Torres Talking: Personal

Happy Father’s Day!

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 02:00:19 GMT

On my first father’s day (as a father) I felt it only appropriate to give a shout-out to the old man who got me interested in all this computer nonsense in the first place. A truly inspirational individual – even if he doesn’t know it – my dad’s responsible for who I am as a father, a man, and… well… a technologist!

We ran our first bulletin board service (BBS) on the Commodore 64 twenty-some odd years ago on a 300 baud modem (then 1200, then 2400, then 9600!) using Ivory Joe’s 6485/Ivory BBS software. Which we eventually got the BASIC source for and hacked up ;) From that moment on (sometime around 1986) I knew what I wanted to do with my life. Cool, eh? At some point I’ll write something up that’s a more complete history… because a lot of what my dad taught me about over 20 years ago set the stage for what I’m working on right now. We had IM, forums, email, page designers / homepages, and all that jazz back then!

Thanks Dad! Happy Father’s Day!

Mint.com

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 21:53:58 GMT

I've been giving Mint a try over the past few days. It's not quite feature-rich enough for me to switch from MS Money Plus just yet, but I do see a day when 100% of my banking and financial management moves to the web. I've been waiting for this day for about a decade, so it's a long time coming.

Mint is unbelievably friendly though and has a great UI for getting up and running in less than five minutes.

And it tells you things you sort of wish you didn't know. Like this:

Great.

Happy Holidays!

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 20:16:28 GMT

Lots of stuff to post about in the new year - like just how great Amazon's MP3 store is now and how I'm a Photoshop Lightroom addict - but for the time being, I'm just enjoying the holidays with family and trying to stay off the computer. I hope everyone has a wonderful New Years!

Lull?

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 23:20:08 GMT

As has happened quite a few times in the almost three years I've been "talking" on this blog, I've hit a bit of a lull. I give myself a total pass given that I just became a new father 2 1/2 weeks ago, but I wonder if there's more to it than that. I don't think I've run out of things to say, but there are a couple factors playing into the fact that I'm blogging a bit less these days (the last few weeks notwithstanding):

Family and work come first. This has always been the case, but both family and work have grown recently ;)
Twitter has given me an outlet for "quick thoughts". Things like a one sentence wrap-up of OpenSocial, how greedy Alex Rodriguez is, and so on - things I may have dedicated an hour and a blog entry to in the past. I'm really, really enjoying the simplicity of micro-blogging - certainly more than I thought I would. And since I have Twitter piped into my space (below) and into my Facebook status message, I no longer have the "no one is listening" problem we all had when Twitter first launched.
Controversy in the tech industry bores me. I don't want any part of it, so posting controversial things like Dare does isn't really appealing to me. Never has been; but it did take me a little while to figure out what would rattle people's cages and steer clear. And as a Microsoft employee, just about anything I publish can end up being controversial one way or another.

So what does this mean? Nothing really. Just some observations. I expect I'll still be posting about Windows Live (which just shipped in final form!), gadgets, and digital media throughout 2008 and beyond. Perhaps a little less frequently than 2005, 2006, and 2007. I did just get a Tivo HD to replace the atrocious Comcast DVR that I've complained about multiple times in the past, so there may be a post in the making there. And of course, the new Zune comes out on the 13th! Can't wait.

By the way, thanks to everyone for your comments on the Stella post. Fatherhood is a complete blast so far! Much more fun - and far less intimidating - than I expected.

Beautiful Stella!

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 01:49:49 GMT

Life.CommenceChange(DateTime.Now);

AT&T Tilt finally here!

Thu, 04 Oct 2007 06:12:41 GMT

Well that took a lot longer than I had hoped. The AT&T Tilt is finally here. It's fun when AT&T says this, knowing full well they're comparing it to the iPhone:

"The AT&T Tilt is the most comprehensive wireless device on the market today," said Michael Woodward, vice president, Business Voice/Data & Mobility Products, AT&T. "In addition to its innovative design, there is no device on the market that packs the number of features that are available on the Tilt."

I'm a little concerned going back to Pocket PC (although I've always liked it more than Smartphone for my needs). I bought the Q because it was small and light. This device isn't small or light. But hey, it's almost the winter and I'll be wearing a coat most of the time. The beauty of AT&T vs. Verizon (which I use now) is if I want to get a used "dumb" phone for $50 and swap the SIM card out for those times when I don't want to carry a computer in my pocket, I suppose I could.

This phone really is very close to my perfect device from a year ago. I'm calling AT&T tomorrow to see if they'll have it on Friday. Now I just have to make sure the kid knows to wait another few days before arriving so I can play with one last toy.

Exciting day of releases

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 23:35:42 GMT

Within the last 24 hours, a bunch of new things from Microsoft and Apple dropped and Techmeme has been hopping all day:

Silverlight 1.0
New iPods
Windows Live suite (new unified installer!)

Each one is totally exciting for different reasons, and of course each deserves its own write-up. But I haven't been much of a blogger these days - it isn't that I don't love blogging (I do) or that I have fewer things to say (I don't), it's just that there's more and more stuff competing for my time every single day. So I'm trying to be more selective, especially with a baby on the way.

But of course, I do have some quick thoughts to add on each of these announcements:

Silverlight 1.0 looks great, and I'm incredibly impressed with what the team has pulled off. The real watershed moment will be when 1.1 is released with the .NET Framework support though - that thing is a true game changer. In the meantime, I expect a number of video sites to start to use Silverlight in interesting new ways.

The new iPods are exactly what I expected (down to the Starbucks deal) and they're stunning. But I'm not sure I get the real desire to drop $299 for an 8GB player, which certainly won't hold much video, when you can get the 160GB version for $249 - albeit with a slightly smaller screen. What I'd really want is an 80->160GB player with the iPod Touch or iPhone size screen - now that would be my ideal "bus device". Of course, it's typical of me to want more than I can get ;) Apple impressed with these announcements.

The Windows Live suite is finally out in beta form with Mail, Messenger, Photo Gallery, OneCare, Family Safety, Writer, and Toolbar. There are new versions of just about everything! I would definitely give Photo Gallery a try as a Spaces user... there are all sorts of great features including VERY simple publishing (high-res!) to Spaces.

You can read more about the suite here from Chris Jones, and install it from here!

