A few weeks ago, I gave in to the marketing for a two week trial subscription to Netflix.  I’d heard about Netflix integration with Windows Media Center and XBOX 360.  We watch TV through a Windows Media Center PC and connect to that from other rooms in our house with two XBOX 360 Media Extenders.

The Netflix setup on the Media Center PC was a bit tricky.  It’s necessary to switch from the Media Center TV console to the PC desktop and a Web browser to get things going. The Media Center TV console got a bit confused, showing two Netflix selections.  After putting some movies and TV shows in the Netflix Instant Queue, the shows started up OK.  Our experience was also OK, the audio was good but the video jumped a little.  I don’t fault the Netflix player, since our Media Center PC is about four years old, powered by a single core AMD 3200.  The playback would probably be very good with a more current PC.  It is important to mention that our Internet connection is broadband through cable modem (Comcast).

Encouraged by the initial tests, I sprung for a XBOX Live Gold membership, which provides access to the Netflix player on our XBOX 360s.  After a very easy setup, we were ready to go.  After watching a movie and some TV shows, I am still astounded at the apparent HD quality of the widescreen display.  Video is very smooth and the audio is great.

I would totally recommend Netflix on XBOX360. Netflix has a good selection of movies and TV shows for the Instant Queue.  You also get access to their full DVD selection by mail.  If you haven’t used the Netflix service by mail, that is also very good.  The value for the money is fantastic.  We get access to a lot of shows produced on premium cable channels without paying cable’s high fees.  If we see two movies a month, it is far cheaper than going to two movies at the theater (and we don’t have to put up with chattering and cell phone calls and sticky floors).

-- Walter Lounsbery, 6-30-2009

I am a Microsoft Developer and I am a PC.  But that little company Apple Computer has managed to press a lot of hot buttons.  The complete frustrations Apple identifies and exaggerates in their Apples Versus PC ads are often bogus inane things that Microsoft allows in their operating systems.  But every now and then, it seems that Microsoft goes out of their way to make things easy for the Apple sharpshooters.  When that happens, I would like Microsoft to honestly take the bullet and get their act together, instead of putting it to the customer so badly that it makes Apple’s marketing easy.

A recent hot button is Apple’s marketing around their photo management software.  Their Apple actor talks about face recognition while the PC actor searches through piles of unorganized pictures.  “It’s built in to Apple software and it’s free!”, the Apple actor proclaims.  “I don’t have that”, the sad-sack PC complains.

The trouble with this scenario: I know I’ve seen something about face recognition with Microsoft Live Photo Gallery.  So I search in the application and on the Internet and there’s nothing about face recognition for Photo Gallery or Windows.  Nothing, nada.  I have Windows Live Photo Gallery, so I actually run the application.  There is photo tagging, but that’s it.  Then I poke around for another half hour and discover that Photo Gallery help says you can do “people tagging”.  It seems very easy and direct, so I try to follow the steps with my computer.  Wouldn’t it be great if Photo Gallery had face recognition and the marketing wonks just insisted on calling it something else!  But the feature just doesn’t exist!  People tagging just is not there.

At this point, I have a lot of time invested in proving that the Apple ad is wrong, despite a certain knowledge that the Microsoft lawyers would be all over them for truth in advertising if Apple is lying.  I am trusting Microsoft Help more than advertising regulations, and we all know that Microsoft Help is always 100% accurate if you can ever manage to find the information you need.

Obviously, I don’t have a current version of Microsoft Live Photo Gallery.  Trick is, there is no version number information to be had for this application.  Microsoft apparently changed its rules for including version numbers in their products.  I try to download the latest version from the Web, and it refuses to download.  Hmmm, I must have the latest version.  Why doesn’t it work as described in online Help?

At this point I have spent way too much time trying to prove that Apple advertising is a pack of lies.  Maybe if I just had an Apple instead of a PC, I would be sitting here smugly nodding my head in agreement instead of finding all kinds of wrongness in Microsoft products.  Perhaps the Apple tax is simply that, pay a bit more money for your computer and get a substantial peace of mind, eliminating all kinds of unwanted, unneeded, customer-unfriendly frustration.

As always, good comments are welcome.  Especially those explaining what the hell is up with Photo Gallery.

-- Walter Lounsbery, 5-3-2009

What’s not to like about the cable networks run by Scripps Networks Interactive?  Whether renovating your home, upgrading your lifestyle, or loving good food, their networks are informative and entertaining.  The company also pursues cutting-edge media with social network Websites such as food2.com, which features bloggers, a companion facebook site, and other ways for foodies to interact outside the TV network experience.  I’m not biased at all because these networks are based in Knoxville, Tennessee, where I live.  Or that they have a random drawing on Friday’s for people that blog about their Website…

Seriously, if you like food, check it out.

-- Walter Lounsbery, 5-1-2009

I believe that the Earth deserves our best efforts to prevent poisoning the environment and to avoid obliterating species and the beautiful natural expanses of land we occupy.  Some terrible things have happened in the past, most of them have been local or regional in their effect.  Any student of industrial history will understand that there have been tremendous benefits from industrial technology.  Anyone that depends on the food industry enjoys the benefits of modern farming technology, storage, and global shipping.  In America, dependable utilities, fuel supplies, and the ability to drive any kind of automobile are basic assumptions of life.  As progress is made, many of the ecological mistakes of the past century have not been repeated and the great panics of man-made disasters have not been realized.

