adir1

We just received the new XBox 360 Experience, and I decided to blog about it right away (I know, totally untypical!). I expected much from this major upgrade, and I have to say so far I am impressed!

Starting with the install itself, which was quick and smooth, and onto the little touches, like the super impressive Welcome Video that it starts with. Instead of boring guy presenting “New Features”, it’s just an artistic High Definition journey for the senses.

Choosing and customizing the Avatar was just as amazing. The interface is super natural and Beautifully done in pure HD! Customization options abound, especially in hair and face options. I found it to be loads of fun, no matter what they say!

Interface overall is very impressive, while staying fast and responsive also. Haven’t used it enough to figure out how functional it is, but I don’t think there ever were any issues with function here. In my opinion, the interface should first of all Impress, and it definitely does that now. Way to go, Microsoft!!! Clearly there is a solid team behind Xbox and Zune, now if only they get some of these guys to work on Windows 8 (sadly, Windows 7 seems to have mostly closed set of features now. More on that in separate post, promise!).

UPDATE: I meant to Thank Major Nelson for making it available for us, loyal Xbox fans, few days before general public availability.

Share This

There is still about two weeks to Microsoft’s acclaimed Professional Developers Conference 2008, where all (or at least a lot) will be officially revealed. But I want to jump the gun and theorize, or perhaps even Dream, of what’s to come. It is widely expected that Microsoft will launch their next generation Cloud OS (Operating System), named Strata. Obviously this is mostly targeting servers, but the concept of servers and clients is becoming more and more obsolete as the computing devices undergo daily transformation.

It is a little known fact, but I have long been proponent of Cloud Computing, even if it wasn’t called that, back in a day. In fact, in late nineties I wrote a thesis paper on just such a design, proposing that roaming Java Agents, traveling over storage/computing platform compiled of thousand of cheap nodes (as in PCs), will comprise a super computing network. This was just around the time when Google where building their platform, and we all know how that turned out. In fact, another little known fact (it seems, though one would suggest that It Is Obvious) is that Google’s biggest competitive advantage isn’t their “amazing” search engine, but their Amazing computing platform, with thousands of nodes and Big Table architecture.

But, I digress. This post is about Microsoft, who I hope will finally join the official fray and come out with properly implemented computing cloud/platform (Disclaimer: I’ve said before that I have few Microsoft stocks that I own, so there! In fact, I keep recommending that you go out and pick some for yourself, they are Greatly Undervalued now).

This post is about Cloud Computing as a Game Changer! Though we are yet to see full power of properly implemented cloud, if done right, this can finally bring the cloud into the Corporate America. My hopes are that Microsoft are finally “getting it” and will unveil just such a platform, both hosted by them and available for purchase and installation in GE’s of the world (read: Big Corporations).

What is the single biggest place where this transformation should start? The DATA, silly!!!

This is turning into long post, with no pictures. So I’ll just stop, and if you’re interested to discuss it further, comments are open for just such a debate.

I leave you with a few resources for “fun” reading on the web. Yes, all of us in the IT world need to brace ourselves for this fundamental change, or perish with the dinosaurs.

The Original - Concepts behind Google’s BigTable
The Open Source – Apache’s Hadoop platform, and HBase BigTable like implementation on it
The High Performance – HyperTable is an attempt to produce something as fast as BigTable

The only handicap for our Cloud right now is the Network. I am sure that bigger people than me realize this, so change will come there also! So be sure and be ready (Netbook, anyone?)

Share This

An important announcement from Microsoft, something called Mesh, is happening tonight at Midnight eastern time.

I am into guessing game, again, mostly because it is fun, but also because in a funny coincidence, I left a rather long rant at Yahoo’s own Jeremy Zawodny’s blog. What started as a short comment, turned into longer and I think worthy read about future of operating environments for us all. Jeremy doesn’t post too much, which is exactly how I prefer it and thus he is on my ‘read-first’ list. Check out my comment right here.

Back to the issue, I really think this one will be about cloud computing and web services, or cloud services, or whatever we want to call them services. And of course, their integration into applications and the OS, finally. Some applications already integrate nicely, such as Windows Vista Photo Gallery. And I hope they will finally take it to the next level.

Speaking of Vista, and of Windows 7. I hear people continue to trash it, but seriously, why?! Yes, it is bloated. Yes, it is incompatible with a lot of old software and drivers. But, that was obvious (just to me?!) going into it! Only install Vista on newer core 2 duo and faster PCs with 2GB ram. That’s obvious! Next, do NOT install older software on it, wait for lazy/suicidal/incompetent 3rd party companies come out with updated software specifically targeted at Vista! Or, use Microsoft’s new built-in software. Yes, be like the rest of us and use the primitive Windows Movie Maker for your HD editing… What? Microsoft were nice and anti-trust friendly by not killing Adobe and Sony and others in this market, and coming out with their own Killer Video Editing program. And how do Adobe/Sony/etc repay them?! Where is Vista optimized version of our favorite video editing tools, a year and a half later? Almost here, I bet…

Probably by the time your read this, the announcement will be out. For some reason official Mesh site is acting up (stress-testing was skipped, I bet). So instead, check out Scobleizer commentary on this "breakthrough" technology.

