Archive for May 31st, 2007
Pimp Your Zune
Thursday, May 31st, 2007
Yeah I know, Zune. A complete flop. Well, unless of course you consider 10% of a market in 6 months a flop. (We knew this was going to happen.) If you’re interested in making your Zune stand out amongst the other million or so out there here in the states, Colorware will sell you a new one in any of 26 customized color schemes, or you can ship your existing Zune back to them to have it pimped for about $75.00. Since I’m pretty confident I’ll be picking up a rev 2 Zune in the fall (or two), I’m going to send my rev 1 in for a make-over. I’m thinking of going with a John Deere theme. Call me crazy, but I think it’s going to look pretty sweet. 
I should also point out that iPod lovers out there can do the same with their hardware, except of course you won’t be standing out much since, well, everybody including your grandmother has an iPod.
Update – .. and yes, I’m fully aware of the irony in that last statement.
Unix Build Tools on Windows
Thursday, May 31st, 2007
Not much has changed since the last time I worked with cygwin – these tools still totally suck. They are buggy – prone to crashes, freezes, unexplained build failures, out of memory errors, and they leave zombie processes floating around more often than they close down successfully. Not what I’d consider a very productive environment for developing software on Windows.
Hurricane Season Begins Again
Thursday, May 31st, 2007
Let’s hope the folks up in Colorado are as good this year as they were in the last at predicting the number of named storms.
The chance of a major hurricane hitting the Gulf Coast between the Florida Panhandle and Brownsville, Texas, is 49 percent; the long-term average is 30 percent. There is also an above-average chance of a major hurricane making landfall in the Caribbean, according to the forecast.
Body Language
Thursday, May 31st, 2007
Interesting body language, although it seems they are getting along. Unfortunately Engadget’s blow by blow isn’t very good – nothing compared to their usual detailed blow by blow coverage. It might not be their fault though, sounds like it was pretty free form. Hopefully some video will be up soon, I’m really interested to see the whole thing.
The best part of the technical discussion I’ve read so far is the rich client stuff, one area these two characters can definitely agree on – Gates: “You’re always going to have rich local functionality. It’s about using that together with rich functionality in the cloud.” (No guarantee that’s an original quote.)
Best quote from the fun, banter back and forth side of things: “What’s the greatest misunderstanding about your relationship with each other?”
Steve: “We’ve kept our marriage secret for over a decade.” (yucks)
Bill: “Neither of us have anything to complain about. People come and go in this industry, it’s nice when someone sticks around.”
Gates likes strong competitors.
Engadget commentary: “People, we’re telling you, these guys really respect each other. There’s no doubt about it. There’s a certain, sombre reverence, and profound respect. It just comes through.”
Hmm, maybe both camps could learn something from that, but odds are we’ll probably keep our legs crossed in opposite directions too.
Update – Here’s some better blow by blow without the commentary, but it’s not complete.
Update – Video
