Archive for December, 2006

Microsoft ruins Christmas!

Published
by
Tom Raftery
on 26/12/2006
in Gadgets, hardware and video
. 20 Comments

I decided a while back to treat myself to a games console for Christmas and after some discussion, I settled on an Xbox 360. I would have bought a Wii except it doesn’t have a usable optical drive and we don’t have a DVD drive so I wanted the games console to double as a DVD drive.

I bought a Pro Console with wireless controllers to cut down on the cable clutter. I bought Viva Pinata and Pixar’s Cars which I could play with my three year old son Tomás (Cars is one of Tomás’ favourite movies).

He was very excited he was going to play these games as soon as his papa had set up the new Xbox on Christmas day.

Imagine the tears rolling down his disappointed little face when I had to tell him that he couldn’t play with his new games because the Xbox wouldn’t work with our TV (pdf).

I called Microsoft’s Support line and kudos to them for having it manned on Christmas day but the news wasn’t good. The staff there informed me that I needed to purchase a high def adaptor if I wanted my high definition games console to work on my high definition tv. Obviously.

And it is not that they wouldn’t work in high definition only, no they wouldn’t work in high def or regular.

And where could I get one of these? “At your nearest Xbox reseller” - yeah good luck finding one of those open on Christmas day.

This is completely ridiculous - this is a problem created by Microsoft. There is already a standard in place around high definition cabling. It is called HDMI. HD Ready TVs have a HDMI input, by definition. All Microsoft had to do was put a standard HDMI connector on their AV cable and their Xbox would work on every HD Ready TV out of the box.

But no, Microsoft go with their non-standard cable so they can gouge us for another 30 or 40 Euros.

In our house, Microsoft is not the Borg, Microsoft is the Grinch who stole Christmas.

Thanks a million Microsoft. Your cheapness destroyed my son’s Christmas.

Happy whatever!

Published
by
Tom Raftery
on 22/12/2006
in Personal and Technology
. 3 Comments

It used to be so simple. We lived in monocultural, monoethnic, Catholic Ireland. This time of year we simply said “Happy Christmas” to everyone.

Now Ireland has changed (and even if it didn’t, along came the Internet and connected everywhere to everywhere) so I guess I should say Happy Whatever to one and all!

Enjoy the break.

I’m off from the 27th December to the 7th of January on a house swap to Spain. Really looking forward to it. Look after the Tubes while I’m gone!

Microsoft - a wolf in wolf’s clothing?

Published
by
Tom Raftery
on 22/12/2006
in RSS
. 8 Comments

In June 2005 Microsoft announced their support for RSS. At the time it seemed like a good thing that Microsoft were embracing this standard, however, it was Microsoft after all. I should have known there was a more sinister motive behind it.

Today, according to an article in News.com, Microsoft has filed two patent applications covering RSS. The patents were filed in June 2005 but only came to light today.

The first application is for “finding and consuming Web subscriptions in a Web browser” while the second, according to the article is:

titled “content syndication platform,” [and] appears to describe a system that can break down feeds into a format that can be accessed and managed by many different types of applications and users.

Dave Winer is unsurprisingly, unimpressed and says:

Presumably they’re eventually going to charge us to use it. This should be denounced by everyone who has contributed anything to the success of RSS.

Nick Bradbury, of NewsGator takes a more sanguine approach saying:

quite often companies file patents just to protect themselves from lawsuits. There are plenty of sleazebags who file patent applications on obvious ideas, and then wait for someone like Microsoft to infringe those patents. In other words, companies like Microsoft often file patents to prevent having to shell out millions of dollars to predatory lawyers who haven’t invented anything other than a legal pain in the ass.

So, what do you think, is Microsoft’s “evil” reputation is deserved after all? Or is this a sad reflection on the state of US patent law?

Venice Project beta doesn’t include Macs

Published
by
Tom Raftery
on 22/12/2006
in Technology, iptv and video
. 5 Comments

Along with the rest of the world, it seems, I received my invite to try out the beta of the Venice Project. This is an IPTV project set up by Kazaa and Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis (so straight away you have to start taking it seriously).

Mike Arrington has written it up on TechCrunch, Om Malik has posted some screenshots and a glowing report on its functionality and James Corbett has gloated that he had an invite long before the A-Listers!

It all looks interesting but unfortunately I can’t use it. Why? The system requirements call for a machine running Windows XP with Service Pack 2. No Mac software!

Venice Project system requirements

5 things you didn’t know about me

Published
by
Tom Raftery
on 20/12/2006
in Personal and Technology
. 2 Comments

I hate chain letters and I have a similar opinion of meme tag posts, however when two people I know and respect tag me, well I kinda gotta play along - just don’t expect me to pass it on!

Things you probably don’t know about me:
I studied for four years for a PhD in Plant Science (my project was on the biological control of potato cyst nematodes using rhizosphere bacteria!).
I have a birthmark on my right leg the size, shape and colour of a strawberry!
In the 90s I used to go clubbing about 4-5 nights a week!
I used to play with an Irish trad music group in sessions in pubs in Cork a couple of nights a week and
I am a qualified scuba diver (CMAS)

Now back to techie stuff…

Richard MacManus’ predictions for 2007

Published
by
Tom Raftery
on 20/12/2006
in Technology
. 0 Comments

Richard MacManus, over on Read/WriteWeb has an extremely comprehensive must read post on his forecast for what will be hot in 2007.

His predictions for 2007:
RSS will go mainstream
Structured data will be a big trend
Widgets will continue rising in 2007
Web Office will continue to ramp up
The consumerization of the enterprise trend will start to infiltrate corporate IT
Rich Internet Apps will be a major force
Google in particular will continue to push the boundaries of browser-based apps
Semantic Web products will come of age
Expect more big things from Amazon
Expect some shakeups in the online advertising market
Watch out for developments in 2007 along the lines of a better, more robust online ad model
2007 will be about Search 2.0 and the rise of the vertical search engines
Microsoft’s Windows Live services will gain real momentum next year
Google may come out with some form of GoogleOS
Open Source Desktops will continue to gain momentum in ‘07
Expect the competition between IE7 and FireFox (plus Flock, Opera and Maxthon) to be intense
Expect Safari compatibility to rise sharply in 2007
Internet-based TV will ramp up in 2007
2007 will undoubtedly be a good year for P2P
SecondLife will become an important platform for marketing, promotion, and of course social networking
Virtual Money: Paypal showed the way, and we’re seeing more of it now - SecondLife LindeX, Microsoft points etc.
The online real estate market will grow rapidly in ‘07
The search for disruptive business models will continue!
Social networks will probably also become more open - and data portability will start to occur
International Web will finally start to get its due in mainstream media
One Laptop Per Child will create good buzz and may increase the adoption of thin-client like computers
Broadband continues to grow
VoIP space will really hot up
Mobile Web may be the big story of 2007
Mobile will be a bigger development and advertising platform in ‘07
watch for an emerging Webphone market - for example Apple’s rumored iPhone and a GooglePhone.

Check out Richard’s post for an explanation of each of these predictions.

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