Christmas Part 3: Christmas Day

Cassidy woke everyone up around 8:15. I came downstairs first to get the video camera ready, then the the girls came bounding down the steps to see what Santa had left for them. We opened presents, played with our toys and ate stocking candy for breakfast.

Later we went to church, where every child got to bring his or her favorite toy to the front for the blessing of the toys. It was the first time I recall seeing this, and it was very cool. Afterwards, we came home and the girls played some more and jumped on the trampoline. In the afternoon, we went to the Fenrichs for a wonderful Christmas meal of homemade gumbo and potato salad. We played a litte croquet and the kids exchanged gifts.

Then we came home, played some more and the girls collapsed in their beds after a fun and busy day.

It was a great Christmas.

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christmas

Blogosphere’s Most Interesting People

interesting

Duncan Riley over at the Blog Herald has listed his Top 10 Most Interesting People in the Blogosphere for 2005.

It’s a good list and it’s hard to come up with the Top 10 in anything. In no particular order, here are some of the people I found the most interesting in 2005. The ones in italics are on his list as well.

Robert Gale: I find A Welsh View to be a compelling, every day read.

Jason Calacanis: I like the way he speaks his mind with little reservation. It will be interesting to see if he will continue to do this now that he’s with AOL.

Robert Scoble: A lot of what I have learned about blogs and RSS came either from his page or from links on his page. The place to start to learn the who, what, why and how of blogs.

David Sifry: I say it over and over- Technorati is the backbone of the blogosphere. Someone is going to pay a lot of coupon for Technorati in 2006. Imagine the blogosphere without Technorati and you imagine a colder, darker, disconnected place.

Gabe Rivera: Memeorandum is generally the first place I read every morning. The New York Times of the blogosphere.

Improbulus: A Consuming Experience has the best blogging tutorials I have ever seen. Much of what I have implemented here was learned there.

Duncan Riley: He can’t put himself on his list, but he’s an easy inclusion on mine. The Blog Herald has been a daily read of mine for a long time. Along with A Welsh View, it’s one of the few blogs that can always be counted on for new and interesting topics.

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2005, top 10

Looking for a Few Good Blogs

Thanks to the wonder of the blogosphere and the kindness of my fellow bloggers, I have already received 4 of the 10 things on my blog-related Christmas list (thanks Fred, JK, Flickr commenters and Memeorandum). Thomas Hawk is a sure bet to take more great photos, so we’ll count me at 50%.

My numbering is hopeless (I actually had to go back and ADD a number 4 because I skipped it (again)).

Kevin, J.P. and Dwight are still out shopping.

So tonight I want to focus on number 10- more good blogs to read. If you write or know of a good, regularly updated blog that would fit in on my blogroll, drop me an email. I’ll take a look and if I add it to my blogroll I’ll post a note about it here.

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blogs

Thinking Backwards, Looking Forward

Ray Ozzie has an interesting post today summing up 2005 and looking towards 2006. It got me thinking a little about the past and pending year.

2005:

Day Job: I did some stuff right and some stuff less than perfectly. Brand building was my focus, and we did some good there. Politics and diplomacy are my challenges pretty much 24/7/365. My challenges are to learn what I can fix and what I can’t and to focus more of my efforts on the former. I think too many of us obsess on the broken stuff at the expense of the places we can make a positive difference.

Music: I suspect my completed song output in 2005 was about as low as it’s been since I was in my 20s. I finished one song and co-wrote maybe two. I did get three songs recorded and had one chart in Europe. I need to either write more in 2006 or stop thinking of myself as a songwriter.

Internet: I renewed my ACCBoards.Com affiliation with Scout.Com. It’s not a perfect relationship but it’s one that benefits both companies. I moved Newsome.Org to a blog platform, first as a content management tool and then as a full-fledged blog. I have worked harder that I thought I would have to to generate traction, but I’ve actually got a bunch of readers- thank you, each and every one of you.

Family: Saving the best for last, this was a fun year for us. The girls are doing great. They have a little brother who will be born literally any day now. We bought the property next to us and built a play area and a soccer field. We are going to really enjoy it over the years.

2006:

I’m not going to make a lot of predictions, but I will say a few words about my plans and then make a couple I feel pretty sure about.

My Plans: As mentioned above, I need to adjust my sphere of concern a little- to encompass what I can change and not what I can’t. This covers a lot of areas, but can be boiled down to this- try to be very, very good at a few things instead of pretty good at a lot of things.

My Projects: As we all know, Project Flickr was a failure. I will still do a little Friend Fishing. Everything else here will be more or less the same- maybe a little tweaking to write in a little more depth about things that interest me. I will also start a year long self-improvement project in early January, which will be updated regularly here. More on that later.

