part of Microsoft Tech Days, and along the way she’s been informally networking women in IT at lunch and dinner meetings. Those meetings have already provided tangible benefits here in Vancouver, she says, with senior IT professional meeting their junior counterparts. Without this initiative, it’s likely they would have never met, Zheng said. From: http://www.techvibes.com/blog/women-and-it-at-microsoft-tech-days#ixzz=4rckkA 

Obama’s Path to Putting Points On the Board (Newsweek Voices) — Jonathan Alter of Newsweek.com — How Obama can score in the first 100 days, Published Jan 16, 2009 (From the magazine issue dated Jan 26, 2009) "Nearly every president since Franklin D. Roosevelt has loathed the idea of the "hundred days," and Barack Obama is no exception. The concept, first used to encapsulate the time elapsed between Napoleon’s return from exile on the isle of Elba and his final defeat at the battle of Waterloo, is handy but artificial. Roosevelt provided its present meaning when he noticed that the special session of Congress he called in 1933 had lasted that long. It was a way for him to pat himself on the back. "Fortunately, there’s a plan for what to do with the rest of the first 100 days. We just don’t know it yet because the Obama people are so damn disciplined."

I will discuss why I can never have another Diet Coke here: – FriendFeed

"Technical Difficulties: Switch to Digital TV May Not Be as Smooth as Advertised" By Kim Hart — "Joyce Powell can get a dozen analog channels with her seven-year-old television set. But when she hooked up a converter box to prepare for next month’s transition to digital broadcasts, she discovered that she couldn’t receive any local channels…"

Microsoft divests of Comcast, had owned 7% – Philadelphia Business Journal: The Philadelphia Business Journal reports today (Jan 20, 2009) that "Microsoft Corp. has sold its entire stake in Comcast Corp., according to a filing the software behemoth made with the Securities and Exchange Commission Friday. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) said in the document that it owned no Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA,CMCSK) shares…"

Microsoft ‘town hall’ meeting will cap week of layoff suspense – TechFlash: Seattle’s Technology News Source — Todd Bishop writes (January 19, 2009) that "Microsoft has alerted employees to a "town hall" internal meeting with CEO Steve Ballmer "and other senior leaders" scheduled for Friday morning, following its Thursday afternoon earnings release. For the record, the company says it routinely holds these types of town hall meetings after it reports earnings. However, given widespread rumors of impending cutbacks — including possible layoffs — this one seems to be generating quite a bit of buzz among employees, and feeding the rumor mill. If the company were to announce cutbacks toward the end of this week, the Friday session would provide an obvious forum for discussing and explaining the plan."

Senator Twitters Obama’s inauguration – Inauguration- msnbc.com — https://twitter.com/clairecmc msnbc.com and NBC News, updated 10:52 a.m. PT, Tues., Jan. 20, 2009 "Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri used her close friendship with Barack Obama to give her constituents a front-row seat at the new president’s inauguration Tuesday. "McCaskill, not heretofore known as an early adopter of new technology, was using the Twitter Internet service to post updates throughout the day. She has been updating followers since Sunday’s concert at the Lincoln Memorial — according to McCaskill, the highlight was the finale, featuring Pete Seeger. "The senator apparently has not taken quickly to Net-speak. Twitter.com limits users to 140 characters per message, accelerating the rise of text-message abbreviations, but McCaskill was resolutely plowing on in full sentences, complete with capitalization and the odd spelling error or two."

Open Brolly Cluster Marketing » Blog Archive » IE8 Accelerator for Twitter — David Sim writes… A bit of a technical one this…. "If you’re using Internet Explorer 8, you might be aware of accelerators. They allow you to select some text and search for it, map it or send it by email or to your blog. Quite useful all round, and a great new feature. I’m trying them out to see what use we can make of them to enhance use of our database systems. One idea could be: a database administrator selects some text on a member’s web site. An accelerator could automatically add the text to the information we hold on the member in the database, without cut / paste / search for entrant. To try out the technology, I’ve created an accelerator for the social networking site, Twitter. Select some text on a web page, right click and it will post the text and the URL of the page to Twitter."

metrocurean: Tom Colicchio Is A Hero — Washington, D.C.-based food writer Amanda McClements offers up "epicurean news from the D.C. metro area" in her Metrocurean blog. In my mind, it’s a must read. Yesterday she wrote that "The Internet Food Association has the scoop on "Top Chef" Tom Colicchio’s heroic act last night during a celeb-studded shindig at James Beard award-winning cookbook author Joan Nathan’s house. In short, he saved Nathan from a rogue piece of chicken. But Ezra Klein’s account is a great read, so I won’t attempt to rehash it. "Colicchio is just one of the many talented chefs participating in the 12 Art.Food.Hope dinners, taking place across town tonight to benefit D.C. Central Kitchen, Martha’s Table and FreshFarm Markets. I’ll be volunteering as a server for Chicago chef Rick Bayless. (Hey Obama, you should really stop by to say hello.)"

Microspotting | Raymond Chen, Microsoft’s Chuck Norris — The geek in question: Raymond Chen The job title: Principal Software Design Engineer, and well-known Microsoft blogger. What are you working on now? I’ve been with Microsoft for 17 years, and I’m currently in the Windows Experience Group. We’re the people who do the stuff that end users see and interact with. Basically anything that goes wrong, it looks like we did it.

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An interview with Guy Kawasaki, Answers from the Microsoft Answers site, the QWERTY effect, and more of what I’ve read

It’s been a long week by any measure, and I was happy to offer some assistance today to a few associates impacted by the job eliminations.  Having experienced this in SiValley myself, I hope that I’m able to make an impact and help where possible.

One person who is making a difference (in his own product group) is Richard Sprague, who offers this post on Disproving the Qwerty effect…

"I still run into people who cite the “Qwerty effect” as evidence that sometimes a big head start will give an inferior technology unfair market dominance at the expense of “better” ones. This theory has been disproven historically (it’s not true that the inventor of the typewriter deliberately mangled the layout in order to prevent keys from jamming) but it still shows up in people who cite the superiority of the Beta format over VHS (in fact, the double-length recording time of VHS made it superior, and videophiles at the time weren’t even in agreement about whether or not Beta had a quality advantage), or the superiority of <insert your favorite non-MS product> over <insert some less popular product>. It turns out that in real life, the superior technology almost always wins.

