Big Screen Blog: General

HDDVD Format officially discontinued by Toshiba

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 09:49:13 GMT

via Missing Remote : Toshiba Announces Discontinuation of HD DVD Businesses

As per this article - the main backer of the HD-DVD format Toshiba has officially pronounced the format dead - and will immediately wind down shipments of players/recorders (and start carving up some of the IP created for other future technologies.)

Although there was only ever going to be one winner out of the BluRay vs HDDVD format war - I think this is a real pity for consumers - as I always preferred what HDDVD had to offer in terms of affordability (much cheaper recordable media) , extensibility (XML based interactivity layer instead of reliance on Java) plus the intention to allow for managed copies.

A bunch of early adopters who invested in the format already (either via purchasing the Toshiba players, the cheaper XBox360 addin drive, or the movies themselves) are going to be pretty disappointed. (and will be stacking these up near their Laser discs)...

Seasons Greetings to all readers...

Mon, 24 Dec 2007 00:56:02 GMT

Well it's that time of year again - and I wanted to extend my 'seasons greetings' to everyone out there (and you families too). I wanted to also thank readers out there for all the fantastic support + feedback on this blog throughout the year - and while I've been unable to blog as much as I'd have liked this year (due to heavy work load) - user participation has kept it going. (and have had over 200,000 views since this time last year).

The big screen guy unfortunately doesn't get to take break these holidays - but he still found some time to do a number with those elves - and showed that whilst there's still lot's of coding to do - he's still got some swift moves.

Click Here to Check it out >>>>

Off-Topic: Ouch - my leg..

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 07:31:28 GMT

I've been hobbling around in pain like an invalid for the past few days (with the calf on my left leg swollen like a watermelon). I initially assumed it was most likely a muscle injury - or at worst some sort of reaction to a spider/insect bite - but after 4 days it seemed to be getting worse not better- and I finally ended up going and seeing a local GP (Doctor) to make sure.

Luckily I chose to see a GP - and not a Physiotherapist (as originally planned) - as after a quick inspection - it turned out I had a suspected case of 'DVT' (Deep Vein Thrombosis - the blot clotting problem traditionally linked with going on long flights etc). After the GP spent a few frantic minutes on the phone trying to get me in for some urgent treatment (and some ultrasound scans) - I was quickly sent to my local hospital - where I received a couple of DVT injections 'just in case' (as ultrasound dept was already closed for the day). The Doc looked pretty worried and basically said if it was DVT - without immediate treatment - there was a very high chance of the clot going to my lungs/heart (which would be potentially fatal).

Today - I went back in first thing for the Ultrasound and it was confirmed I did in fact have DVT (and a nice big clot just below my left knee). Noone is quite sure how it occured (as I hadn't been on any flights or long journeys for at least 3.5 months) - and the only possible cause is the amount of time I spend at my desk working (and not moving much). Although I do try to take a short break every hour or so - I sometimes get lost in what I am doing and the hours can really fly past unnoticed.

So as of lunchtime today - I was officially 'checked' in as a patient to the local hospital for the next week and a bit... however luckily for me - I actually get out of staying there - as a nurse will be coming to my house/office daily to give me my 'shots' - and perform blood tests etc on me whilst here (so they can monitor my progress). The initial round of treatments will be for approx 7-10 days - however if the clot hasn't gone after that - I'm told this daily treatment will be extended for another 3 months..and then 8 months... and then.. (well hopefully it's well and truely gone before then)..

DVT is apparently reasonably common for elderly people - but at my age (34) - its quite unusual - and is a bit of a wake up call for me to get myself healthy (ie. currently I'm a smoker, I work very very long hours, only sleep 5/6 hrs, am underweight etc )..

So this NYE I think there will need to be some resolutions and some lifestyle changes to be made... and luckily I'm still here to make them...

Big Screen Blog is back....

Sat, 03 Nov 2007 02:55:56 GMT

Thanks to a bit of a screw-up (combined with a lack of checkups/process to prevent it from occurring) - Big Screen Blog was off the air for a few days (and an error message was returned informing users the space was unavailable).

Well anyhow it's back (thankfully all in tact) - and although my little cartoon above is a light hearted dig at what happened - I really do hope those "that can change the things that they can change" - take some steps to ensure that no other spaces bloggers receive this sort of treatment. Luckily I was able to pull some MVP strings and get some more immediate action taken then what would have normally been available (a big thanks to those MS staff who did help resolve this!)..

Off-Topic: Some bad news and then some really bad reporting

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 02:59:56 GMT

Over the weekend - we suffered a tragic and unexpected loss of a close family member.

