Blog :: CharlieO

http://blog.retrosight.com is up and running -- please make sure you subscribe there...

charlieo — Sat, 19 Feb 2005 01:03:00 GMT

This will be the last post I make here -- everything from now on will be available at http://blog.retrosight.com.

eBay Develops TiVO Sample Application

charlieo — Thu, 17 Feb 2005 05:28:00 GMT

Check out the Java TivoDemo for a TiVO box with the TiVo Home Media Engine (HME). I think it's great eBay is looking at the living room and ten foot presentations of their service. For you see...

I'm a fan of eBay although not a heavy user (I'm cmozen with 11 items bought or sold since July 7, 2001 and 100% Positive Feedback :-). Our most recent purchase was bedding for one of my children which was discontinued by the retailer but matched items my wife found on clearance at the retail store (Pottery Barn Kids, if yer interested). We were up pretty late and bidding was fierce down to the last few seconds -- very addictive and compelling.

So...an open appeal to the eBay development team (especially Dan Theurer) and others who build solutions using eBays toolset...

Take a look at the Media Center Software Development Kit (SDK), especially Media Center Add Ins. I think it would be super cool to have an alert in Media Center (and all Media Center Extenders connected for that matter) telling me I've been outbid, an item I've been looking for has just been posted or an auction where I'm the seller just ended or was 'Bought Now'. In fact, a good chunk of the work might already be done in the Web Services Client Add In sample which can be found in C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Microsoft Windows XP Media Center SDK\Sample AddIns\WebServiceClient\ once you have downloaded and installed the offline version of the Software Development Kit.

Reminder: This blog will be moving soon to http://blog.retrosight.com.

An Introduction to Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005

charlieo — Wed, 16 Feb 2005 02:19:00 GMT

[Courtesy of my friend and colleague John Canning, who isn't blogging but should be -- especially about his world traveling photographic expeditions...]

Here is a resource we nailed for the 2004 version of Media Center and revised for the 2005 version. If you want a great primer on Media Center features, check out the Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Reviewers Guide (Adobe PDF). It's chock full of screenshots, illustrations and information. If you want to know all about Media Center before buying OR have already bought and want to know what you've got this is the resource to have.

Reminder: This blog will be moving soon to http://blog.retrosight.com.

Breaking A Scoble Rule: I'm moving my blog soon (but it will be worth your trouble)

charlieo — Fri, 11 Feb 2005 07:25:00 GMT

Robert Scoble has a rule (The Corporate Weblog Manifesto #12) which states 'Never change the URL of your weblog.'

Unfortunately, I started blogging before reading The Manifesto. Yes, I know: RTFM.

However, I see this as a definite success story about the power of blogging and the tools used to blog. I now want to write and share because the tools make it really easy to do so and the result is presented in a really nice, user-selectable format.

It basically boils down to this: I've outgrown the blogging service provided by http://weblogs.asp.net aka http://blogs.msdn.com and it's becoming a pain to upload files to www.retrosight.com while blogging elsewhere -- I've got enough passwords already. Frankly, FrontPage hasn't exactly rocked my boat for maintaining retrosight-- it was somewhat ground breaking back when it first came out, but certainly hasn't made it easier for me to communicate. When I saw and heard how the folks at http://www.blogbusinesssummit.com/ were using a blogging tool for a corporate website I knew this was the solution for my problem.

And so the fun began and continues...

I'm in the process of getting DASBlog up and running on my hosting service. I got it set up *really* fast on a Windows Server 2003 box in my office last week on our intranet, so I'm already a fan. Getting a hosting service to change permissions as necessary is a bit slower, even though they have already done it at least once for another blogger at Microsoft. C'est la vie.

So, when all is said and done I'll shift my blogging over to http://blog.retrosight.com sometime next week if all goes smoothly. Right now that link gives a glorious .NET server application error -- my apologies are offered -- eggs get broken to make delicious cakes.

So, to help ease the pain for both you and I: My first post at http://blog.retrosight.com will be worth your while, especially if you are A) developing for Media Center and / or B) have struggled with getting Media Center up and running using bits from an MSDN subscription and / or system builder kit.

Stay tuned...

HowTo: AutoSync Podcasts in Windows Media Player 10

charlieo — Wed, 09 Feb 2005 16:16:00 GMT

I've been wanting a way to do this -- and Sean took the time to write up the instructions for all of us.

Download & HowTo: AutoSync Podcasts in MP10

Could this replace my Audiovox SMT5600? The i-mate JAM is nearly the perfect mobile device for me.

charlieo — Wed, 09 Feb 2005 07:01:00 GMT

Today I was given the opportunity to use an i-mate JAM PocketPC Phone Edition device to see how it compared to an Audiovox SMT5600.