"Well, finally somebody decided to test the effect in the lab, under controlled conditions. A new paper by Tanjim Hossain and John Morgan shows the results of experiments they did in a lab…"

Marketing: Social media’s hidden bubble | The Social – CNET News, January 15, 2009, by Caroline McCarthy — "As the recession rapidly sucks the momentum out of Web 2.0’s heyday, with it may go one of the era’s most defining terms: the job title "social media expert." 

Microsoft Rumored To Add Mobile Devices to Live Mesh With SkyBox, by Erick Schonfeld, January 19, 2009 — "It looks like Microsoft is finally ready to roll out the mobile version of Windows Live Mesh, it data syncing service that competes with Apple’s MobileMe (which ran into problems at launch). Live Mesh was first announced last April, and currently only supports Windows PCs and a Webtop in the cloud. Mac and mobile versions are shown to be “coming soon.” 

I’m not sure that I agree with her assessment, but Maggie Fox writes (January 10th, 2009) that Netbooks: mobile social computing laptop killers — " It’s January 10th and high time I made some prognostications about some of the things to come in 2009. I’m going to sum up something that has been on my mind this week in one sentence that has very broad implications: netbooks are going to destroy the traditional laptop market."

Filed under the "you’re not frickin’ kidding" file: The Older You Are, the Better You Multi-Task (If You’re a Woman) written by Sarah Perez / January 19, 2009 — "New data released by Integrated Media Measurement Inc. (IMMI) gives us insight into how men and women engage in "simultaneous media use" – that is, surfing the net while also doing some other activity like watching TV. According to the study, it’s more common for women to watch TV and use the computer than it is for men. What’s more, women supposedly get better at this multi-tasking as they age."

How To Dual Boot Vista and Windows 7 (NetworkWorld.com) by Mitchell Ashley on Sun, 01/18/09 – 10:17pm. "I moved Windows 7 onto my primary laptop this weekend after testing it on another machine in my lab. Rather than wipe out the Vista installation on my laptop, I decided to set it up as a dual boot machine. The process generally is pretty easy, though you can run into some snags along the way. Here’s the process for (and my experiences) converting a Vista machine into a dual boot Vista and Windows 7 machine."

I Am Paddy » How Do You Twitter: Guy Kawasaki? Another Twitter interview with an Internet guru, this time with Guy Kawasaki, writer and co-founder of digital magazine rack AllTop.com.

Yes, the legendary actor has his own web site. THE REAL BRENT SPINER WEBSITE

Switched Digital Video – Will it impact you? – TiVo — Switched Digital Video (SDV) is a new technology that allows cable providers to expand the programming you receive by sending certain channels to customer homes only when the channels are requested. If you have a TiVo HD, TiVo HD XL or Series 3 HD DVR with CableCARDs, you could see a blank screen on a number of channels if your cable provider makes the transition to SDV. The good news is that TiVo has worked with your cable provider to develop a solution at no cost to you.

Windows Vista Community Forums from the Microsoft Answers site, including…

Q&A: Opera CEO on antitrust battle against Internet Explorer – TechFlash: Seattle’s Technology News Source — toddbishop Talked with Opera’s CEO, Jon von Tetzchner, about Internet Explorer antitrust battle: (http://tinyurl.com/79qftz) on January 17, 2009 — "Internet browser maker Opera Software of Norway won an early round in its antitrust battle against Microsoft on Friday when the European Commission issued its preliminary finding that Microsoft’s inclusion of Internet Explorer in Windows violates European competition laws by giving its browser an unfair advantage.  In an interview, Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner discussed the EU case and Opera’s motivations for pursuing it."

How To Send Email Text Messages To Any Cell Phone (for Free) from your computer – The Medical Quack …. by Barbara Duck — Thanks to @guykawasaki for this link on How to send a text message to a phone via computer – see http://adjix.com/aijm

Are You Going to Finish Strong? – Video — Nick Vujicic has no arms or legs but has come to terms with his lot in life and he delivers an inspirational speech to these school kids that they will probably never forget.

3 Key Web Working Skills to Develop in 2009, by Darrell Etherington, January 14th, 2009 — "If you’re a web worker, then you know the importance of constantly examining, reassessing and adding to your existing skill set. Targeting your professional development, however, in a preemptive rather than reactive way, is not always easy. A little forethought, though, can go a long way to making you the applicant of choice before any contracts are awarded."

Information on presentation skills @ reboot — Thanks to Guy Kawasaki for this link: "This six-hour seminar will reframe the way you think and dramatically improve your next presentation! Whether you’re in business, academics, research or a non-profit, you have a message to get across that needs to resonate with your audience. This seminar will transform you into a creative thinker and change the way you prepare, design, and deliver your next presentation." Also see

Alltop – Top Speaking News

As a programmer, what are some telltale signs that you’re about to get fired or laid off? – Stack Overflow – and from Dare, Top 10 signs you might be getting laid off from former Yahoo! Employee at http://bit.ly/y4cj 

Get Game Smart (getgamesmart.com) is a way to help families better manage screen time for their kids, with a focus on the Xbox 360. As Brier Dudley pointed out in his article covering the site here … "here’s a 2006 study of the effects of screen time on school performance published in Pediatrics, the Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. "Its conclusion: The more time kids spend on video games, TV and movies, the worse they do in school."

Ballmer and Bostock break bread, January 16, 2009 3:56 PM PST, Posted by Ina Fried — "Well, it’s official, Microsoft and Yahoo have come to an agreement. On lunch. As first noted by Valleywag, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock had lunch together this week in New York."

Brandon Paddock’s Blog » Blog Archive » Windows 7 Beta hotkey cheat sheet — Thanks to Brandon for posting about this today: "Are you someone who relies on hotkeys (keyboard shortcuts) quite a bit? Fellow Microsoftie Brandon Paddock has published a cheat sheet of hotkeys that people might find useful with the Windows 7 Beta."

Don’t Worry about Apple (cringely.com) "I knew things were bad when Steve Jobs didn’t make even a token video appearance at Macworld. He would have done it, I’m sure, had he been well enough. Maybe someone at Apple, weeks before, thought of suggesting such a video, but of course to do so then would have been committing career suicide even if in retrospect it would have been a good idea. So now Steve is off on his six month (or longer) medical leave, readjusting those hormones, and the press is abuzz with what the heck Apple will do without Steve. Apple will be fine."

