shahine.com/omar/

Since using Vista at Microsoft I've been victim to more credential prompts in the past year than I have in my life. It really drives me nuts and I had no idea why.

There are two kinds of prompts I see:

1. credentials prompt from sharepoint when opening an office document (clicking a link to a word doc
2. credentials prompt in Outlook when connecting to Exchange

Now in a domain controlled environment you should never see prompts at all unless you don't have access to a resource. Windows takes care of this via Single Signon etc.

Well FINALLY I see David Rasmussen posted an explanation of issue #1, with a link to the SharePoint team blog explaining the issue. Sadly our IT department had no clue about this when I would call them.

The issue is that you must have "Automatically Detect Settings" enabled in your proxy configuration in IE. The problem is that in Hotmail we use some custom proxy servers to communicate with our labs and you need to disable "Automatically Detect Settings" to get to work. I can't tell you how many times I go to that dammed dialog to configure proxy settings. The crazy thing about this behavior is that if you just hit cancel on the credential dialog the document would still open:

With Office 2007 running on Windows Vista, opening an Office document hosted on a SharePoint (i.e. WSS 3.0 or MOSS 2007) site results in a prompt for login credentials even if the user is already logged on with an account that has access to the document. Canceling the credential prompt may still (but not always) allow the document to open in read-only mode.

And of course if you wanted to edit the doc you were out of luck.

Issue #2 is related to some configuration issues in our DOMAIN environment that have been addressed, but nasty to track down. We all suffered a lot in the interim (entering credentials as many times as > 100 a day).

Another weirdo Vista problem solved. This is why I hate new Operating Systems. Too many regressions that are very hard to understand let alone get a fix.

How mad am I? I'm as mad as an A-list blogger with a video camera and a Kindle. I mean, watch the video... Scoble is angry mad at the Kindle. Imagine if he were using a Blackjack II.

So, I just got my Samsung Blackjack II today. While it has numerous improvements over the Blackjack I, it's also got major regressions. The biggest one of all is that they crippled Internet Connection Sharing, one of the best features of Windows Mobile. There are some other smaller ones (they removed it from the ROM entirely, there is no Internet connection sharing in the \windows folder). On the Motorola Q9h the application can be found in \windows but the shortcut is not there).

I use Internet Connection sharing to get my PC on the Internet whenever I travel, work or pleasure. It comes in super handy.

Now here is the kicker. Why would they (AT&T) remove these bits from the ROM of the device? The Motorola Q9h Global that I purchased for my wife has ICS right there, and these are both brand new phones that just came on the market from AT&T?

I HATE crap like this. It's stuff like this that really has me questioning our mobile device strategy. Is it any different from crapware infested PCees? Is Apple going to out do us here as well (arguably they have as soon as they turn on Exchange Active Sync, get 3G and support tethering and apps).

More later on how you can still get on the net using the old dial strings (*99# anyone?) as well as a more detailed review and comparison of the BJ II and the Moto Q9h Global.

update: updated post to reflect that ICS was remove from the ROM... it's not there folks, not in \windows like it usually is.

A few days ago I posted about CFLs. Of course I started to get curious... I have a bunch of CFLs in our house already (bathrooms, and ceiling fixtures) but I have a lot of Floodlights (Incandescent and Halogen) throughout the house.

I wasn't pleased with the color of all the CFLs that I had and I would like a lower wattage solution for our 15 recessed cans that currently are dimmable with 65watt floodlights. I also wasn't happy with the CFLs I had in my home office, they were too yellow.

I did find a great non CFL solution that saves energy for my recessed cans, see the end of the post for that info.

Also, since CFLs have mercury, you need to take care when recycling them. I found out that you can take CFLs to IKEA for free recycling. You can also order a Recycling Kit from Sylvania for $15 which includes return shipping via FedEx.

Well, I tested the following spiral 13w (60w equivalent) CFLs for the ceiling fixtures, bathroom lights etc.

• Sylvania Soft White (sold at Lowes)
• GE General Purpose Soft White (sold at Target)
• Philips Duramax (sold at Costco)
• Commercial Electric (originally sold at Home Depot)
• n:vision Soft White (sold at Home Depot)
• n:vision Bright White (sold at Home Depot)
• n:vision Daylight (sold at Home Depot)

The bottom line is that there are a few big differences between all these brands:

• instant on (some CFLs have a second delay before they start)
• warm up time
• color temperature

Popular Mechanics does a great write up on a bunch of brands, some covered above and some not. They highly rate the n:vision soft white that I also liked.

