Messenger to Skype Transition?

March 23, 2013 at 8:26 am · Filed under Miscellaneous

So, Live/Windows/Microsoft Messenger is shutting down and Microsoft is pushing people to Skype.  I actually haven’t run Messenger for many years.  I suppose it would be mildly interesting to see what a migration process looks like.

But, I keep getting emails from Microsoft to “Upgrade” to Skype and I don’t see where this is a migration path.  So I clicked on the “Upgrade now” link in the email.

While there was nothing obvious on that page, there is  Skype Community help widget.  I quickly decided against it, considering the recent help people have received there.

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Just a test post

March 14, 2013 at 10:36 am · Filed under Miscellaneous

I published a post last week about the Tesla S Performance; and now the post is gone and I see no record of it.  Something wrong with my hosting company?  Or with my installation of WordPress?

Anyway, just a test post . . . nothing to see here.

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Mid June Thoughts

June 20, 2012 at 10:25 am · Filed under Miscellaneous

I’m going to the DR National Town Meeting in DC.  Let me know if you’ll be there and we can meet.

Check out the series on Identity Management as a Service (IdMaaS) on Kim Cameron’s blog here and here.

The Microsoft Surface (no, not the table), looks pretty cool.  Not too surprising that Microsoft decided to do this themselves, let’s just hope it isn’t a Zune.  Maybe that will be my first full tablet.  Probably x86, although that is just asking for trouble, I know.  It will be interesting to see if there is a hardware-vendors backlash.  And then is a Microsoft phone next?  Maybe this is the strongest indication that Microsoft might actual buy Nokia.

.NET 4.5 doesn’t run on Windows Server 2003.  Huh.

An Arduino Satellite project on Kickstarter.  I want one.

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Ram, 24-bit audio, etc.

May 23, 2012 at 7:10 pm · Filed under Miscellaneous

This is one of those times when I have something to say quickly, but just can’t be bothered to try to say it in 140 characters.

@rwandering: Listening to the new 24 x 96 unlimited Ram from @paulmccartney — sounds fantastic.

@cgerrish: So you’ve taken sides in #occupyaudio ? Have you read this?

My response to that:

Yeah, yeah, us mere mortals can’t hear anything.  Sure.  (I haven’t read the article yet).

My own experience says the following:

• 24 bit mixing is really a big deal.
• 24 bit (or higher?) transfer from tape is a big deal.
• 24 bit mastering (i.e. 24 bits as the output ) is also pretty big.
• 44 kHz is probably just fine.

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Late April Thoughts

April 25, 2012 at 11:18 am · Filed under Miscellaneous, Web 2.0

Taking a page out of Marc’s book, I’m going to start linking to things I think are interesting (or useful) in digest form.

Microsoft is changing the free storage for SkyDrive from 25GB to 7GB.  If you are an existing user, though, you can get grandfathered in, but you have to logon and tell them you want it.

With Google Drive finally released, Aaron Levie of box posts When Elephants Attack. While I do agree with the sentiment (race to bottom for free storage / clear vision and value of box), I find the basic claim of “Elephant attacking startup” a bit weak.  Both Box and SalesForce (the latter also mentioned in the post) followed the same playbook going after one of the elephants from day 1.  I don’t have a problem with that at all, but the post implies this sort of passive “we became a target” and states explicitly that “Salesforce became the target of Microsoft . . .” without ever mentioning that they were actually hunting for that elephant all along.

I appreciate Mike Arrington’s post on Acqui-hires and the follow up today.   There is no doubt he has a vested interest in the venture capital standard terms — although, who doesn’t in this business? — but, I read his posts as being straight up, honest, and valuable.

McCartney’s RAM is being re-released in deluxe packaging (and better, in 24-bit 96kHz). great album, there is a cool video here.

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And it is Windows 8!

April 17, 2012 at 6:17 am · Filed under .NET, Miscellaneous

Reading the news on an unplanned overnight in Houston, I see that Microsoft is sticking with “Windows 8″ as the name of the next Windows client.

