Nobody Famous

Testing out to see if this works well.

I just had to say it...  Too funny.  Because I like monkeys...   It gets me every time.

I saw something that was interesting today.  The HP DJammer.  Innovative?  Maybe.  Don't know if I would go that far.  Cool though.  The word "Innovate" gets thrown around way to much today. 

Innovate - To begin or introduce something new.

Just because you are releasing a new version of a product and stamping it as version 7 somehow doesn't seem innovative.  It has been a while since I have been blown away with anything from us.  Part of the problem has been that we had to lock down our internal communications because of some leaks.  Some days I would get an email and just go to the web to see if it was there yet.  And some times it would be posted there in 5-10 minutes.  I once discussed a way to catch the leak, but the "need to know" locking down method was implemented instead.  So, who knows what is in the pipes here at where I work.  I don't.  And that makes me a dull boy.

We also used to have company-wide conferences where all of the technology groups would get together and show off their advances.  But those got canned too.  Too expensive and we need to keep our shareholders happy.  Hey, maybe they know what is in the pipeline?  Nope.  I'm a shareholder.

I didn't say I hated IPods (I don't think).  My wife owns one that I bought for here and I am very impressed with the work of it.  I love the IMac 21 inch G5 that I bought her.  I just used to be a Linux guy who didn't like the guys who didn't play well with others you know?  Take AOL IM.  It still hasn't decided to play well with others and start communicating with other IMs out there.  So, I won't use it.  It’s my choice.  And I used to be one of the first users of ICQ.  Can you imagine if Intel said that all of its devices could only communicate with Intel devices?

Take Napster.  Works with what, almost one hundred devices?  They want to work with Apple devices.  Apple won't let them.  So I use them. And 2 days ago I got my hands on the amazing IRiver H10 and I love it. 

The features:
Replaceable battery.
SRS WOW.
Photos.
The sliding track in the front works well.
And here is the big "Killer"...  Napster To Go.  14.85 a month and all the music I can download.  So far this month I have about 236 songs that I got exclusively from Napster.

Sweet.

But yeah.  The IPod has that nice wheel on the front. :)

Ok, I know it may sound ironic that I am saying that I don't like the guys that don't play well with others and I work for Microsoft, but things have changed a lot in the past 6 years and I can happily say that I am glad to be working for this company now.  Take a look at the partners that we have.  I mean, Geez – Sun?

A while back, Wired wrote an article entitled: Hide Your IPod, Here Comes Bill and I wanted to comment on it at the time but did not have time to finished this so it sat in my drafts for a while...  Early this morning I got around to it.

Disclaimer:  I am not in Redmond.  I live in one of the other support centers in the US and although we have a campus, we are not nearly as large as the HQ.  So, yes, things are different here.  But...  I am still a geek.  I like toys that make noise and have neat little lights and that make whirring sounds.  I remove stickers that will break warranties because I want to see what is on the other side of the sticker. 

I also appreciate greatness in design.  When the most recent IMac G5 came out I bought one for my wife while I was in another state.  Why?  Well, so I could take it apart of course.  And I was amazed at the beauty of it.  The box it came in was so well designed.  The Bluetooth keyboard - when you took it out of its box, smack dab in front of you were the batteries for it.  The mouse was the same way.  (I recently bought one of our mice.  The batteries were super taped to the back of the cardboard puzzle of the box.)  You get the point.  It was well thought out and designed so very well.

This was not the first Apple product I bought though.  The IPod was the first.  I did buy one.  Not for me though.  Oh I wanted one, but I had already bought the Official Napster Samsung YP-910GS.  Heard of this?  Didn't think so...  Yeah it wasn't popular.  It has a battery life of 4 hours.  But I had haggled for it with my wife.  I got it because it played .WMA format music and Napster was trying to go legit.  Plus Napster was old school and had the ability to see what others were listening to.  This was how I use to broaden my music culture in the past and I still do it today.

The IMac was just an "accessory" for the IPod.  My wife's PC was extremely bogged down trying to transfer the files over to the IPod with USB 1.0 and it needed an upgrade in other ways as well, plus she really only did a few other things on the machine, so I thought that the IMac would be nice for her.  (Yeah, I also wanted to take it apart.  But I do support Entourage the Mac Exchange Client sometimes so...)  I am just glad the accessorizing stopped there and didn't go further.

But, I could get an IPod if I wanted too.  The truth is, I don't want one.  I don't like the ITtunes service.  I do like Napster better.  I can pay $9.99 a month and listen to all the streaming music I want.  Or now with my Audiovox SMT5600 Smartphone, I can download as much music as I want to it for $14.99 a month.  It's called "Napster to go".  The commercials during the Superbowl were lame, but you got the point.  And I'll tell you something, the music from the phone, sounds pretty awesome.  I mean, I compare Vertigo on my phone through my headset and through the IPod through my wife's headset and I like my phone better.

So, I'll stick with Napster and Microsoft WMA.  I may get a larger device later when I can, but for now, I am having fun with my geeky way.

So, today someone showed the following to me:

Go to http://www.google.com.au/webhp?hl=en&complete=1, type 'msn search' and take a look at the bottom suggestion.

There you will see "msn search will crush google" and the first link points to msnsearch's weblog. 

Now before I go any further I want it to be clear that I am not condoning the crushing of any company.  I think personally that a good company that makes a good product should be rewarded financially and that their employees' families should be able to live with out the fear of an 800 pound gorilla coming along and crushing the company.  In this era where we hear about jobs being sent to other countries the last thing I want to see is another neighbor of mine out of a job because my company "crushed" them.

Five years ago when I first came to this company I attended a company meeting where our CEO got on stage and spoke to us about how Microsoft was conceived as an arrogant company.  I realized that I felt that way before I came to the company and that I didn't want to become like that.  Mr. Ballmer encouraged us to not act that way.  Ok, I don't remember exactly his words.  It was important enough for me to remember that around that time everything about Microsoft changed.  We started dealing with people nicer. 

Is Google a bad company?  Should they be crushed?  If you read the "Letter From the Founders" of Google its hard to think so.  There they tell us:

• Don't be Evil - We believe strongly that in the long term, we will be better served—as shareholders and in all other ways—by a company that does good things for the world even if we forgo some short term gains. This is an important aspect of our culture and is broadly shared within the company.
• Make the World a Better Place - We aspire to make Google an institution that makes the world a better place. In pursuing this goal, we will always be mindful of our responsibilities to our shareholders, employees, customers and business partners. With our products, Google connects people and information all around the world for free...  (And it goes on and on).

What are Microsoft's Missions and Values?  Microsoft's mission: To enable people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential.

So obviously you can see why I was concerned to see this particularly nasty phrase link to back to one of our MSN Search Team's Blogs.  So I took a look at the entry and was happy to find out that this was only a comment here because of a comment.

Oh well...  I got all riled up because of a comment.  Maybe that is what happens when you rely on lesser search engine technology. 

So my friend / co-worker / fellow dude Robert Gillies noticed my link to the personal blog.  He changed his title to match.  His now says:  "I like monkeys, too, Gerod..."  How cool is that?  Hmmm...  Have I started something?  Just for that he gets added to my links.

BTW...  He wishes he was that good looking.  Good looking kids though.  Must be the wife's genes.