AT&T Tilt (HTC Kaiser) is my "iPhone killer"

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 03:29:43 GMT

Dramatic Scoble-esque title, I know. But sometimes it's deserved. With all the talk about the iPhone, including on this blog (#1, #2), I was starting to get some real phone envy. Well, until the AT&T Tilt (aka HTC Kaiser) arrives next week that is. See, as beautiful and "cool" as the iPhone is, it ultimately comes down to what I can do with a device - not how flashy the UI is. And there are just far too many things I can't do on the iPhone that a phone like the AT&T Tilt enables. Plus, this one's quite a looker too...

So when people tell me it's "all about the experience, duuuude" and they still can't read their corporate email, call Mom while driving using voice command, synchronize their calendar, contacts, and tasks over the 3G-powered air, read a rights-protected Word document, type quickly using a real keyboard, or get turn-by-turn directions to Cannon Beach, I'll just smile and nod. As much as I appreciate a beautiful and emotionally charged experience like the iPhone, I need to be a productive engineer and businessman in my old age.

Check out what the AT&T Tilt/HTC Kaiser is all about:

It has built-in GPS. How cool is that? No more getting lost... ever.
Of course, it supports Wi Fi - but it also supports HSDPA for data, which is blazingly fast compared to EDGE.
It has a real, full QWERTY keyboard with a large screen that tilts at an angle like a laptop. Pretty nifty.
It has the best Exchange support ever on a phone - it supports HTML email, IRM protected email, MS Office attachments, Out of Office updating, and Global Address List searching (what is Carmen's office number again?) It even supports instant search of your entire Exchange mailbox from the built-in mail app.
Since it's a Pocket PC, there are thousands of games to play - even NES and Sega Genesis emulators.
It has Windows Live built-in (Hotmail with push support and Messenger with voice clips) along with Live Search for Mobile (which supports the built-in GPS)
The 3MP camera with auto-focus takes fantastic photos (for a phone) with one-click upload directly to Spaces.
It supports microSD, which means 4-8GB of music, video, whatever.
It will still cost less than the iPhone.

What's it missing? To be honest, not a heck of a lot. I'm going to seriously miss having a VGA screen - the crisp colors and fonts are really nice to have - and the Windows Mobile Professional (aka Pocket PC) interface is quite dated at this point, even though it has been tweaked a bit in the latest release to have more of a Vista look and feel. It's certainly no iPhone when it comes to pure "pop" and wow-factor, although it can come kind of close with apps like Wisbar Advance, Opera Mobile, and Spb Mobile Shell. I'm willing to sacrifice that for now just to get some real work done on the go.

I can only hope the rumors are true about it coming out next week, otherwise my new phone will have to compete for my attention with my new baby in October. YES, the baby will win that one... relax... I kiiiiiid!

Fun with pain...

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 17:42:28 GMT

If you happened to read my Twitter trail on Sunday/Monday on the right-hand side of this page, you'd know that I had to go into the ER for an unexpected appendectomy. Given that I'm on pain & nausea drugs, I didn't really want to take the time to write up how it went down for friends & family. Thankfully my wife (and nurse!) did it for me yesterday! Thanks babe.

So we had an eventful weekend. Ever since we got back from Mexico, Mike's had off and on stomach aches. As we went about our day on Saturday it was really bugging him, but it wasn't until it was making him bend over in pain on Sunday that we really took it seriously. We finally called a doctor on Sunday afternoon and they said we should go to the ER. It was strange going to the ER in such a calm manner - we packed up books and snacks, assuming we'd be there for a while and then get to go home. It felt a little bit like foreshadowing for our trip to the hospital in October. :)
It took the ER until about 2 or 3 in the morning to diagnose the problem - Appendicitis. Mike had to endure 2 hours of drinking a liquid dye which made his stomach expand like crazy. And telling his symptoms over and over to 16 doctors. I slept off and on in another room where there was an extra bed. Mike didn't sleep. He went in for surgery at 7:15am and I went home to sleep for a bit. Surgery went very well - they did have to do a full appendectomy which means a 4" scar. We finally got home last night at 8:30 or so and put him to bed. Drugs plus no sleep = very deep sleep for 12 hours. He's now resting on the couch surrounded by crackers, empty soup bowl, remote for TV, 2 bored cats, and some pills.
I am glad that it was what it was and that it was something they can just take out - voila! And thankfully it happened now and not in 2 months. The only issue is that he can't lift anything for 2 weeks and I can't lift anything heavy either, so that big box that I just spotted in our mailroom might get a little dusty! Yikes!
I am just glad the father of my baby girl is ok. I have to admit, I had to think about it on Sunday - what would I do if something was really wrong? Not fun to think about, but always a reality. Thankfully, I still get to keep him. Who else would sing to the cats??

Some iPhone thoughts

Mon, 02 Jul 2007 19:00:24 GMT

Omar writes exactly what I would have written had I documented my iPhone experience from Saturday:

The iPhone reminds me of what it's like to play and experience something I hadn't experienced before. Microsoft Surface gave me the same goose bumps. It reminded me why I am such a gadget freak. Every couple of years something like this comes along that puts a big huge smile on your face every time you use it.
It's the perfect blend of technology and art. It's a completely emotional experience. It's fun.
I did not buy one. I reserve the right to change my mind in the future, but if it did in fact support Exchange ActiveSync I would instead be writing a review rather than a "Wow" post. It's not the e-mail I care so much about, but the calendar, contacts, and tasks sync that is the killer app for me. Knowing that when I update some one's phone number on my phone that all my devices on all my computers get that update is the holy grail.

Exactly. I wrote about this back when the iPhone was announced; without Exchange support (which you have to assume is coming very, very soon) it's a total no-op for me. The other things (the slow network, the built-in battery, the price, and so on) are still things you have to deal with - some of them are just Apple taxes similar to the iPod. But I've gotta tell you, after holding that thing and playing with it, these taxes might be worth paying. I didn't want to like it, but I do. With Exchange sync, I would probably have to jump on the bandwagon... taxes and all.

Omar lists some of the other devices that hit him this way. I have my own list:

Commodore 64
Palm Pilot Professional (and then the Palm V)
Treo 180/320
Tivo
HiDef TV
Xbox 360
Apple Titanium Powerbook (Mac OS X Jaguar)
1st-gen iPod
iPod nano
Microsoft Surface
Added: Sega Genesis. I knew I forgot one.