So it is amazing to find in this century that one of the greatest hoaxes ever, curing global warming, was born as the great panics of the 1970s were finally dying out.  A few people, determined to benefit from this fraud, have become legion.  This past Earth Day has turned into Earth Week and more through the power of politicians and mass media backing.  Never mind all the real, curable disasters of the world, the globe must be saved from the plague of humans upon it.  The drum beats so constantly that no week passes without some new evidence of the disaster, another prediction of the rise of the seas, melting of ice here or there, eradication of species, or massive health problems.

The silly report that prompts this post is an excellent case in point.  Researchers have reported that the Greenland ice is melting.  If it all melts, the seas will rise 3 feet, flooding the great coastal cities of the world.  I have found reports stating this information as far back as 2004, yet it was reported as news today.  The early reports state that all the Greenland ice would melt in less than 1000 years at the current rate and that it had melted completely away at least once in the history of the Earth.  Apparently the follow-on studies have sprouted like weeds, providing more strident and alarming warnings over the past five years.  Some think the seas will rise 27 feet, some think global warming will accelerate as the ice melts away.

Think what you like about global warming, it is clear that no prediction for disaster is missed by the press.  And they like to repeat the messages to keep subscribers and ratings.  Today’s example is only one scenario.  There seem to be a thousand crackpot warnings hanging on the thread of the global warming panic.  Over the centuries many such panics have been fueled by the weight of accumulated nonsense.  The accumulation of junk thinking drowns out sensible responses.  If you can’t spot the holes in the Greenland warnings, then certainly I can’t help you in this short post.

In fact, I will only attempt to deflate the core of the panic.  The core assumptions are that global warming is happening, it is man-made, it is caused by carbon dioxide emissions, it will affect a climate disaster in a relatively short period of years, and that we can stop global warming if we take the proper draconian actions.  It should be clear that the whole cloth of this fraud depends on every single one of these threads, even the assumption that global action by people will stop the disaster.  So let’s take a look at that one.

If our science is so good, so accurate, and uncontroversial, it should be possible to calculate the permissible level of man-made carbon dioxide emissions.  We should know how much is too much and have the number for an emission rate that doesn’t drastically change the climate.  I propose that this number is not available because we don’t have that science and politics is not good with numbers.  That is why “cap in trade” and bogus “carbon neutral” calculations are permitted and promoted already.  The objective is control of society, not control of climate change.  The exchange of money required in many of these schemes proves not only the fraud, but the profit motive and self-interest of global warming panic promoters.  If you can’t calculate the overall number and show it is achievable, then you can’t measure progress towards stabilizing the climate.  So the goal must be profit and self-promotion.

In a crime such as blackmail, the criminal strives to bleed the victim dry over a period of time.  The victim has no choice but to pay the first time and every time the criminal threatens exposure or violence.  All the global warming cures share the methods of blackmail.  The victims are panicked and has no choice but paying.  The global warming cures have no substance, no payoff, and no clear goals, so they will potentially take all the available resources to the end of time to do absolutely nothing.  Do we have to give up SUVs or all automobiles?  Are supermarkets responsible for generating too much carbon dioxide to get food to our table?  Should we slaughter the beef herds that generate so much methane?  Are there just too many people for the Earth to sustain (a popular theme from the 1970s Earth Day panics)?  Some of the media have already complained that our current economic crisis will prevent draconian global warming cures from moving forward.  Apparently global warming profiteers are unhappy with the payout.

-- Walter Lounsbery, 4-26-2009

Actually, the software and tech conference season goes on all year in the Southern part of the United States.  Even big events like CES are popular in the Winter in places like Las Vegas.  If you include local or regional conferences, the weather is starting to provide opportunities farther North.  March brings lots of conferences around here, from Georgia and Alabama to Ohio.

There are two notable conferences in Tennessee coming up, taking advantage of our generally moderate Summer weather.  The Knoxville CodeStock conference is a real winner, held June 26-27 at Pellissippi State College.  This is an inexpensive high quality event with some great speakers.  If you are a great speaker and haven’t signed up yet, you need to get signed up this week!  Attendees like me can sign up at a more leisurely pace.  The next big event is the DevLink conference, held in Nashville on August 13 through the 15.  This is another great event at a cheap cost.  Registration opens April 1.

In the Microsoft arena, this is definitely the year for conferences.  Developers and design professionals just enjoyed MIX09 at Las Vegas.  Next up for developers and IT folks is Microsoft’s Tech*Ed conference in Los Angeles, May 11-15.  Then developers and IT folks will get to enjoy Microsoft’s Professional Developer’s Conference,November 17-20 in Los Angeles (website doesn’t have much detail on 2009 yet).

I try to attend at least one software conference a year, mainly to keep up with specialized areas.  I really like the inexpensive Tennessee events, which are a lot more enjoyable than the Microsoft mega-events and just as educational.  Since Microsoft has begun providing great videos of their sessions a few days after their conferences (at least the developer events), I can get more info by staying home and spending a few hours downloading session videos for review.  This is even less cost than ordering the conference DVDs (which is mostly the same thing).

Amid all the conference opportunities of this year, I am concerned about future restrictions on the future bounty of conference events (and free session videos).  The economy has a significant effect on sponsorship and attendance, which will likely impact things rather badly next year.  My advice is to take advantage of all the opportunities you can while it lasts!

