I have to say, as someone who was just searched under a special screening procedure at the PDX airport, I'm glad the TSA is doing things the way it's doing them.

I'm a single passenger, with a one-way ticket to the middle of the Pacific Ocean, who changed his flight at the very last minute yesterday. So I got flagged.

Good.

I feel safer knowing that I was searched and singled out. Not because of who I am, but because of the situaion I created by choice.

After the special screening, not knowing why I had been singled out (and being the curious person that I am), I asked one of the TSA employees if the decision to search me was just random (at that point I assumed it was). She told me that no, it's not really random, and that's when I realized the profile/pattern I fit into.

And the Hawaiian Airlines gate person just called my name and inspected my paperwork to verify I had been properly screened.

I'm glad someone's paying attention.


--------------------
Greg Hughes

Your future will be decided on November 2. Be part of the decision, no matter what sides of any fences you fall on...

Ballots have been sent to all Oregon voters. Fill yours out. Return it. It's important.

You can't afford not to. We're not just checking boxes. We're deciding issues, left and right, conservative and liberal, change or stay put. Suit up and show up. Make your statement, make it yours, and make it well.

People far better than you or me have died for your right to cast your ballot. There's no reason that you shouldn't be able to make the effort to do so.

I voted. I did my part. Now you go.

And I thought I was pretty geeky with a Tablet PC sitting on the seat and a radio transmitter for audio on the radio... My PC-in-the-car setup 's got nothin' on what J.P. Stewart's doing...

A bunch of Microsoft employees have started a club to pursue their common hobby, as car enthusiasts, where they're building computer equipment into their automobiles. Channel 9's Robert Scoble interviewed one of those employees, J.P. Stewart, on video, and took a close look at what he's done with his ride:

Link: Channel 9 - J.P. Stewart - A new hobby: putting Windows XP in your car

Low-power computers (Mini-ITX style) in the trunk and mini touch-screens in the cab, all built in and custom fit, make for a really cool setup.

DVD, Windows XP, WiFi, GPS, sound system integration through the CD changer control, USB digital sound, and lots of cool stuff. A portable USB 2.0 hard drive moves from car to home or office and allows you to copy files like music and stuff. Or use the WiFi to copy/sync music from the driveway while you're at your home.

Some of J.P.'s goals, now and future: GPS with Streets and Trips (done), Media Player for music (done), Internet always on everywhere (will be using TMobile Motorola phone with Bluetooth, and the computer will use it as its network connection).

And he says he has less than $1000 into the computer equipment, and some uncounted number of hours of his time. Wow. Very cool stuff.

It looks as if the Cingular/AT&T Wireless merger will be approved on Monday. This means big changes for AT&T Wireless customers, so be sure to do your research. Already many medium-size business accounts have been bounced around as this thing starts to happen.

From Engadget: "...the big question is whether or not the shrinking of the cellular market from six major players to five will lead to significantly cheaper prices for calling plans and cellphones."

Yeah, and then there's the concern that ATTWS customers already suffering from lackluster service will be even worse off.

We'll see.

Carl Franklin wrote some thoughtful commentary about a weblog post by Scott Hanselman on the subject of podcasting. Then Dave Winer commented on Carl's post. Rory follows up with a far-reaching examination of the arguments.

Updates:

• Todd Maffin has some great practical things to say about making podcasting work (found via Scoble)
• and Scott Hanselman has since responded to the commentary himself.

It's an interesting conversation, and one well worth having.

I have been listening to podcasts for weeks now, and to MP3 audio shows since before the term "podcast" was coined. I still don't really like the term, but anyhow... Airplanes are a place I find them most useful - but they have not completely replaced my drive-time commute, which totals about 2 hours a day, because the content quality just isn't there for me yet, with a couple of notable exceptions. I do get a certain amount of enjoyment from podcasts - from some of them, anyhow. Mostly by people you probably never heard of. I really don't have a need or desire to listen to "experts" in go on and on and on and on and on and on about how podcasting just changed the world. A medium that talks about itself feels a lot like MLM. It can't last forever. You wanna talk about the technology your using, make it useful for me - make the time I spend listening to you really, truly worthwhile. It's the content people, CONTENT!

