• Bug Hunt: It is still on going. I have reached 10 participants, which means I will give out the prize (or prizes if I feel generous ). Keep those bugs coming (reproducible if at all possible) and I hope you are enjoying MSN Messenger 7.5! Sorry I can't reply to all the submissions!
• It is back to school for everybody! Hope all you college folks are chattin' it up on Messenger in your dorm rooms .
• The US Open is taking place in New York. I haven't been able to watch any of it, yet again. Roddick is OUT! Quite a shocker. Any bets on the Winner? I am guessing Federer on the Men's side (or maybe Nadal and hisfunny looking "Capri" outfit), and Serena and her funky outfits on the women's side. At least she dropped the cat women suit this year.
• Technorati has released a Blog search. Overdo, congrats on being #1 for MSN Messenger .
• MSN News:
• MSN purchased Teleo. VOIP, here we come!
• MSN releases a phishing filter.
• MSNBC has a Blog This for its news story. Nice! Is Sports included?
• Start.com goes LIVE! Go check it out. Go AJAX!
• MSN: First with RSS search! Go try it out here.
• Anyways, a lot more coming out of MSN in the upcoming months (or years or whatever), so hold on to your hats!

And last, but not least, my thoughts and prayers go to all the people involved in Hurricane Katrina.

Peace Out!

You heard it folks: the next release of Windows will be called VISTA! No more Longhorn . Hmm... We have a lot of paths to rename at work .

• Living la VISTA loca!
• La VISTA e bella!

Got any other good ones? Leave them in the comments .

Peace Out!

RSS is all over the news today:

• RSS in Longhorn
• Microsoft announces RSS
• Channel 9 video with the Longhorn Browsing and RSS team

Can we say RSS happy? I personally think it is great that Microsoft is getting involved with RSS. So involved that it is turning it into a platform in Longhorn. I am looking forward to seeing the RSS applications that will utilize the RSS platform. Should be interesting...

The really interesting questions are as follows:

• How are businesses going to adjust to the emergence of RSS and Blogs?
• With users "chosing" their content and viewing posts mostly through aggregators, what will happen to portals and websites that depend on advertisements on their sites to make money?
• Do you think RSS is being over-hyped?

And an "MSN Exposed" Blog has launched. That is definitely a GREAT idea .

I have no idea what the post below is about, but I want to give credit to "loadmemory" for the GREAT "SideRoll" feature. It ROCKS, and it is creating quite the waves in the MSN Spaces community.

So the trick, courtesy of "Sirthinks1" who received it from "loadmemory" is as follows. Post the following snippet into one of your front pages' Blog posts:

See "Sirthinks1" comment for the actuall HTML snippet here.

Tips:

1. In order to edit HTML content with Spaces, use Edit It!
2. To obtain the HTML for your Blog Roll, just visit the OPML to HTML converter (selfish plug: tool that I wrote ) and enter your newsgator OPML link.

Quote:

网络标签（手动置顶日志，请勿回复或引用，谢谢！）

What's hip in Spaces nowadays? Check out the Spaces Side Blog Rolls. I have seen TONS of these around :

• http://spaces.msn.com/members/windflower912/
• http://spaces.msn.com/members/wslmsn/
• http://spaces.msn.com/members/l1420/
• http://spaces.msn.com/members/zjr72/
• http://spaces.msn.com/members/czjs2/
• http://spaces.msn.com/members/xuzx007/
• http://spaces.msn.com/members/xinidc/
• http://spaces.msn.com/members/infinityyk/
• http://spaces.msn.com/members/andylijun/
• http://spaces.msn.com/members/xiaoyaole/
• http://spaces.msn.com/members/ninges/

And the "creator" of the SideRoll:

• http://spaces.msn.com/members/loadmemory/

Makes my Space look plain .

UPDATE: So who is going to post the HTML snippet on how to do the Side Roll, so I don't have to use my brain to figure it out?

Peace Out!

This is definitely interesting, especially posting the Blog Roll link right by the Blog's description . 

Oh, and Overdo, good luck on your exam!