Video Demonstration: The Best New Windows 7 Keyboard Shortcuts by Adam Pash (Thu Jan 15 2009) — "No matter what OS you use, keyboard shortcuts are a one-way ticket to enhanced productivity (plus you look awesome to friends and colleagues); Windows 7 has more cool new shortcuts than you can shake a stick at. Windows 7 boasts a lot of great new shortcuts, but I’m focusing on several of my favorites. Check out the video above for a closer look. For those of you who prefer text to video, here are all of the shortcuts I highlighted…"

Letter From The Editor: So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish — Gina Trapani says goodbye today "as site lead at Lifehacker, so I’m taking off my distanced reporter hat to get all mushy, personal, and behind-the-scenes on you. Come in and grab a seat."

The next step in applying Gladwell/ Tipping Point theories to twitter users, January 16, 2009 — "Yesterday’s post proved a few important things to me. One, when someone like Chris Brogan re-tweets you it can drive a lot of thoughtful activity on your site. Two, because of #1, if you think that a conversation might get started don’t put up the post / tweet about it and then head off for a 4-hour dinner – I imagine the activity would have been that much greater if the comments were going “live” immediately, rather than waiting for my approval (most came in a very short time frame). And three, perhaps most importantly, I might be onto something interesting here. So the original question was whether Gladwell / Tipping Point theories, particularly in relation to mavens, connectors, and salesmen, apply to Twitter users. As a starting point, I looked at follower / following ratios as a distinguishing characteristic."

Capturing video from DV camcorder on Windows 7 (beta) — "I’ve been Windows 7 beta user for some time now and recently I wanted to capture some video from our DV camcorder. Here is how well it worked in Windows 7 beta. I was surprised how smoothly the whole process went, especially in this beta stage."

Hawaii takes closely watched digital TV plunge — What made me nervouse about the analogue TV shutdown in Hawaii? "the shutdown message flashed for about one minute in white text on a blue background…" Mark Niesse, AP, January 16, 2009

Microsoft moves Live Mesh under Windows chief Sinofsky — Mary Jo Foley writes (Jan 16, 2009) "Microsoft this week moved the Live Mesh team under the Windows and Windows Live engineering unit. Live Mesh is Microsoft’s cross-platform synchronization and collaboration service that is currently in beta. I asked Microsoft whether a tip I received that David Treadwell and his Live Services Platform team are no longer under Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie and received the following statement from a company spokesperson:

"The Windows Live, Live Services Platform, and Live Mesh teams will now be a part of the unified Windows Live organization under Steven Sinofsky, Senior Vice President, Windows and Windows Live Engineering. David Treadwell, Corporate Vice President, Live Services Platform, will now report to Sinofsky and will continue his work on the Live Services Platform."

Rick’s Notes from the Road (Comcast CSS) — Posted March 5, 2008 "I believe it’s important to be involved in an ongoing dialog with our customers – to answer your questions, hear what we’re doing right, discuss where we may need to still improve and take actions to make Comcast’s customer service better. To help make it easier for you to reach us and share that feedback, we’ve recently redesigned our “Help and Support” page on www.comcast.com."

Win 7 Tip: The Taskbar Is the Most Useful New UI Change — Jason Chen on Gizmodo reports this week (Jan 15 2009) that "once you get past the slightly differently-colored Aero theme in Windows 7, you’ll realize that it looks, UI-wise, almost the same as Vista. That is, until you look down at the Taskbar. Now that’s new."

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Windows 7 is not like a box of chocolates, Jim Cramer on Apple, Carol Bartz intros ‘friggin’ to analysts, and more of what I’ve read

Well, it’s been a busy week at home and at the office already, and it’s only Wednesday.  Microsoft will report second quarter earnings tomorrow afternoon so don’t ask me anything ’til Friday please.  At the office early, home late. 

But a word on a quick exchange I had tonight with Long Zheng after noting his Tweet…

longzheng "Windows Vista to Windows 7 is like Windows 98 to Windows 98 SE… 

Hmmm. Really?

Long is a bright fellow, and his blog is not to be missed.  So I had to note to Long that WRT the progression from 98 to 98SE, the experience in Windows 7 is different than one has in Vista SP1 today. I remember that as a customer in the late 90’s, the fixes going from Windows 98 to 98SE w/ USB and DV improvements plus a few more fixes.  It was an update – a good one, but still an update. 

In the end, I noted that my impression was that Windows 7 is to Windows Vista SP1 what Windows XP was to Windows 98SE… with a short detour on Windows ME for me (a folly as as a customer of Microsoft at the time, let me assure you).

On to the reading list.

My favourite quote of the week goes hands down to Carol Bartz when she put her foot down on her first day on the job as the new Yahoo! CEO (as reported on January 13, 2009, posted by Stephen Shankland). When I was at Autodesk, I had the great opportunity of working on occasion with Carol, then Autodesk’s former CEO and executive chairman.  This is a look at her first concall in the CEO slot at Yahoo!, and an example of one of the reasons I like and respect this lady:

"During a 20-minute call with press and analysts, Bartz mostly stuck to a predictable script–Yahoo’s valuable assets, strong employees, shareholder value, blah blah blah–and avoided any mention of strategic options such as selling Yahoo’s search business to Microsoft. "Let’s not put ourselves in some crazy timeline. Let’s give this company some frigging breathing room. Everybody on the outside deciding what Yahoo should or shouldn’t do–that’s going to stop," she said. Her first meeting with Yahoo’s managers was set for 10 minutes later, she also said."

Jim Cramer on the rise of Apple. And my POV. from Just Another iPhone Blog – "Well, this video that was posted at TheStreet.com does a pretty good job of summing up why I think we may be on the brink of a change in the marketplace – and change that tends to favor Apple really well."

The Curious Cook – Wine Enhancement Devices Are Put to a Test – NYTimes.com, by HAROLD McGEE, Published: January 13, 2009 – The Pour blog on the pleasure, culture and business of wine, beer and spirits. "I have used my carbon steel knife to cut up all kinds of meats and vegetables, but I had never thought of using it to prepare wine. Not until a couple of weeks ago, when I dunked the tip of it into glasses of several reds and whites, sometimes alone, sometimes with a sterling silver spoon, a gold ring or a well-scrubbed penny. My electrical multimeter showed that these metals were stimulating the wines with a good tenth of a volt. I tingled with anticipation every time I took a sip."