-- Walter Lounsbery, 3-24-2009

Over the years, I gain more and more appreciation for packaged computer workstations.  You know, the kind you can get from major manufacturers like HP or Dell.  My last workstation was purchased from iBuypower nearly two years ago.  The “Blue Monster” or “Blue Magoo” (depending on how it behaves) was a bargain custom-configured four core machine with a decent GeForce 7300 video card.  I avoided having to deal with a lot of the changes since I last built a system, although adding hard disk meant finding SATA cables in Knoxville (nobody had them, I had to order online), plus an adapter for the new HD power plugs.

I got a bargain 24 inch monitor for my system.  That was a really great upgrade.  At a resolution of 1920 by 1200, I could see a lot more code on the screen or open multiple applications and see them all.  The multi-pane view in Visual Studio became very useful.  I added a spare 17 inch monitor and experienced a large measure of pain setting up dual monitors.  That required upgrading to the latest stable Vista video card driver, and that was tough to find.  NVIDEA was coming out with new versions as I was working through that problem.

Then last week, after forgetting the pain of setting up dual monitors the first time, I got another 24 inch monitor on sale.  Finally something to match the first 24 inch monitor!  After it arrived there was some more pain.  After changing up settings to get the video card and monitors working together, I realized that one 512MB video card couldn’t drive two 24 inch monitors at full resolution.  I actually searched the Internet to confirm this bit of hard won learning, and couldn’t discover a simple, factual statement about this limit.  The video card manufacturers of dual head cards never disclose that fact in a straightforward way.  So here it is: if you have one monitor at 1920 by 1200 resolution, about the best you can get out of the second is 1600 by 1200.  I should disclose that my new (refurb) monitor has to be set at a custom resolution at 1900 by 1200.  It refuses to display anything at 1920 by 1200 (even though it’s spec says it can).

The cure for the video card limitations are to get one video card for each monitor.  However, your computer motherboard needs to support two video cards.  In earlier times you would need an AGP and a PCI video card (doing mysterious things to overall computer performance).  Now you can get motherboards set up for dual PCIe that provide for linked video cards through SLI.  I’m sure the newer compact machines would not support two video cards.  My computer’s motherboard is set up for SLI and it also supports non-linked video cards.  I just had to find out how to reconfigure a large jumper on the board.

Having set up the hardware properly, I always expect things to “just work.”  But that would be way too easy!  I’m a software developer, but when I work with computer hardware I neglect to make the proper sacrifices to the operating system and drivers.  Well, they get their pound of flesh no matter what you do.  Once again the displays did weird things.  It is very difficult to see Vista’s warnings about video driver problems when the screen is blank most of the time!  The driver that came with my new GeForce 9500 GT video card was very, very bad.  And it is tricky to download updates as the screen takes a vacation every few seconds.

After the video driver upgrade ordeal, the new driver didn’t improve the situation very much.  The display on the 9500 had color streaks.  The display on the original 7300 card narrowed to about 70% of the display.  Every time I closed an application, both screens went blank, sometimes for 20-30 seconds.

I thought things were completely, royally messed up.  A complete waste of time and money.

Then ten minutes later a miracle happened.  The displays cleared up and behaved right.  It’s been solid for over 24 hours now.

Next time I’m looking for a computer packaged with dual monitors, all checked out at the factory and ready to go.

-- Walter Lounsbery, 3-19-2009

There is a very popular phrase that has sprung from the bailouts of the New Depression: “They are too big to fail.”

That phrase has a naive, implicit vote of certainty that I find offensive.  For one thing, many of those bail beneficiaries have already decided to split up their businesses or exfoliate major divisions to save the main corpus.  If they are too big to fail, wouldn’t it be worse to go on such a diet and become smaller?  If nothing else, it lowers the chances of securing more bailout money.  Surely this might impact the CEOs bonus structure in a few years.

Taken to the other extreme, I guess very small businesses and startups are “Too small to succeed.”  Trouble is, the media and pundits have addressed this end of the business spectrum.  They think startups are all the rage, the panacea for unemployment.  You see, several amazingly successful tech companies were founded during recessions!  Just think of it.  Come up with the next great idea and you are certainly well on the way to prosperity.  In fact, you don’t really need an idea.  There are lots of businesses out there that will help you start a business.  In fact I think unemployed, homeless people in bankruptcy should go to the head of the line and start a business that helps other unemployed, homeless people start their new business.

Perhaps we are just hopeful when it comes to cute little startups or behemoth businesses that can’t get out of their own way.  Perhaps the current wisdom that unemployed people should start their own business because some great companies have emerged from hard time births, or huge multinational corporations are too big to fail is entirely accurate.  If the odds of success are best at the ends of the spectrum of size, then we really need to talk about a new bailout for losers.  We need a new phrase to illustrate where the pain is going to be when the bailout money is all passed out and all the unemployed people are operating successful apple stands on every street corner.

Those average businesses, the ones that have been around a while, why “they are just too mediocre to succeed.”  Serve them right if we tax them out of existence.

-- Walter Lounsbery, 2-19-2009

Web software developers and designers, more than any other creative people, often believe their mission is to rethink the conventional.  What is accepted as normal needs to be changed up, turned on its head, simplified, complexified, innovated and delivered with some cute and bizarre moniker right away.  The new thing becomes accepted and the cycle starts again.  This churn brought us successful ecommerce, online auctions, Twitter, blogs, social networking applications, online video, and so on.  The creative cycle is also the business cycle, with a few Web concepts becoming wildly successful and most others less than a footnote in Wikipedia.

