shahine.com/omar/

Beyond the obvious, when I was chatting with Robert last week as he was visiting our team, it occurred to me that there is no one quite like him at Microsoft. He is a front line dude, and he roams around with a video camera forming relationships with as many people, teams or groups that want to tell a story.  I enjoy talking to him because on may levels we feel the same way about Microsoft, blogging, technology and we only talk to each other 2–3 times a year.

Some people like him, some people don’t. But the reality is, Scoble is an incredibly unique kind of employee in the same way that Bill Gates is a unique kind of employee.

Adam Barr just posted about what kind of impact this is starting to have. It’s a fascinating observation to say the least. Some people at Microsoft (I call them the power brokers) are very good at getting tokens. It seems like this is starting to change the dynamics of what “power” means as a currency to get tokens.

I got to play with an Origami a few weeks ago and was impressed. I was mum on the topic cause I wasn’t sure how much I was allowed to say about it. Anyway, I want one and plan to get one for my home/kitchen/roaming pc scenarios.

Anyway, today I was waiting for my flight back to San Francisco when my father called. He was screaming on the phone to me that he wants me to order him one as soon as they are available. For a while I could not even make out what he was saying cause I wasn’t listening for it (it’s not a word you hear every day).

If my Dad knows what the heck Origami is, and called me out of the blue asking me to get one for him, I know it’s going to be big. This is very uncanny for him. He calls me and mentions stuff about Microsoft about once a year.

ETech 2006 was a great time. One of the things I love about conferences is that they take you out of your office, out of your personal life and stick you in some pretty intensive learnings with like minded people. The thing I hate about conferences is that you put everything else on hold, and when you come back, you have to pay the price of not being on top of your mail, rss feeds, errands, etc.

Anyway, there is a lot of stuff I plan to write about ETech. I’ll try and spread it out over the next few days as I find some spare cycles.

Some broad observations.

• Hanging out with a bunch of really cool Microsoft folks and former Microsoft folks were good times. I always forget just how wonderful it is to spend some time with folks that you don’t really know that well. This is especially true for me since I’m based in California and most folks are in Redmond. You guys know who you are and you all rock.
• Microsoft is fairly irrelevant to the alpha geeks (the company is simply not in the periphery). It reminds me a lot of going to Macworld or WWDC.
• Yahoo has street cred
• FireFox is the only browser I ever saw at the conference except for Christopher Payne’s Search talk.
• Email is synonymous with GMail or Yahoo Mail
• Wireless NEVER works when there are 1000 people in a room. As a result the cell network is clogged and wireless data also sucks.
• Walking the floor with Dare is kind of like being in Entourage.
• Christopher Payne was the only guy who wore a suit (that I saw)
• Ray Ozzie is the best thing going at Microsoft (and he demoed using FireFox). Mad props.
• microformats are cool. So is the logo.
• Second Life is scary as all heck.

When I first saw the Ribbon I was like… wtf.

However, after a few months of using Office 12 I can say that it’s really unlocked the power in Office. For one of the best examples, refer to a recent post by the Excel team. At first I was very confused about where things were (that I had basically memorized how to do cause they were impossible… like formatting a chart) but now it’s so freaking easy. And you don’t get lost in a sea of modal dialogs stacked on each other with enough tabs to make you have a fit!

People will think that the Ribbon consumes more real estate than the old toolbars. Not true.

Anyway, I love it.

Outlook 12 is turning out to be fantastic. I’ve been using the product and reading the Tasks and Time Management blog.

• Color Categories is fantastic.
• Send and Track is also fantastic. This is very similar to the Clear Context 2.0 feature that allows you to do something similar, but the integration in Outlook 12 is much better. I use this all the time.
• Task List on the Calendar is huge but the To-Do bar is kick ass. I customized my to-do bar to only show me tasks in specific context like @Office, @Read/Review at work so I can have a filtered view of my work.

I can’t wait to start writing more in depth about these features.

Simon Fell posted about Money 2006 and Wells Fargo. I’d agree with his feelings here. Money 2006 runs my life, but I can’t stand using it. I’m seriously thinking of switching to Quicken next year if Money 2007 continues in the same legacy of Money 2005 and Money 2006.

Also, yes, Wells Fargo is in the “Nickel and Dime” business. No matter how much money you keep with them, they charge you $3 a month for the privilege of using Money to download your statements. Sadly I’ve found that Wells Fargo provides the best Money/OFX sync support of any bank. I tried to switch to a free bank before, but the reality is that we have a Wells Fargo ATM in our cafeteria and it’s dammed convenient.

These guys really inspire me and I don’t even know who they are. Their software is simple yet powerful. I feel like going to work for them. They totally “get it”.

Lora and I love Backpack… it’s our home command center and I just started playing with Basecamp. Their blog is one of my top 5 favorite blogs and I just found out that they published a book. Now to go buy one.