I love that Omar exists because he saves me a lot of time - whether it's writing blog entries for me or teaching me about some Outlook idiosyncrasy that dramatically cuts down email filing effort, he's always making me more efficient :)

iPhone stunt gone wrong

Sat, 30 Jun 2007 04:54:19 GMT

I'm sorry but this is too funny ;) Whoops!

iPhone stunt gone wrong

Swivel List of 3s

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 21:51:33 GMT

Just when I thought blogging was getting boring, Trevin called me out to list 3 non-tech blogs I read regularly. I have about 191 feeds in Google Reader (down significantly from 325+ last year) so hopefully this isn't too difficult. Here we go.

Project: Trevin’s Swivel List of 3’s

Rules:

Nominees have to nominate 3 blogs that they regularly read.
The nominated blogs cannot be strictly tech-focused; any other category is fair game. (e.g. You can’t nominate Tech Crunch or Engadget, but someone’s personal blog that occasionally talks about tech is allowed).
The nominated blogs cannot already be on the list.
Nominees nominate 3 other people to participate. To keep the close knit feel of this, the new nominator and nominee must have met in person.

Here are my nominations - I decided to go with a positive psychology or personal development theme for this, since that seems to be my #2 category behind tech feeds:

StevePavlina.com blog. There are some classic posts on this blog about becoming an early riser, intention-manifestation, and self-employment. Highly recommended. The posts tend to be on the long side however, so you have to give yourself a lot more time to process these than Engadget blips.
43 Folders. Great blog and fun podcast. Very much focused on Getting Things Done type work; Merlin is an entertaining writer and speaker and I've gleaned a lot of great tips from this blog (like applying the "shitty first draft" name to something I've been doing since college)
Presentation Zen. Want to learn how to be a better presenter and get people's attention? This blog is where to start. This is another one where the posts tend to be on the long-ish side, but reading the Gates/Jobs lessons in contrast alone is worth it.

Hope people get some value out of those recommendations. If you want more, let me know.

And next up?

Karen Luk. I'm sure they will be something about food preparation, "cute things", or injury care!
Jay Fluegel. College roommate, co-worker, and best man. Prediction: sports.
Omar Shahine. Since Trevin was too chicken.

Blog software should have ways to spread these "memes" built-in somehow. Hmmm...

iPhone: the only new "feature" is the UI

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 21:21:20 GMT

I just finished watching the 20-minute iPhone tutorial on Apple.com and I realized one undeniable thing: everyone from Apple speaks exactly the same, mannerisms and all. Of course, everyone from Microsoft does too so that's the pot calling the kettle black. Anyhoo, I realized one other thing...

What's interesting to me about the iPhone isn't the YouTube app (which apparently doesn't work at all over EDGE and requires Wi-Fi) or Google Maps or the fact that it's "the best iPod ever created". The thing that's interesting is the one thing that it has over other phones - it looks and feels great. That's it. It has subtle animations that tug at your emotions and you can't help but have fun playing with it.

It's the one feature of the iPhone that no one else has. I'd gladly set my Windows Mobile phone up for a duel with the iPod if it weren't for the fact that I'd be embarassed by the lack of pretty little transitional fades.

If I sound like I'm badmouthing the iPhone, that isn't my intention. You can't underestimate the importance of the user interface and the emotional connection it can foster, regardless of features. It's a big deal. I expect that if nothing else, the iPhone will spur mobile OS developers everywhere to take the little things (like transitioning from a call back to email) a lot more seriously. Instead of adding more features, focus on the basics. Get people to love using your phone.

Of course, this is all from a video demo since I've never actually held one. And probably won't for a while given the price of the thing.

Apps I'm trying out

Wed, 23 May 2007 00:32:40 GMT

I've spent some time over the last few weeks branching outside of Windows Live-ville and trying out some other applications that could potentially pass the 7-day software test. So far, three things are about to break through that elusive barrier, so I figured I would give them a quick shout-out in case people out there are interested as well.

1. Twitter with Twadget for Vista and Twitget for Live Spaces.

I resisted Twitter for a while, but I'm finally starting to warm up to it. I can see how it's becoming a little mini social phenomenon with the digerati, even though it really is pretty similar to Windows Live Messenger status messages and Facebook's status updates - both of which have been around longer. I'm using the new Twitter mobile web and SMS interfaces to update my status about once daily, and I'm subscribed to about 10 people (and will likely not go beyond that). Of course, I had to up my text plan from 500 texts to unlimited in order to really play with this.
Using Twadget has been fun too as it's more ambient like Messenger - the status updates just sort of stream in and I can look at them whenever I have a few seconds to kill. And of course, I had to integrate my Twitter status with Spaces via Twitget - you can see this on the right-hand side of my space.
The one downside to Twitter: the thing is down half the time. That little cat they have working on their servers needs to take a scalability lesson me thinks.

2. Callwave with the Vista gadget.

For those of you not using this great service, you really should if you're anything like me and despise receiving voicemails. I'm a big believer in streamlining inefficiencies, and this little tool does the trick beautifully. Trevin wrote about this a little while ago, so instead of reiterating how cool it is, I'll let him speak to it. One thing: I do love the Vista sidebar gadget.

3. Google Notebook.

Trust me when I say that I don't want to use this - but as much as I love OneNote, I can't handle the fact that it isn't a hosted service. When you have 5 different PCs and Macs + a smartphone and you want access to your notes from anywhere, OneNote synchronization just doesn't cut it. So I'm giving Google Notebook a try for a personal project (note: NOT for corporate use - I would never store my job-specific notes on Google servers).
I've already run into a few problems with it where fonts get randomly changed and line-spacing gets messed up. But I will just deal with those for the time being in order to have access to my notebook from anywhere. At some point, once my notes become more solidified, I will probably switch back to OneNote or Word and use FolderShare or something to keep things in sync.

Honorable mention: Google Reader which I've been using for about 4 months or so after switching from Bloglines during one of their many outages. I love it. Not a single minute of downtime or "mark every item as unread just for fun" event yet. I've also been playing a bit with GarageBand but since I have zero musical ability, I don't expect this one to pass the 7-day test.

Big news!

Thu, 03 May 2007 23:35:09 GMT

And no, it has nothing to do with Windows Live Spaces this time.