In my experience, Web logs or blogs arrived and matured in no time.  And that time was about 2003.  As reported in Wikipedia, the term “Weblog” and “blog” originated in the early 1990s.  Tools, conventions, and some standards evolved well before I noticed what was going on.  In 2004, my wife and I attended the SXSW conference in Austin, Texas, mainly to understand how blogs and other “new” Web technologies were changing the face of the Web.  We also learned something of the impact of the Web on publishing in general and other forms of media.

Now practically all forms of social networks or media provide blogging capability.  Blogs are so pervasive that they have even become the universal hammer that makes every problem look like a nail.  For example, Telligent has a Content Management System (CMS) called Graffiti.  Oddly, this particular CMS is noted as “Blog Software” on its product page, and Graffiti actually is a bit of a re-thinking of blog software architecture.  Does that make it a content management system?  There are similar products out there.

The early blogs were online journals that provided timely updates from their authors.  The latest post appears on a main Web page, the others are available in order of posting.  Some blogs show posting hints on calendars for just this reason.  As blogs have become more sophisticated, they have incorporated category tags or open tag lists (sometimes shown as “tag clouds”).  These features, along with searching, provide a way to discover posts based on content, rather than posting sequence or date.  This blurs the line between an online journal and indexed articles.

I would argue that even modern blogs do not provide the kind of publishing that an article format provides.  On the Web, an article shares the characteristics of a printed article in a magazine or essay book (a book composed of independent articles).  An article can be longer than a blog, so long that scrolling in a single Web page is uncomfortable.  An article may need to appear in several linked Web pages.  An article may have a sidebar or supporting content (on the Web this may be video), which demands better, more flexible layout than most blogs.  In fact, since blogs should be laid out simply for consumption by blog reader software, layout and paging are the critical differences between the two formats.  A blog can be consumed in a browser or reader, a Web article is meant to be read on the Web.

The context for Web articles is also different from blogs.  Perhaps the time a Web article is published is of interest, but the sequence doesn’t matter at all.  A Web article may need the context of a table of contents, or several indexes (just as you would find a table of contents and an index in a book).  Some other method of discovery or linkage may also be worthwhile.

I think it’s time to stick a fork in blogs and declare the technology “done”.  It is super useful and a wonderful thing.  Perhaps something new and crazy great will happen for blogs, probably not any time soon.

I’ve been working on tools for easier Web article publishing at no great priority.  I admit I’m not a workaholic Thomas Edison, spending 20 hours a day to find the perfect solution.  But I think some creative and innovative Web developers or designers out there could really make an impact in this area.  Rethink the old magazine article format in a shiny new set of Web tools and standards.  Let writers write instead of hand-coding links for an online book framework, let people be creative writing on a Web without hard boundaries.  I’ll be watching from the sidelines, cheering you on, and waiting to see the world change again at SXSW.

-- Walter Lounsbery, 2-16-2009

The Continental Flight 3407 crash on approach to Buffalo Niagara International Airport (KBUF) on Thursday has been quite thoroughly overcovered by the media.  Even highly professional direct and regular briefings from the NTSB haven’t staunched the blabbering and misinformation as journalists seek to fill out their quota of column inches or TV minutes.  I’m sure that the Internet is also rife with uninformed and idle speculation.

These are not negative observations, that is just the nature of technical catastrophes.  Not very many people are even close in expertise to the NTSB accident investigators.  They have a rare kind of training, experience, and mindset that would put any of the fictional CSI characters to shame.  So as the rest of us try to cope with our thoughts about the tragedy, we will wonder why it happened and try to understand.  The NTSB personnel will painstakingly gather the evidence and compare various theories against the facts.  They will exercise the limits of technology to solve the puzzle.  We get to sift through the misquotes and oddball statements of the media.

In my previous career, I enjoyed free rein to work with a wide variety of aviation technology.  In my last position, I was lead for stability and control for development of the Gulfstream G-5 (now the G500).  Earlier, I worked on analysis of four aircraft incidents and accidents of KC-135 aircraft while at Boeing.  I realize that writing yet another non-official theory for the Flight 3407 accident may not benefit the investigation (I doubt they’ll hear about this blog post), I’ll feel better airing a couple of ideas and maybe you will find them somewhat insightful.

The initial NTSB reports on the flight are puzzling in several ways.  It is clear that conditions were ripe for icing and that is a concern.  However, it is said that no other pilots reported severe icing.  To me that is a kind of red herring, because the special conditions for icing can be somewhat localized and transitory.  Icing can even vary considerably with relatively small changes in altitude.  Accumulation can happen suddenly and fast.  I also wonder how much icing was reported, even if it was not severe.  Some articles said that the crew reported icing on Flight 3407.

Another odd aspect of this accident is the initial severe pitch up of the aircraft, prior to the pitch down and roll.  It takes a lot of pitch moment to disturb an aircraft that way, and most of the “common” failure modes result in an initial pitch down.  Another mode, stall/spin, is usually not associated with large pitch rates nose up, the entry to stall is more gradual.  I would really like to see control deflections during the event if that is available from the flight recorder.  That would clarify a lot of things.  Unfortunately, the NTSB briefing talked about listening for the pitch trim motor on the cockpit voice recorder.  I’m guessing that the flight recorder does not have data for control deflections or the trim deflections, or they wouldn’t have had to guess about use of pitch trim from the CVR.

