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  • 1 min read

Web 2.0 — mash ups — Kayak — and nude beaches ?!

Did you know that Curacao is the 7th favorite place that travelers from Boston consider when they are looking for nude beaches in the Caribean? Miami is the first, Aruba the second. This important bulletin brought to you by Kayak Buzz, a neat web-2.0-kayak-mashup-with-google that I just came across. You can look at the URL above to see how it's formed. The funny thing is that the nude beach search isn't available unless you include the magic , secret "&ac=nude" clause. You should check out Kayak, it's a really good travel search site that automates what you know you are already doing - which is to visit all the other travel sites with the same itinerary to see who has the best deal at this moment. Technorati Tags: travel

  • 1 min read

Ray Ozzie’s Blog V3

Glad to see that Ray is blogging again. Now that he is at Microsoft running the big new initiative this should be a really interesting one to follow!

"A couple of weeks ago, Bill and I brought life to a new initiative that, over the course of the months and years ahead, will catalyze and deliver a number of things that I'm very excited about. At that event, I said that unlike many other stealth projects I've/we've done, in this case many of our plans and offerings will evolve progressively and in the open, shaped in good measure by a dialog with you." (from Ray Ozzie's Blog)

Looks like it will be really interesting to follow! Ray Ozzie of course is one of the original guys who built Lotus Notes, and launched Groove, and is now CTO at Microsoft, right in the middle of a lot of cool new stuff. Technorati Tags: blog, microsoft

  • 1 min read

Interesting Wired article about War Blogs

I came across this a little while ago in Wired about War Blogs. Pretty amazing stuff:

"Strong opinions throughout the military ranks in and out of wartime are nothing new. But online technology in the combat zone has suddenly given those opinions a mass audience and an instantaneous forum for the first time in the history of warfare. On the 21st-century battlefield, the campfire glow comes from a laptop computer, and it's visible around the world." (from Wired)

Read the whole thing - it's interesting. Technorati Tags: corantessa

  • 1 min read

Did MSFT leak on purpose, or did they know they could easily be leaked?

I've read several accounts relating to Microsoft's recently 'leaked' documents about the new strategy, for example, Cringely says:

"While ostensibly written solely for internal discussion, the documents from Bill Gates and new Microsoft CTO Ray Ozzie were clearly supposed to be leaked." … and … "These are external marketing documents -- the equivalent of those ubiquitous white papers …" (via Scripting News)

I have a couple of thoughts on this:

  1. "On Purpose" is relative: Any email that is sent to tens of thousands of people is essentially certain to be leaked.

  2. Any experienced emailer knows that just about any message might get leaked, and writes many if not most messages with that in mind.

  3. When you write anything that will be read by tens of thousands of people, of course you copy edit it, of course you review it, of course you write it carefully. That's not evidence of any kind of evil intent, it's just rational

Oh, and do I have any substantial thoughts about the content itself? Sure, why not:

  1. Microsoft and the press like comparing these recent memos to the famous Halloween memos from years ago when Microsoft 'turned on a dime' and embraced the Internet. I don't buy it. That was a long time ago, a much different Microsoft, a different Bill Gates.

  2. I will wait to see it before I believe it. This is classic repackaging of old stuff, making many beautiful architectural drawings to distract the world. Color me skeptical.

Technorati Tags: microsoft

  • 1 min read

Roku Roku Roku: Aint Technology Great?

Sb-M1000-Small This little gem really works! A StarTrek cool little device that sits on top of your stereo or TV set. It's called a Roku Soundbridge M1000. Has a remote control, built-in Wi-fi (which DOESN"T MEAN wireless fidelity, darn it) and various audio-outs to connect to your amplifier. Simple as pie. What does it do? All my iTunes music, playlists, radio stations, smart play lists, and so on, now, directly accessible, searchable and browsable on that cool retro looking illuminated display. And play them through your big speakers.**Very cool. Very recommended. ** Technorati Tags: music

  • 1 min read

What blogs are good for: Learning about Microsoft

So can you learn anything useful from a blog? I've often spoken admiringly to friends about Microsoft blogging. I've said that, it's not so much that people are giving away any trade secrets. You learn stuff that are not secret, but you probably would only find out if you ran into someone in a Starbucks in Redmond. Exhibit #1 (which I've used before, but continues to impress) Steve Sinofsky's Microsoft TechTalk Blog. Look at an amazing recent post on a topic of vital interest if you are doing business or doing partnering with MSFT.

"I've been asked quite a bit by people interviewing at Microsoft about "software release". This post will talk about our strategy around product releases for Office products, since we have been pretty consistent over the years and this represents a balance between some competing interests." (from Steve Sinofsy's TechTalk)

Read it if you are affected by Microsoft products at all.And who isn 't? Technorati Tags: microsoft