Steve Jobs Is Sicker Than We Thought. Now What? – Faster Forward  "Apple chief executive Steve Jobs will be taking a little more time off from work — he now won’t return to the job until July, because his health issues have become "more complex" than thought before."

SecretTweet.com – Post your secrets anonymously to Twitter is for Tweets on the sly.

Tech lobbyists: Spend $30 billion in tax dollars, get a million jobs | Politics and Law – CNET News

Obama aide: Full broadband plan won’t be in stimulus package on CNET News, January 14, 2009 12:00 PM PST Posted by Stephanie Condon – "Don’t expect to find a comprehensive national broadband policy in the so-called economic stimulus package that President-elect Barack Obama hopes to sign in his first days in office, Blair Levin, a top technology adviser for Obama, said Wednesday. While funds for broadband deployment will be a part of the stimulus package, Blair cautioned groups interested in seeing more federal investment in broadband from expecting too much right away."

Windows 7 beta wrecks your MP3 files (already has a patch) by Microsoft Subnet on Wed, 01/14/2009 – "Apparently, with every edit to an MP3’s metadata (such as adding the album cover art), [the public beta release of] Windows 7 will delete a portion of the audio. In support documents for the Windows 7 beta, the following tidbit is revealed."

8 Tech Predictions for ’09 – Columns by PC Magazine – From Windows 7 to Apple netbooks, here are eight tech predictions for 2009, by Tim Bajarin, SiValley prognosticator extraordinaire, who offers his own list of seven tech predictions for 2009. I’ve met Mr. Bajarin on several occasions and believe him to be a balanced and thoughtful follow with excellent insight. His Number 1?

"1. Windows 7 will bring tech out of the doldrums. Sales of PCs and other tech will be down in the first half of 2009, but when Microsoft delivers Windows 7 by Q3 (as many expect), it could catalyze the tech economy."

Teachers Ask President and Congress to Bring More Computers to the Classroom – ReadWriteWeb by Frederic Lardinois, January 14, 2009 who covered how "education and business organizations called upon Congress and the Obama administration to invest heavily in classroom technology and teacher training as part of the forthcoming economic recovery package."

Kodu from Microsoft Research is a new visual programming language made specifically for creating games. It is designed to be accessible for children and enjoyable for anyone. The programming environment runs on the Xbox, allowing rapid design iteration using only a game controller for input.

Dept. Of Bad Ideas: Those Adobe Ads in PDF Documents Just Weren’t Working by Erick Schonfeld on January 14, 2009. A moment, if you will, for the passing of an innovation.

"Adobe’s experiment with allowing publishers to place contextual ads directly inside PDF documents is coming to an end. The Adobe Labs project was launched just over a year ago in November, 2007. The idea was that out of the billions of PDF documents produced every year, some of them get passed around enough to warrant advertising, especially those produced by traditional print publishers. Adobe teamed up with Yahoo to provide contextual text ads similar to what you would find next to that document if you were reading it online. Hey, inventory is inventory, right?"

peHUB » Pierre Omidyar’s Next Venture? by Marshall Kirkpatrick (January 14, 2009) reports that the eBay founder is now part of a new startup, Ginx, "according to financial filings unearthed by PEHub. Very little is known about the company but based on passing whispers from early testers of the private data we have have some guesses about what the service does."

Text of Steve Jobs’s Letter to Apple Employees January 14, 2009, The New York Times notes the details from Steve Jobs letter to company’s employees explaining how he would retreat from daily Apple life until the summer to focus on his health recovery.

A storied role for technology at Sundance from CNET News, January 14, 2009, posted by Michelle Meyers. "The theme for this year’s Sundance Film Festival kicking off this week is "Storytime," apropos considering stories are the heart of each and every film."

LiveSide – Windows Live news and interviews: "With the Essentials suite recently released and Live Writer 2009 going final, I’d like to take a moment and just point out some great collaboration work between the Live Writer and Live Spaces team. Here are my 5 favourite new things (in no particular order)…"

Comcast’s Twitter Man – BusinessWeek, January 13, 2009. For Frank Eliason, managing the cable giant’s customer service department means tweeting strategically, by Rebecca Reisner 

WSJ: Carol Bartz To Be Named New Yahoo CEO. Is That A Good Thing? by Erick Schonfeld on January 13, 2009 — "Following up on an earlier report speculating that former Autodesk CEO Carol Bartz has been selected to become Yahoo’s new CEO…"

Top 25 ‘most dangerous’ coding errors revealed | Security – CNET News, January 13, 2009, Posted by Tom Espiner – "Security experts from U.S. government agencies, multinational companies, and academia have released a list of what they consider to be the 25 most critical errors made while coding software."

Also of interest: the SANS Institute – CWE/SANS TOP 25 Most Dangerous Programming Errors, which includes the full list of coding errors, and information on how to fix them, is available from the Sans Institute Web site.

Microsoft Response Point Podcast With Richard Sprague – "In our conversation I had a chance to learn how Response Point is part of the company’s startup business accelerator program designed to bring products to market more quickly. In past conversations I have learned that this group is always on, working hard and seems like any other entrepreneurial company I interact with…"

Wrapping Up CES: Blu-ray, Cameras And More – Faster Forward, Posted 01/13/2009. "It’s time for the return of an annual feature here — the post in which I see how the computers, gadgets and software I took with me to report on Macworld and CES worked out in the field."

A Quick Tour of Windows 7 – Faster Forward, Jan 10, 2008 by Rob Pegoraro. "Windows 7, the company’s successor to Windows Vista, is available now as a public-beta download (or will be once its servers recover from the initial demand)."

notes and rants : The Pitch.  Monday, December 15, 2008 7:08 PM by alanpa "I attended a project review meeting today – one of those where a project team presents a problem, how they’re going to solve it, and ends with some asks for support (either in buy-off, resource commitment, or both). In this particular case, it was for a people improvement-ish project, but the format was pretty much the same as I see when reviewing software projects.

"Some tips include: Start with the problem. Don’t solve everything. Describe how you’re going to solve the problem. Make your “asks”** clear."