We're having a baby! He or she is due in October and we're obviously incredibly excited about the whole thing. We've been slowly telling people in person over the past few weeks, so I figured it was safe to tell everyone else via my blog at this point. Great stuff. If you're learning this from my blog and you're upset that we didn't tell you in person, blame the head and not the heart.

Here's the little peanut...

We're also in the middle of a pretty significant remodel on our place in Seattle, so we're living out of temporary housing (on the east side - 11 minute commute!) for a few more weeks while they finish that up. Once finished, we'll actually have a nursery for this kid - and an office with a Vista-powered iMac and 2TB of redundant storage for Daddy.

So there's just been a lot going on recently, and I suspect life is going to be busy like this for, oh... about 18-22 more years. At some point, I'll write up some stuff that's on my blog backlog about our latest release, Silverlight (amazing), and my thoughts on Rich Internet Applications in general.

In the meantime, I'm going to be moving us back into our home, comforting my growing wife, and working on the next release of Spaces which is already rapidly approaching.

I bought a Mac... to run Vista

Tue, 06 Feb 2007 06:28:33 GMT

My almost five-year old Titanium Powerbook had been acting a little funky lately; randomly freezing up, slowing to a crawl whenever I loadad a video or a Flash app. I decided I had enough of that considering I use that machine most of the time that I'm not in the office. So I bought a MacBook Pro during a day trip to Oregon yesterday (where they don't have any sales tax) and here I am using Windows Live Writer within Windows Vista on a Mac.

I bought this machine primarily to run Vista. People who ask me "Why didn't you just buy a Dell?" have probably never used a Mac - or it's been so long they couldn't imagine why someone would want Apple hardware to run Windows. It's pretty simple. It's hands-down the best hardware for me. I love the automatic backlit keyboard, the crystal clear 15.4" screen, the slick metallic finish, the MagSafe adapter, the fantastic embedded iSight camera, the slot-loaded DVD drive, and so on. But at the same time, I love Vista (with Office 2007 specifically) and if I couldn't use Word 2007, Windows Live apps or Outlook 2007, it wouldn't be worth it. But I can.

And I get the added benefit of being able to pop into OS X to play with it and see what Apple's up to. Nice perk.

So here I am using Parallels to run Windows Vista Ultimate on a Mac. From within Parallels (which took about a minute to setup... and the automated Vista install took less than 30) I can plug-in external devices, use the iSight camera in Windows Live Messenger, and even use the cool trackpad features to right-click or scroll windows with two fingers like you can in OS X. The network was available immediately with zero configuration and every Windows application has worked flawlessly. I'm totally impressed with how plug-and-play the process was.

Next up: I'm going to give Bootcamp a try. Although it's probably best to wait until Apple catches up and releases Vista specific drivers.

Is it for everyone? Nah. It's expensive for one (you have to buy Parallels and Vista separately) and it's a bit of a power-user thing to do. But it's pretty great to be able to finally pair the world's slickest new operating system with some beautiful hardware goodness. Now when I'm on a plane, people will see the Apple logo and think I'm running OS X... just to see a big fat glowing Windows logo staring right back at them. Love it.

Apple Faces Federal Monopoly Suit

Wed, 03 Jan 2007 20:59:02 GMT

Anyone who has been reading this blog for some time knows how happy this makes me. Not because I don't like Apple (I love their stuff) and not because I don't like iPod/iTunes. Because the way they do business when it comes to music is, in my opinion, horrible for customers.

Apple currently faces several lawsuits, most of which are in the process of obtaining class-action status. But only one lawsuit has the potential to harm the company in a manner similar to Microsoft's epic federal antitrust battle. Last July, a class-action lawsuit alleged that Apple's decision to tie music sold from its iTunes Store to its dominant iPod device was illegal, threatened competition, and harmed consumers.

Source: Apple Faces Federal Monopoly Suit

While hanging out with family for the holidays, I had to "teach" everyone the harm in buying songs from the iTunes Store. It doesn't matter how intelligent or good intentioned people are, if they aren't paying attention to how DRM works they could end up being totally screwed out of hundreds or thousands of dollars if they give in and start one-click purchasing from iTunes.

For what it's worth, I feel the same exact way about the Zune Marketplace... or any online service with restrictive DRM that doesn't work on any and all devices.

Rose Parade 2007

Tue, 02 Jan 2007 06:41:59 GMT

Whoever said watching a "parade of roses" wasn't cool probably didn't know about the Stealth Bomber, the guy in the jetpack (!), or Darth Vader marching with two hundred Stormtroopers.

Yeah, ummm... wow.

I am Superman

Sat, 30 Dec 2006 07:54:48 GMT

OK, I had to give this Superhero Personality Test thing a shot after seeing it all over the place (TechCrunch, Micro Persuasion, Jason Calcanis).

I was pleasantly surprised to see the results being a huge fan and all. I was actually a little nervous that I'd be more Spider than Super. I guess all those hours spent reading comics and watching Christopher Reeve, George Reeves, Dean Cain, and Brandon Routh have rubbed off on my value system.

You are Superman

Superman		75%
Spider-Man		70%
The Flash		70%
Green Lantern		65%
Hulk		60%
Iron Man		60%
Supergirl		57%
Robin		49%
Wonder Woman		47%
Catwoman		45%
Batman		40%

You are mild-mannered, good,
strong and you love to help others.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test

5 Things People Don't Know About Me

Wed, 20 Dec 2006 21:13:38 GMT

It looks like Dare tagged me with the "5 things people don't know about me" virus... er... meme. Oh well, let's get to it, shall we?