I won't go into any exact details about what happened - and words could not describe the grief being felt by those close to me - (and this is not an appropriate place for this).

And just to make things worse - the media got involved... and it's this I want to blog about.

As it happens, an 'incident' directly related to this loss was immediately seen by some opportunistic union/political members as a great way to publicize their cause - so they called the media in. They of course didn't stop for one moment to think about how those being effected would not welcome having the media camped outside their house - or accosting anyone who stepped outside.

They (both the media and those other beneficiaries) - also didn't seem to mind that the story being peddled (or the part that made it newsworthy) was actually untrue. In fact - they had ALL (commercial TV Stations) been told the real facts by authorities - and also several stations taped an interview with a family member outside the house well before the story was aired. Apparently those stations present at this interview also tried to encourage him to 'lie' about the facts - so they could peddle the wrong version of events.

Out of all the news networks (well at least paytv, fta tv, newspaper) - only Channel 7 reported the full and correct facts and set the record straight. (kudos to them for at least getting it right in the end).

The others very deliberately concealed/muddied the facts (and implied the wrong story)- simply for the sake of 'not letting the truth get in the way of a good story'.. A few newspapers even provided completely untrue statements/quotes just to support their stories. Most of them also ran continuous news promo's all evening again 'miss-stating' the facts and showing pictures etc.

Anyhow - to say that I have ZERO respect - or trust for the Australian news media at the moment would be a complete understatement (I can only begin to imagine how untrue everything else they publish/air is based on this)..

If it wasn't so personal and close to home - I would probably be providing MediaWatch with some details.

On Holidays for 2 weeks..

Mon, 16 Jul 2007 04:29:48 GMT

to the beat of Dr. Seuss..

If the weather does your tether, and the mornings are too cold, And your coding is eroding - the very insides of your soul,
For the Beaches are a waiting, for us to park our butts, And from here we'll not be moving - except to fill our guts.
Although I'm taking one of these, to send/receive my e-mail, Connecting to the online world - may ultimately e-fail,
We'll also miss our family - who can't join us on this trip, And hope they don't destroy the house - or leave us any gifts.

Tomorrow midnight - I'm heading off on a well needed holiday to Thailand (with my wife) - for 2 glorious weeks. We're spending most of the time in Phuket - but have a couple of days in Bangkok as well (for some shopping) - and we are very much looking forward to relaxing and escaping the Melbourne winter.

I'm not sure whether I'll have decent internet access at the hotel - but I'm sure I'll find an internet cafe somewhere - so will get to most emails within a couple of days (if you need to get hold of me).

btw - I managed to get through 8 months of blogging without posting any photos of the ~~kids~~ cats - but guess I've blown it now. (sorry) Their names are Zac (left) and Tabba (right)...

If I was in the Simpsons ..

Fri, 13 Jul 2007 01:39:06 GMT

A very cool Simpsons Avatar Generator has been made available via the Simpsons Movie site (spotted via Delicate Genius Blog) - so I thought I'd have a bash at creating my own likeness.

I couldn't get the 'download' function to work - so instead I screen captured the result - and added a couple of extra bits (like the t-shirt logo + smoke). Apart from the extra bushy goatee (mine is more of a stubble) - it's (almost) recognizable as me :

Remix 07 Melbourne Recap

Thu, 28 Jun 2007 05:41:24 GMT

Microsoft Remix07 landed in Melbourne earlier this week - bringing in the who's who of the Australian (and o/s) tech/blogsphere/digitalmedia scene into the one place.

I've had a few really exciting+interesting days as a result - with the absolute highlight being meeting a bunch of people I only ever communicated with via the web.. There was a lot of really well thought out sessions and discussion panels - with a very predictably large focus on Silverlight and the Expression Products.

Unfortunately for me - a lot the sessions that I did get a chance to attend (inbetween meetings) - were still all 'hello world' level - as a lot of the attendees are still starting out in these areas (so was what the majority of people wanted to see - and the correct choice by the organizers). One thing that was very good to (finally) see was a session actually dedicated to MCPL / Media Center (by Jason Suess) on interactive advertising opportunities. Hopefully MediaCenter stuff becomes a regular inclusion in future ReMixes (and maybe even TechEd)..

Something that would be a good inclusion in future - might be to have some ReMix++ style sessions - for those who are making/have-made the jump from 'Hello World' to 'Real World' - and need to know about best practices etc with regards to performance+issues and what techniques do/don't cut it. I think the closest thing I saw to this was Lee Brimelows (frog) WPF session, were he went through his WPF journey (from his earliest attempts/prototypes through to his current commercial work utilizing WPF) - with the most valuable takeaways being his comments on what you 'shouldn't do' in WPF. (things the manuals/docs won't tell you and the hello world samples would encourage)..

