Wow. Has it been this long? I guess it has. Anyway, Mack has a great writeup on the history of Windows Media Center which is worth reading.

"On September 3rd, Microsoft will celebrate the five year anniversary of Windows Media Center, arguably one of the company’s more successful products. Windows XP Media Center Edition was released to manufacturers in the United States and Canada in 2002, and Microsoft has followed up with a number of releases since then, most recently as part of Windows Vista. The software is at the core of Microsoft’s digital media strategy and looks to have a bright future ahead. In this post we’ll take a look at what Windows Media Center is, the levels of success it has achieved thus far, and finally we’ll touch on where Microsoft might take the product in the next few years."

Get the full story over at http://www.last100.com/2007/08/23/windows-media-center-a-microsoft-success-story/.

Thanks, Mack...!

This past Sunday I played goalie for our soccer club (Salsa FC) for about 20 minutes. This is only the second (or maybe third) time I have ever played that position, and the first time I've ever faced a penalty kick. I squared off against the opponent, reacted well and (pretty much) flung my body to the right in an effort to block the kick. I missed, and had the 'wind knocked out of me' badly -- see http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/mar97/858749772.An.r.html for a pretty good physiological description. It was very, very scary to not be able to take in a breath at all for what seemed like a very long time -- to the point of nearly passing out. At most it was probably 20 seconds before I was able to begin taking some tiny breaths back in -- but it felt much longer, and I did start to panic a little bit.

After laying there for about 5 minutes I got up and walked back to the sideline unassisted, and even substituted back in to my regular positions a couple of times (fullback or midfield) but felt a growing discomfort in my mid chest region, just below the pectoral muscles. I just couldn't seem to take in any deep breaths without a lot of discomfort. I say 'discomfort' because at the time it wasn't painful -- I just couldn't seem to inhale deeply. It seemed to get worse on the car ride home, and the pain started to set in.

Turns out I have some number of cracked ribs. It's actually quite painful to move. Breathing is pretty shallow because anything deeper hurts. A suppressed cough is pretty bad -- if I don't suppress that it really lights up the pain receptors. I sneezed last night and was seeing stars and had to sit down in a hurry. Even clearing my throat or yawning results in a good bit of pain. My left side is worse than my right, to the point I can't even sleep on my left side -- and I'm very definitely a side sleeper. Once I get into a comfortable position on my back or right side I'm able to sleep -- until I shift the least little bit, then I'm awake for the next 15 minutes or so trying to get comfortable again.

But I'd do it all over again. Why?

My good friend Michael, who along with his wife Wanda got me involved with soccer as an adult said the following as I was desperately trying to find some air laying in the goal:

'Yeah, you missed it. But you looked good.'

Uniform: $30

Shoes: $80

Shin Guards: $15

Having great friends who will make you laugh when you have no breath to do so: Priceless.

Go Salsa...!!!

That went pretty smoothly -- thanks Scott, Omar and the rest of the dasBlog development team for putting together 2.0. You guys ROCK...!

Also using Windows Live Writer for the first time with this post. Configuration with dasBlog was an absolute snap. Blogging just got a whole lot easier.

Sweet...

That's the title of a blog post I would love to see Jeff Atwood write. As I was sitting there playing with one of my children this evening I noticed we were using a box of Legos which contained a mixture of their brand new ones and those from my childhood (30+ years old in most cases). Suddenly it dawned on me that none of these pieces had any comaptibility issues -- we could mix and match at will and they always, always fit. Of course, there are exceptions when it comes to Duplo and Technic -- but those have always been present. Talk about legacy support...!

Dear Apple,

Tonight I stopped by the Apple Store at Alderwood Mall specifically to pick up iLife 08. The young man at the checkout counter was having difficulties swiping my credit card for payment on the handheld devices you use for this purpose (I believe they are made by Symbol). He tried three of them before saying sarcastically: 'These run Windows Mobile which explains why I can't run your credit card.' It worked after he removed and then forcefully jammed the mag stripe reader into the bottom of the fourth device.

It's totally lame to have this attitude.

And this isn't the first time I've encountered this at your stores. When I bought my MacBook down in Portland back in December the pre-purchase conversation with two of your floor staff was filled (and I mean filled) with anti-Microsoft rhetoric. Even when I tried to get them to focus on features of your product it came around quickly to 'Microsoft stinks at this.' I was asking pertinent questions to my purchase, not trying to goad them -- I truly wanted to learn more about the experience I could expect with Windows running in Parallels Desktop. After about 20 minutes of lame interaction I informed them I was a Microsoft employee, and pointed out some of the inaccuracies of their statements about Microsoft products. A few people were listening in (it was right before Christmas so the store was really, really busy) and eyebrows went up. Both guys started back pedaling, and became quite apologetic. The conversation then took on a very professional air (thankfully). When I concluded our discussion by stating I'd like to purchase a MacBook the guy who rang up the purchases gave me the educational discount across the entire purchase, even though I don't qualify. I gave him a nice shoulder hug and said 'see, Mac and PC can get along' which resulted in quite a few laughs from his peers who had gathered around. One of them even asked when Windows Vista would be out for him to try, and he thought Windows Media Center was really cool. True story. My wife will back me up. I have the receipt. I'm pretty sure I still have the follow up emails I sent to these guys with information they had requested.