Quote

Testing buttons in the Tagline
Hehe this is fun :)

Want to know how to do it, then see my comment below (I'm in a rush and can't be bothered to load up IE to insert the HTML :P). I'll write a bit more about it later.

Thanks to Jesusfreak for showing it was possible

Edit: Ok I have 5 hours of exams tomorrow so I'll explain it better tomorrow night. This technique can be used for more than just buttons so I'll try and think of some good examples to use :)

Very few of my friends (basically none) Blog. So when a few of my friends and former co-workers start Blogging, it's worth noting:

• Tod Creasey: An Eclipse Committer on the User Interface Team. Tod was my mentor/manager when I worked on the Eclipse UI team. One of the "coolest" developers I have had the chance to work with. Expect posts about Accessibility, BiDi Support, JFace, Progress Support and more Eclipse UI items.
• Jon Ball: A former IBM co-worker and movie buddy. I am not sure what he will be Blogging about...
• Rebecca: A fellow Canadian tennis player who attended Penn State.
• Rudy Picardo: Virginia Tech's video guru.

Peace Out!

I have fixed a minor issue with the OPML to HTML converter. As I randomly find OPML files on the web (even when they are not NewsGator OPML files), I test them out with the tool. I recently discovered that a lot of OPML files contain rss feeds that do not have an "htmlUrl" attribute. The current design assumes that every rss feed also has an html link associated with it.

This issue was easy to fix: If the feed contains an "xmlUrl" attribute but not an "htmlUrl" attribute, I just don't link the title. Anyways, if you are curious, here are a few examples:

• List of Microsoft Bloggers (from the MSDN Blogs)
• If you are wondering why the first few entries have blank titles, well those three Blogs do not have a title (more specifically, they have a blank title attribute).
• If you are wondering why the category's text does not appear, it is because they use the "text" attribute to name the category, while I use the "title" attribute to retrieve a category/feed's name (I just follow NewsGator's standard on this).
• List of Microsoft Knowledge Base articles
• The OPML file contains "htmlUrl" for some links but not for others. That's why some feeds only have an "xmlUrl" link, while others have both. That's the "fix" I put in, since before, I would assume an "xmlUrl" also had an "htmlUrl" and link everything.

Here are a few other OPML lists I found on the "Microsoft Community Blogs" website. I know I am probably behind everyone and most of you have probably seen that site, but it is new to me. The cool thing about that portal is that you can search for MS Blogs by category and it generates an OPML feed for the results. The other cool thing about that Community site is that it also includes Blogs that are not on "blogs.msdn.com".

Here is a list of a few categories I queried:

• Careers
• .Net Framework
• Longhorn
• MSN
• MSN Messenger
• MSN Spaces
• Software Testing
• Visual Studio
• Visual Studio Tools for Office

Sidenote: The reason I had to save the OPML files to my own website and then use them from there is because the tool does not currently handle "ashx" links. I believe that with "ashx" links (web handlers), the output does not go to the browser. My current design does not support that feature at the moment (my guess is that the XPathDocument is not created correctly since the URI does not link to the file containing the data to load). If you know a quick way to add that support, let me know .

Ok, back to packing. I just wanted to fix that while I noticed it. I leave for Seattle on Sunday!

A nice article about Open Source was published on Forbes today. It was a great read. Here are some of the highlights:

"Yet after all these years, McVoy has come to believe that the open source business model […] cannot generate enough money to support the development of truly innovative software programs."

This is an interesting statement coming from one of the closest allies to Linus Torvalds (creator of Linux).

"The term "open source" refers to software that is distributed with its source code so that anyone can read or copy that code."

Speaking of which, interesting post about the Open Source variations on the MSDN Blogs.

"So how do you make money with open source code?"

That is a great question that confuses me on a daily basis. I understand the basics of services and contracts, but is there anything else beyond that?

How about "free", but not necessarily "open" products? Are there any other sources of revenue aside from advertising?

"One problem with the services model is that it is based on the idea that you are giving customers crap--because if you give them software that works, what is the point of service?"