Michael Kordahi (the delicate genius) posted a bunch of photos to flickr (Flickr photoset) from the event - so these are worth a look if you were there (I've found myself on at least a couple these)..

WebJam@Remix

Another big highlight was of course WebJam@Remix on Monday night - where 16 people (including me) presented cool stuff they have been working on/with (limited to 3 mins each) - and the (drunk) audience then voted by SMS to determine the winner.

There was some downright cool presentations - ranging from the completely bizarre/funny (and even cruel and unusual) - like this one pictured below from Nickviz - who managed to somehow incorporate an Elvis routine into his tech presentation - through to incredibly cool/useful stuff (like John's Traffic/Weather sidebar gadgets) - through to the completely unlikely (Phillip Beadle doing a full DotNetNuke install and writing a blog post in under 3 minutes).

Although I felt my presentation didn't go as expected - I somehow managed to fudge 2nd place (I think I was way too serious/ and spent the first minute talking - which only left me 2 mins to actually show a couple of screens from Big Screen Photos 2 - not the game plan at all).. Having just under an hours sleep the night before also probably didn't help things much. I'm waiting for the Webjam site to be updated with the full results as the winning entry (and others) were very cool and I want to link to them.

So I'm now the proud owner of a Wacom Bamboo Tablet (my prize - thanks Wacom for this and Lachlan Hardy for dreaming up such a cool event!)..

This probably means I'm going to have to actually learn how to draw at some point. Unfortunately last time I tried that (as a toddler) - my drawings never seemed to be "fridge worthy" in our household - and instead my parents would tactfully praise the virtues of something else I was better at .. I hear the bamboo can also be used for non-drawing purposes (like supporting gestures etc) - so this is always a good fallback in case the drawing bit doesn't work out..

In my presentation (with around 5 seconds left) - I showed off a brand new feature/ux in Big Screen Photos 2 (dreamed up last week) - called 'digital frames' - which as the name suggests allows you to view a 'digital frame' containing photos from a particular user/group etc (determine purely by the context of your browse items and grouping - in a similar manner to the geobrowsing feature). I also included the 'token' rotating 3d carousel with reflections (as you highlight each frame the photos contained within that group rotate about the frame).

Anyhow - here's a couple of pics below to give you an idea of what the new digital frame UX looks like in BSP2 (without trying to turn this into a Work In Progress post) -

Launched+InProgress: Microsoft AU/NZ TechNet Sidebar Gadget + All Blacks (WPF) Sidebar Gadget

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 04:45:08 GMT

Some of the other things (paid stuff) I've been working on apart from Media Center related applications - has been some Vista SideBar + Desktop apps (WPF etc.). I've been allowed to talk about a couple of these projects here (ones that are no longer commercially sensitive - due to them being out in the wild already).

For whats being shown here - mobilewares (err... me, myself and I) have been working closely with a New Zealand based company Mabode - who are comprised of some very well known/credible/connected NZ folk (including some current/former Microsofties like Jay Templeton). I won't go too much into the Mabode-mobilewares relationship yet (maybe a later post) - however over the past 6 months - I've been introduced to a lot of really interesting opportunities/projects through them - and hope to have some exciting announcements on Vista + Media Center related products coming out of the work being done (with some very cool content if you are from these parts).

Microsoft Australia & New Zealand Technet SideBar Gadget

This gadget (docked+flyout view /and/ undocked shown below) - is designed for IT Pros in Australia+NZ - and provides a way to monitor news/alerts from Microsoft TechNet. This gadget went live on gallery this morning (and will appear in the Microsoft TechNet newsletters etc) - and if you want to download it - head to this link -> www.microsoft.com.au/technetgadget .

The following sums this one up (from the download page on live gallery) :

The Microsoft TechNet Gadget for Australia and New Zealand delivers information from several of the common news feeds and security alerts. It supports up to 6 feeds with TechNet Highlights and Basic Security Alerts as default options. A range of other feeds are selectable with options for more comprehensive security alerts, Australian and New Zealand IT News and TechNet Virtual Labs. You can see items that have been read or unread at a glance. The security ticker glows red when there is something that you have not seen before. The integrated TechNet Search means you can type a search query and it will launch a web browser window with the TechNet Search results.

