Monthly Archives: March 2006

Thanks, Delta, for being late!

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Most people complain about flight delays but I was very happy to be delayed in Salt Lake City yesterday, giving me a chance to catch up a bit with Rick, one of my oldest and dearest pals. We had breakfast together and drove up one of the spectacular canyons that run perpendicular to the Wasatch Range that rises very majestically above Salt Lake and the surrounding territory. Delta even allowed me to change flights to give me more time in Salt Lake, which I thought was … cool of them. Now that there’s a direct flight from Medford to Salt Lake I home I can see my good friend more than once per blue moon.

MIX06: Timing is everything?

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Today Microsoft announced more delays in VISTA. This jived in an interesting way with several conversations I had with former MS employees and some high level geeks with big companies attending MIX06. Most expressed frustration at how s-l-o-w things tend to move at Microsoft, and all seemed very enthusiastic about the explosive potential of Web 2.0 *approaches* which encourage experimentation, speed, and flexibility, and platform *independence*.

I’d suggest that the LIVE initiative at MS is very exciting and has great potential in every way …. except …. protecting Microsoft’s core cash cows of Office and XP (make that Longhorn…Avalon….no VISTA!)

So, who ya gonna call to fix this MS?  Google? No way – not enough chairs to throw over there, and most are beanbags anyway. Yahoo? Hey…now there’s a Web 2.0 play….if I were Ballmer I’d look very hard at ways to buy or partner up in a long term big way with Yahoo hoping their culture would help invigorate some of the bright but sometimes seemingly… demoralized or disinterested…. MS teams. The problem? I think Jeremy posted that he’d leave Yahoo if that happened and that would NOT be good for Yahoo or Web 2.0 in general.

McCarran ROCKS with free WIFI

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It’s SO frustrating to pay 9.95 for an hour or two of access when you are travelling through an airport that I think most don’t do it.  Here in McCarran Las Vegas it’s free and I love them for it.

Airports like Salt Lake, that CHARGE for internet, should reconsider their strategy and either offer this as a great perk or use some ad supported model.   I’m happy to say I helped establigh free WIFI at my local airport Medford Oregon (MFR).   Portland’s PDX also’s got it and my email complimenting them was well recieved.   Tech people should try to send positive notes to airport administration about free WIFI – this helps them keep it going.

MIX06: Leaving Las Vegas

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Everybody understands that the web is redefining computing and communication.   Some companies are ACTING like the web is profoundly important more than others.   Yahoo is and Google is and certainly the exploding number of Web 2.0 startups “get Web 2.0”.

MIX06 was Microsoft’s first major attempt to reach out and interract with a broad section of online community with this in mind.
So for me the question was “Does Microsoft get Web 2.0?”.    The answer was not so clear to me.  The LIVE team certainly does, and they’ve got something like a billion behind them and a lot of moral support from the key people like Bill Gates.   They’ve got good applications and ideas and a lot more coming over the next few months.
But the core competencies and resources and focus (though NOT the key energy) still make me feel like Microsoft as a community has not fundamentally adapted to the new web, and maybe cannot adapt.   Google’s success is about the web’s success.  Microsoft’s success has NOT been web centric and changing the company to a web centric model is risky at best and could be disastrous.

Ironically I’m not sure they have to become web centric even though they seem to say they do, because with upcoming changes to IE and VISTA they have a lot of control over the environment in which Web 2.0 will unfold.

So, I’m leaving Las Vegas a bit more enlightened but with no great insight into the emerging world of the web.

MIX06 and clunky Vista

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I’m on an XP machine on the same network (i think) pretty much confirming it was not connectivity that made the VISTA machines lag a tiny bit on some simple aps, feeling clunky.   Somebody just said they are rolling back the rollout of Vista again – I’m wondering if it’s based on criticisms here at MIX where it’s getting a lot of use ?

MIX06: Amazon as Web 2.0 butt kicker

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Jeff Barr, Amazon’s Evangelist, is about to show how to use Alexa’s API and search services to build your own search engine.   I’ve written about this before and like John Battelle I think the implications of Amazon’s many clever, cheap, and hugely customizable routines has yet to sink in even among many in the development community.    In one sense Amazon is bringing the price point on advanced development way, way down.

Jeff just noted how his kids didn’t recognize a dial up modem sound and I’m thinking some of the people here at the conference probably don’t even remember such things now that all but the most backward university would have broadband almost everywhere.

MIX06: Day 3. Where IS everybody?

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Hey, if I can get up early anybody can.   The RSS session just ended and I’m encouraged by what look like excellent RSS aggregation features coming.    But as with many things here it’s not clear exactly when and where.    I’ve had a chance to play on some machines with the OS Longhorn
wait…I mean Avalon  No – VISTA!     Even the MS people here are sometimes using the wrong name for it.   Note to those who hire marketeers to rework the obvious into the obscure – SAVE YOUR MONEY!

I like the look and feel but on the 3 or 4 machines I’ve used there’s a sort of small performance lag that makes VISTA with IE7 feel clunky.   Connectivity here is just fair but I don’t think that was the problem.  I’m hoping this will be corrected with coming performance tweaks and that it’s not due to what I understand is VISTA’s massive use of  system resources.

I’m seeing a difference again in that MS is planning for the media rich / entertainment centric world where a lot of web development, especially at Google, seems focused more on speed and simplicity.  I *definitely* think much of Microsoft is underestimating the importance of delivering online information and experiences with utmost speed and simplicity, though I think the LIVE team is really “getting it” about this and other aspects of the evolving internet ecosystem.  But I think the LIVE folks are the new kids on the Redmond block, so I wonder if they’ll be cut loose to do what needs to be done?
MIX06 poster, Las Vegas

Myspace at MIX06. CTO Witcomb “We’re hiring!”

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MIX06 threw a nice party at the Venetian’s “V” bar last night.   I enjoyed meeting Abner Witcomb who is the myspace CTO and a very personable fellow as well.  They are planning a LOT of hires and he was asking folks to send along any good prospects to him or the recruiting team.

I did get a chance to ask about filtering and content issues but I want to digest his answer a bit more because I think this topic is very complex.  I was surprised to learn that EVERY submitted picture is reviewed by a human because the porn filters simply can’t catch everything, and they see this review as essential quality control, especially since advertisers do not want association with porn.
WitcombJoe

Here in Vegas there seems to be a rule on club and bar coolness that says you try to use no more than four letters in the name.  Top clubs are PURE (Caesar’s Palace) where Yahoo had a nice party back at November’s Webmasterworld  and TAO (Venetian) where Microsoft picked up the tab on Monday for food and drinks.  TAO actually bills itself as a “Religious” nightlife experience …. sheesh…only in Las Vegas.