My Predictions:

I just can’t help it, so here goes:

1) The new version of Internet Explorer will impress almost everyone. Tabbed browsing will help close the feature gap. But over time, Firefox will own the “geek” market and IE will be the choice of the (still large and worthwhile) non-geek market. Eventually, Firefox will make inroads there, but not so much in 2006.

2) Someone will release the killer podcast creation, publication and management application in 2006. I’m not talking about a website; I’m talking about desktop software. Maybe it’s a better version of Audacity; maybe something else. But it will happen. Also the RIAA will loose the hounds on podcasting in 2006 in another futile effort to stuff the cat back in the bag.

3) RSS will gain widespread acceptance with the new version of Outlook (as we discussed earlier this week). More and more news services will start to distribute news that way. Some media source I read will try paid feeds and it just might work. If I am going to pay for a site, I’d rather read the stories in a news reader than a browser.

4) Someone, probably Google, will buy Technorati and pay a fortune for it. Google simply can’t afford to let Yahoo get in front of it again.

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2006, predictions

Christmas Part 2: Christmas Eve

Today was a fun and relaxing day. The Clarks came over this afternoon and we played soccer in the new yard. The girls (Cassidy, Evie, Delaney and Yvette) beat the boys (me, Greg and Aidan) 20-8. I have yet to win a game on the new soccer field.

Later we went with the Fenrichs to the children’s Christmas Eve service at church and then to Outback for dinner. Last Christmas Eve we did the same thing, except it was snowing really hard and we came home afterwards and had a snowball fight.

After dinner the Fenrichs and the Clarks came over for dessert. The kids played on the trampoline and had a great time. Arnie and I played some pool.

After everyone left, the kids opened their traditional Christmas Eve presents, wrote a note for Santa and ran off to bed.

What a fun day!

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christmas

50 Greatest Gadgets of the Past 50 Years

PC World has released its list of the 50 greatest gadgets of the past 50 years. Here’s my take on the ones I know something about.

45. Sony Mavica MVC-FD5 (1997)

Absolutely deserves to be on this list and probably higher. My first digital camera, after I fell in love with one owned by my brother-in-law. We still have it around here somewhere. It took digital photos directly onto a floppy disk.

43. Polaroid Swinger (1965)

I remember being utterly amazed that you could take a picture and it would print immediately while you waited. This was some amazing technology. Cassidy asked Santa Claus for a polaroid camera for this Christmas, so the technology is still around.

40. Connectix QuickCam (1994)

Another gadget I learned about from my brother in law. I have one of its great grandchildren attached to my computer right now. This was a great step forward in terms of internet connectivity.

36. Iomega Zip Drive (1995)

Yes, everyone owned one. The stock was a day traders’ dream back in the day. But the technology was crappy then and it’s crappy now.

32. Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer (1999)

Everybody had one, yes. But it wouldn’t make my list.

27. Commodore 64 (1982)

Absolutely, positively deserves to be on this list. Probably higher.

17. Texas Instruments SR-10 (1973)

The first TI calculator I ever had was a 1/2 pound Christmas present that seemed at the time like a dream come true. Definitely made math and Chemistry easier.

BlackBerry-850_a-703061

14. BlackBerry 850 Wireless Handheld (1998)

This was the first Blackberry I carried around. I replaced it with the newer phone-form model, but this was truly amazing technology at the time.

7. Atari Video Computer System (1977)

My friend Andy Rogers’ brother had Mattel’s Intellivision competitor to this, and it was a groundbraking thing to be able to play video games at home. I still remember beating Andy’s butt at Intellivision Football for hours on end. I had two plays- roll out right and roll out left. And I was unstoppable!

5. Sony CDP-101 (1982)

CD Players changed the world and made me have to repurchase my music collection for a third time: LPs, cassettes and then CDs. I remember the first CD I ever bought: Hot Rocks by The Rolling Stones (I’m not a fan of greatest hits records, but there wasn’t a wide selection to choose from back then).

3. (Tie) ReplayTV RTV2001 and TiVo HDR110 (1999)

I’d actually pick all of the TIVOs and give them the number one place on my list, as I would have in my 10-year list as well. My love for TIVO is what makes me angry and sad as I watch it die a painful death.

2. Apple iPod (2001)

I’ve never owned an iPod, but as a stand-in for all portable MP3 players, it should be high on this list. But number 2 is a little too high.

1. Sony Walkman TPS-L2 (1979)

I had several incarnations of the Walkman line, and they were great products. Number 1 is too high, however. Maybe top 10, but you’ve got to put the stand-in for personal computers number 1. I’d put TIVO number 2. After that, maybe a tie between the Walkman and the iPod.

Here are some other people’s takes on the list (I’ll update as people send me links):

Engadget

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gadgets, electronics

RanchoCast Christmas 2005 Edition

Christmas_02

I did the Christmas edition of our RanchoCast podcast this morning.