I can only imagine there was some heated debate on whether to give it an evocative name or stick with a sequence of numbers. I’m glad the sequence won out, even if just for now.

I much prefer the “8″ and then, I hope “9″, etc. I don’t really care that these are names and not version numbers, but I do care that there they make sense to customers and partners alike.

Plus all the evocative names start sounding like brands of cars.

I just came back from Costa Rica, and I swear I saw someone driving a Windows Azule.

Tags: .NET, Windows

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OPPO has terrific support!

March 8, 2012 at 9:25 pm · Filed under Miscellaneous

I had a problem with my OPPO BDP-83 Blu-ray player, so I contacted support at OPPO to see what to do.  They gave me an RMA and instructions for returning the unit for repair.

It took me about a month to get it shipped — the unit was still functional and we use it fairly often.  Anyway, I packaged it up and sent it off.

• Tuesday morning, I dropped it at UPS.
• Wednesday morning, they received it and I got an email explaining their process.
• Wednesday afternoon, I was told it was fixed and would be shipped back to me.
• Thursday (today) I received it.  All fixed, works great.

Great service, and something like a 6 hour turnaround from their service center!  Amazing!

This is truly an excellent unit, and way beyond a typical consumer player.  Blu-ray too is excellent.  Even my wife — who generally doesn’t care about video/audio fidelity — really prefers watching on Blu-ray.

For those who say they don’t need Blu-ray because of streaming, well, they  must have some pretty incredible bandwidth . . . or (more likely) they don’t actually care about fidelity.  In a world of 128-bit MP3s, I suppose I shouldn’t be too surprised.

Anyway, thanks OPPO, keep up the good work!

BTW: When I opened the box, the top piece of cardboard was for the newer model, the OPPO BDP-93.  For a second I got my hopes up, “did OPPO send me a new unit?!??!”.  Of course, not . . .

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Not at Build née PDC

September 13, 2011 at 11:39 am · Filed under .NET

This if the first year I’ve missed the PDC (now Build) since 2003.  I originally dismissed going because it seemed all about Windows 8 (Client).   Once it became clear that it is a full PDC I thought “I should go”, but then decided “eh, last one wasn’t such a big deal.”

Anyway, I’m not there this year.  I think I will go next time, if only because it seems weird *not* to be there.

Tags: Build, Microsoft, PDC

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Recording your Energy Attention

July 29, 2011 at 2:32 pm · Filed under Attention, Energy

Attention applied to Internet and media use has come to mean the what, where, and how you do and don’t spend time.  For example, are you reading your news on Google or NYT? Do you use a portal like MSN or Yahoo? What do you do on Facebook?  Such information, or attention data, can be quite valuable, especially when correlated with other information.  Many companies rely on this concept, both implicitly and explicitly.

This use of the word attention, though, doesn’t apply only to the Internet and media.  It also applies to plain-old products too – which cereal you eat and where you vacation, etc. – in fact, it can apply to everything.

So, it follows, that energy attention is the subset of your attention as it applies to energy:  what, where, and how, you do and don’t use energy.  Just like the more general attention data, such data can also be quite valuable, both to you in reducing your energy use and costs, but also to third-parties for marketing and sales purposes (note that carbon attention overlaps with energy attention, but I am not going into that now).

Electric and Gas utilities record one major aspect of your energy attention today:  your electricity and gas usage data.  Most utilities provide these data back to their customers in summary form on bills, and many provide it in more detail.  My local utility, PG&E, provides me with hourly electricity and gas usage data through their Web portal.

While functional, I wanted real-time usage data.  My first thought was to use the GE SmartMeter that PG&E installed.  While the data could be retrieved from there, my access to it is on an unknown schedule with an unknown feature set.  The California Public Utilities Commission, utilities, vendors, and other stakeholders have been wrangling over issues central to the ownership and sharing of such energy attention data.  Both the Commission and PG&E have good reasons to be careful with this data:  PG&E installed and owns that meter and paid for it with rate-payer monies.  There is a decent (though somewhat dated) overview at Giga OM.  And while the Commission released an update to their proposed decision (PD) yesterday (here), the wrangling isn’t over.