On the tech side - this gadget was made using Javascript + DHTML with some AJAX'y bits - so isn't quite as slick as the AllBlacks gadget below (and was kicked off while Silverlight was still called WPF/E so that option wasn't there yet). Although it was a little shock to the system to go back to HTML stuff - I had quite a bit of fun with the javascript under the hood. One of cool things it does behind the scenes - is launch/run several background updater threads to monitor feeds (as using the IE7 Subscribed feed system wasn't going to meet requirements) - using javascript and some async calls to XMLHTTP - and then synchronizes the returned content back to UI/Scroller. (which all required a bit of fancy footwork).

The settings window is pictured below :

All Blacks (New Zealand Rugby Team) Sidebar Gadget (With WPF)

The All Blacks rugby gadget is still a project "in progress". Please also note these screenshots do not represent the final product (and in fact I made some bad typos in there with regards to display of trademarks/logos) - and are taken from the prototype that has been shown to a few people. Theres still a few dominos to line up before it's out (layouts+specs+datafeeds etc still being finalized) - so I'm not going to volunteer any info about release dates.

I'm not quite up with all this 'rugby' stuff - as where I live, 'Australian Rules Football' is the main winter sports code (and rugby is not very well known or understood) . However - I'm quickly learning that following All Blacks is some sort of religious/spiritual experience for many New Zealanders (so I'm very careful here to do a good job).

This gadget has been developed using WPF for the Flyout content (html for the docked part) - and I had quite a bit of fun working on this. This was partially due to having freerun of allblacks.com site for pretty theme/graphics/videos and data - but also becauses Expression Blend is starting to become mine and VS2005's good friend (I'm slowly learning to appreciate the finer points of this program and how it can increase productivity - not drain it).

One very cool bit - is that almost all the content being displayed is feeding directly off Async XML data sources (via the various Data Binding functions in WPF) - so this saves quite a bit of behind the scenes code. In the past I'd always sourced data behind the scenes and then updated the UI when it was available.

Anyhow here's (quite a few) screenshots from the Gadget below (with flyout). You'll notice that this gadget has quite a few more browsing experiences exposed via the flyout than a typical 1 or 2 function gadget - and so this falls a little more into category of a 'desktop' gadget than a Sidebar gadget (ie. has multiple drilldown tabs + its own Video Player).

PS : For the MediaCenter fans reading this - this one above IS being designed with '10 foot' in mind...

Are you going to ReMix'07 in Melbourne?

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 03:27:55 GMT

Something I'm really looking forward to is ReMix '07 - which is coming to Melbourne, Australia in a couple of weeks (25th + 26th June) - a conference geared at Web and RIA development+design (with a strong WPF + Expression flavor). Remix07 is a cutdown version of Mix07 that was held in Las Vegas a couple of months ago - with some new/updated content thrown in (they aren't quite as talkative here - and it will be a 48 hr conversation instead of 72).

It's not often we get such a fine calibre of speakers, content, and tech specialists assembled locally and all in the same room (many coming from overseas+interstate) - so this is going to be a very interesting event.

If you want to go - but haven't booked your spot - well sorry .. your too late - as they have now completely sold out and registration is closed!.

However - if you are registered to come - and are a reader of this blog / are into Media Center developement (or you're something doing cool with WPF) - ping me a message if you want to catch up for a chat/coffee.

I should also mention (warn) that I was talked into filling a slot at Webjam 2 (being held at Galactic Circus at 5:30pm on day 1 of ReMix) - where 16 presenters will each have just 3 minutes to demonstrate something cool they have been working on. First prize is a funky Wacom tablet. Voting/Winners will be decided 'Idol' style (well a geeky version that is - and everyone will be over 12) - with ReMix attendees having exclusive SMS voting rights . I'm possibly going to be showing off Big Screen Photos 2 (for Vista Media Center) - but might demo something else instead - depending on whats ready /or/ working by then (and what sort of equipment + internet connections are available for the demo).

There's still actually some slots left for Webjam - so if you want to join in the madness and have something cool to show off - then don't forget to check yourself in for your 3 minutes of stagefright at this address. I'd love to see a few other people do some Media Center stuff as well (and I know there's a bunch of great developers in Australia so come on out).

See (some of) you there!

I've been MVP'd

Sun, 01 Apr 2007 23:19:23 GMT

I was delighted + honored to receive an email last night from Microsoft - informing me that I've been awarded a 2007 MVP (Microsoft Most Valuable Professional) for "Windows - Media Center" competency - and will join an existing group of esteemed Media Center MVP's.

As they say down under (in The Castle that is) - "This one's going straight to the poolroom"..

Thanks to whoever it was that nominated me...!