Announcing HWTSAM.com (notes and rants blog) Saturday, December 20, 2008 8:45 AM by alanpa — "Announcing HWTSAM.com: I know, I know…just what the world needs – another web site. Alas, I created http://www.hwtsam.com anyway as a companion web site to How We Test Software At Microsoft."

My 2009 advice for programmers (on making – or keeping – testers happy) from Alan Page’s notes and rants blog, Jan 03, 2009 5:06 PM — "If you are a programmer and you want to make the testers around you happy, here are a few of my tips. Feel free to add yours in the comments."

Classic WTF: The Bug That Shut Down Computers World-Wide – The Daily WTF by Alex Papadimoulis. "Where were you the morning of January 1st, 1984? Some – like Robert Reagan – were actually working, desperately trying to fix the bug that shut down computers across the world. "With all the “oh no, the world’s gonna end” date problems out there – Y2K, DST, The End of the Epoch, and Y2070 – it’s surprising that most haven’t heard of the day that the world actually ended. On that day – January 1st, 1984 – a single bug was responsible for shutting down – and keeping down – a whole lot of computer systems."

Mystery Roar from Faraway Space Detected by Andrea Thompson, Senior Writer, SPACE.com – Wed Jan 7, 10:31 pm ET.LONG BEACH, Calif. — "Space is typically thought of as a very quiet place. But one team of astronomers has found a strange cosmic noise that booms six times louder than expected."

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The Washington Post’s Kim Hart ‘Technical Difficulties’ on the painful Digital TV transition: Obama and the FCC can do something about it

As Kim Hart, Staff Writer for the Washington Post noted in her article today, Technical Difficulties: Switch to Digital TV May Not Be as Smooth as Advertised, many consumers are impacted by the transition to digital television (as I noted noted previously).  Customers find that simply using a converter box isn’t always enough to get reliable TV signals.



“In less than a month, on Feb. 17, all full-power stations plan to shut off analog signals and air digital-only broadcasts. Viewers with older analog TV sets will need to hook up a converter box to receive over-the-air programs. Digital TV sets will automatically receive the new signals. Cable and satellite subscribers should not be affected by the switch.


“But many consumers are discovering that upgrading to a digital set or adding a converter box may not be enough to get a reliable digital signal. Some will also have to buy more powerful antennas to install in living rooms or on roofs, adding expense and frustration for the nearly 14 million households who rely on over-the-air signals.


“People are very surprised when they realize they can’t get [the channels],” said Barry Goodstadt, an independent analyst who has been studying digital reception issues. He predicts that 70 percent of households with indoor “rabbit ear” antennas will have to upgrade to more powerful equipment.”


As noted in my post on the digital TV delay, the transition to digital television has been poorly managed, and in some cases, poorly understood even by those in the industry. 


Here’s an example: I wrote an email to Comcast customer service, registering my complaint of having to add another set top box to my “already-ready-for-digital-TV” TVs: I have televisions that include a digital tuner, and capable of receiving the free to air digital channels, which Comcast rebroadcasts on their channel map. As Comcast’s advertising here in Washington state exclaimed that “current customers don’t have to do anything” come the digital change currently slated for 2-17-09, I expected that the same channels I get today without the need to decode (or decrypt) channels from 2 to 99.


I found that Comcast’s claims were not quite accurate. (A nod to the famous line from the movie “Network” would be accurate.) 


As I noted in an exchange on Twitter with comcastcares (one of Comcast’s reps on Twitter), the challenge is that given the change Comcast will be making will require a significant percentage of Comcast customers in this area –and I imagine most of the country where Comcast provides television services– to put a cable set top box on every television in the home where they want programming above Channel 30.  With that change, even digital ready TVs, DVRs and PCs (with Windows Media Center) will now need a new converter set-top box if customers wish want to receive stations above channel 30 on Comcast’s local channel map as these devices won’t be able to decrypt the encoded digital channels from Comcast above channel 30.


I asked Comcast in an email to reconsider the move to encrypt channels above Channel 30as they move to more digital channels, and keep the basic package of channels that I have today in the clear. It’s a poor customer experience to take channels and programming currently offered in the clear today on analogue and move them to digital channels that will require a set top box tomorrow.


The email response I received from Comcast indicates that even they may not understand the impact that the change will cause to their customers…



“In order to keep up with the demand for more HD channels, more programming options, and faster internet speeds, we must move out the analog signals. For every one analog channel, you can fit up to 10 standard digital definition channels or up to 3 HD channels. I apologize that you don’t think our efforts to assist customers through the digital migration is not enough.”


That’s fine, I’m glad that Comcast is reclaiming analogue bandwidth. I’m not asking to keep the analogue channels.  I understand that they must cut back on the analogue, as I personally support Comcast making the move to all digital in favour of digital tuners.


What I object to is the need to have to use a set top box in order to view channels above channel 30 even though I have digital tuners that are capable of receiving clear QAM channels. (More information here on QAM Tuners.)  As noted on the Wiki page on QAM Tuners (the tuner inside a digital ready television or set top box)…



An integrated QAM tuner allows the free reception of unscrambled digital programming sent “in the clear” by cable providers, usually local broadcast stations or cable radio channels. Which channels are scrambled varies greatly from location to location and can change over time; the majority of digital channels are scrambled because the providers consider them to be extra-cost options and not part of the “basic cable” package.


Today, I am able to watch CNN – part of my basic cable package – on my analogue as well as my digital ready televisions.  After Comcast makes the switch and encrypts the digital channel map (impacting all content above Channel 30, including CNN), I will be forced to use a set top box to decode these channels.  Quite simply, I object having to introduce another box into our home television systems — such as the DCT700 boxes from Comcast — and clumsily change channels via IR blasting.


Here’s a personal plea to the incoming Obama administration as well as the FCC.


As far as the digital television transition is concerned, the new administration would be wise to allow the transition to go ahead as planned on Feb. 17 but allow for a delay – a grace period – to the complete transition.  Such a “roll over period” (perhaps an additional 90 to 150 days) would allow for the processing and distribution of digital STB coupons and migration of those who have yet to make the change. During this period, both digital and older analog signals would available, and those consumers who have not made the transition to digital should see not only the channel displayed but a rolling warning notice that their ability to view the television station they’re watching will end unless they immediately migrate to digital equipment.