It consists of nine Christmas songs ranging from the awesome Elvis Presley recording of Santa Claus is Back in Town to the great version of I Saw Momma Kissing Santa Claus by John Prine to some more off the beaten path songs by Commander Cody and 5 Chinese Brothers.

Merry Christmas from all of us at Rancho DeNada!

A word about the music files: I am a songwriter and musician, and I have no desire to take money out of anyone’s pocket. To the contrary, I am trying to promote some great music that you likely won’t hear on mainstream radio. These are low bitrate MP3s. I am experimenting with podcasting as a way to promote alt. county music. Go buy these records. You’ll be glad you did.

ScobleFeeds A-Z: The I’s

This is part nine of my A-Z review of Scoble‘s feeds. The rules and criteria are here.

Here’s my pick from the I’s:

iBLOGthere4iM (RSS Feed)

iBLOGthere4iM, Randy Charles Morin’s blog, is actually one of the first blogs I started reading when I first began to explore blogs as way of getting news and information. This was before I had a news reader and so I never added it to my blogroll. I am happy to have rediscovered it. Lots of good blogging and general tech posts.

Honorable Mention:

Incremental Blogger (RSS Feed) (ineligible because I already read it)

Inside Microsoft (RSS Feed)

Ian Dixon (RSS Feed)

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scoblefeeds, blogs, rss

Christmas Part 1: Dinner at the Clarks

We began our official Christmas celebrations tonight with dinner at the Clarks, along with the Carlsons and the Fenrichs. The kids all had a blast- playing, jumping on the trampoline and generally running around.

I have been very busy at the office over the past weeks and tonight is the first chance I have had to slow down and enjoy the season. We are blessed to have such good friends and my children are and will be blessed as they remember these fun and wonderful times for the rest of their lives. There is nothing that relaxes me more than the chaotic sound of children at play. Tonight, as I do often, I walked outside and sat watching the kids while they played. These kids have known each other for almost their entire lives, and in many ways it is like they are one big family. It takes a community to raise a child- and we are fortunate to be a part of this one.

Tomorrow, we will gather again after our respective Christmas Eve church services. On Chistmas Day and over the next weeks and years these wonderful kids and their wonderful parents will continue to enrich our lives.

It is truly the season to be merry.

Technorati Tags: christmas

How Microsoft Can Win the RSS War

Scoble links to a blog post by Michael Affronti, a program manager for Microsoft’s Outlook team, about planned RSS integration in an upcoming version of Outlook. I use Outlook for email and probably always will. I have often scratched my head about why Outlook (unlike Outlook Express) doesn’t have newsgroup integration- thereby making users launch another program to read newsgroups. Now it looks like Outlook will have a built-in RSS aggregator so users won’t have to look elsewhere to read their RSS feeds (there’s a screen shot on Michael’s blog post).

Here’s how Microsoft can win the RSS war:

1) Make the RSS integration seamless. The screenshot looks pretty sweet in this regard.

2) For the love of Elvis, give us a “mark ALL feeds as read” button. The lack of this is a Sage-killer for me.

3) Figure out a way to give us 3 big viewing panes: a list of feeds; a list of post titles; and the post itself. Give me an integrated way to click to the post page AND home page of the blog I’m reading. In most of the RSS readers I have used, the first two columns make the window where the actual blog post appears too narrow. Outlook has a good pane structure now, so this should be easy.

4) Give us a way to synchronize our feeds, including read and unread, over multiple computers (via Foldershare, perhaps?). Scoble mentions the need for synchronization in his post. Foldershare, Foldershare, Foldershare. Say it with me…

5) Get this release out there before Firefox and/or Sage makes Outlook as an RSS reader as yesterday’s news as it’s in the process of making Internet Explorer. Firefox (and the multitude of extensions for it) is seriously kicking Microsoft’s butt as far as the browser feature war goes. I just don’t know if Microsoft can move fast enough to keep up. I hope it can (I have owned Microsoft stock for a long time), but I bet it can’t.

Alas, there are also ways Microsoft can lose the RSS war:

1) Take forever (see above).

2) Remove elements and features that people are expecting (think Vista).

3) Release something that does what other RSS readers do, but doesn’t represent an evolutionary advance. People need an evolutionary advance to switch. That’s why Internet Explorer dominated the browser market pre-Firefox.

Outlook still owns the email business and no one has come out with the ultimate RSS reader yet. Microsoft can win the RSS war if it moves fast enough and gives people something that is significantly better than what we have now. That sounds easy enough, right?

UPDATE: Mike busted me on my lack of numbering skill in the comments. I just fixed it. There are three reasons why I can’t count : (1) I’m bad at math, (1) I can’t type and (1) I’m bad at proofreading 🙂

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microsoft, rss