Another thing, about the concept that podcasting will replace/kill radio as we know it - I am not convinced on that one yet. I don't have to think about my radio. It's always there and just turns on and works. No sync, no charging, no programming - just on and off. Therefore I use it. More work than that and it loses some of its utility. They said TV would replace radio. It didn't. In fact, it just made radio bigger. We shouldn't be trying to kill something - we should be trying to create something new. There is a difference.

And regardless of what Dave says, or whether he was involved in creating PowerPoint, and despite a number of other inflammatory things I could pull from his comment on Carl's post and react to, but wont... Scott is most definitely *not* an opponent of technological progress, so use of the term "Luddite" is - well - misplaced at best and flat out mean at worst.

One thing's for sure: It's not at all a useful label in this case. I could use certain blanket terms to describe Dave's words and actions in a variety of situations, and while they may be accurate in terms of one or two things he has said or done in the past, they would not really describe him in whole. It would be wrong of me to call names, so I won't. I wish Dave wouldn't. It takes away from the conversation, and Scott is one person I listen to with great regard for making very complicated things work in the real world.

I don't think Scott was implying (as Dave seems to state) that podcasting was a replacement for PowerPoint. He was using PowerPoint as a metaphor, to show how both technologies - in his opinion - tend to fail to meet their own goals, for man of the same reasons.

Scott originally said, about Podcasting:

 - Clever, yes.
 - Interesting, yes.
 - A new kind of media? Maybe.
 - Useful? Not to me.

Then he points out that using XML to point to multi-megabyte files is contradictory to certain vocal arguments made in the community of late. That's another valid point.

He also correctly points out that the the medium does not lend itself to skimming, browsing or efficient dissemination of multiple pieces of information.

I agree with that position. The people who are making the most noise about this new stuff are people who seem to have plenty of time to record podcasts and to listen to all the regulars. It's a technology that will - by it's very nature - limit the number of people we can listen to and communicate with. It also tends to be a lot more one-way than blogging. Podcasting is not blogging, it's not radio, it's not even broadcasting in reality. But it is cool, and it does have potential. Where it goes we don't know - Rarely does an experiment turn out just the way the founding fathers intended, you know.

Scott has a good point. Carl has a good counterpoint. Dave kind of missed the point but hurled a good insult (good only if you're the one doing the hurling, anyhow). Rory did a great job of taking a good, long step back and covering the bases.

All are very smart guys with great ideas and technological innovation in their pasts.

Pointing out the problems with a technology does not make one a Luddite. Telling people to wait and see before they speak actually just delays technological progress. Hmmmm... Deeelaaayyyys techhhnoloooogicalll progrrressss.... Yeahhh.....

Open, informed, honest discussions are good. Names and insults don't help.

So that's all nice, and yeah discussion is important. But what about podcasting?

What Rory said:

"Just walk away with this: Podcasting is serious Power to the People technology, and we should be excited about that."

Most importantly (I think), here is my pre-emptive thought: Keep the conversation open. Let people comment openly - good, bad or otherwise - and use the information to do things better, and to shape this experiment into something great. If someone counters your position, listen to them. No one person or group owns it. Everyone owns it. Some will innovate, but all should lead. Don't ruin a good thing with politics and personalities.

Interstingly, Engadget just posted a review of the Bose SoundDock, and concluded it costs too much:

“We like its looks, but $300 is just a bit too pricy for us, especially without stereo separation greater than three feet and no other audio inputs besides the iPod connector. Next!”

What's so interesting about that? Well, it also happens to be the single item they're advertising for sale the past several days in their RSS feed...

Editorial freedom, or just another oopsie?

AnandTech has a review of Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, that - well - tops all the other reviews for word count, clarity and how deep they get into the software. If you're at all interested in learning about this version of the Windows XP operating system, check out the 17 pages of detail, detail, detail:

http://www.anandtech.com/multimedia/showdoc.aspx?i=2240

(from digitalmediathoughts.com)

Saw this coming, had a discussion with a colleague this morning about it, and Security Pipeline has an article about it.

Google's desktop search (in public beta) indexes local machine content to let you search though it and quickly find stuff on your computer.

Problem is, it might let others find and read your stuff if your computer is used by anyone other than you. Hmmm. Details...

From the article:

If you're the computer's only user, the software is helpful "as a photographic memory of everything you've seen on the computer," said Marissa Mayer, director of consumer Web products at Google Inc. The giant index remains on the computer and isn't shared with Google. The company can't access it remotely even if it gets a subpoena ordering it to do so, Mayer said.