Further, the digital television transition is exacerbated by the decision of some cable companies to take the opportunity in February to make a digital switch of their own (as noted in the most above). Such a move will require subscribers to add a cable box for about every television in the household due to the encryption of the TV channels coming down the cable to the set. Cable companies should be required (perhaps by the FCC and pressure from consumer groups) to broadcast all channels currently freely available on analog (without the need for a converter box) to digital when and if the transition is made, providing consumers the same experience they enjoy with their digital-compatible televisions today.


I’ve spent much of my career working on audio and video products, and worked closely with cable, satellite and traditional broadcasters.  In my more than 20 years working in the industry, I can recall few items that have caused more consumer angst than the transition to digital television. And just like was the risk with the changes to daylight saving time around the world in 2007, I expect that people will be caught off guard and need to make the switch in a less than elegant way.


Added 012109, 3:00PM PAC: I saw this afternoon that Chairman Henry A. Waxman postponed today’s scheduled markup session on “H.R.__, The Digital Television Transition Extension Act of 2009” as noted here:



“The transition to digital television is not going well. There is not enough money for the converter box coupon program and millions of Americans could experience serious problems.


“Delay of the deadline is our only hope of lessening the impact on millions of consumers. Without a short, one-time extension, millions of households will lose all television reception. Late last week Senate Republicans blocked a bill to delay the transition date.


“I have postponed Committee consideration of the DTV markup to give the Committee more time to assess the implications of the Senate action.”


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Obama Inauguration Tweets, Windows 7 Secrets and Energy Efficiency, an interview with Seth Godin, and more of what I’ve read

A step away from the highlights of the day, a collection of articles and posts from my reading pile that you may find of interest. 

OK, if you must, here’s one story that just may provide you with more insider comments from Obama’s inauguration that you’ll get on CNN or Access Hollywood:

Senator Twitters Obama’s inauguration (found at https://twitter.com/clairecmc) from msnbc.com and NBC News, updated 10:52 a.m. PT, Tues., Jan. 20, 2009

"Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri used her close friendship with Barack Obama to give her constituents a front-row seat at the new president’s inauguration Tuesday. "McCaskill, not heretofore known as an early adopter of new technology, was using the Twitter Internet service to post updates throughout the day. She has been updating followers since Sunday’s concert at the Lincoln Memorial — according to McCaskill, the highlight was the finale, featuring Pete Seeger. "The senator apparently has not taken quickly to Net-speak. Twitter.com limits users to 140 characters per message, accelerating the rise of text-message abbreviations, but McCaskill was resolutely plowing on in full sentences, complete with capitalization and the odd spelling error or two."

Now on to the reading pile of items archived on my Windows 7-enabled computers and and Live Mesh…

Tim Sneath offers The Bumper List of Windows 7 Secrets…

"For now, though, I want to focus in on some of “secrets” of Windows 7: the many little tweaks and enhancements that we’ve made in this release that I’ve discovered and collated over the last few months of using Windows 7 across my home and work machines. These are the things that are too small to appear in any marketing document as “features”, but that you quickly miss when you switch to an older version of Windows. There are some who think that we’re arbitrarily hiding functionality to make Windows easy for casual users, but I’d argue that a great deal of effort has been put into this release to satisfy power users. In homage to those of us who enjoy discovering the nooks and crannies of a new operating system list, I’ve put together the longest blog post that I’ve ever written. If you’ve downloaded and installed Windows 7 Beta recently, I think you’ll enjoy this list of my thirty favorite secrets. Have fun!"

Obama’s new BlackBerry: The NSA’s secure PDA? from CNET News, January 13, 2009 4:00 AM PST, Posted by Declan McCullagh

"President-elect Barack Obama checks his BlackBerry while riding on his campaign bus in Pennsylvania last March. "One is General Dynamics’ Sectera Edge, a combination phone-PDA that’s been certified by the National Security Agency as being acceptable for Top Secret voice communications and Secret e-mail and Web sites. (see this WMV for more details.)

"The Sectera runs a mobile version of Microsoft Windows, including versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Windows Media Player. The NSA claims that the installed versions of Internet Explorer, WordPad, and Windows Messenger are good enough for data that’s classified at a level of Secret. Presumably the federal spooks have found a way to protect IE from the numerous security flaws that continue to plague the Internet’s most popular browser."

Interview: Seth Godin on How Often to Post to Your Blog in Advertising Age — The Key? Post When You’ve Got Something Good to Say, says B.L. Ochman on 01.12.09 @ 05:37 PM

"How often should you post to a blog? There’s definitely no shortage of opinion and advice on the subject for what it’s worth. And much of that free advice is worth what you pay for it. But when the eponymous Seth Godin talks about blogging, listen up!

"Godin used to post a couple of times a week. His blog is one that I never miss because his insights are so frequently valuable. And although I never miss one of his posts, he’s gotten harder to keep up with lately. That’s because not long ago he began a seven-day-a-week posting schedule. I wondered why, and so I asked him."

Being Peter Kim: It’s Time To Transform, getting real about social networks and communications…

"The reverb in the echo chamber has become deafening. Have you noticed the lack of original content being published lately? I have. There’s a term to describe what’s going on and Steve Rubel called it a year ago: The Lazysphere.

"Rather than create new ideas or pen thoughtful essays, [some bloggers] simply glom on to the latest news with another ‘me too’ blog post." I use Google Reader as my gateway to social media. Almost all blog content falls into "to know" (RSS) vs. "to do" (email). And lately, I’m feeling that there’s less "need to know" content being produced. The best – and worst – content spurs people into action. So what I’ve done is unsubscribe from about a dozen advertising, media, and marketing blogs that have lost their edge of insight and/or integrity.

"This social marketing niche is getting way too incestuous and repetitive and frankly, stupid in its repetitive back slapping, re-affirmation, ego stroking…"

Microsoft: Do give Vista a try from CNET News. January 13, 2009, Posted by Victoria Ho…

"Following the beta release of Windows 7, Microsoft is sending the message to companies not to give Vista a miss, saying investments toward adopting the OS can be reused when Windows 7 is ready.

"Speaking at a press demo session of Windows 7 beta, Richard Francis, general manager, Windows client BG lead, business and marketing organization, Asia-Pacific region at Microsoft, said companies are "encouraged" to upgrade to Windows Vista after predecessor XP, instead of waiting for Windows 7 to be released.