Your commercials are funny, and draw folks into the stores or online to check out your products -- they shouldn't be the net total of your sales training materials. You make good, solid products -- both on the hardware and software side. If the best thing you can say about them is nothing but bad things about Microsoft you are truly doing yourself a disservice. You would do well to train your staff at the Apple store to always take the high road and truly get educated on Microsoft products, as well as those of your other competitors. I would even be willing to come in once a month to an Apple store or two in the Seattle area for Q&A time with your staff to help them get it right.

I'm hoping you agree our mutual customers deserve better.

Sincerely,

Charlie Owen

I've recently cropped up on a couple of Microsoft blog listings (Brier, Ed). I feel kind of ashamed because, well, I haven't been personally blogging very much over the last few months. So, some folks may be asking why and perhaps wondering what I've been doing as of late. Well, here goes if you are interested.

Like Steve and Robert I sort of 'burnt out' -- not over blogging per se but rather being 'connected'. Something like...

Wake up in the morning, check email and RSS feeds, shower, walk to the bus stop, reading email on the phone on the way, getting to work, doing the day job (which involves lots of being connected), getting back on the bus to ride home (reading email on the phone), dinner with the fam, bedtime routine with kids, back online, email + RSS feeds, checking out various discussion groups (Sandbox, GreenButton), more email, going to bed. Rinse. Repeat.

Then my bus route got WiFi. And it's pretty darn fast and reliable. And free. So instead of using the phone on the bus with more limited features I've got the MacBook out with everything at my fingertips.

In early June I noticed something: I could literally go all day with a computer on and connected. About the only time that wasn't true was the 3 minute walk from the house to the bus stop and back (but the phone easily filled the gap, and was still fully connected). I vaguely remembered too much of a good thing can be a bad thing.

I had become simply too connected.

So, taking a small page out of Jeff's book I disconnected. And this is what I did...

• Organized a 'Fun Zone' sponsored by Microsoft for teens and tweens attending the Little People of America National Convention in Seattle. We had Windows Media Center / Extender, Zune and Forza Motorsport 2. A total volunteer effort by Microsofties. Along with about 30 other volunteers Chris came one night and demonstrated Zune. Joel from the Forza team came and set up a freakin' AWESOME racing chair custom made for attendees at the event (seriously, go follow that link and check it out). We gave away four Zunes (including one to a young man who lost his iPod while traveling to the event) and four copies of Forza Motorsport 2, all courtesy of the graciousness of those teams. As one of my peers put it in a private email afterwords: "It was great being part of a Microsoft event where we weren’t selling anything, just providing entertainment for a very worthwhile cause." Yep, Microsoft employees utterly and totally rock and I'm proud to be associated with them. Much thanks to my management supporting my being out of the office for about a week to put this together.
• Took a vacation! Went back home to North Carolina to see family and friends. The first part of the trip was to Ocean Isle Beach with my extended family while the second part was in Charlotte seeing more family and friends. 2.5 weeks of (nearly) zero connectivity -- I suffered a bit of withdrawal, I will admit -- but it was nice to finally get to a feeling of total online ignorance.
• Re-read two Clancy novels ("Patriot Games" and "Clear and Present Danger") and bought (and read in two days) Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows the day it came out. It had been so very long since I picked up more than a coding reference book!
• Returned home and got back into the swing of things at work, but pacing myself -- getting done what could get done in an 8 hour work day rather than trying to answer each and every email and being connected 24/7. Instead of getting online during the 25 minute bus ride I'm reading books. Currently that's RESTful Web Services (recommended in Scotts blog --  I think -- can't find the link back to him unfortunately). This book really helps the lightbulb go on for us Program Manager types on the subject.
• Developed PowerPlaylist for Windows Media Center which adds a custom Start Menu strip to Windows Media Center with five tiles. Each tile represents an audio plus slideshow or visualization combination which will start when the tile is selected. It is highly customizable by the end user in a myried of ways: Strip name, tile title and image, audio, picture and visualization source are all configurable, including the number of tiles in the strip (1 to 5 at your discretion). It was really nice to just dig in and code for a while (with a side bonus of finding some areas for improvement we can make to the Windows Media Center platform and SDK). If you want to beta test, drop me an email to charlieo at microsoft dot come or leave a comment here.
• Quietly released the lastest version of the Windows Media Center SDK (5.2) -- read about it here and get it from here.
• My disconnected time was very much needed, and has helped me focus on the important things while getting back into the groove.