This is hilarious, to me anyways. There used to be a running joke about a product in regards to its design. The running joke was that it was badly designed on purpose so that the companies using that product could not get by without employing the product maker's services.

"...building new software requires lots of trial and error, which means investing lots of money. Software companies won't make those investments unless they can earn a return by selling programs rather than giving them away."

It is a chicken in the egg problem. In order to take off, a project requires (typically) money. But corporations don't invest in a project unless there is a financial gain in return.

"But none of them can show me how to build a software-development house and fund it off open source revenue. My claim is it can't be done."

It can be done, but it's extremely hard.

"Nobody wants to admit that most of the money funding open source development, maybe 80% to 90%, is coming from companies that are not open source companies themselves. What happens when these sponsors go away and there is not enough money floating around? Where is innovation going to come from? Is the government going to fund it? This stuff is expensive."

That is a good point. Who will fund open source projects if the big companies stop showing interest?

"McVoy says he believes the software industry will reach some kind of balance between open source and traditional software companies. Open source companies will make commodity knockoffs and eke out tiny profits, while traditional "closed source" companies will develop innovative products and earn fatter profits"

That sounds about right. I think the future will be comprised of both "open source" and "commercial" products. They complement each other nicely.

So, what do you think:

• Is it possible to make money (profit) with open source?
• How about "free" products? Can advertising and services pay the bills?
• What other forms of revenue are available for open source/free products?
• And another good point, brought up by Lally: "Think open source outside of the rich western world." He is absolutely right: Not everybody is out to make money after all!

Just some thoughts ...

That is a neat Blog Roll! I might change mine and make it scrollable too . He also added tool tips for the Blog links. I should add that to the tool as well. Good stuff!

UPDATE 1: This looks nice on IE (the arrows), but not as nice on Firefox (scrollbars instead of arrows) .

UPDATE 2: I can live with my Blog Roll looking like this one: Scrollbars instead of the arrows and it looks consistent on both IE and Firefox. That's my pick. So how do I do this? The same old "insert HTML in Firefox" hack?

Funny Sidenote: I didn't realize right away this person posted my Blog Roll. I quickly glanced and thought: "Wow, she is subscribed to a lot of the same Blogs as me!". Man I wish I understood Chinese? Or Japanese? 

And then again, who cares what a Blog Roll looks like . This is just my way of procrastinating... Too much to do, too little time !

Peace Out!

This is another one of those Eclipse ramblings. If you don’t care to read about Eclipse, skip this post.

Last week, I was asked: “You no longer work on the Eclipse project, so why do you Blog about it?” To be honest, I don’t have a clue ! I am subscribed to the "Planet Eclipse" Blog and as I read interesting posts, I Blog about them.

Anyways, two interesting Eclipse articles hit eWeek today.

The first article is entitled “Eclipse: Behind the Name” and explains that when they picked the name “Eclipse”, they had “Eclipsing Visual Sudio” in mind.  I have heard of “Eclipsing Sun”, but this is the first time (or second time?) I hear about “Eclipsing Visual Studio”. "Our target was Microsoft" said Lee Nackman. I haven’t been following the Eclipse project long enough to know exactly who they were targeting at first. I always thought it was Sun. Well, Lee Nackman probably knows what he is talking about better than I do. I wonder if he has a Blog .

The second article is entitled “Eclipse Casts Shadow on Sun” and basically discusses the Eclipse VS NetBeans on going debate. If you are curious, it is definitely an interesting read.

My take on the Eclipse VS NetBeans debate:

The Switch Ad is a bit sad. Come on Sun, show me some numbers. Don’t tell me that Joe, Peter and Bob have switched to NetBeans, so that makes it a better IDE/Platform. Give me REAL reasons to switch. Show me statistics about your latest release: how is it used commercially? Non commercially? How does it help Sun make money? I am not convinced otherwise… Those numbers have to be somewhere. I would be curious to take a look.