I've started to fill out my MVP online profile - but need to dig up a decent postage sized photo from somewhere (well one that looks less dodgey than my passport photo). Looking through my digital photos from recent holidays - I've realized that I've been a total camera control freak of late - and hence all the photo's are of my wife in various exotic locations (and the only ones of me are when I'm half asleep in an airport etc and have unwittingly relinquished the camera). I'll have to amend that next holiday - otherwise one day in the distant future, my kids/grandkids (no - don't have either right now) won't actually believe I was there.

New Adobe Fireworks (CS3) Announced

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 01:37:44 GMT

Adobe has just announced updates (CS3) to it's current set of design and web tools.

Although the majority of these products aren't things that I would use - one of them ~~Macromedia~~ Adobe Fireworks is probably the best rapid prototyping/storyboarding/design tool out there. I was pretty worried that when Adobe aquired Macromedia - Fireworks would be dumped in favour of it's existing rival Adobe ImageReady (which isn't nearly as good) - but luckily this is not the case.

The new Fireworks CS3 update includes some significant new changes (wheras the last few versions only had minor changes) - and a lot of these are really enhance it's usefulness for prototyping/design of MediaCenter and WPF Applications. Although I'm sure these MS technologies are of little interest to Adobe (who have their own rival Flash/Flex technology and also focus on Web Design) - the way you would go about storyboarding and designing these applications are very similar. Hence - the new features added will also directly benefit Media Center + WPF developers.

Some of the more notable additions to Fireworks CS3 which also suit MCPL/WPF developers/designers include (italic text taken from the Adobe Fireworks New Features Page) :

- MultiPage Support : "Use the new Pages panel to create multiple pages in a single document (PNG file), and share layers across multiple pages. Each page can contain its own slices, layers, frames, animations, and canvas settings, making it easy to simulate website flow in a prototype".

- Hierarchical layer organization : "Organize and manage your prototypes with a new hierarchical layer structure — similar to the one in Adobe Photoshop — that enables you to easily organize web layers and pages"

- Intelligent scaling (aka as "NineGrid" in MCPL) : "Intelligently scale buttons and graphic symbols (in vector or bitmap) with 9-slice scaling. Combine 9-slice scaling with the new Auto Shape library to accelerate website and application prototyping."

There's also a bunch of other new features which focus on reuse of graphics, easier creation of common asset libraries which are also of special interest - along with quite a few new Photoshop style filter image effects not previously available.

One area that also looks very interesting is the support for Adobe Flex and the way you can create UI's from within the graphical editor. (and then export XML files and assets which can be consumed by Flex). I'm not clear exactly how it all hangs together (and have only seen some brief examples in the flash based presentations) - but it's possible that some sort of converter could then translate this data for use in MCPL or WPF. At worst case - this also looks like a great tool for visually prototyping Windows Applications + WPF as well due to the inclusion of assets that behave like the various common UI controls (ie. Comboboxes, Lists etc). While you can do all this with Expression Blend - if Adobe can retain the smooth as silk UX you normally get in Fireworks for the Flex design capabilities - this will be a truely awesome feature (as Blend still feels a little clunky).

I also am in hope that Microsoft will one day bring out a product that can provide this feature set (and optimize it for Windows technologies). While their Expression products are great at what they do - there's definitely a big hole in the area of prototyping/design/storyboarding - as their existing tools all fit into different niches. (ie Blend is good for WPF layout - but has no real design capabilities, Design is a too focused on Vector graphics and comes off more as a DTP/Drawing package with little focus on Application design).

Anyhow I'm looking forward to checking Fireworks CS3 out when it's released (and you can Preorder it now if you are in the US).

iJustRegurgitateAppleHype at Fairfax Digital..

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 03:11:04 GMT

FairFax Digital (ie. The Age and Sydney Morning Herald websites) has run a story this morning in the technology section "LG's iPhone look-alike" - which was initially first published a couple of hours earlier with the title "LG's iPhone Copycat" (well something like this - the word 'copycat' was definitely used - and I suspect they may have gotten a very nasty call from LG marketing department this morning).

From viewing this article - unsuspecting readers would be led to believe that Apple was the first company to introduce :

- a device that is Black.

- a device that is Slimline.

- a device that has a Touchscreen.

- a device that can play music/video and surf the net.

- a device that is an 'innovation that is due to shake up the industry'..

- the device 'only' costs US$599.

Hmm... and of course the general gist of their article is LG copied them.

Luckily for this 'journalist' - they remain anonymous (and the source AP is credited).