When I was in 8th grade, I got a C- or below in more than half of my classes including a D- in Art and an F in Music. Yes, I failed Music. If I recall correctly, the D- in Art was because I got in a clay fight with Gil Anderson in the middle of class... and the F in Music had something to do with blinding the teacher with the reflection of the sun off of my watch. In 9th grade, I had to see a juvenile committee twice for breaking into school after-hours (with Ermler!) to play basketball and driving around in my parents' car without a license. But the thing most people don't know about me is that by 12th grade, I was somehow voted Teacher's Pet by my peers. Some days I wonder whether my career is more like the start of my high school stay or the end of it. Don't answer that.
I'm a closet hip-hop junkie. Some people know this, most don't. My wife thinks I'm "weird" because I know all the words to just about any hip-hop track on the planet. I actually listen to a pretty eclectic set of music - it isn't limited to hip-hop anymore. Right now, the CDs in my car: Eminem presents the Re-up, Snow Patrol, Death Cab for Cutie, Akon, The Killers, and Nick Lachey. Note on that last one: I'm also a sucker for cheesy pop music, especially a cappella stuff. I'm listening to Boyz II Men right now. OK, I'm digging a grave for myself here.
I think I have borderline OCD. Examples: I can't sleep unless the bedroom is straightened up and all the doors are closed. My bathroom looks like a hotel bathroom at all times with everything neatly arranged. Things in my office space (scissors, post-its, etc.) all have "a place" and need to be put away when I'm finished with them. I hate going to bed until everything is put away. When people come over they always say "you didn't have to clean up for us" to which we always reply, "we didn't". But they don't believe us. My Windows desktop is always empty. I have to empty my email inbox and daily task list by the end of every day. There's nothing on the floor of my car - or in the trunk for that matter. When I get a scratch on something (iPod, phone) I don't stop noticing it until I replace it. I could go on and on, but I won't.
I have a lot of respect for my parents but never tell them that... and I don't know why. My dad is one of the warmest, sweetest, realest people I know. He's probably the best role model any boy could have in terms of what being a man is really all about. He just cares so much and is so expressive about it, never hanging up the phone without an "I love you"... and always wondering why I don't call him more often [side note: it has nothing to do with you, Dad. I just really don't like talking on the phone!] Growing up we had our arguments (see #1 above) but I couldn't imagine having a better father. My mom is one of the most generous people I know - the things she's done for me for the last 30 years are truly immeasurable. She's incredibly strong given everything she's faced, especially in recent years. She may have a hard exterior at times (think: Carmella Soprano) but she's all heart underneath. She probably thinks I don't immediately recognize and embrace those moments, but I do. She's also one of the hardest working people I know - always putting her family first. Hmm... maybe it's just easier to type this than it is to SAY it. Why is that? Well, maybe my parents will actually read my blog at some point ;)
Since 1999 or so I've had to deal with "myogenic thoracic outlet syndrome" off and on. I've been to over two dozen doctors, chiropractors, accupuncturists, physical therapists but nothing seemed to do the trick until recently. For the past two months I've been getting adjusted regularly, watching my posture, and doing corrective exercises in the gym. It isn't perfect (my hand is tingling right now actually) but it's much less frequent than it used to be. You simply don't realize how much chronic discomfort can wear you down emotionally until you have to deal with it day-in and day-out. I'm determined to get this thing to a 100% symptom-free state.

I was going to write "I'm not tagging anyone. Let the meme line die with me." But I wouldn't mind hearing what Jay, Karen, Trevin, Leah, and Tony have to say if they're listening.

Technorati Tags: 5 things, five things

Random bits

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 01:30:46 GMT

Every once in a while my blogging becomes more stream of consciousness trickle than verbose/wordy paragraphs. Usually this happens around product release times because I either a) don't have a lot to talk about other than bug numbers and triage meetings or b) don't have the time to think through something in enough depth to write about it. Now is one of those times, probably more due to A than B, but really just because blogging is entirely cyclical for me. Sometimes I just feel like writing and sometimes I don't. So these streams are typically reserved for those times. Here we go with some random bits...

I went back on my device promise and bought a Motorola Q AND an iPod nano for my (30th!) birthday. Well, technically my wife bought them for me :)
I did this because I wanted something smaller for both the gym (the iPod nano) and for my pocket (the Q). So far so good on both fronts. I'm completely overwhelmed with the podcasting support in the iPod (it's light-years better than the Creative Zen Micro) and I'm loving the sheer elegance of the Q. I've underestimated how important pocketability of a phone is to me in the past. Not anymore.
It's for this reason that I didn't wait for the Zune.
Two friends of mine from a former company (and before that, Cornell University) just sold their company for $95 million in cash. Wow. What a great accomplishment.
I'm completely underwhelmed with Firefox 2. I'm using IE7 exclusively again.
There are lots of totally subtle but totally cool Spaces enhancements on the way that I can't talk about. But I think it goes without saying that (most) people will be happy with what's cooking.
I installed Windows Vista RC1 a few weeks back along with Office 2007 and I'm very happy with them. I didn't expect to feel the way I do about my PC; I thought those feelings were reserved for my Mac. But more than once I've said "I love this thing!" I'm recommitted to Windows in a big way. And Omar made me laugh with this post today. So true.
I truly believe that Office 2007 is the most significant update of Office ever - and in a lot of ways, is more exciting than the release of Windows Vista if you're like me and you're into spreadsheets, documents, slidedecks, and so on. At some point, I will write more about this. But half the reason I'm loving my setup now is because of Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook. Weird.
Our stock is very quietly creeping towards $30. Cool.
I'm thinking of redecorating my space. I'll post more about this soon, I'm sure.

One other random thing: I'm beginning to realize how hard it is to be a Microsoft blogger. When you talk about stuff you love from Microsoft (Office 2007, Windows Vista, Windows Mobile/Motorola Q, Live Writer) it sounds like you're cheerleading. When you talk about stuff you love from the competition (MacBook Pro, iPod nano, iTunes, Flickr) you run the risk of pissing off co-workers/executives. Ditto when you talk about stuff you totally loathe from Microsoft (no comment). And when you talk about stuff you dislike from competitors, it looks like you're being defensive (uhhh... didn't we ship that already with Live Search Macros?) Oh well, it's still fun.

Mobile ESPN dead, long live Mobile ESPN

Thu, 28 Sep 2006 21:51:39 GMT

I would really love to say "I told you so!" to the great folks at ESPN who have just today put a bullet in the head of one of the most innovative and interesting new services in the mobile space. Back in March I wrote the following about Mobile ESPN:

The thing is: ESPN did a great job with this software. It just feels like ESPN. It has data services integrated into just about every aspect of the system. I seriously loved it. It's a great example of mobile data done right.
But why in the world is this wonderful software tied to (clunky) hardware?
I want to make my Windows Mobile phone into an "ESPN phone" from April to October every year. Do I really have to buy a separate phone to do this? Well, no... not technically. I have a phone with an operating system that can run thousands of applications just like this one. Flash-based, J2ME, .NET, whatever.
...
So... note to ESPN (and others following in their footsteps): It's just software; now that you have your cool niche device, please distribute the damn software! People like me might just pay for it.