I dusted off my k-jam and installed the new ROM which includes AKU2 with Direct Push E-mail (aka MSFP).

I’m pretty dammed excited. I loaded all the latest hacks for my k-jam, and it’s sweet. The best hack is the press and hold override for the softkeys that emulate the start and ok buttons.

There are a number of improvements that came along with the new ROM:

• New Radio Stack (version 2). Seems much better.
• Nice Communication Manager for managing WiFi etc
• Bluetooth headset can actually wake the device to make a call
• Bluetooth ActiveSync works
• Better camera app
• Keyboard no longer pops up inappropriately

Only time will tell if the radio stack is really any better or just as flakey as my Cingular 2125 and old ROM build.

The interesting thing about this ROM upgrade is that the apps in Extended_ROM did not get installed.

http://blogs.smugmug.com/onethumb/2006/02/25/best-commercials-ever/

The third one is my favorite.

Wohooo, our release is live.

On to M6. See you in about 2 months .

The fine folks at ClearContext released an update to ClearContext 2.0. I’ve been running 2.0 for a while now and LOVE it!

The biggest change is that the toolbars appear in Word Mail (my preferred mail editor). This is fantastic cause now when I reply to an email I can:

• create a task reminder to follow up later
• automatically delete the message I am replying to. This is a HUGE timesaver as I often forget to delete messages and they sit around for a while cluttering my inbox.

I’m looking forward to the final version and 2.1 .

Steve announced our release of Windows Live Mail “M5” aka Milestone 5. What is this you may ask? Well it’s the culmination of work since January 3rd of this year. For those of you not keeping track, Windows Live Mail went into beta with our M3 milestone. So this is our 3rd milestone release. As I’ve mentioned we are using a modified version of Scrum to build Windows Live Mail and it allows us to keep giving you incremental improvements often. The most important part about this is the feedback we get, and the changes we can make pretty close to when we hear the feedback.

We have some ambitious plans in the next few months, one of which is to drastically increase the number of users on the beta.

The release should hit the site this week.

That folder in Windows is called “My Documents” not your documents. Over the years a bunch of applications have decided to set up shop there. I don’t understand this.

On Mac OS X, in addition to My Documents, there is “Application Support” or something of that sort. If your Application needs to store stuff, put it there. Applications should not be allowed to rent space in My documents folder without my permission.

Here are the current offenders:

• AdobeStockPhotos (I don’t use this feature)
• Updater (why does Adobe feel they need to create this folder here?)
• My Data Sources
• My Shapes (I don’t have any shapes)
• My Web Sites (I don’t have any web sites)
• … there are more but I have since deleted them and they have not returned …

At the very least, programs that create this folders on install/first boot should change their behavior to create them on first use of the functionality.

Actually, I just found this guideline from Apple. I wish Windows had something like this. Back in MacBU the Testers were rabid about filing bugs whenever we violated any of the Apple Human Interface Guidelines. I learned and memorized almost all of them real fast… I wish we provided, enforced, and even followed something similar.

Support Files

A support file is any type of file that supports the application but is not required for the application to run. Document templates and sample files are simple examples of support files. However, you might store more application-bound information, such as custom configurations or preset data files for your application’s workspace. In these instances, the information is intrinsically tied to a specific application (as opposed to the user’s data) but is not essential for the application to run.

The preferred location for nearly all support files is in the Application Support directory of the appropriate domain. Which domain you choose to store your support files depends on the intended use of those resources. If the resources apply to all users on the system, such as document templates, place them in /Library/Application Support. If the resources are user-specific, such as workspace configuration files, place them in the current user’s ~/Library/Application Support directory.

Within the Application Support directory, you should always place support files in a custom subdirectory named for your application or company. Normally, you should use the application name, but you might want to use your company name if you have multiple products that share many of the same resources. How you organize the resources in this custom subdirectory is entirely up to you.

Even if a support file is user-specific, your application should not have any trouble accessing it from multiple user sessions. Because of fast user switching and remote logins, it’s possible that the same user could be logged into the computer more than once. Support files should not contain any data that would adversely affect the behavior of multiple user sessions. All sessions should see the exact same behavior.

And of course there is this gem:

Don’t Pollute User Space

It is important to remember that the user domain (/Users) is intended for files created by the user. With the exception of the ~/Library directory, your application should never install files into the user’s home directory. In particular, you should never install files into a user’s Documents directory or into the /Users/Shared directory. These directories should only be modified by the user.

Even if your application provides clip art or sample files that the user would normally manipulate, you should place those files in either the local or user’s Library/Application Support directory by default. The user can move or copy files from this directory as desired. If you are concerned about the user finding these files, you should include a way for the user to browse or access them directly from your application’s user interface.