Where the privacy and security concerns arise is when the computer is shared.

Type in "hotmail.com" and you'll get copies, or stored caches, of messages that previous users have seen. Enter an e-mail address and you can read all the messages sent to and from that address. Type "password" and get password reminders that were sent back via e-mail.

Acknowledging the concerns, Mayer said managers of shared computers should think twice about installing the software until Google develops advanced features like password protection and multi-user support.

Integrated instant messaging that extends its presence and person information to other products, and which reaches outside itself to integrate with other communication products, is on the way. This is a big part of Microsoft's move into the VOIP world.

From Microsoft Monitor:

Earlier today, Microsoft announced the new Office messaging client, codename Istanbul, which is scheduled to ship first half 2005.

Through Istanbul Microsoft plans to bring disparate messaging capabilities, such as IM and telephony, right into Office. To get there Microsoft will deliver new identification capabilities to its server products and the hybrid 'Live Communications' IM client.

Istanbul is yet another Microsoft effort to pull technologies into Office and so extend the suite’s utility. Remember that address book, calendar and e-mail features existed in separate products before Microsoft brought them into Office through Outlook, which hooked into Exchange Server. The Live Communications Client will bring IM, telephony and identity services into Office, but, again, connected to a server product.

I'll be going on vacation this coming weekend for a week plus a couple additional days. I'll be able to post the details when I get back, but for now let's just say it's going to be a very, very different kind of vacation, and I am definitely looking forward to the experience. That 5GB Seagate CF-II hard drive that I ripped out of the Rio Carbon MP3 player is finally going to get its real workout in my digital camera.

Microsoft has released Virtual PC 2004 Service Pack One. If you're using VPC2004, you'll want to review, download and likely apply this update.

• Get the VPC 2004 SP1 download here
• Get the Service Pack Readme file here

Lots of fixes and improvements in this service pack, so be sure to take a look.

More information about the service pack from the Microsoft site:

SP1 also includes the following additional software updates

• A new Virtual Disk Precompactor. A utility that is designed to "zero out"—that is, overwrite with zeros—any available blank space on a virtual hard disk.

• Updated version of Virtual Machine Additions.

• Update to support TCP segmentation offloading. Prior to SP1, if TCP Segmentation Offloading was activated, some virtual networking features would not function correctly. With SP1, if your physical network adapter supports TCP segmentation offloading, you can activate TCP segmentation offloading, and virtual networking will function correctly.

• Update to support Group Policy Software Installation. For more information about Group Policy Software Installation, see Help and Support Center in your Microsoft Windows Server 2003 operating system.

• Update to change the default performance option from Give processes on the host system priority to Run Virtual PC at maximum speed.

• The hotfix described in article 833506, which describes how Virtual PC 2004 may stop responding when a virtual machine is started, in the Microsoft Knowledge Base.

Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 Service Pack 1 (SP1) contains the latest software updates for Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 that improve the reliability, performance and manageability of Virtual PC. Updates have been made to improve the performance of Windows XP Service Pack 2 as a guest in Virtual PC, to improve the manageability of virtual machines when used with SMS 2003 Service Pack 1, and to provide support for running Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition as the host operating system.

Some of the fixes included with SP1 have been previously released as separate updates. This service pack combines them into one update.

Important: You must shut down or turn off all guest operating systems before installing SP1. This ensures that there are no virtual machines in a saved state. This is important because saved states are not compatible between SP1 and all previous versions of Virtual PC 2004.

Service Pack 1 includes an updated version of Virtual Machine Additions. You should update the version of Virtual Machine Additions on all virtual machines where Virtual Machine Additions is installed. For more information, see "Installing Virtual Machine Additions" in Virtual PC Help.

In a well-written and well-argued article on Security Pipeline, Mitch Wagner tells us the story of the little pigs and their houses of straw and brick, and then draws from the story to illustrate the state of Internet security, stating:

"The preceding has been a fairy tale with no bearing on the current state of Internet security."

Except that it really does. Have a bearing, that is.

Wagner's analysis of the arguments on both sides of the browser wars is interesting and well-explained.

Secure coding and design wins the argument every time - with regard to secure applications, that is. Of course, functionality, usability and other aspects of computer programs have to come into play and be taken into account, as well. But ultimately, the structural materials with which you build your house (be it brick or straw) determine whether you'll survive the hurricane. Or the wolves....