So instead of waiting for this to all get resolved, I followed Jon Udell’s lead and installed The Energy Detective 5000 (TED 5000).  This monitors my home electricity usage in real time, giving me immediate access to my own energy attention data.  This to me, is exactly in the spirit of the Attention Trust (AT), an organization that I did some pro-bono work for in the past along-side of Steve Gillmor.

Now what does this have to do with attention and the AT?

Back in 2005, the AT was formed to assert user rights over attention data, specifically as it related to that data collected by Internet  services.  For example, Google tracks user attention (through clicks and time on pages, etc.) and uses that  information for operating their various services.  You consent to their right these data  through their Terms of Service (TOS).   The AT asserted that the user also owns these data.  To assert this ownership, the AT provided the Attention Recorder with which a user could record their own attention data from the browser.  The act of capturing such data from the user side of the firewall ended the discussion of who owned the data.  Yes, the Internet service has their copy and can use it based on the TOS, but the user owns the data too.

So, the TED 5000 is my own personal Energy Attention Recorder.  I assert ownership over the data and authority to do anything I want with it – including exposing it to any third-party service I so choose.

Interestingly, the PD issued yesterday names the TED 5000 specifically (although in reference to a utility comment).  This is in response to one of the CPUC questions (paraphrased):

Does the Commission have authority over entities that receive information on a consumer’s energy usage from meter sources other than a utility?

While the Commission has deferred this question, it is clear that they will face an up-hill battle on protecting consumers from their own
actions.

I, for one, claim ownership of my own energy attention.

Tags: Attention, AttentionTrust, CPUC, GestureBank, PG&E

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Use the marginal kWH cost for efficiency savings!

June 14, 2011 at 9:18 am · Filed under Energy, Miscellaneous, Utilities

I haven’t done a survey on how green home products present savings to consumers, but my guess is they are generally doing it wrong.  Granted, this might be some mandate from some industry group or governmental body, I don’t know, but it is key that consumers see the difference.

Here is an example, but first some background.

I recently picked up a Kill-a-Watt and have been measuring different devices in the house while on standby.   I want to get a handle on how much vampire power is being wasted.

It turns out that around 60 watts is bleeding from our main home entertainment system when on standby.  That is about 60 watts * 8760 hours = 525 kWH per year.

Aside from a classic power strip with a switch, there are solutions now that supply controlled outlets that only make power available when some master component is on.  One solution is the Zuni Digital smart powerstrip.  Another is the is the Belkin Conserve, though the latter doesn’t have enough outlets (disclosure: those our Amazon links).

So what am I on about?  If you look at the Belkin information, they present a very similar scenario as mine and conclude that the Conserve power strip can save up to $67 / year!  Unfortunately, they are using the wrong price:

Dollar figure based on US Department of Energy average retail price for residential electricity of $0.1132 per killowatt-hour.

Residential electricity rates are often more complex than that, though, and here in the PG&E territory, such a low rate only applies to your baseline usage.  The rates go up based on your usage.  The top rate is actually $0.40352.

If you are a consumer making a decision on saving 525 kWH per year, you should be looking at your top rate — i.e., the top rate you are actually paying to your utilty based on your circumstances.  Because if you shave off kWH, you are saving the money on the top rate, not on the bottom rate.   I’m embarassed to admit it, but our rate is 40-cents.  If I save 526 kWH that saves me $212.    (Of course, if your energy savings drop you to a lower rate, the calculation changs).

The Zuni sells for $39 — that pays for itself in just over two months.  Now, granted, our entertainment system is actually used sometimes, but I estimate it is unused 94% of the year, so that still nets nearly $200.

So, what is the marginal rate you pay?

Tags: Efficiency, Energy, Utilities, Vampire

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