Any aircraft that experiences a sudden pitch change, especially nose up, will do so because of an equally sudden change of configuration at the horizontal tail.  In this case, with suspected icing conditions, icing of the horizontal tail has to be considered.  The textbook case is a situation where ice builds up during cruise or descent, reducing the effectiveness of the horizontal tail.  The ice builds up on the leading edge of the horizontal tail, greatly reducing the ability to hold the nose of the aircraft up at the correct attitude.  The horizontal tail has to produce a downward force to properly balance other forces and moments on the aircraft, and greater nose up trim than normal is needed with ice on the tail.  As the aircraft approaches the airport to land, the crew slows down the aircraft and deploys flaps and landing gear.  The flaps and landing gear create nose down pitch moments that overcome the capability of the iced up horizontal tail.  The aircraft dives and impacts the ground before the crew can regain control.

Flight 3407 crashed soon after deployment of the flaps and landing gear, too low to recover from a textbook case of severe horizontal tail icing.  But it initially pitched up, not down.  This is inconsistent with the textbook scenario.

Even worse for any theories based on icing: the crew activated the anti-icing boots on the aircraft soon after departure and that system was on during the accident, according to the NTSB.

It is important to remember that each accident or incident can be unique.  There is always a cause, but it doesn’t have to come from a textbook.  Worse, a theory can fit all the facts you have, but if you can’t validate it against the facts (eliminate other good theories), it may always be just a possible cause.  If you haven’t seen this in action, watch a few episodes of Mythbusters on the Discovery Channel.

Given what I’ve heard about Flight 3407, here is a possible cause.  There was significant icing at some point in the flight, providing accumulation of ice on the horizontal tail despite the anti-icing system.  Since the boots are fed from bleed air on the engines, I have to wonder about the flow rates at the tail when the engines are spooled down for descent.  The autopilot system automatically compensated by adding nose up trim as the ice accumulated.  It is possible that ice also accumulated on the control surface balance areas of the horizontal tail, which are probably not protected by an anti-ice system.  Due to the boots and other factors, the leading edge ice on the horizontal tail was not stable.  Configuration changes prior to landing caused the leading edge ice to break off the horizontal tail soon after deployment of the flaps and landing gear.  The sudden additional downforce as the tail regained its effectiveness caused the aircraft to pitch up and subsequently stall violently.  If ice accumulated on the control surfaces of the horizontal tail, the situation would be worse as the control system could have been jammed.

-- Walter Lounsbery, 2-16-2009

Q-400 Flight Evaluation

I reported on December 31, 2008 that one of our XBOX 360s crashed hard, displaying the Red Ring of Death indication.  I am happy to report that the entire repair process went very well.  Microsoft has a special set of Web pages that allow you to ship your XBOX 360 off with minimum fuss.  Microsoft provides tracking and reports on the repair every step of the way.  It took several weeks to get our machine back and it is operating well.  Some of you may want faster gratification, but this seems like quick turnaround to me. 

Even though the extended warranty for RROD is three years, this XBOX 360 was purchased slightly over three years ago.  But there was no charge for any of this service.  I didn’t pay for shipping or repair, and Microsoft would have even supplied a shipping container to my home if I had requested it.

I think Microsoft deserves a great deal of credit for handling RROD repairs the right way.  I understand that some of the team that worked out this process has also contributed to Windows 7 self-diagnostic features.  If they can clear out some of the crud compared to the Vista help and support features they will do another great service for Microsoft customers.

-- Walter Lounsbery, 1-29-2009

I have to wonder at this point how deep their standards support is.  I see a lot of information on OpenSocial and developing widgets for their social networking service, perhaps someone with direct knowledge and experience can comment here.  I certainly hope that the Ning folks appreciate the difference between a standard API and a tool.

If you are wondering about the MetaWeblog API, you can check Wikipedia.  Or contact Dave Winer, who is not closely associated with Windows Live Writer.  It is a standard way to programmatically add blog posts to a Website.

As for Ning, I can only quote my recent exchange with their support desk:

“[The Ning Team - 01/13/2009 03:23 PM]

Hi there!

We don't currently support a way to integrate Live Writer into networks on Ning. This is an open feature request that our product team is considering and I'll certainly add your vote and comments to that request!

I hope this helps!

Cheers,

Susan

[Reporter - 01/12/2009 12:13 PM]

I'd like to use Windows Live Writer for blog posts. Live Writer uses the MetaWeblog API. Does Ning support that API?”

Their system calls me “Reporter” for some reason.  I do use my real name on Ning.

As a recent user of a Ning social network (the Entrepreneurs of Knoxville Website), I am impressed by the Ning mix of features for Web-organized clubs (pardon me, social networks!).  They have become extremely popular with their free service, which reportedly supports over 700,000 clubs.  There are several extensibility points for adding “OpenSocial applications” and styling pages.  I have to wonder how long the current business model will survive.  Especially since they’ve outlawed adult Websites.