Couple of things noticed recently...

• Go get 'em Ed. I'm not sure why he subjects himself to this stuff, but I'm glad he tells it like it is. 
• From what I've read (which I will admit is not a ton) something either went horribly right or horribly wrong at Gnomedex. I've wanted to go to this conference the last two years but have had conflicts with the dates. I'm defintely going to calendar it for next year, assuming Chris does it again.
• Yay! Welcome aboard Scott -- we are so very lucky to have you here. Stop by the office when you are in town -- I've got some things to bounce off your brain when you have some time.

Update: I just read this post in my news aggregator and some of the formatting didn't make the translation. For best evaluation you should probably look at this post in your web browser at http://blog.retrosight.com/DocumentationWhichDoYouLikeBetter.aspx.

I'm willing to bet Jeff Atwood has an opinion about this given his recent post Escaping From Gilligan's Island. We've been having an internal debate on how to best document steps to create applications -- mostly so folks find it easy to get it right the first time (hence the hat tip to Jeff's post).

I'd like to get your opinion on which of the following set of steps you find easier to follow (A or B) -- these steps are based on the Visual C# 2005 Express Edition Integrated Design Environment if you would like to try them out for real.

I was wondering if there are any computer user groups in North Carolina who would like to sit down and chat about Windows Media Center...? If there are and you'd like to get together, drop me an email at charlieo@microsoft.com and let's chat. I'll be in the Raleigh area as well at some point so could do a chat there as well.

[Update: Corrected email address. Dang it.]

Apple is a huge competitor in the space Windows Media Center seeks to inhabit. Evidence?

Front Row and Windows Media Center

Apple TV and Media Center Extender

But even though I want to compare and contrast these products I find myself always holding back.

Why?

Because of the signal to noise ratio. On the somewhat rare instance I do post something related to Apple it almost never fails that folks show up bringing nothing to the conversation of value. Case in point, go read the two comments on Thoughts on iPod Amnesty Bin. After reading those I again had to ask myself 'why bother'.

Mary Jo and Long are beginning to understand the pitfalls of writing anything other than high praises of Apple.

So, I ask myself would it be worth the time and effort to give my perspective of MacOS, iPod and AppleTV or will I be labeled as just another Apple hater who works for Microsoft. Can I count on the community (both PC and Mac) to engage in the conversation?

[First read about this over on Brier Dudley's blog: "iPod Amnesty" photographer says lighten up.]

I was wondering if someone was going to snap a picture of the iPod Amnesty Bin which was displayed in the very public lobby of the building where the Zune team works. I'm in there about once a week and had a good, healthy chuckle when I saw this clear plexiglas box. I followed some of the blogtrail, read about 50 comments and once again find it pretty amazing just how polarizing the conversation becomes when the topic is iPod vs. Zune. Invariably the comments further devolve into MacOS vs. Windows and then Apple vs. Microsoft.

I have no idea why this bin was setup, nor do I work on the Zune team. So, I thought I ruminate on the possible ideas or reasons why this thing appeared.

Reminder of the task before the Zune team. Actually, I don't really believe this is the reason. I'm pretty sure most of the Zune team understands they are the proverbial David vs. Goliath here (without the supreme being backing David had in his encounter). This could be de-motivating -- having the exact opposite effect intended.

Marketing buzz. The Zune marketing team seems to grok that a 'People_Ready' campaign won't cut it to motivate people to become interested and buy a Zune. Nothing stirs the pot like putting up a poster that says 'Bite Me' to your biggest competitor in the hopes someone (anyone) snaps a picture and posts it publicly. Almost every blog post and / or link includes the words 'iPod' and 'Zune' -- and that isn't a bad thing. It's the slightly edgier version of the Mac and PC commercials from Apple where Apple is putting the two products on equal footing. It would be perhaps the cheapest marketing ever. It's certainly better than the 'People Ready' or 'Wow' in my opinion, if this was the true intent.

Comedic relief. Honestly, I think this is the real reason. I watched about 4 people pass by the bin and in every case the reaction was a smile and a chuckle. Plus, I can't imagine anyone really taking it seriously. Microsoft is still very, very competitive -- but in a different way from the past I think. It's a more mature, marathon type competitive spirit these days rather than the 100 yard sprints of the 90s where Ballmer was screaming "Developer! Developer! Developer!". It can be draining to get so heads down on work you forget to pause and actually enjoy work. I'm willing to bet a couple of folks were joking around and someone said 'wouldn't it be funny if...' and then one of the folks around the table went ahead and followed through and the result showed up in the lobby.

Well, anyway, it gave me a good laugh, and reminded me to not take work (or competition) so seriously.

Any other theories out there on the iPod Amnesty Bin...?

[P.S. Lest fanboys from either side appear and comment here: I own an iPod and a Zune. I own Windows machines and Macs. I'm a geek, not a zealot.]