So you know, the color temperature of a standard incandescent bulb is about 2700k. The higher the number the "cooler" the light. Most folks will be used to this color temperature which can be described as yellow. Daylight for example is around 6500k. Halogen lights are a bit cooler than incandescent. Around 3200k.

Halogen–Superior Incandescent Technology
Tungsten halogen lamps are a refinement of incandescent technology that offer up to 20 percent greater energy efficiency, longer service life and improved light quality...

Whiter, Brighter Light
Halogen lamps have higher color temperatures than standard incandescent lamps—their light output contains more blue and green. Halogen lamps therefore appear whiter and brighter. Although both types of lamp essentially have a CRI of 100, the higher color temperature of halogen lamps provides more pleasing and vibrant color rendition across a wider range of colors.

Personally I've always liked the color temperature of halogen lamps.

My Testing Results

So, here is what I think of the CFLs that I've tried.

Sylvania Soft White

• no instant on
• color temperature is about 3000k
• I found the color to be a bit industrial looking
• grade: B

GE General Purpose Soft White

• no instant on
• color temperature is about 2700k
• color was a bit yellowish but acceptable
• grade: B+

Philips Duramax

• instant on
• color temperature is about 2700k
• color was a bit yellowish but acceptable
• grade: A-

Commercial Electric

• instant on
• color temperature is about 2700k
• color too yellowish
• grade: B

n:vision Soft White

• instant on
• color temperature is a bit cooler than 2700k
• color was just right (a bit whiter than incandescent). Nice for general purpose, hallways, sconces etc.
• grade: A

n:vision Bright White

• instant on
• color temperature cooler, 3500k
• color is bright white . Nice for a bathroom or office.
• grade: A

n:vision Daylight

• instant on
• color temperature cooler, 5500k
• color is bluish white. Not sure where I'd use a light like this. Looked very weird to me. Maybe in a garage? Hanselman likes these, I have no idea why.
• grade: n/a

So I've basically settled on the n:vision soft white (for general lighting) and bright white (for bathrooms and workspaces). They are also cheap, sold in packs of 4 for $9. I like that they have instant on and the color temperature is whiter than an incandescent (more like a halogen). Unfortunately, these "green" bulbs come in that horrible plastic blister packs, which probably negates some amount of the environmental friendliness of the bulbs. WTF n:vision? Use cardboard packaging.

For a crazy amount of info on CFLs see Don Klipstein's page.

So what about all the dimmable cans that I have? Well it turns our that Philips released a new line of bulbs that are more energy efficient than a standard halogen called Halogena Energy Saver.

Philips Halogena Energy Saver

Philips managed to take a 40w bulb and get it to output the equivalent of 65w of light. They also have a 70w bulb that outputs 100w of light. These lights are carried in a variety of shapes and sizes and one of them is a BR30 for recessed cans.

Philips calls the technology used to get this increased efficiency, EcoBoost.

More light, less heat

The EcoBoost technology is based upon optimizing heat management of the integrated electronics and burner. On the burner, a special compound conducts away the heat, keeping it cooler and ensuring that more electricity is converted into light. Another resulting benefit is that the burner is less likely to break, which lengthens the lifespan.

These lamps are currently sold at Home Depot and cost about $9 for a single BR30 or $9 for two standard bulbs. You can also find them at Amazon.

I replaced 5 can lights with these and can't be happier. They are not CFLs but they will get me a 39% improvement in power usage vs a CFLs 79%. If I replace all my recessed cans then:

This seems like a great way to:

• Save $7 a month
• Maintain Dimmers
• Continue to have Instant On

If I moved to CFLs I'd see savings of another $7 a month but have to sacrifice lighting features.

Oh, and the Energy Saver Halogena bulbs have NO MERCURY.

Hope this is useful to some one... of course some of this is obviously subjective.

Since having our daughter Sarah, we have done things that we normally don't do or haven't ever done... like visit the San Francisco Zoo.