On the other hand, it is hard to predict anything but success for the upcoming (June) release of Eclipse 3.1. Let’s quickly recap the facts:

• Java 5.0 Support
• Notable increase in performance between 3.0 and 3.1
• Improved RCP support:
• It has been restructured a bit. I haven’t really taken a close look.
• My only beef with RCP: make it more customizable/skinnable.
• Increased Community Involvement:
• I was never a big fan of newsgroups, mailing lists and forums. It is a good thing they added that RSS and Blog stuff everyone keeps talking about .
• Improved multi-platform support:
• Mac support has improved TREMENDOUSLY:
• Jerome himself pointed out “Wow, this release actually feels like a Mac App!”. This is coming from a guy who used to joke about Eclipse on the Mac.
• I have seen a few "@apple.com" emails floating around Eclipzilla. Could Apple be joining the Eclipse Foundation? Or at least considering it? Come on Apple, drop the iPods for a bit and don’t be cheap .
• Better Linux support:
• From what I read, SWT support on Linux has improved. Talking about Linux Windowing Systems, I still have MOTIF nightmares: ”Ines, fix this Motif bug...”

To make a long rambling short, I predict (as do many people) that the Eclipse 3.1 release will be even more successful than Eclipse 3.0.

Now comparing Eclipse to the beast that is Visual Studio? That takes the discussion to a whole new level .

Anyways, good night! Tomorrow is my big "goodbye" party...  Last week end in Ottawa though .

Peace Out!

Wow, my RSS feeds this morning were flooded with talks about Steve Ballmer's recent Q&A posted on the RSS weblolg.

Personally, I don't see what the big deal is. I tend to agree with most of what Ballmer said. RSS as a technology is really not earth shattering. Just take a look at the spec. The great thing about RSS is that the protocol is extremely simple. But that's also its problem: maybe it is too simple. The real RSS revolution is how widely it has spread and how people are using the technology. The actual protocol itself is not really revolutionary. Do I think RSS is the technology of the future? Probably not. It is going to take something a bit more complex in my book.

Yes, people should be cautious before claiming that we should 'RSS the whole world!'. There is a lot of buzz surrounding RSS these days, but that could quickly change. Maybe in a few years, nobody will even remember what RSS is.

I have not been following technology long enough to be able to 'accurately' differentiate between BUZZ technologies and REVOLUTIONARY technologies yet. But I do know one thing: Technology is unpredictable! RSS is hot today, could be dead tomorrow. Or it could go on and revolutionize the world: maybe in a few years, my mom will be talking about RSS at the dinner table. Who knows .

What do you guys think?

Peace Out!

For someone who is new to the MSN World like me, this series of posts from Paul Thurrott about "MSN: The Inside Story" is exciting to read . I am highlighting some of the flattering sections from the parts, just for kicks! With so many negative reviews about everything on the web, it is nice to read positive reviews every once in a while .

• Part I - Beginnings:
• "It's the one part of Microsoft that has been able to consistently ship high-quality products, over and over again. For the past five years at least, MSN has been on a roll. And in the past year, especially, this Microsoft division has done amazing work, even to the point of shipping a desktop search product a year and a half before a similar feature will ship in Longhorn. And that's exactly the kind of gumption and chutzpah that characterizes the new MSN."
• Part II - Fly, Butterfly:
• "Down here. Again and again, without perhaps even realizing it, Sohn and Grothaus highlighted differences between MSN--Red West--and the rest of Microsoft. Clearly, no disparagement was meant, and indeed, both were quite deferential whenever talk of the rest of the company came up. But it is perfectly clear that MSN, in some ways, operates outside of the normal Microsoft way of doing things. That independence and separation is a crucial part of the division's success. And MSN's ability to ship product stands in sharp contrast to the never-ending delays facing important products like Longhorn, Visual Studio 2005, and SQL Server 2005."
• Part III - Services that communicate:
• "The recently released MSN Messenger 7 and MSN Spaces are off to a torrid start. Messenger is now the number one IM service on earth, with over 15 million people using the service simultaneously each day, exchanging over 2.5 billion messages each day. There are over 4.5 million Spaces online, making it one of the largest blogging services on earth. Spaces, overall, gets over 180 million page views each month."

