2006 January 29

Yeah, look at the title for this page: Download details: Podcasts: How Microsoft  IT Implements Encryption Using SQL Server 2005. Not exactly a subject that would interest most users, but it's certainly… proving that Microsoft isn't afraid to use the word in a sentence (or on a Web page, for that matter). And just in case they change their mind, here's the screen shot.

Read more on It's Official: Microsoft Podcasts…

The ala carte iPod Video store is getting worse, not better. If you watch only one TV show per week (and you don't already have a cable subscription), I'm sure their efforts are a godsend. However, if you're like me, and already have three DVRs in your house to record all the shows you want to watch, this lack-of-subscription thing is an absolute nightmare.
Someone at Apple is telling me that I have to re-pay for shows I'm already paying for and (possibly) recording elsewhere, legally? Bullshit. Why should I pay $2 for a single episiode of a show? Why?! Why can't I just have a subscription like I do for all my other programming – including my Netflix account, which often goes unused (while money still funnels into their pockets). Just so I can watch it on an iPod. The Apple iTunes Video page lies to everybody… “Looks like fun.” No, it looks like you're going to nickel and dime us to death for low-quality (bitrate) content.
Imagine what'll happen when you have 20 shows you want to watch at $2 apiece. No, seriously. I could rattle off 20 shows right NOW that I enjoy watching on a regular basis. Let's do the math: 20 x $2 = $40. That's not $40 a month, mind you – it's $40 a week, knowing that most seasons have 10+ shows (so, I could spend >$20 to consume a season in low-quality with nothing physical to show for it – and each program having a very low replay factor). Will I pay $40 a month to gain access to *ALL* the stuff I normally get on my digital cable subscription (in a portable, subscribable format)? Yes. Will I pay $40 a week to watch *SOME* of the stuff I normally get on my cable subscription? Hell no, bozo.
They *HAVE* to make it affordable for those of us who enjoy more than one piece of produced content. BitTorrent has it all over the iPod, man – higher quality media, no DRM, etc. Talk about a mashup that needs to happen?! Someone needs to take uTorrent and build a video encoding layer to it that'll automatically take the downloaded videos and transcode them into MP4 (though not H.264 yet, as the PSP doesn't support it) suitable for our selected portable devices.
I'm thoroughly disappointed that I can't take my Napster subscription with me on my PSP or iPod. Instead, companies want me to spend even MORE money for LESS freedom – and to complicate my life even more than it was before. The sad thing is, many folks walk into it blindly thinking it… “looks like fun.” Bullshit. It's all Bullshit, and Apple's leading the bullshit charge (albeit with style).

Read more on It's Time for Subscriptions!…

The Windows desktop experience we live with daily is a source of many sleepless nights for Chris Pirillo. He’s a sort of consumer experience ombudsman, advocating something more consistent than the Luna theme from Windows XP. At CES 2006 Jenny Lam, part of the core experience team for Windows Vista, talked with Chris about the AERO desktop experience, the design of the latest fonts and interface in Windows Vista. This isn’t your typical rah-rah Microsoft message, with Jenny admitting she was once a Mac user and joined the design team at Microsoft in hopes of making an impact. I couldn’t find the AERO team blog at the time of this posting, but there’s good stuff that spans the gap between Microsoft Office and the Windows Experience in Jensen Harris: An Office User Interface Blog.

Read more on OOBE, Calibri and AERO: A Conversation with Jenny Lam…

• Icon Chassis Modified For Water Cooling
• Silverstone 600Watt Modular Power Supply
• Microsoft Windows XP Professional
• Asus A8N-SLI Premium
• AMD Athlon64 4800+ Dual Core
• Icon Watercooling Kit (AMD)
• Corsair Twin X 2048MB 3500LL Pro 2X1024

Read more on My New Computer?…