Yesterday was gorgeous in the city, so we trekked up to the Zoo. I've been to a few Zoos in my life, but none where I could feel like I was close to the animals in a nice habitat. I do plan to go to the San Diego Wild Animal Park this spring, so we'll see how it compares.

This was also a good chance to play with Nikon 18-200 DX lens with Vibration Reduction that I borrowed from Mike Fullerton. I have to say, this lens impressed me.

But back to the animals. The zoo has an incredible collection of Lions, Tigers, Bears, Gorillas, Giraffes and a fantastic petting zoo for kids. I highly recommend a visit on a nice day.

See some sample shots bellow or the entire Gallery.

Many years later and I still love SmugMug. They are about to have their 5 year anniversary! Very exciting.

It's funny how having a kid changes how you utilize cameras and photo sharing services. I find that I'm uploading a few hundred pictures a month now and sharing with people all over the world. SmugMug has been great for giving me the flexibility I need to share photos via their great email feature as well as setting the right privacy settings for each album.

One of the weak points of SmugMug for years has been their video support. My wife and I have taken hundreds of short video clips of Sarah over the past year. First time giggling, saying "Dada", playing with our cat and so on. It's such a joy to watch these later and share them. Because they are only a few minutes long it's quick and easy to get a smile "fix" .

I've been using MSN Soapbox to upload and share videos for the past few months but I don't care much for this solution. I wanted my videos to go side by side with my photos. Well Chris MacAskill (one of the co-founders) and I were chatting and he mentioned the new video support. I rushed on over and lo and behold they now offer video services. I uploaded a few WMV files and they were flawlessly converted to H.264, the new hotness in video formats. Even better is that they support 1280 x 720 which my Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX100 supports.

note: you need a power/pro account to upload videos.

I'm not sure I've seen a gadget blogged about as much as the Kindle. Most of the posts were negative or critical when most of the bloggers had not owned, used or lived with a kindle. Were they pissed that Amazon chose to give old media (Newsweek) the scoop? And where are the in-depth comparisons to the product it is going head to head with (the Sony Reader)? And really, the fact that it doesn't do PDF is something people care about? Honestly, I bought this thing to read books purchased from the amazon store. I could not care less what format they come in... and DRM? Well we had to suffer through that for how many years with the music business? It took Apple how many years to loosen the shackles of DRM? It sure as heck did nothing to keep the iPod from experiencing explosive growth. The industry and the customers will go along kicking and screaming till Amazon can re-negotiate the DRM thing. But to do that Kindle will have to be a success.

At the end of the day, I think books are different than music. You see, I can purchase a CD and rip it with no DRM, so I've always had a viable alternative to DRM on music. But books? It's not like you can just scan them and read them on your laptop. This is a bit trickier. I think the best kind of DRM for a book would be to model it after a library or something. You can purchase a book, and "lock it" for reading. When you are done reading it you can then return it to your library and you can then:

• gift it to some one
• rent it to some one
• lend it to some one
• transfer it to some other reader format

that seems reasonable to me.

Since the Kindle has built in wireless, this could work very easily. I could for say finish a book and then let my wife read it next on her Kindle. We could have a shared book library where we could put books after we've read them. Ditto for the paper or magazines. Things that we can do today with the ones made from dead trees.

Anyway, I think the best post I've read so far is by the folks at 37signals:

One thing we have all had a chance to live with are books and newspapers. They’re stacks of dead trees. Bulky blocks of words. They take up a lot of space, need to be pushed around by plane and truck, and quickly fill up your carry on if you want to take more than a couple with you. When you buy a book, you’re buying a tiny piece of furniture that you usually carry with you the rest of your life. Moving? Time to pack up the books!

I know book lovers like to talk about the permanence of books, but I think that’s overrated and over-romanticized. Some people love to build extensive physical libraries to house their books. Not me. I’d prefer to read it and move on. Sure I could buy a book, read it, and sell it or give it to a friend or a library, but I’m just looking for the knowledge, not the inventory or an exit strategy.

That’s not to say books are bad. Books are wonderful, important things. But they’re also terrible at a lot of things. You can’t search paper. You can’t bring that many with you at once. They suck up valuable resources in production and transportation. They take up a lot of space. They leave an artifact when you’re done with them.

[37signals]

With any v1 product there are going to be problems... and really, if any company is going to make ebooks work for real, it's going to be Amazon. After all, they sell books.