Well, that sums up really well what everyone has been telling me about the MSN division in the past couple of months:

• Ship ship ship ship ship...
• Start-up atmosphere.
• Fun and exciting.
• Heavy competition ahead: Google and Yahoo!

Peace Out!

I have a few minutes to spare, so I figured I would post . I am not much of a gamer, but I do realize that the gaming industry is an extremely lucrative and important market for Microsoft right now. If you enjoy reading about the Xbox and the Playstation, check out Jerome's post.

Peace Out!

Quote

Playstation 3 versus Xbox 360: The Good, The Bad, and the Downright Ugly

So I have been reading news about these two next generation consoles like crazy, and I didn’t want to post until I had solid opinions that I wanted to have made.  Here they are in the order of what’s good, what’s bad, and what is just ugly...

The Director of Marketing for the Eclipse Foundation is contemplating a Team 99, similar to what Scoble started, for the upcoming release of Eclipse 3.1 (in June).

Quoting his Blog post: Team 99 is about "Recruiting 20 'influential bloggers'". Is that what Team 99 is about?

His conclusion is that there may not be a need for an Eclipse 3.1 Team 99:

• Four "Blog" announcements about the 3.1 M7 release.
• 22,914 downloads of M7.

Four announcements is a really SMALL number in the Blogosphere. The Eclipse team would definitely benefit from a "Team 99" concept, and also from more "Eclipse Committer" Bloggers.

Just some thoughts...

Peace Out!

I ran into this Blog post by Bjorn Freeman-Benson. Bjorn is the "Technical Director for Open Source Process and Infrastructure at the Eclipse Foundation". I didn't even know that position existed. Really neat . They are quite organized!

Anyways, Bjorn mentions that open source and open technology avoids lock in by adding the option of cost. He goes on to say that the main reason Eclipse has so many users is because they don’t want to be locked in to:

• A single vendor:
• The vendor supplying the software may raise price and cut/change features you depend on.
• A particular feature:
• Again, as their needs change, those features you like or need may disappear .
• A release schedule:
• The schedule would be beyond their control.
• Bugs:
• They could potentially block their business and never get fixed .

These are some very valid points. Although I think that you could argue that open source and open technology still locks you in a different way:

• Features for an open source project are typically geared towards pleasing the stake holders, the people giving the project MONEY . If your business does not directly contribute financially to the product, your needs might not be met unless you do it yourself.
• Because your business needs might not be met by the open source product itself, the business has to spend time and money modifying the existing open source project and maintaining it as well.  This is where Bjorn would say (according to his argument), the business can just eat the cost.  Well last time I checked, developing in millions of unknown lines of source code is not a cheap expense: it’s a business altering expense.  And if the open source developers don’t adopt it, it is an expense that will add some in house maintenance cost for years to come.
• Finally, the two previous costs in the above bullets isn’t ENABLING: it is EXPENSIVE and another form of lock in because of its expensive cost.  Development cost isn’t cheap, and it will add up fairly quickly...

Just some thoughts...

Peace Out!

In the past couple of days, my space's page views have increased tremendously. Nothing in comparison to the Blogger superstars out there, but a steady increase .

• The Reasons:
• The MSN Spaces guru himself linked to my space.
• Overdo, Tod and Jerome's constant pimping of my space.
• I signed up for a Techorati account.
• As a funny side effect of importing my old Blog to this space: I ended up posting over 30 Blog entries in a matter of 2 hours.
• The Results:
• An increase in traffic (that "Stats Page" is evil).
• I am listed on Blogshares. Apparently, this space is worth $100,915.44! Can I get that in cash?
• An increase in traffic from search engines:
• As Overdo pointed out, I am now listed #1 (as of today) for "OPML HTML Converter" on Google .
• Visitors to this space have come from Google, Feedster, Technorati, Blogdigger...
• A visit from a famous geek.
• Oh, and I also received a phone call this morning from a recruiter about a job . Weird and funny...

Who said you couldn't get visibility through MSN Spaces ? But seriously, if I get a comment or two every once in a while and start some interesting conversations, I am happy. Or else it would look like I am just rambling to myself all the time like a crazy person...

Peace Out!