Obviously this journalist missed the whole 'pda' thing, never used XDA's (and other Windows Mobile Devices), Palm Pilots, Symbian devices or any of the other plethora of devices available for some time that offer superior features (and oh not to mention most early PDA's were black and slimline). This journalist probably also believes the mobile phones advertised as **$0 are actually free. (if you dig a little deeper you'll find that the US$599 price is conditional on you signing up for a 12-24 month US$100/month plan) - and that Apple invented Portable Music Players, MP3's and Podcasts.

It's one thing for Apple to generate Hype and get mainstream products out to the general public with clever advertising (full points to them for this if they can pull it off - which they do) - but when IT journalists fall hook line and sinker for this crap - you start to wonder about the credability of the publication and everything else they publish.

I begin to wonder if there's any actual journalism going on in the other sections at Fairfax - ie are all their news stories just regurgitated press releases from the Australian and US governments? Is the majority of content there purely produced to gratify existing and potential advertisers?

I used to honestly believe in their 'The Age' newspaper - and once believed it to be a good/valid source of news - but poor journalism and obvious product placement like this - puts it right in the class of the TV tabloids like 'A Current Affair' and 'Today Tonight'.

The only small glimmer of hope for Fairfax Digital is that the 'Mash-Up' section has good blog post debunking some of the iPhone Hype/Myths - Bursting the iPhone hype bubble (published about 1 week ago on Jan 10).

Off-Topic: 'Common Sense' Outage at Energy Australia

Tue, 16 Jan 2007 13:58:29 GMT

Today we had a statewide power outage (accross Victoria/Australia - the state that Melbourne is located in) - that started at about 3:45pm for me. It wasn't nearly anything as bad as what the guys in US have experienced (and in fact only ended up lasting 3 hours wheras up to 15 hours was predicted by my power company) - but the opposite extremes of temperature we are getting over here made it a little more challenging.

Its summer in Australia - and we have had quite a few pretty hot days - today being 40 degrees Celcius (104 Fahrenheit) - and some really intense bushfires has made life hell for a lot of people (well over 1 million hectares of land has been destroyed in Victoria alone over the past couple of weeks). Sadly - many of those directly being effected by the bushfires are farmers - and have also been enduring a crippling drought over the past few years (with a few extreme weather events destroying what crops they have grown).

So anyhow the reason for writing this post (other then to talk about the weather) - was to have a bit of a whinge about my electricity company (Energy Australia) and their (lack therof) common sense in dealing with the power outage.

Here goes....

When the power went out - first thing I did was check the fusebox outside - all good. Being unsure if it was an isolated problem (that needed to be reported) - or something affecting everyone - I decided to give them a call. I was unable to get through on my mobile (possibly due to power outage?) - and managed to dig up an old 'powerless' phone from the garage so I could use the land line.

When the phone is answered (busy on first 4 attempts) - I get the usual automated system - 'please enter the dept you want to speak to etc etc' - and it also gets me to type in a number to indicate where I am located. I'm put on hold I get a couple of messages telling me that the 'next available operator will be with me' - and weirdly, apart from that there is dead silence on the line (no hold music or advertisements about their business).

While I'm waiting - there's no message/announcement whatsoever indicating any power outage is occuring - so I am beginning to think its just my local area.

25 minutes later I am finally put through. I should mention that I'm also in the front room of the house (sort of like a sunroom) as I need power to use a phone anywhere else - and the temperature inside has climbed well into the mid 30's - with no ventilation. So this environment isn't helping my mood.

Operator answers – and makes me go the full 9 yards on verification (asks for my life history - dob, address,account etc etc)..

Me : (Frustrated - its now 30 minutes into the call). Hi - There's a power outage at this location. Is there any known issues in my area. (she has my full address by now)..

Operator : Oh… are you in Melbourne… Yes there’s a statewide outage - I can see it on my screen.. The power will be out at least until 9pm (5 hours away) – although probably won't be back on until tomorrow morning.

Me: (dawns on me that I've been on the phone for no reason). Oh – is there some reason why Energy Australia couldn’t just have put a general recorded announcement rather then me having to wait 30 minutes to find this out? And why did you have to go through the entire verification when you knew I was in Melbourne already (I entered this at the start of the call)– wasn’t it obvious what I was calling about?

Operator : (Puzzled as to why I would even say this) Umm No.... There’s no recorded announcement..

Me: So this outage is effecting everyone in Victoria?

Operator : Yes..

Me: Ok – so you have 2 million operators standing by to take each call individually and explain to everyone what is going on?

(I should note that this figure is probably an exaggeration - but they are one of the main power providers - and there's I think 4-5 million people living in Victoria)

Operator : err. No… (still doesn’t get it)..

Me : Don’t you think it would make sense to have an announcement.. You think you are busy now – wait until everyone gets home from work and wants to cook dinner – your systems will be completely overloaded. Do you think you guys might save everyone a lot of pain and just put an announcement on there so they don't have to wait on hold?