The little pig's big brother said, "Dude, you can't blow down a brick house. Brick is fundamentally more resistant to huffing and puffing."

Good point, Mitch.

Microsoft has published 2005 calendar templates for Word, Excel, FrontPage and PowerPoint:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/CT011371131033.aspx

Greg Hughes says :   22:18:30 i went to the apple store tonight Eric Rice says :         22:18:34 yeah? Eric Rice says :         22:18:40 felt good, didnt it? Greg Hughes says :   22:18:41 the prices are fixed? Eric Rice says :         22:18:44 yup Greg Hughes says :   22:18:48 hahahha yeah they are nice machines Eric Rice says :         22:18:56 you touched them too Eric Rice says :         22:19:00 in a naughty way i bet Greg Hughes says :   22:19:04 i thought i would not like the new imac g5 but really they are pretty nice Eric Rice says :         22:19:06 'wow this is sleek' Greg Hughes says :   22:19:10 LOL Eric Rice says :         22:19:13 YOU DID Eric Rice says :         22:19:14 hahahaha

It must be the Devil. It has to be. It's the only reasonable explanation I can think of.

I confess: I've been seriously considering buying an Apple computer for a few weeks now - Probably a PowerBook G4, if I ever actually get to the point where I break down and make the switch.

Why? Well, there are certain things the Mac does very well, and certain pieces of software that are available only on that platform. Software that I want and need. Well-made software that just works. Hardware that fits together well.

At GnomeDex there were a gazillion PowerBooks around. Eric Rice uses one and I got to see it in action. I got jealous quickly. It was really quite pathetic.

So - If someone can help me find a good Windows-based alternative, for example, to GarageBand on the Mac, I'm all ears. I mean, If I can keep from spending money on a whole new computer just to solve a few "problems," that's more than fine with me.

But dude, Apple has this way of making things that just work.

If I really need to, I know I could run Windows XP on the Mac inside of MS VirtualPC. Nothing is impossible. But hey - why can't I run Mac OS X on a PC in a virtual machine? Anyone? Seems kinda one-sided, or maybe it can be done I and I just don't know it... Time to look for PPC/Mac emulators that run on Windows?

But it's not just the software. Don't tell anyone, but I spent most of this evening at CompUSA in the Mac section, and then over at the Apple Store at the mall. Their hardware is very well done. I even like the new iMac G5, very cool.

I must be going insane. Apple??? Either that, or maybe I'm actually having a breakthrough and coming back to reality.

I wish I could tell which it is.

In this amazingly fast-growing (like, really fast) phenomenon called podcasting (yes, I am willing to use the terms phenomenon and podcasting when discussing this, even if I don't particularly like the name), it's hard to always know which way is up. So, it's also hard to know where to go and what to do with all this stuff, both as a content creator and a consumer/end user of podcasts.

Heck, it's difficult enough just to explain to people what podcasting is, let alone how it works. Of course, it's early in this experiment, and we'll certainly have to improve things from the usability standpoint. But still, it's truly amazing what's happened in the past month or so in this portion of the universe.

Enter Doppler [http://www.dopplerradio.net/], a client program that runs on Windows and raises the bar in terms of making it easier for the end user to subscribe to podcasts without too much hassle. In other words, this is just the kind of thought and change that needs to happen to make podcasting a mainstream application. As a community we're not there yet, but with ideas like this and a few people to kick them out the door, we will be before too long.

The best part is, it just works. It makes subscribing to podcasts easier. It makes sense to use. It makes life simpler.

Features

• Doppler is designed for the Windows platform
• Drag and drop a URL onto Doppler
• Scheduled interval to retrieve feeds
• Specify the numer of files to download
• Restrict the allowable size of downloads
• Filter your items by text
• Possibility to run in minimized mode
• Import and export of OPML files

Doppler is an aggregator that downloads podcasts based on RSS feeds, and lets you listen to it the way you want it, whenever you like it, on the device of your choice. Doppler has been developed using the latest Microsoft .NET technology and is available as a small download sizing less than 500 KB.

And Doppler has been alive for something like, oh, three days. And work continues on adding features and shoring it up as we speak type. Or maybe it is speak. Oof...

Go download it and try it out.