Today they announced their service will reach end-of-life in December, and the functionality will live on through the form of integration with existing carriers. Now, if only they went down this path from the start! So here's my prediction on what happens with Mobile ESPN (which I *love* BTW) in the next 6 months:

ESPN cuts a deal with Sprint as an exclusive partner - at least for a short while. This seems logical given that a) Sprint has an EV-DO network which is a pseudo-requirement for this service, and b) ESPN and Sprint were already in bed together as part of the ESPN MVNO structure.
The Mobile ESPN experience is refitted to work as Flash Mobile and will be available for download on a wide variety of Sprint handsets. It will also come included on a bunch of phones at retail - and Sprint will start promoting their own service as the only one with deep ties to great sports content.
But it will cost you $5.99/mo to get the privilege of using the service. This will show up on your phone bill.

If this happens, I will be the first person to sign-up. The thought of losing my smartphone for just for a "sportsphone" was never appealing, but extending my existing phone to be ESPN-enabled would be fantastic. Of course, this is assuming the service ends up working with Windows Mobile 5.0. If it doesn't, it would be insanely disappointing.

Link to Mobile ESPN, R.I.P: 2005 - 2006

Cingular 3125 (aka HTC Star Trek) arrives

Thu, 14 Sep 2006 00:54:34 GMT

I'm not a Cingular customer and I don't particularly like flip phones. But today, Cingular released the first Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone in the U.S... and it's gorgeous, so it's worth a mention. This phone rivals or bests the Motorola Razr in every way in terms of design aesthetics, and blows it away in terms of software and sheer usability.

It has a beautiful screen, full Windows Mobile functionality (Outlook with Direct Push, Internet Explorer, and so on) and it's only $149 with the usual 2-year contract. Good deal. So if flip phones are your bag, you could do a lot worse than pick up one of these babies. A few people have them in the office and they're drool-worthy.

I only wish I could use two phones with my Sprint plan - one for "heavy use" like my PPC-6700 and one for "casual/weekend use" like this one. There's nothing worse than going out to dinner on a Saturday night with a brick sticking out of your pocket. I would love to be able to activate one phone for use (which would simultaneously deactivate the other) with the press of a button similar to swapping out a SIM card with a GSM provider like Cingular. Oh well.

My ideal device

Tue, 05 Sep 2006 04:32:54 GMT

When you spend time traveling through Italy on trains without a laptop (at the end of May) you end up spending a lot of time thinking about things. Having one of the coolest phones on the market got me thinking about what it would take to get me to buy a cooler phone someday. In other words, what would it take to get me to drop a few hundreds bones on a device?

Well, I wrote myself a promise to keep myself from going out and buying a new Treo 700wx just because it has an additional 64mb of memory. That shouldn't be reason enough! So, here's that promise. The items near the bottom with "should" aren't must-haves, so I can't hold myself to this promise if they aren't met ;)

I will not buy another phone until...

It runs a newer version of Windows Mobile than current
It doesn't sacrifice *any* features of the Pocket PC (including a touchscreen)
It has a backlit keyboard like the PPC-6700
It has large enough storage (built-in or via add-on memory) to be adequate for media (i.e. 4gb+)
It has media functions *built in* (iPod, Gigabeat or Clix quality; at least some dedicated functions or buttons please!)
It has a VGA screen
It supports 802.11n/g/b along with EV-DO or WiMax/4G speeds
It supports the new Office XML formats and OneNote Mobile
It has built in GPS and should have software to go along with it (like CoPilot)
It has a 2+ MP camera with a hardware button and flash
It supports Xbox Live Anywhere (whatever that is!) or is software upgradable to support it
It has Windows Live Mail, Messenger, and other Live features built-in or is software upgradable to support them
It looks like Windows Vista or Mac OS X and not Windows XP :)
It supports Bluetooth wireless stereo audio (A2DP) and voice command
It should support server sync for notes finally (OneNote or Outlook)
It should be pebble black (i.e. carbon fiber)
It should be thinner and lighter (like Q)
It should have better battery life (at least for media, possibly through a specialized chip)

We'll see how long that takes. My guess is 19 months from now.

Sony SZ series and MacBook

Sun, 30 Jul 2006 05:59:58 GMT

I got a new work laptop a couple of weeks ago; a beautiful Sony SZ series machine. It's probably the slickest Windows laptop I've ever owned... or seen for that matter. But there are still so many things about it that could be improved.

There was an enormous amount of crapware installed on the machine when I got it. So much, in fact, that there were more than a dozen unwanted applications running in resident memory on first boot and a couple dozen icons sitting on my desktop just begging me to click them (including movies!) All of this resulted in five or six pop-up dialogs on first-use - everything from "Register me now!" to "Warning: Your computer is not protected! Pay for me!" What an absolutely aggravating experience - I spent over two hours uninstalling stuff. And of course, I still don't have a guarantee that there aren't remnants of those programs polluting my registry right now.
No recovery discs or driver discs were included with the laptop. If I have a problem with anything, I'm screwed unless I ante up DVDs and remember to run a "Create recovery discs" program buried deep in the Start Menu. Thanks to John for both the heads-up instruction and the DVDs - without which I never would have thought to create recovery discs.
I ordered a couple of power adapters that were supposed to be compatible with the Sony S series laptops; thinking that an SZ series is just an extension of an S series (what the heck do I know?) Turns out that wasn't the case and neither of the adapters I ordered worked at all (they were 16V instead of 19.5V) So I had to drive into the office from Seattle last weekend just to charge my laptop. FUN. When I reordered the adapters I made sure to remember than an SZ isn't an S or a Z.
The docking station doesn't include audio out! So when I dock the machine I have to remember to plug in my speakers if I want to hear anything. Not a big deal - especially now that I'm sharing an office and have MUTE on all day... but come on guys, you went 90% of the way and quit on us!

The thing that truly bugs me about this isn't the time I had to spend dealing with this stuff - it's the time everyone else has to spend on it. People like my wife, my friends, my family, my inlaws. Luckily, I know what I'm doing... but to the majority of the people in the world, this stuff is tricky. So the average person leaves all the junk on their drive and wonders why a couple months later the thing is slowing to a crawl and their favorite websites won't load.