"Certainly, there will be some companies that will decide to skip Vista and wait for Windows 7. But we are asking customers to continue and deploy Windows Vista," said Francis. "He explained that the software giant prioritized "easing migration" from Vista to 7…"

Master the New and Improved MSConfig in Vista | Train Signal Training – Free Computer Training Videos, Posted on January 12th, 2009 by Eric English

"The System Configuration Utility – MSConfig – is a favorite of most pc users for a number of reasons. You can disable startup items and services, change boot options, and launch troubleshooting and configuration tools.

"Microsoft didn’t disappoint us with the newest version of MSConfig in Vista. They have made it simpler and more concise, and also added a few new tools."

Cisco, Intel and Microsoft Lead Collaboration to Improve Global Education Assessments, from Business Wire 2009, 2009-01-13

"Three leading technology companies announced today a collaboration aimed at transforming global educational assessment and improving learning outcomes. At the Learning and Technology World Forum in London, Cisco, Intel and Microsoft unveiled plans to underwrite a multi-sector research project to develop new assessment approaches, methods and technologies for measuring the success of 21st-century teaching and learning in classrooms around the world. During the session, the three companies called upon educational leaders, governments and other corporations to join in the effort."

Steve Clayton: Geek In Disguise : Web 2.0 And Internet Stats…

"Many of you will have had your fill of stats around Web 2.0, Social Media and the like but if you’re looking for something to bolster your next presentation check out 49 Amazing Social Media, Web 2.0 And Internet Stats from The Future Buzz. Twitter stats are flavour of the month/year of course."

Focusing attention is the new work ethic on ZDNet.com, January 10th, 2009, Posted by Andrew Nusca @ 3:14 pm…

"A person who works with complete focus has a major advantage over a workaholic who multi-tasks all day and responds to every interruption, according to a story by tech writer Mike Elgan on InternetNews.com.

"Elgan cites New York Times columnist David Brooks, who himself cites Malcolm Gladwell in that author’s latest book, Outliers: “Control of attention is the ultimate individual power. People who can do that are not prisoners of the stimuli around them.”

Podcast: Can Silverlight be the Flash killer?, from January 11th, 2009, posted by Zack Whittaker @ 10:53 am

"I put forward the question to semi-regular visitor on here, Dan Wood, who’s appeared in a post or two and a podcast some months ago. With Silverlight being pushed out by Microsoft every way possible, with links on every Microsoft web page and in Windows Live Essentials, it’s like they are desperate for the world to see it.

"However, Flash has been around for the last decade and has firmly gained the marketshare. For those who can develop on the Flash platform, will surely know it incredibly well by now, and almost every plugin for any website there is, Flash will most likely be involved somehow.

"For the future of student developers, will Flash ever be overtaken by the Silverlight platform? Or is Microsoft just trying to pave their way in the online rich-media market? Let me know what you think."

7 parting thoughts from FCC chair Martin, Posted by Richard Koman @ January 11, 2009 @ 8:20 AM – from FCC chairman Kevin J. Martin at CES, who also gave up his chairmanship this week.

How-to: Getting started with .VHD files in Windows 7, Posted by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes @ 4:18 pm Jan 10, 2009.  Confused about how to use .VHD files in Windows 7?  Kingsley-Hughes discusses how to work with .VHD files (for Virtual PC, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Hyper-V) in Windows 7. Also see Virtual PC Guy’s WebLog : Windows 7 on Hyper-V.

Geek Gifts 2008: The Roku Netflix Player fulfills the promise of streaming video | Geekend | TechRepublic.com – The Roku Netflix Player fulfills the promise of streaming video Date: June 25th, 2008 Author: Mark Kaelin

Six Vista annoyances fixed in Windows 7, Posted by Ed Bott @ 6:15 pm, Jan 7, 2009

"In this post, I’ll show you six specific annoyances from Windows Vista that are fixed in Windows 7. Each one represents an easier, more efficient way to accomplish a common task. Collectively, they constitute some pretty persuasive evidence that “have it our way” is no longer the controlling design principle among Windows’ designers.

"I sometimes wonder how Microsoft’s interface designers find the strength to go to work every day. It certainly isn’t for the external validation. In the past two-plus years, I’ve read countless complaints about the Windows Vista user interface. It has too many options for ordinary users. It doesn’t offer enough options for advanced users. It’s dumbed down and overcomplicated, sometimes all at the same time. To listen to the critics, Vista’s designers succeeded in making every feature worse than XP. In fact, the latest complaint is that Vista and the upcoming Windows 7 are even worse than Windows 98."

The Best of CES 2009, for business, January 12th, 2009, Posted by Jason Hiner @ 2:19 am. "While most of the crowd at CES 2009 in Las Vegas was drooling over TVs, digital cameras, car tech, and home theaters, TechRepublic scouted out the best new technologies for businesses. Here’s our list of the top biztech products at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show."

Microsoft On The Issues blog.

Hive Five Winner for Best CD and DVD Burning Tool: ImgBurn By Lifehacker’s Adam Pash, Dec 2, 2008.  "Free CD and DVD burner ImgBurn emerged victorious in this weekend’s Hive Five Best CD and DVD Burning Tools, followed closely in tow by commercial burner Nero 9. Freeware app CDBurnerXP rounded came in a distant third."

Power In, Dollars Out: How to Stem the Flow in the Data Center, from December 3, 2008.

"Get Office File Viewers Server Power Considerations for IT Administrators This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the server power landscape for information technology (IT) administrators. It explains how power affects the IT budget, shows power and performance tradeoffs, and describes in detail how hardware and software can affect overall power efficiency in the data center. Administrators can use this information to make power-aware deployment and purchasing decisions, identify issues and inefficiencies on deployed systems, and maximize their organization’s power efficiency. This information applies for the Windows Server 2008 operating system."

Also see Engineering Windows 7 : Windows 7 Energy Efficiency…

"The following post continues our discussion of fundamentals with a focus on power management. Power Management (or energy efficiency) is something that every contributor to the PC Ecosystem must always address—the energy efficiency of a running PC is limited by the weakest component. In engineering Windows 7 we had an explicit focus on the energy usage patterns of the running system and will continue to work with hardware and software makers to realize the collective benefit of all of this work. While we talk about the balancing of needs in every area, energy consumption is probably the most easily visualized—when we test running systems we connect them to power meters and watch a very clear number change as we run tests."