Wow! All of the features of PocketPC in a form factor not that much larger than the Audiovox -- I'm nearly sold since I love the more fully featured PocketPC over the SmartPhone (Triple-Tap is handy, but tedious if you actually want to write more than two words). I can't stand carrying two devices and to date haven't been happy with the form factors of the Pocket PC Phone Edition (read: too large and bulky). That's all changed.

The pictures of the i-mate JAM don't really do it justice from the size perspective.

Audiovox SMT5600 = 108 mm x 46 mm x 18 mm and just over 100 grams

i-mate JAM = 108 mm x 58 mm x 18.1 mm and less than 200 grams

So, for all intents and purposes, the i-mate JAM is 12 mm wider than the Audiovox. It does weigh more than the Audiovox, but the Audiovox is super-duper light and the i-mate is not even double the weight of the Audiovox. I'll try it for another week, but I think I'm already hooked.

Did I mention it has a 1.3 megapixel phone on board? Finally a resolution that begins to make me interested in mobblogging. Suh-weet.

Did I mention it uses SD cards for storage? My Toshiba M200 Tablet PC has an SD slot onboard and now I'm downloading about 5 CDs worth of music - Casting Crowns, Dave Weckl Band, Parlaiment Funkadelic and James Taylor -- all in WMA Pro VBR goodness. Double Suh-weet.

This just might be the next ScoblePhone (I'm willing to wager it will be once he tries one :-). Step away from the iPod Shuffle, Robert. :-)

And Matt, forget yet another device in your stable -- get one of these and a large (1GB or bigger) SD card and you've got one device that does it all -- come by tomorrow and check it out.

Of course, there is a small amount of bad news: apparently it's only available only in Europe at the moment. Why aren't we seeing these cool form factors here first...?

Demoing PhotoStory for Greg Reinacker and Lane Mohler of Newsgator

charlieo — Fri, 04 Feb 2005 02:24:00 GMT

This was the first time Greg had ever seen PhotoStory (he really needs to get out more :-). Greg says this about PhotoStory...

"It's the coolest thing I've seen all day!"

Check out the results we accomplished in 2 minutes (and the majority of that was taken up with feature discussions).

Powerful. Read it if you are a father...

charlieo — Sat, 29 Jan 2005 00:10:00 GMT

Hand on the Guitar

Things I Learned At The Blog Business Summit

charlieo — Wed, 26 Jan 2005 07:16:00 GMT

I had a blast at the Blog Business Summit. A couple of observations from about 30,000 feet up...

1) Want to make money with a blog you write? Then...

A) Get hired by Google and start collecting stock options or...

B) Sign up for Google AdSense and AdWords and find a really niche subject nobody else is blogging (yet).

FWIW, folks are beginning to see blips from MSN Search and Yahoo search engines as well.

2) The next browser wars == search engine wars -- and the spoils are the advertising revenue that comes to the winner(s).

3) Blogging (and more specifically, it's attending friends podcasting and vblogging) are the next logical steps in reality TV.

4) For the first time at a non-Microsoft event I never heard a disparaging remark about Microsoft come from the floor (OK, maybe one or two, but truly in jest). If anything, folks really appreciate the Microsoft blogging and more than once I heard it put a human face on the Microsoft Monolith (which was badly needed, in their opinion).

5) You get a big smile and throwing-head-backwards-laugh from Chris Pirillo the moment you use the word 'ecosystem' in a sentence referring to any Microsoft project or software. If you ever have him over for dinner, it's a great parlor trick. (Note to self: have implanted corporate chip disabled before next conference and find a good synonym for ecosystem).

6) Blogging is about relationships transcending time and distance.

7) In some sense, blogging is all about word of mouth advertising, even if that advertising only takes the form of 'I am [insert what you are here] -- hear me roar!'.

8) Blogging is one solution to the Big Box Retail Syndrome. BBRS == Asking the clerk for help on purchasing [insert item here] and they don't know jack about the product. Retail used to be very personal (remember the small town hardware store that had *everything* you could possibly need and everyone in the store new exactly what to do with the thing you needed? You don't know about something you want to purchase? Find a blog and hang out for a week reading the posts and you'll want to forget more than you learned.

9) People can't say enough good things about Movable Type the product, Six Apart the company or Mena Trott, the President and co-founder of same.

10) Email Newsletters are the 'old busted' -- Blogs are the 'new hotness'. (Those terms courtesy of EthanZ, or from whomever he heard them from.)