As I’ve written this, I’ve made a really bad assumption.  I didn’t think it would be necessary to point out why the crappy Ning blogging interface (and lack of MetaWeblog support) would be a problem.  Well, I am posting this on two of my blogs (Live Spaces and Lounsbery Direct), plus the EOK Website.  As appropriate to a post like this, it’s just larded up with hyperlinks to more information.  I can write this very easily using Windows Live Writer.  I even get spell checking. 

Since Live Writer supports the MetaWeblog API, when I’m done writing I just click a couple of things and this post goes to both of my Websites formatted according to their CSS.  No muss, no fuss. 

On Ning I’ll have to copy and past this post into that little editor window, then reformat every hyperlink because they don’t copy properly.  If I had pictures, that would also create more work. Ning blogs are, therefore, seriously crippled and a major PITA.

-- Walter Lounsbery, 12-13-2008

Confession: I am a Twitter addict.  I write pithy notes about tech, the stock market, aviation, or whatever.  Follow me at http://twitter.com/waltal if you dare.

Previous to my Twitter addiction, I was a fairly regular blogger.  While blogging can be an addiction, those addicts requiring quick satisfaction and a more intimate relationship with their “audience” jumped to Twitter and like services long ago.  Some became video bloggers.

I’m not one of those early adopters.  In fact, I have the natural response of most native Missourians.  I am the skeptical, “show me” kind of guy.  If I’m told that something is the greatest new thing ever, they are going to have to prove it before I take a second look.  And it may take years for that second look.

Perhaps “pragmatic” is a better description of my approach to new things.  I’ve found that pragmatic cuts through a lot of smoke and mirrors kind of enthusiasm.  It gives you a better grounding when people are creating world-changing Web 2.0 thingies without a thought to real use or a business plan.  Twitter is one of those.  I saw an interview with Evan Williams (founder of Twitter), who says that "Twitter is way too hard".  Really?  His really vague statements about delivering common sense, “most requested features” is very enlightening.  Evan should check out some of the publications about how to use his own service (like the Twitter Survival Guide).  Evan, buddy, this stuff ain’t happenin’ unless you are on board and pushing it forward, right?

I try to subscribe to tech-leading people in blogs and on Twitter.  That way I don’t fall too far behind the tech savvy crowd.  Universally, there seems to be a lot of concern about “Friending” and “Following”, or basically building your network on some Internet service.  I especially appreciate Dare Obasanjo’s posts on social networks, among the many people I listen to.  And that is a key item for any of these networks.  Do you really want to listen to somebody?

Everyone has their own reasons for using a social network.  I think that diversity of motivation would be served by a few seconds of real introspection before jumping in the deep end of the pool.  First, understand how visible your postings are to the Internet at large, people signed up for the service, your followers or friends, and so on.  How much control do you have over those videos, pictures, music and book recommendations, text postings, and other stuff?  If you can’t understand the vendor’s explanation, your first mission is to identify someone on the network that understands it and connect with them.

Once you have an idea how deep the pool is, list out the reasons you’d like to go for a swim.  And I’ll drop the pool metaphor right here.  Are you making business connections?  Are you looking for authorities in important areas?  Are you looking to hook up?  Maybe you just want some entertainment streaming across your monitor while you’re slaving away on some thankless job like – sorry, I drifted off topic there. 

Take that list and rank your reasons to join the network.  Most of these networks have the potential for thousands of random connections.  If you think its frightening to speak to a few hundred random people (some who love you, some want to steal your money, some want to stalk you), then maybe you don’t want thousands of random connections.  Maybe you want every connection to be a quality connection, made for the right reasons.  Like the reasons on that list you just made.  If every connection is valuable to you and the other person, then it doesn’t matter how many you have.  If it is a dozen other people, or ten thousand other people, each is a priceless connection you probably wouldn’t have made some other way or on some other network.

Given this approach to social networking, nobody should be confused about following or friending.  Any random follower or friend is just that.  Most networks let you see their profile, some pictures, what they have written.  If they match some of the reasons that you joined the network, great.  You might make that connection.  Be discriminating.  If you can’t see a profile or anything they’ve done and you don’t otherwise know them, decline the invitation or don’t follow them.  You’re not missing anything there.

-- Walter Lounsbery, 2008-01-12

There are those XBOX 360 owners that know of the RROD and dread it, those that are blissfully ignorant, and those that have experienced the Red Ring of Death.  The XBOX 360 has a ring of lights around the power switch that normally turn green during startup or when a wireless control connects to the console.  The ring of lights turns red (except for the upper right quadrant) when some fatal problem keeps the XBOX 360 from operating.  This is Microsoft’s Web page for us lucky people that got the RROD:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/907534

This problem and other Zune issues have earned their own Wikipedia page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360_technical_problems

As I recall, Microsoft set aside a large cash reserve to address warranty issues such as these.  Perhaps more than a billion dollars.  I could not locate a source to verify the reserve amount.

We have an XBOX 360 that is about two years old.  We were treated to it’s Red Ring of Death Monday evening.  Somewhere, a devil got its pitchfork.

Today Microsoft’s hardware problems multiplied by (potentially) a million or more.  The original 30G Zune apparently has a lockup issue that happens on January 31, 2008.  Happy New Year’s Eve!  I verified the issue by turning on my Zune today and it is now locked up quite solidly.  I’m waiting for the battery to draw down completely.  Some Web reports state that removing the battery resets the unit and resolves the lockup.  If so, perhaps just letting it drain and waiting a few hours before the recharge will also fix the issue.