And this silliness is what's hurting the perception of Windows and Microsoft. The fact that once Windows reaches the end-user, the entire experience is a cornucopia of confusing adware... Even with the "coolest" OEMs like Sony. Argh. Drives me crazy.

What to do? If the PC OEMs don't learn from Apple and optimize for the out-of-box experience by the time Windows Vista hits shelves, my next machine will be a MacBook Pro running Windows Vista. The only thing that gives me pause is the lack of the right-click button on the laptop... Sure I know you can simulate it, but I'm pretty hooked on right-click ;)

You have to figure that more and more people are going to come to the same conclusion. Especially people who rely on their laptops everyday like I do (it's the only machine I use for work). A MacBook running Vista seems to be the best of all worlds - gorgeous design, screaming performance, and the ability to run Windows apps natively. All without the annoyance and pure confusion of the "typical" out of box experience.

Wow, long time no blog...

Thu, 20 Jul 2006 02:59:39 GMT

More time passed in between blog entries than I had thought. I usually try and minimize the downtime, but I guess I wasn't being too diligent about it as it has been a number of weeks.

The reality for me is that blogging can be sort of a pain for a few reasons, but the primary one is that typing hurts my hands/fingers... sometimes enough to cause me to avoid it without knowing that's what I'm doing. When you spend 10-15 hours a day sitting at a keyboard - and you've been doing that for 20 years - it's likely going to have consequences. Well, I'm feeling those consequences now in the form of finger and hand stiffness/pain. So that's why I haven't been too quick to blog lately.

Couple that with the fact that I don't have much to talk about right now. Aside from working like mad with the rest of the tired team to get Windows Live Spaces out the door (and of course, working on a number of other things as well) there isn't a heck of a lot going on that's worth talking about... yet. Soon there will be a lot of things worth talking about. But not right now.

So I have been quiet lately - sorry. But here's a quick run down of what I've been up to (other than work):

I saw Superman Returns 3x and I loved it. I realize not everyone loved it... but I definitely did. Certainly a much more thought provoking film than anything about Peter Parker ;)
I've been busy getting back in shape after 2 weeks in Italy at the end of May. I do love the gym so.
Melinda and I are disappearing for a long weekend in a few weeks to our favorite place on Earth.
The Yankees are catching up on the Sox. Common theme every Summer. They will pass them by October, sorry guys.
I'm toying with the idea of writing a book or starting a site on something that isn't technology focused. The horror. Of course that means this finger/joint pain may get worse. Then again, I'm still toying with it so we'll see. It will happen at some point, I just don't know if the timing is right.

Stay tuned for Windows Live Spaces. I realize it feels like it's taking a while, but that's because we let you know about it early so you would be aware that your experience will be changing somewhat and the URLs will change one last time. We are still shipping new bits consistently every couple of months, so expect it very soon!

Sigh again... and goodbye to Bill

Sat, 17 Jun 2006 03:20:00 GMT

I was just reading this article and saw a quote from Joe Wilcox (who has a great blog):

“Microsoft’s biggest nightmare is people living in the browser,” said Joe Wilcox, an analyst with Jupiter Research.

I had to do a double-take to see if this article was published in 1996 or 2006.

Does he really believe this? I'm surrounded by thousands of people every single day who only think about people living in the browser. If this is someone's nightmare, I sure haven't seen it at any level of the company. Most people in this division have been living in the browser for a decade now. But I guess it makes a great quote, eh?

Anyway... if you were wondering about what I think about the BillG announcement itself: I think it's great. It's great for the world, it's great for Bill, it's great for Ray Ozzie and Craig Mundie, and it's even great for Microsoft. Over the last 10 years or so, Bill's persona has become larger than life. No longer the "geek done good", he's become the guy everyone loves to hate... success has a tendency to do that... but so does playing hardball (which Bill has been known to do from time to time). He's had a hard time earning the industry's trust back.

Ray has none of those problems. Not a single employee I've run into has had a bad thing to say about Ray. It seems everyone who knows him believes he's a man of the utmost integrity and honesty. Not to mention he's an incredibly personable, well-spoken leader who just "gets it". I'm looking forward to seeing how Ray is going to continue to infuse change into the company.

And I'm very much looking forward to seeing Bill go on to be the single largest force of good this world has ever known through the Foundation. The next 30 years will be fun for him - and there's no doubt he will make a bigger impact in the next 30 than he's made in the last... if that's possible.

Back in town!

Sun, 04 Jun 2006 22:08:22 GMT

My wife and I are back in Seattle after a two week trip to Italy. We visited Rome, Venice, and Positano on the Amalfi Coast. It was truly magnificent; I don't think I've had that much pizza, pasta, or wine in my entire life.

I've posted some pictures to Flickr just for fun (I turned off my Spaces photo albums pseudo-temporarily due to the Bloglines issue I blogged about a while back. Bummer, I know) But I hadn't used my Flickr account in a while so I wanted to see what kind of changes were made recently... and there's no better way to do that than to use it for real!

For those who don't know, one of the cool things about spaces is that you can use ANY service you want that supports RSS and still include that stuff on your space. For example, I have del.icio.us bookmarks on the righthand side of my space - and if I wanted to, I could include dynamic links to all of my Flickr photos or my Amazon Wishlist. You can learn more about the RSS Feed Module here. And if you want to learn how to take an innocent post about a vacation and make it into a sales pitch for a feature of spaces, look no further.

Just before we left for Europe, I noticed that AIM Pages launched with this feature (and Jason Calcanis was claiming thought leadership because of it.) But for those paying attention, you probably already knew that MSN Spaces (along with Yahoo 360 and others) have had this support for a while now.

Anyway, here are some photos of our trip! We took 641 so this is just a small sample :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mtorres/

After two weeks away, it's really good to be back home.

OOF for a bit

Thu, 18 May 2006 01:44:00 GMT

For those who don't know, OOF means "Out of Office". No idea why because it sure doesn't look like it should work that way. But whatever... I'll be OOF for a little bit (which means little to no blogging!) So don't flame me, OK?

Update: Thanks Brian for the reminder that OOF means Out of Facility. I think I liked it better when I thought it was a mistake.

Returning soon!