11) I could have sworn at least a few times I heard "Robert Scoble?!?!?! <wayneandgarth>We're not worthy! We're not worthy!</wayneandgarth>" in the halls.

I learned a lot about the Blogosphere the past two days, and my neophyte blogging brain is just whirring away at the possibilities in this space. Thanks to all the presenters for filling my cortex with such fun and merriment!

Thomas Hawk's Digital Connection has Media Center Problems

charlieo — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 20:35:00 GMT

I took some time to respond to Thomas' blog this morning at MCE Television and LaCie Big Disk Problems. Thanks for taking the time to post your experience -- we do listen.

Looking Forward to the Blog Business Summit Starting Monday

charlieo — Sat, 22 Jan 2005 07:16:00 GMT

I continue to discover the width and depth of blogs, so I'm going to attend the Blog Business Summit starting this coming Monday. I'm truly a neophyte when it comes to the blogosphere, so I'm hoping to get super-educated. The sessions and speakers (Scoble is one of them) seem very interesting, and from the looks of the schedule I get to attend them all -- very nice change of pace compared to most conferences where you have to pick and choose from multiple tracks, many times missing out on sessions you want to attend.

Ethan Finally Posts YAC Media Center Client

charlieo — Thu, 20 Jan 2005 20:14:00 GMT

I've been watching Ethan build this since pretty much day one, and it goes a long way to show how *serious* PMs take their work. Ethan (along with many others) is the primary driver for the Media Center API and this proves he eats what he specs. :-) Check out his Media Center Add-In: YAC.

Long Tail TV: Wishlist -- Can You Accomplish with Media Center Click-To-Record...?

charlieo — Tue, 18 Jan 2005 06:02:00 GMT

By way of Sean Alexanders' blogroll pointer to Thomas Hawks' reference to Chris Anderson (*really* loving this whole blog thing -- it's replacing my newspaper more and more -- paradigm shift anyone?):

Check out the Long Tail TV: Wishlist where Chris states "what I'd like is a dedicated browser plug-in that would make this much easier for recommendations found online. When I see mention of a TV show that I want to record, I'd like to highlight it and right-click (Mac users insert your own favorite shortcut here). A new option on the pop-up menu that appears would be "Record to DVR". If I select that, the app would do a quick search on the phrase, returning with enough information to let me choose the particulars of what I want."

Chris also mentions several online programming services (including the MSN Remote Record service currently in beta) as nice, but not quite the 'shell extension' he is looking for (most of these are tied to site specific TV listings and not for any arbitrary page encountered on the web).

Here's the good part: MSN Remote Record is based *totally* on the Windows XP Media Center Edition SDK feature Click-To-Record. So, for those of you out there thinking MSN has an exclusive lock on remote recording functionality for Media Center -- they don't.

What Chris wants (and I suspect others do as well :-) is totally doable -- we've got all you need already sitting there in Media Center for you to actually schedule the recording -- just waiting for an enterprising individual company or individual to put the plumbing in place.

Back from Holidays and CES and Got A Nice Surprise from Sean on New Online Spotlight Partners

charlieo — Sat, 15 Jan 2005 01:33:00 GMT

Well, I was going to blog about these new Online Spotlight partners over the weekend, but Sean beat me to the punch. Check out his blog for details on the Discovery Channel, Yahoo, XM Radio, Fox Sports and TitanTV. I'm so lucky my team gets to work with partners like this on a daily basis -- man, I love my job at Microsoft!

Add In Samples Communicating with Web Services

charlieo — Wed, 15 Dec 2004 04:59:00 GMT

Third in a series of responses to Media Center Development: What topic(s) shall I blog about next?

--> Dave Neigler: I'd like to see some samples using addins and html apps to communicate with web services (WSE2) hosted via http.sys (instantiated in a windows service). Since Media Center already runs on SP2, this seems like a viable model. Remoting samples could also be included as another mode of cross-domain communications. Also, what are the 1.0 framework dependencies for MCE2005 addins, and can this architecture offset them by moving the logic into the web service?

Download and install the Media Center Software Development Kit and you will find a sample Media Center Add-In which queries a web service and displays the return value in a MediaCenter.Dialog. This is the most basic Add In example for leveraging web services and by no means representative of everything you can accomplish; You have access to (nearly) everything in .NET Framework 1.0. You can learn more about the version of the.NET Framework we support here. For the most part, HTML applications in Media Center leverage web service resources much like they do in Internet Explorer; We share the same basic web browsing engine.