I hope Microsoft is able to address my XBOX 360 repair quickly and cheaply, and soon cures the Zune lockup.  Better yet, management should resolve to be a little more brilliant and a lot less sloppy in their consumer products in 2009, then stick to that resolution.  I’ve seen so many lectures on reputation in social networks and business, some from Microsoft thought leaders.  Well, it’s high time you applied some of those principles back at the ranch instead of the lecture circuit.  As they say, just do it.

-- Walter Lounsbery, 12-31-2008

This is a great day in the Lounsbery forest.  It is a sunny 45 degree day with a predicted high temperature of 54 degrees.  Lisa and I got up and exchanged presents.  She gave me a Belgian waffle maker (like you would find at a finer motel at their free breakfast bar).  She also got the recipe and ingredients for pumpkin waffles, which we made for breakfast.  It doesn’t get much better than Belgian pumpkin waffles, I’m telling you.

I gave Lisa a red robe, which will keep her warm during the days that we drop the thermostat to save the planet and cut the heating bill (not necessarily in that order).  Since she asked for that specific robe, I was happy to get it for her.  On the other hand, our Santa Cats had other ideas.

In addition to the presents we got each other, our four cats apparently got into the spirit of the season with two more presents for their human house pets.  That’s what the labels on the presents said, so it must be true.  The Santa Cats gave Lisa a digital picture frame (perfect for the desk at work) and I got a remote controlled helicopter.  I promise not to chase the cats with the helicopter.

I hope all of you readers out there have a Merry Christmas.  This is a magical time of the year.  If you think I write like a Grinch most of the time, then this post is proof that the Christmas magic is real.  Here’s hoping that you share some of that magic this year and for many years to come.

-- Walter Lounsbery, 12-25-2008

In the last few weeks, a leading politician has called for economic stimulus by hiring “unemployed” people to “rebuild” the sagging, ancient, crumbling “public” infrastructure.  Our roads are crap, public transportation is crap, broadband is crap, today’s economic disaster is a wonderful “opportunity” to fix the ills of the public infrastructure and build our way to American Nirvana.  The media and disaffected bloggers have taken the cue to point out that America is “behind” the rest of the world, with outdated infrastructure.  Everything we have was built by the WPA during the Great Depression.

There have been many points in history when big lies go over really well.  Apparently, even though most of America haven’t a clue what a deep recession or depression will mean for them next year, the time has come to trot out the really big lies.  Lies that will be exaggerated, repeated, and believed by countless people we listen to.  It is amazing to me how the half-baked, desperate ideas government tried during the Great Depression suddenly make perfect sense now, without any comparable motivation or need.

I’ve actually read people complain about the drab and dingy Kennedy International Airport, so much worse than the Hong Kong Airport built in 1998.  They imply that all airports are sad, obsolete examples of vile architecture.  I’ve read people complain about the sad state of public interstate highways, which were built in the Great Depression.  The leading politician wants to put people to work in order to take America “in a new direction”.  What I’m sensing is not so much reasoned action as panicked lemmings running for the nearest cliff as they shout “We’ve found the new direction!  Hurry up, come this way!”

You know, it is an easy matter to read about the Great Depression on the Internet.  There are many analysis of the event, descriptions of the American government’s tactics, and even history of the Great Depression’s impact on other countries.  I expect my leaders to be able to read and understand the same fundamentals I see there and in any good textbook.  More important, the legions of people in the media could do no damage to their minds and credibility by understanding real history.  Of course, it takes more than wishing to improve the situation, smart people need to speak out and make sure that we pick a direction that is actually better, not a well-worn trail to the cliff.

At least you will if you are smarter than a lemming.

-- Walter Lounsbery, 12-24-2008

I am continually amazed at my fellow software developers.  When they are presented with a loose development team, they want rigor and process.  When presented with rigor and process, they want the process to get out of their way.  They want to get the voice of the customer until they have to sit in a meeting.  And most of all, they want a supportive management that will set up all those things so they can do great things with code.

Perhaps this is just human nature.  Certainly we get a lot of conflictive teaching and reality.  Those of us that get schooling in project management rarely get to apply even a few principles from class.  That goes double for the folks that actually have management jobs.  Those of us that experience some of the failings of real project management are usually stymied by the petty office politics that drive budgets and work items.  In these tight economic times, it is amazing how the darlings of those amazing Silicon Valley firms are blogging about some of the most bone-headed management and software development practices I’ve ever heard of as they are shown the door.  Perhaps we are all mired in a sea of confusion.

There is one situation that just begs for reality-based goals and deliverables in software development.  When we write software for other software developers, does it make sense to communicate how it works or how to use it?  Universally, developers believe that their delivered application is the statement of requirements, the source code is the programmer’s manual for the next version.  Nothing more is needed past the existence of the application itself.  It seems that this philosophy extends to developer tools and frameworks.  And if the tools are complex, then the communication suffers even more.

But we all know that communication is expensive.  How much is enough, especially when the complex tool may have millions of lines of code, several languages, several frameworks, and several plug-in architectures and display environments?  I think it is safe to say that such a system deserves perhaps a book or two for every major system or sub-product.  It especially needs overviews that show how all the pieces fit together and interoperate, with examples.  And when major new technologies are being introduced for such a grand tool, they deserve more than some videos, a “Hello World” presentation, and some podcasts.  If the various teams involved in producing the various parts of a complex tool are not on the same page, maybe providing the correct page is worth every penny.