Wed, 03 May 2006 04:31:34 GMT

Oh....my.... <click the shield>

Playing to "not lose"

Sun, 23 Apr 2006 01:36:50 GMT

I've said it before: I bet working for Microsoft is kind of like playing for the New York Yankees. Rich history, a rock star team, and an incredibly unrealistic expectation for your team to win every single game every year... usually against upstart teams who may not score quite as many runs as you do.

But there's a difference between those teams (the Angels, White Sox, Marlins, and others) and the Yankees. These guys are organizing and playing to win while the Yankees seem to be more interested in "not losing" nowadays. Maybe it's because the pressure to win is so intense or because they have too much at stake (payroll, tradition, etc.) Whatever it is, it seems like the Yankees take far fewer risks.

My point? Microsoft's corporate culture needs to change if we want to be back on top. Playing to "not lose" is not how you win championships. If the other team is beating you with the long ball, you need to learn how to adapt and play small ball. I've been in far too many meetings lately where people focus far too much on "not losing". You win by listening to your customers and doing everything you can to delight them regardless of what the other guys are doing. Take risks and leave your heart out on the field; win or lose. Pretend the other guys didn't exist, what would you be doing then?

While locking in on competition is as much a part of Microsoft's culture as "eating your own dogfood", I'm personally not here because I want to "beat" Google... or MySpace... or Yahoo... or Apple at their game. I'm here because I want to continually change the game we're playing. When you focus too hard on what's happening today, you miss all the goodness that may come tomorrow. What would the iPod look like today if Apple focused on the competition?

Statements like "Company XYZ does it so we should do it too" or "Company XYZ isn't doing it, so why should we?" simply don't fly with me. Sometimes I find myself falling into that trap (strong culture tends to do that) and I hate it.

Treo 650 vs. PPC-6700

Wed, 19 Apr 2006 01:47:08 GMT

I just read this review (subscription required) by Walt Mossberg & Katherine Boehret where they claimed that the Treo 650 was a superior phone to the Sprint PPC-6700 because it requires fewer keystrokes to get things done.

These new email phones have some very nice hardware features. But they suffer when compared with the Treo because of their Windows Mobile software, which often requires more clicks and greater menu navigation to get simple things done than the Palm-based Treo does.

I have a lot of respect for these folks but this makes me seriously question whether they've actually used either device at length. Having spent many months using both the Treo 650 and the PPC-6700, I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that fewer keystrokes isn't the determining factor. It's stability and capability. The Treo crashed constantly as I've blogged about at length in the past - I don't think I've reset my PPC-6700 in over 2 weeks.

And I couldn't do half the things on PalmOS that I can do on Windows Mobile - synchronize tasks with Exchange, use Orb.com, browse at breakneck speeds, type on keys designed for human fingers, open Office documents (which never worked for me on the Treo), fire up Wi-Fi, use Microsoft Voice Command, read my Windows Live Mail, and about a dozen other things.

In short: this review is clumsy at best.

Mobile ESPN

Mon, 20 Mar 2006 06:49:10 GMT

A couple weeks ago I played with the Mobile ESPN phone from Sanyo at Best Buy. It's a pretty lame phone but a fantastic bit of software for sports fans; highly targeted content and a fast, interactive user interface. I found myself slightly giddy even though my phone could eat this one for lunch and dinner.

The thing is: ESPN did a great job with this software. It just feels like ESPN. It has data services integrated into just about every aspect of the system. I seriously loved it. It's a great example of mobile data done right.

But why in the world is this wonderful software tied to (clunky) hardware?

I want to make my Windows Mobile phone into an "ESPN phone" from April to October every year. Do I really have to buy a separate phone to do this? Well, no... not technically. I have a phone with an operating system that can run thousands of applications just like this one. Flash-based, J2ME, .NET, whatever.

But I have yet to see a completely immersive, targeted "skin" like this one for Windows Mobile devices (or Palm or Symbian for that matter). It wouldn't take much to create an ESPN pack, a Disney pack, an MSNBC pack, or an Xbox pack for "smartphones" and distribute it through the built-in software store on the device. Turn people's phones into walking advertisements for your services. Keep people connected to your brand. Upsell them to your heart's content. These are people who chose to tie their phone to your logo. Let them.

So... note to ESPN (and others following in their footsteps): It's just software; now that you have your cool niche device, please distribute the damn software! People like me might just pay for it.

@ETech, Monday->Thursday

Mon, 06 Mar 2006 00:09:18 GMT

I'll be at the O'Reilly Emerging Technologies conference this week with a dozen or so colleagues. Drop me a line if you're going to be in the area, even if all you want to talk about is how you would like to improve Windows Live or MSN!

It should be a fun, fun time - expect some cool announcements and demos from Microsoft this time around.

While some may disagree, I distinctly remember just how "out of it" Microsoft was two years ago. It seemed like all the cool stuff happening on the web and elsewhere was coming from... everyone else. This will probably be my first visit to an O'Reilly conference where I can hold my head high about what we have and where we're going. We just need to keep that momentum going and keep listening to you guys about what you want to see from us.

Time flies... and ETech

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 23:22:58 GMT

I've had a couple people ping me in the last few days asking where I've been. No blogging, no email, no IM, nada. I guess I didn't realize I was AWOL; time has just been flying. The rainy season is (almost) over and it's (almost) March already. It feels like it was just Christmas. Then again, I feel like I'm still 18 years old too and that was a really long time ago at this point... Oh well.

So what's up? Lots of stuff. Most of it I can't really talk about... but the stuff I can:

The MSN Spaces book is NOW AVAILABLE at book stores everywhere, including my own personal favorite, Amazon.com. There are some features discussed in the book that aren't yet available to the general public, so you can look at some sections of the book as a little bit of a teaser trailer of things yet to come. Once I actually get my hands on one of these hot commodities (Juliana? :) I can post more about it here and/or on the book space that we haven't touched in a while.

A bunch of us are heading to ETech in San Diego in March. Will you be there? If so, drop me an email and we can sync up: mtorres@microsoft.com. If you're interested in talking to any other team at MS, also let me know. Again, there are a bunch of us going.

We're hiring big time. Please read Jason's post for more information on this.

One of our competitors continues to surprise me with how well they're executing and how much they "get it". And one of them continues to completely underwhelm me. That's all I'll say about this.

Once inspiration hits again to write about something geeky, I'll be back.

PS. If you are still having problems uploading photos, please read this.