Operator : Err.. Yes that’s a good idea…

Me : So you are going to make this happen..

Operator : (Non committal / vague response) – Umm I’ll put in a request..

(I realize at this point that nothings going to happen and quickly finish the call)

And just to point out too - this operator is Australian (not located in India - which may have been an acceptable excuse).

So anyhow - I simply can't understand why a company like that doesn't realize the win-win situation all around is to just put a recorded announcement indicating there's a mass outage. That way everyone can find out what they need to know quickly (and make appropriate plans) - and operators can be left alone to deal with more serious/urgent issues. However - with no recorded announcement - each and every customer has to wait on hold for ages (and the phones probably would have got jammed as people started to arrive home from work or cook dinner) - all so the operator could repeatedly tell customers the same thing.

At least they could have some override in the Operators autocue/script (for these situations) - so they don't waste your time with a full verification check just to see whats going on. They are after all a power company - and outages are not some totally 'rare' event - so you would think they had better measures/processes in place to deal with it.

Its just plain dumb. And totally frustrating for the consumer (and a waste of time when the issue at hand is already causing headaches).

Interestingly enough - I've experienced this exact same issue with both my ISP and my Webhost/Email provider. That is, they refuse to post any information on their 'status' pages of mass outages - and force you to wait ages to speak/chat with a live operator just so you can find out the same problem is being experienced by everyone.

I've pulled each of them up on it quite a few times and they simply won't change their ways, nor offer any explanation why it hasn't been done. Both these companies have status reporting online (both of which are also generally unaffected by outages) - so it's not like they need to do some additional coding/deployment before it can be seen. The systems are in there and working - they just need to use them...

<phew> ok - got that out of my system.... now it's back to enjoying air conditioning, electricity and all the wonders of the modern world. (how on earth did they manage hundreds of years ago!)..

My Outlook 2003 is suffering Digitial Amnesia

Sat, 13 Jan 2007 01:41:24 GMT

My Outlook 2003 has been suffering from a severe case of Digitial Amnesia (or is that Digital Dementia) over the past few weeks. (thanks to some alleged 'enhanced junk mail filters' delivered over Windows update).

For some odd reason - a number of people (that I've regularly been in email contact with over past 12 months) have suddenly been classed as 'junk mail' senders. (and to alleviate any conspiracy theories - even emails from Microsoft folk like Charlie Owen were classed as junk).. I've had to now manually add each person to the 'safe senders list'.

Unfortunately it took me a couple of weeks to realize what was going on - as previously I would just go into my junk email folder - select everything - and hit permenant delete. (and hence I'm positive I've deleted a number of real emails from people without knowing about it). I now have to wade through all the Junk mail and try to spot real messages - which totally devalues the usefulness of having junkmail filtering in the first place.

I'm hoping this is fixed (or at least not duplicated) in Office 2007 - which I've been trying to scrounge up some money to buy (as my current MSDN Pro subscription doesn't entitle me to get this for free).

So if you are running Outlook 2003 - beware of this potential issue if you've been getting the latest updates - and check twice before you permenantly delete the contents of your junk mail folder.

60 days of blogging...

Sat, 13 Jan 2007 01:02:20 GMT

I've just been o/s on business for a couple of days - so I'm now in the process of catching up on the email, blogsphere and news that I've missed.

One thing I realized this morning - was that I've now been blogging for exactly 60 days - and took a little bit of time out to evaluate where I'm at with this - and how the stats are going. Some interesting stats are :-

- 38 blog entries have now been posted.

- 52 'public' comments have been made by readers (I've also had maybe 100+ private emails from people who read my blog).

- There was 41152 'page views' recorded on my blog stats (as of a few minutes ago). On this - I'm pretty confused on the reporting available on Live Spaces - and I'm not clear how this works with aggregate views etc - and how # article views are resolved when users goto the home page and get the latest 5 articles coming up.

- My Technorati rating for my blog is 290,098 (24 links from 13 blogs - the links being the way the blog gets rated) - out of a 'alleged' 60 million blogs. I imagine this rating will continue to rise - as in the past - most people would link to my website as opposed to my blog. (Technorati says I have 333 blog links going to mobilewares.net for example - so this would have given me a substantially higher rating if I had initially sent people via my blog).

As you may have noticed - I've had a little less time to blog over the past few weeks (and have been allocating almost 100% of my brain to doing commercial projects) - so this has reduced the stats somewhat (I think I received my first 25-30 thousand views in the first 30 days of blogging). The days when I do post - I noticed around 1000-2500 page views in the 24 hours immediately following - wheras if I don't put a new entry up - this can drop to 250-500 views per day.