How much communication is enough?  When small customers with limited resources don’t give up scaling your wall of complexity.  That means that you must listen to the small customers and make sure they can tell you about the problems.  That means responding in a meaningful way.  The customer wants to create a solution with your tool, they are invested, and nobody wins if the enormous resources invested in the tool don’t deliver an achievable solution to the customer because of a simple lack of communication.  When small customers provide enthusiastic feedback and community the communication is on the right track.

It should be easy to see that existential software stands on its own, but a real product depends on communication with customers before and after delivery.  Until some magic happens in the universe, process and documentation during development are the best ways to deliver communication for complex systems through their life cycle.  Just as programmers expect great support from their development tools, regular customers should get real instruction and communication for other types of applications.  And you can still get their attention with slick videos.

-- Walter Lounsbery, 12-23-2008

When we got a second XBOX 360 (refurb) to be the Media Extender, DVD Player, and game console in our basement game room, we anticipated getting full use of the machine in all those roles.  In fact, it has been a great DVD player.  The other roles have been hobbled by identity crises created by the XBOX product team.  I’m sure this is not a malicious act on their part, just ignorance in action.

Two problems are a direct result of the inability of the XBOX software to cope with a home network.  The laser-like focus of the XBOX team seems to exclude a network that doesn’t directly connect to one Media Center PC with one XBOX in one house.  Perhaps it is a failure to count at all.

We have, as it happens, two Media Center PCs in our one house.  The Media Center PC in the living room drives our television and now has no other role.  That’s what happens as Windows operating systems slow to a crawl with age.  I’m sure the living room Media Center will be rebuilt soon to try to restore its lost youth and vigor.  The other Media Center PC is my desktop workstation, the once mighty Blue Monster.  Repaving that machine will be a major, lengthy, and painful job.  So much for four cores and four GB of RAM.

Each XBOX is, of course, connected to a different Media Center.  It should be obvious that any option to share a Media Center PC is, well, nonexistent.  Perhaps the simple act of trying of connect to the same Media Center just works and it is possible to choose the desired PC is various ways.  After all, any PC in the house that isn’t connected to an XBOX used to constantly remind us of it’s desperate need to hook up.  You should have seen the flurry of messages I used to get when starting up my laptop at home.  I still get lots of messages, but they have changed over the months.

After so many great experiences in the past, I am not going to try to hook up more than one XBOX to a Media Center.  Or an XBOX to more than one Media Center.  I have visions of my house burning down as some evil feedback loop runs out of control before I can shut down the power.

I can avoid the connection problem by living with a crippled network, but the XBOX still has restrictions that I can’t ignore.  You see, the XBOX Live account associated with one XBOX can be “transferred” to another XBOX (so I can access XBOX Marketplace and use that new nifty avatar thingy).  So I can use the game machine in the basement.  Too bad the original XBOX doesn’t want to give up it’s old identity.  In fact, although I’ve tried to set it to use Lisa’s account, it still insists on trying to “recover” my account (which immediately makes the basement XBOX forget my account).  Apparently I can spend money, get a memory module, and put my account on the module and carry that to the basement, too.  I just don’t think the upstairs XBOX will quit whining about my “lost” account if I do that.

I hoped the XBOX console software update would fix the XBOX identity crisis.  Nope.  Having seen how Microsoft Help degrades with every software upgrade, I know that I won’t find any meaningful solution now.  The product team is always looking forward to the next great feature set.  There are videos galore about avatars, but no help for the XBOX fan with more than one console in their house. 

-- Walter Lounsbery, 12-21-2008

As the folks on Twitter have heard, we’ve been able to trap one of the noisy and destructive raccoons that occasionally invade our attic.  I used a marshmallow for bait and it worked very well.  Our neighbor Terry had the same raccoon problem and recommended the bait.  After trapping the critter, I drove out to Norris Lake and released it in the park there.  I was concerned that the critter might take the opportunity to take a crack at it’s jailer, but the release went fine.  It’s amazing how fast a little raccoon can move when it is motivated.

While the traps we got are fine for raccoon, squirrel, and other small vermin, vermin come in all sizes.  For example, the door between the workshop and the basement has deep claw marks in the trim about six feet above the floor.  Since the home sellers were a quiet lot (a little too quiet), we never learned how that happened, but we think a bear, coyote, or some other dangerous vermin was involved.  It just makes sense to be a good, well-armed part of the neighborhood vermin and crime watch.  Lisa and I are graduating from trappers to verminators.

Yesterday we took the NRA basic gun course at Austin’s Tennessee Firearm Gun Shop in Oak Ridge.  This was perfect for Lisa and I.  Lisa has never shot a gun (not even a BB gun) and the only time I’ve fired bullets is during the Hurst, Texas Citizens Police Academy.  And I attended that Citizens Police Academy ten years ago.

We really enjoyed the course.  The instructors were great.  Lisa scored a 460 on the range and I scored a 478 (perfect is 480).  It’s too bad that the school kept the targets.  I would have liked to post mine somewhere on the outside of the house for potential burglers to admire.  A few more bureaucratic steps, some gun shopping, and we will be able to protect ourselves much better.  That’s very important when you live in the woods during these trying times.

-- Walter Lounsbery, 12-14-2008