Microsoft SMB Community Blog : What did he say? Deciphering “Microsoft speak”

Application Development Trends – CES 2009: Will Netbooks Change App Development? from 1/9/2009, By Kathleen Richards.

"The next generation of the hottest growth segment in laptops, netbooks, is on display at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week in Las Vegas, where Acer, Asustek Computer, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Sony and others are showing their newest lightweight, $300 to $600 netbooks.

"The popularity of netbooks, expected to increase during the global recession, has caught many high-tech companies off-guard, including Microsoft. By the end of 2008, nine of the top 10 PC makers had entered the once-idling netbook market, pushing shipments up 160 percent in the third quarter year over year, according to the NPD Group’s DisplaySearch. The market researcher estimates 14 million mini-note PCs shipped in 2008, compared to 1 million in 2007."

Intel to bring out chip for lower-cost thin laptops | Nanotech – The Circuits Blog – CNET News from January 11, 2009 1:00 AM PST, Posted by Brooke Crothers.

"Intel will bring out a new Core-architecture processor for lower-cost ultra-thin laptops later this year, according to Intel sources at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The processors will distinguish themselves by targeting a price segment below pricey ultra-portables, which typically start at around $1,500 and range all the way up to $3,000–and higher in some cases. The processors will not compete with the Atom processor that powers Netbooks, which usually top out at $500."

CES and the recession: What was the impact? | Geek Gestalt – CNET News, January 12, 2009, posted by Daniel Terdiman.

"There are probably a lot of different ways to measure how the deepening recession has impacted the Consumer Electronics Show…

"I’ve never enjoyed being at CES, and one reason is that during the show, it is impossible to get around Las Vegas. In the past, the lines for taxis, either at the major hotels or the convention centers, have been horrendous–easily an hour long–and once you finally got in one, you’d be trapped in bumper-to-bumper traffic for easily as long, even for a short ride.

"This year, however, the general consensus is that getting around has been, while not exactly fluid, then at least easier, and quicker. "It’s been (just) a half-hour wait for a taxi anywhere," said Sherstobitoff."

Microsoft Betting Big on ‘Touch’ – WSJ.com, by NICK WINGFIELD, Jan 12, 2009

"While Apple Inc.’s iPhone kicked off the craze for touch-sensing screens on mobile phones, Microsoft Corp. is pushing a similar technology for personal-computer screens that could eventually replace the computer mouse.

"N-trig Ltd., an Israeli start-up that makes touch-sensing screen hardware, is expected to announce that Microsoft is the largest investor in a $24 million round of funding that also includes several venture-capital firms. The Redmond, Wash., software company is making the investment to help N-trig quickly adapt its technology to work well with Windows 7, the coming version of Microsoft’s dominant operating system. It didn’t disclose the specific size of Microsoft’s investment."

Microsoft testing a better rival to Google Docs, January 9, 2009, by James Niccolai and Elizabeth Montalbano, IDG News Service

"Microsoft Corp. has begun testing some Web-based Office applications that will be delivered through Office Live Workspace, its online adjunct to Microsoft Office, and will give the company a closer rival to online application suites such as Google Docs.

"Microsoft will begin a public beta test of what it calls the "Office Web applications" later this year. They will allow users to create and edit new documents online from within a Web browser, said Justin Hutchinson, group product manager for Microsoft’s Office Client division, in an interview at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas."

BBC NEWS | Technology | ‘Carbon cost’ of Google revealed, Jan 12, 2009

"Two search requests on the internet website Google produce "as much carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle", according to a Harvard University academic. US physicist Alex Wissner-Gross claims that a typical Google search on a desktop computer produces about 7g CO2.

"However, these figures were disputed by Google, who say a typical search produced only 0.2g of carbon dioxide. "A recent study by American research firm Gartner suggested that IT now causes two percent of global emissions. "Dr Wissner-Gross’s study claims that two Google searches on a desktop computer produces 14g of CO2, which is the roughly the equivalent of boiling an electric kettle.

Mobile TV Gets Big Push, By Marin Perez, InformationWeek, January 9, 2009 02:52 PM

"The Consumer Electronics Show has typically been a showcase for huge television sets, but this year some broadcasters focused on the small and mobile screen.

"The Open Mobile Video Coalition, an industry consortium made up of major broadcasters, has agreed to a mobile TV standard and said 63 stations in 22 U.S. cities will provide free, over-the-air programming for mobile devices sometime in 2009.

"The mobile TV service will be based on the ATSC Mobile DTV standard, and it should become finalized in the middle of this year. The standard is based on a system developed by Harris Broadcast and LG Electronics, and it enables broadcasters to send mobile programming without compromising the station’s standard of high-definition digital television programming. The coalition said it will cost about $250,000 to add mobile DTV capabilities to existing transmission stations."

FCC chief: Don’t delay digital switch – CES 2009 by Alex Johnson, Reporter, msnbc.com, updated 2:57 p.m. PT, Sat., Jan. 10, 2009 in LAS VEGAS

"The head of the Federal Communications Commission sharply disagreed Saturday with President-elect Barack Obama’s call to delay the scheduled switchover to all-digital television next month, warning that pushing back the transition would confuse Americans and put wireless companies at a significant disadvantage.

"During a question-and-answer session at the International Consumer Electronics Show, the commission’s chairman, Kevin J. Martin, acknowledged that "ultimately, this is Congress’ decision." And — with daylight saving time as a shining example — we know how well that may work out. "Martin, who was appointed in 2005 by President George W. Bush, has been a controversial figure as head of the FCC. He has been criticized by congressional Democrats and even by some of his colleagues on the commission for what they characterize as his high-handed manner that does not seek consensus."

CBS Pumps Up TV.com to Create a Destination – NYTimes.com, by BRIAN STELTER, January 11, 2009

"When the CBS Corporation bought CNet for $1.8 billion last year, it acquired TV.com, a Web site that had little to brag about except a valuable domain name. Now CBS is transforming it into a video destination.

"One month ago, CBS has redesigned the previously clunky site to showcase the thousands of new and old television episodes that it offers, from “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” to “Charlie’s Angels.” And on Monday, the company is expected to announce distribution deals with PBS, Sony, MGM and Endemol that will expand its free advertising-supported online library."

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