I'm really enjoying the social networking aspects of Blogging - such as making a lot of new contacts+friends in the MediaCenter 'scene'. (and also a huge win for coming into contact with paying clients - the thing that keeps me afloat).

The transparency that also comes about from blogging, has I think helped people understand me (and my company) a lot better - so this is great win too. (for some reason many people thought mobilewares was a large company - a 'them' - not a one man show). Also it allows me to better communicate where I am at with the various products I work on - without having to email out announcements - or post everything to forums. The user comments as well are great and helps me better understand what end users want - and what they like/dislike about my products.

I know my topics have fluctuated between dev advice, product news, 'Niall' news and other things (I'm still not sure which direction I want to be going in there - but I'm feeling more comfortable with the current mix of complementary topics). I still have a million and one things I want to blog about (and providing more developer specific info is a high priority) - but of course just need to find the time to do this.

Anyhow - hope you all like what you have experienced so far with my blog - and hope to continue on in much the same direction over the next few months/years.

And a big THANKS to all of you out there for taking the time to read my blog and the amazing contribution in return - it's been an absolute pleasure.. (and not sure why I didn't start blogging much earlier).

CES Keynote + Ian Dixon meets 'The Man'..

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 03:02:57 GMT

For Vista Media Center users - some really exciting announcements are sure to be coming out of CES 2007 (Las Vegas) over the next few days - both on the hardware and software side of things. (and some are already just appearing).

Bill Gates will also being doing his Keynote address in just a few hours - which you will be able to watch live via the web - so be sure to check this out. (not clear whether Media Center will be covered in this - however it goes for 90 minutes - so who knows).

Ian Dixon (aka the Media Center Show) is currently at CES and is going to posting some Media Center specific news as it arrives (and when he can find a spare internet kiosk).

Ian posts that he actually met 'The Man' (Bill Gates) - this morning at an exclusive Vista labs session - and was even able to ask him some q's. (now thats something he's going to be able to tell the grandkids about one day). Be sure to check out Ian's blog over the next few days for more..

Vista RTM (x86) now available on MSDN!

Thu, 16 Nov 2006 22:34:10 GMT

The wait is over...

Vista RTM (x86) is now available from MSDN Subscriber Downloads!!... (its dated 16th Nov - so thats a full day earlier than expected).. I'm getting around 100 k/sec on the download - so with a bit of luck I will have the whole thing in around 7 hrs..

As per previous betas - this download contains all the different versions of Vista (and the product key will determine which one is installed)..

There's no sign yet of the 64bit version (or the Media Center SDK) - but hopefully these should appear very shortly!..

XPMediacenter.com.au - Get Well Soon!

Sun, 12 Nov 2006 21:13:04 GMT

One of my favorite Media Center Resources is the Australian site www.xpmediacenter.com.au - which has the world's most friendly+helpful Media Center community. (maybe I'm just a little biased being an Aussie)..

However as of Sunday Morning (+11 GMT)- the site has been down with the following message :

Regrettably we have a serious problem with our forum database!
As a result this site will need to remain closed until a solution is worked out. This could take several days.
Our apologies for any inconvenience this may cause you but be assured we will continue to work the problem until rectified.
----------------------------
Mike - Administrator

So anyhow I'd like to extend a 'Get Well Soon' to Mike (and his database) - and if you are reading Mike - please drop me an email if there's anything I can do to help!.

<EDIT Time="Monday - around noon">
XPMediaCenter.com.au is now back up and running (and mostly intact)! .. Apparently a bunch of trolls hacked in via a IE/SQL exploit late on Saturday night - and did their thing. There's already been reports by some users that they were forced to spend more time with their families as a result...
</EDIT>

Print("Hello World")

Sat, 11 Nov 2006 13:04:40 GMT

G'day (thats Australian for 'hello') and welcome to my very first blog entry! I've been meaning to do this 'whole blogging thingy' for some time now - and thought I'd take the plunge after the announcement of Windows Vista RTM earlier this week (woo-hoo!).

This blog will be dedicated to discussing, ranting and raving about things in the world of Vista, Media Center, Mobile Phones, .NET (v2 + v3) - plus I'll try to keep you up to date with products I'm currently working on.

From time to time - I'll also be publishing programming tips/examples, blogging about things going on locally, and even maybe some personal bits too. (well lets just see how it all pans out)..

Please feel free to drop me an email or comment if there's anything specific you'd like me to talk about (or if you'd like me not to talk at all)..