Category Archives: microsoft

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.

MIX06: Day 2

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I’m off to the Myspace Party.  Hoping to ask a few questions about my concerns that they are ignoring the potential powderkeg of underaged users interfacing “inappropriately” with each other and especially with older users. 

Much of the community simply ignores these social responsibility issues in favor of….cash.   But in fairness  also in favor of the notion that kids have similar sets of rights to adults and we need to reduce rather than increase constraints on youth activities.  I don’t agree, but there are reasonable people on all sides of the debate.

MIX06 “Live” Gadgets = Cool

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Earlier I said MS was doing web 1.9 rather than 2.0 but that was before I heard the two presentations about the coming “LIVE” web environment, complete with what looks like the most robust set of customizable gadgets from a major player.  This is 2.0 stuff and it’s … really good stuff.

I actually heard Microsoft rather than Yahoo and Google folks talking enthusiastically about mashups and open environments and how important it is to create platforms to spread info wildly as well as customize the user experience with things that are NOT Microsoft.   I confess I’m not familiar enough with MY YAHOO to compare it to the LIVE environment which will be growing fast in the coming months.  My Yahoo is certainly really good stuff too,  but I think MS has the edge in being able to customize their LIVE stuff to their own OS and browser.   I see a lot hinging on how LIVE plays out over the coming months.  

Also I’m starting to see why their were rumors recently about MS aquiring Yahoo.    I’m not betting on it even though I’m right here in Las Vegas, but it’s interesting to see several Yahoo examples with nary a mention of Google.  

New Live Customizable search. WOW

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I’ve been WowED here at MIX06 in a presentation that …. nobody seems to be attending.  Some of the bar buzz is how hard the LIVE.com team has been working , and it shows.

Obviously there are going to be challenges for the Live custom search.  MSN Search still lags in relevance enough that this may compromise it as a tool that will be widely used.  They’ll also need integration with adcenter as Google does so effectively with Adsense Search utility.

HOWEVER, this is great UI, navigation, and customization thinking.  It’s clean with infinite scroll (brilliant!) and photos that can be adjusted in size as you view them.   Also, users can adjust relevancy considerations by a slider – a tool that was buried deep in MSN Search until … now.   If this is available as a search customization feature it will make this even a better gadget – not sure if it is.

Is it just me or is this team out to really bring their best stuff?    LIVE search and gadgets concepts are are really good.   Good enough that if they bring up the relevancy to Google/Yahoo levels on basic search I can see a LOT of developers starting to use LIVE Search in a LOT of applications.