Share This

Robert Scoble stunned us today with admission that Microsoft Research project that he saw  behind closed doors, made him cry with joy. But, of course, he can’t tell us what it is, just yet!

What I think we really need from Microsoft now is serious integration of Web Services into Operating System. It is way overdue, seriously! Why can’t I right click an image on my disk and get 3 different options for various things to do with Image via Web Services. Flickr for uploading, Pixenate for online photo editing, and 3rd to blog image directly to your personal blog with some title/description text that you would be asked to add to complete that operation. It should come with neat Control Panel, giving you full control about file types and what Web Services you wish to use for each, even with your personal credentials to relevant online service. Want to convert video? Then simply right click and choose Hey!Watch service, tweak few small settings that popup on your desktop and some minutes later you got your target video converted, with no software or codecs to install. Just think about it, one of the things that is most often causing troubles to your local PC is conflicts between software components, and configuration issues where one program is interfering with another, or worse yet, breaking your OS!

But, instead, I fear they will introduce something like Gesture based input system for Vista Explorer and maybe IE browser. The premise of waving hands in front of your screen is something I predicted many years ago, and as I wrote about recently some startups have made serious progress recently in that area. But, gesture based input is tricky to make useful, although if done right, it can sure be a blast. Still, you’ve got to make sure it’s relevant applications, since there isn’t much use in it for Word Processor or Excel work, probably.

So I hope they unveil the Web Services integration, but if they don’t, I provided the simple specs so get to work Microsoft!

Share This

Granted, this post is a bit early, I’ve only been using Vista on the my new PC for about a week and a half, but I just had to blog about it!

So far it’s been fantastic! I want to start off with a short list of pointers that may help you with your Vista experience, and end with solid scientific explanation as to why Vista is the Wow! that was promised!

• Search box is your friend! The biggest feature in Vista is the little Search box and you can find it Everywhere! Start with the Start Menu, which makes it easy to launch program or document by just typing a keyword or two. Proceed to use it in Control Panel, which is redesigned, but it doesn’t matter since it has a search box which makes it easy to find what you need if you know it’s name. If you don’t know what it’s called, the newly improved categories are great!
• Create Restore points often! See tip above to easily find this feature in Control Panel. I didn’t need to use any of my Restore Points yet, but it’s nice to know they are there!
• As annoying as User Access Control is, it’s worth it! This is the famous "You clicked on this Button, are you sure you clicked on it?" style prompt. When setting up the computer in the beginning, it will drive you crazy. But, keep at it, because the amount of prompts declines drastically once you "settle in", and the added security is very important!
• Do NOT Upgrade to Vista on an old PC, that is not the intention. Vista by no means "lean", it’s a fully featured OS with high hardware requirements. So, your best bet to get Vista is only with a new PC. If you are worried about Software Compatibility issues, and considering Windows XP downgrade on a new PC, DON’T DO IT! Use Microsoft’s free Virtual PC within Vista should supply full compatibility with the trickiest of software. Plus, most companies should come out with new Vista version of their software soon, if they haven’t already.

For me, the Wow! in Vista is the amazing performance, stability and the security, and of course the new fancy 3D Aero effects (tip: Press Windows-Tab key and scroll mouse wheel).

The WoW in Vista is World of Warcraft, which runs like never before, even with all graphical settings maxed out. Just kidding, of course

Here’s the real Wow! and it is something I haven’t seen covered in almost any press coverage for Vista. It’s the quality feedback agent, which is now built into Operating System Kernel and most Vista applications and components.

Let me explain, this little known secret agent gets activated whenever you encounter any kind of crash/failure and in some similar scenarios. It actually Phones Home to MS HQ and records this trouble, along with supporting "Dump" info, in the central database. And before you start screaming PRIVACY, it can be disabled and it only activates after asking you if you wish to "Help Improve Windows Experience" or some such.

Why is this greatest thing ever? No matter what weird hardware driver, or strange DLL incompatibility, or unintended Windows Update trouble happens, you don’t need to worry. Your computer will literally heal itself! Here’s how it works:

1. You download some patch or new driver, or simply add new hardware that Vista knows about but apparently wasn’t fully tested (or too new).
2. Your system starts misbehaving, things don’t work. You get crashes somewhere, or even the infamous Blue Screen of Death comes to visit you.
3. Vista records this and "phones home" with information developers need to track down why the crash or problem is happening
4. Developers review their giant "troubles" database, notice the new issue which is affecting several people and combine scenarios from multiple PCs and it’s supporting data to figure out what is causing the trouble and fix it
5. Windows Vista downloads a Windows Update Hotfix, or maybe the fix comes as part of Service Pack or updated Drivers from the Manufacturer of your gadget, which Windows Vista also downloads now without you needing to worry

Granted, this is a best case scenario. There are lots of trouble reports daily, and I am sure Microsoft folks using some sort of statistical data mining approach to find most urgent and most mainstream problems, before tackling more obscure ones.

But the bottom line is that this process Will Surely lead to better and more stable OS in the long term, with more features and compatibility.

Show me that in MacOs or Linux, folks? (I know some programs have it, like Firefox, I am talking about Operating System integrated feature)

Wow!

UPDATE: I posted all the "Un-Wow" things on Windows Vista

Share This