Splashdown

Triple Breach

A couple of days before the Olympic Peninsula circumnavigation we left out of Friday Harbor to go watch the Orcas in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Unlike previous trips it seems like they never turned to pass close to our boat so they were usually very far away. But the first 30 minutes after we arrived on scene they were really putting on a show. We saw lots of spy hops, a simultaneous double breach (no pictures, unfortunately), a sequence of three breaches in quick succession (I got photos of the splash of the first breach and the subsequent two breaches) and a beautiful single breach with Mt. Baker in the background. Luckily I had rented a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens for the occasion from Glazer's Camera (at $30 for one day, a great bargain). It was a bit hard to follow the action and keep things steady on the rolling waves but the lens made for some really great shots as you can see above (those are three of a series of six). Select any of the pictures above to go to the set on Flickr.

A friend of mine visiting from North Carolina and I went on a 19 hour circumnavigation of the Olympic Peninsula yesterday. The weather was fantastic (especially at the coast) and we got many great shots. From left to right: Hurricane Ridge, Marymere Falls, Hoh Rainforest and Ruby Beach. The natural lighting dynamics at Ruby Beach made for some especially interesting pictures -- none retouched.

Click on each of the pictures above to go straight to the set on Flickr.

Note: I can't answer or comment on any of them until the official announcements happen at CEDIA. But I can think about the answers before then.  If you have specific questions about the Windows Media Center TV Pack leave them in the comments.

Update: Ben Reed answers some of your questions over at http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/thread/282555.aspx.

The verdict is still out but I'm predicting http://www.mojaveexperiment.com/ is not going to be as successful as we would like. I'll even go out on a limb and say it's probably going to have a negative impact on customer perception. Mary Jo, I believe you are being far too gracious in What if Apple had conducted the ‘Mojave Experiment’? You must be going soft on the 'Softies if this the best thing you can find:

"I have to give the Softies some credit: After months of silence, they’re finally trying to do what they should have done a year ago, namely, figure out how to fix not just the technology mistakes, but the marketing ones,  that they created with Vista."

I'd say your colleague Adrian Kingsley-Hughes got it more accurately in Dissecting Microsoft’s Mojave Experiment:

"Bottom line, I think that while the set up of the experiment was clever (maybe even devious), the outcome is vacuous to say the least."

There are just so many fundamental things wrong...

1. Annoying Flash eye candy user interface -- I mean *really* annoying.
2. The site is predominantly black -- the color usually reserved for funerals (at least on TV).
3. The first 45 seconds (approximate) of the opening video clip reinforces the negative stereotype Windows Vista has developed.
4. There are duplicate video snippets throughout which have been professionally edited to provide the cream of the crop. (Adrian has a great analysis in the aforementioned post.)
5. Hyperlinks that take you to the stale Windows web pages which are just as bad as the annoying Flash UI from a user experience standpoint.
6. A hyperlink for 'You can't please everyone'. Seriously.

I think it's time for the experiment to end. Quickly. Before the water runs out in the desert.

But what, you might ask, should we be doing to get the story out there? I'm glad you asked. For starters...

1) Completely rebuild, from scratch, the Windows Vista website being sure to pour lots of usability love into the site. If anyone is listening, I'm specifically talking about the one which starts at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/default.aspx.

2) Prominently feature on the new site more great videos like this which Brandon LeBlanc featured today...

Video: Windows Vista Demo: Instant Search

Why do I love this video...?

1. It's genuine -- I don't know her at all but Esther Choi was a great choice.
2. It shows off the features of the product.
3. It's educational -- and goes slightly deeper to show real world usage examples.
4. It's short.

What do you think Microsoft should do to tell the positive story of Windows Vista...?

Wow.

Based on Thomas' recommendation I downloaded the trial of Adobe Lightroom 2.0 and I think this is going to become my favorite new editing tool replacing Photoshop. It's pretty easy to get some nice results very quickly -- see above before and after. While the toolset is more accessible to mere mortals compared to Photoshop the user interface still needs some work, though (starting with the Import dialog -- Windows Live Photo Gallery still has the best, IMO). I've got 29 more days to make a decision but based on some quick run throughs this is a keeper.

I believe Thomas is one of the best candid portrait photographers out there. I love this image he posted to Zooomr...

And by contrast, my picture taken at the same time -- notice the huge artistic gulf which separates us...?

I can't wait to see what he does with the pics he took of Media Center team members...!

Found this earlier tonight -- I've been pondering whether or not creating some MCML snippets would be helpful. This looks like it might really help speed the process and take out a lot of the tedium of hand creating the XML for snippets.

Snipp Dogg is a snippet editor for use with Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 Intellisense Snippets. This tool allows you to create fully functional and robust snippets to streamline the development process and make code reuse a snap.

Get it from http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/SnippDogg.

You might have noticed I very rarely (if at all, come to think about it) post about applications written by others for Media Center here. This is mostly to keep a sense of impartiality -- I don't ever want to play favorites when it comes to folks who use the platform I help create. I'm just tickled pink anytime I discover a new experience -- they are all great as far as I am concerned!

I'm going to make an exception here and lift my self imposed ban to point you to HeatWave Weather. I installed it earlier today, ran it through its features and found it works well. There are a few small issues but nothing major -- I'm sure James would like to get some additional testers and feedback -- if being able to check the weather forecast is high on your list for things to do in Media Center this experience is highly satisfactory.

Here's why I'm lifting the ban...

As far as I know James was the very first developer outside of Microsoft and the Media Center team to dig in and learn about what was to become known as Media Center Markup Language. Here's the kicker: He did so using the internal interfaces present in Windows XP Media Center Edition back in early 2005. I was amazed this guy was able to figure it all out without any documentation, samples or tools. The learning curve is pretty steep on MCML even with all of the resources we give you in the SDK, so what James was able to accomplish at the time was pretty amazing. He was a little ahead of the curve -- we were just a few months away from making the MCML + managed code platform available in the Windows Vista beta where we could officially support the development paradigms he discovered. James graciously agreed to pull that incarnation of HeatWave (then called 'My Weather') and the developer documentation he created telling others how to do the same. At the time I think this was somewhat disconcerting for James -- he gained a lot of positive attention by peeling back the curtain to reveal the inner workings. Since that time I've made it a point to watch his user name at http://www.thegreenbutton.com/ (MCExtended) for any signs he would return to the what we now know as Media Center Markup Language.

Congratulations, James -- and welcome back.

I was salivating to read Ed Bott's review of a Sony laptop free of crapware in Sony’s amazing crapware-free PC when I saw it in Newsgator this morning. Unfortunately what I ended up with was dry mouth syndrome. The slow, tiny steps Sony has taken falls way short in my opinion...

"The system includes a handful of Sony-branded utilities for managing wireless connections and updating Sony drivers, a webcam control utility, a Sony utility for importing and editing digital pictures, Adobe Reader and Sun Java software, and third-party DVD playback and CD/DVD burning programs (WinDVD and Roxio Easy Media Creator)."

I would include all of these in the 'stuff you forced on me I didn't want'. Believe it or not it's possible to have a fully functional computer WITHOUT any of this software. One of my personal biggest pet peeves is the crapware control applets which ship along with the driver -- it's completely not needed. I'd like to see Sony (and other OEMs) strive to have a 'Programs and Features' Control Panel completely free of any software -- only at that point can you consider it a real 'Fresh Start'.

Ed continues...

"As I discovered when I ordered this system, Fresh Start is currently a limited offering available only on configure-to-order (CTO) models in the TZ line. By the end of summer, the program is set to expand to several additional lines, all based on Windows Vista Business. ... If you purchase a Sony notebook at retail, Fresh Start isn’t an option."

I'd say crapware is a bigger problem for general consumers as business customers tend to have IT departments for help (and sometimes the larger companies even have their own disc image to apply to the machines). The general consumer is still left out in the cold and likely will be for sometime -- Sony is moving at a glacial pace on this issue.

My opinion: The problem has gotten SO BAD even a partial solution shipping to a tiny portion of Sony's market gets a thumbs up from Ed. Sony (and others) are still have a long way to making the out of box experience a joy for consumers. Sony lost the Walkman business to the iPod -- if they aren't careful their PC business could go the same way (if it hasn't already).

I'll admit it somewhat irks me we shipped games inside of the Program Library which shell out to their own executables and don't run at all on Media Center Extenders (luckily they don't show up on those devices taunting the user with hollow promises). I reinstall multiple times per week on multiple machines and finally got tired of them so took a moment to 'solve' the problem. If you'd like to get rid of them yourself follow these simple directions...

1) Launch Notepad.

2) Copy + Paste the following:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Extensibility\Applications\{3C1BB651-D564-46a7-99BA-8D40BCB6FA7D}]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Extensibility\Applications\{48095937-BA42-4bb6-9869-EBAC2229D3AF}]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Extensibility\Applications\{4F5AC696-6D21-4dac-BC8B-8287245B2A13}]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Extensibility\Applications\{866BD81A-F32D-4b44-830A-F5C37585CB9D}]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Extensibility\Applications\{A897807C-6278-46bc-B973-9DD1DE8551DF}]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Extensibility\Applications\{B4C403DA-6240-4070-80F1-1B1689FF301F}]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Extensibility\Applications\{F755EA7F-777E-498f-831D-E3F3F6FDA018}]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Extensibility\Categories\Services\Games\{115EADF1-41C4-471b-8FE5-7A52B91BFE75}]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Extensibility\Categories\Services\Games\{13FCBFA9-499D-417c-95BB-71DF7980BEB5}]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Extensibility\Categories\Services\Games\{1F3BD1B5-7323-4ec0-A518-47FF6B1DDC46}]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Extensibility\Categories\Services\Games\{6B51FBA8-28D5-45d4-BEE8-A9715F724D39}]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Extensibility\Categories\Services\Games\{76CA43A7-7878-4c7b-BC8B-BE0CAB71ACE8}]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Extensibility\Categories\Services\Games\{C99561F0-BEC8-4af4-9926-40BB79D34B07}]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Extensibility\Categories\Services\Games\{DD4B1666-AA76-4979-9130-EC9D6F8FE52E}]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Extensibility\Entry Points\{115EADF1-41C4-471b-8FE5-7A52B91BFE75}]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Extensibility\Entry Points\{13FCBFA9-499D-417c-95BB-71DF7980BEB5}]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Extensibility\Entry Points\{1F3BD1B5-7323-4ec0-A518-47FF6B1DDC46}]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Extensibility\Entry Points\{6B51FBA8-28D5-45d4-BEE8-A9715F724D39}]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Extensibility\Entry Points\{76CA43A7-7878-4c7b-BC8B-BE0CAB71ACE8}]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Extensibility\Entry Points\{C99561F0-BEC8-4af4-9926-40BB79D34B07}]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Extensibility\Entry Points\{DD4B1666-AA76-4979-9130-EC9D6F8FE52E}]

3) Save as 'RemoveGamesFromMediaCenterLibrary.reg'. (Make sure you have a .reg extension, otherwise it's a plain text file).

4) Double-click the newly created reg file.

5) Click the Yes button in the Registry Editor warning dialog box.

6) Click the OK button in the Registry Editor success dialog.

As is the norm, I make no guarantees -- editing the registry can be dangerous business.

If you have an opinion one way or another about these games (Love / Hate) leave a comment -- we are listening.