Kindle isn’t the first eBook reader, but it’s the first portable bookstore. That’s novel. A book in 60 seconds whenever I want it at used-bookstore prices. And the daily push newspaper feature sounds like one hell of a bonus. I love getting the paper, but I hate getting the paper. What a complete waste of resources just so I can get yesterday’s news. I like that there’s some genuinely new thinking behind Kindle. We should embrace this, not tear it to shreds before it even has a chance.

[37signals]

Sony's hardware is nice looking but the UX is clumsy. The buttons are small and hard to use. The formatting of the books is inferior to the Kindle making them harder to read (see screen shots below). I didn't even realize I had a problem till I read a sample chapter of a book I purchased on the Sony Sore. Finally, Sony just plain sucks at making software. It's really sad. I've never seen a Sony web site that was something I'd want to use. Amazon has done a great job of building a usable site to buy stuff, browse stuff and generally read reviews and do product research. Sony's ebook web site and software is terrible.

Another thing... Amazon actually added features to the ebook that make it better than a traditional book. Sony did not. For example, Amazon:

• Lets you look up words with the built in dictionary
• Lets you get to wikipedia
• Lets you purchase or trial books anywhere in the US (like in an airport or wherever) from the device
• Lets you read newspapers and magazines
• Stores your bookmarks, and annotations in the cloud so you have them forever
• Stores your book purchases in the cloud allowing you to download them again
• Actually usability tested the device (the buttons all work well)
• Gives you a freaking AC adapter to charge it

And finally, Amazon added a little bit of magic to the device. Lets give them some credit for creating a piece of consumer electronics device that piggy backs off a cell network without requiring me to fork over a part of my soul to the cell phone carrier.

I've purchased 3 books already, one via the amazon.com website and 2 on the device itself. The process went flawlessly in all cases.

If I think of this device in perspective I think it has a lot of similarities to both the iPod and the Apple AirPort. This device has finally liberated me from stacks of books, and a pc that I need to sync with just to use the device in the same way that my iPod let me carry around my entire music collection (remember mix tapes) and the AirPort let me use my laptop anywhere in my house or at work without finding an Ethernet cable. The Kindle is a portable bookstore that provides a limitless avenue to purchase and enjoy books with an experience that feels book like.

This is the fist gadget of late that functions really well without a computer.

Anyway, I think compared to the Sony Reader, there is no question that the Kindle is a much better device... methinks it's only going to get better.

You can see my full uboxing and a bunch of photos comparing the size and shape of Kindle to the Sony Reader. Note the pictures that show how the Reader and the Kindle format pages differently.

Below are some highlights.

Kindle is only about 10% bigger than the Reader.

Kindle has an odd shape but is very comfortable to hold

Top view

Overhead

Differences in rendering book cover

A couple of things to note here. The reader doesn't format pages as well as the Kindle. Also the font on the Kindle is easier on the eyes.

You can see how the sony reader jumbles paragraphs together. That ugly black mark is a footnote. Annoying and distracting. The Kindle does this better.

You can see how much easier the Kindle is to read here. Line spacing is better and paragraph breaks.

PS - the DRM thing sucks in a way because I gave Sony money for an ebook that I cannot transfer to the Kindle.

As a customer of Microsoft, you'd expect that products the company makes would just work well together... you know, they'd know that each other existed and didn't duplicate functionality unnecessarily.

Having worked at Microsoft for a long time I know this is not the "default" that exists. You see, working well with other products requires that you know what's going on in the company, and most of the time you need to know much more than just casual knowledge about product foo. You probably need to also use the product (dogfood) as well as the products you'd expect things to work with to get that "customer experience" before you ship... so your product doesn't look silly, say when something like Windows Home Server and Windows Live OneCare ship around the same time and they both have a backup feature.

So you can imagine I was pleasantly surprised to see this (dialog asking me if I want to use OneCare backup even though I already have Windows Home Server backing up my machine).

I wasn't expecting this at all, but man, thank you for doing this.

BTW, I think OneCare 2.0 is a definite improvement over previous versions. It found and fixed a bunch of configuration problems on my machine...

Well that didn't take long. I RMA'ed my Sony Reader (since it's less than 30 days old) and ordered the Amazon Kindle. Since I'm Amazon Prime, it will arrive tomorrow morning for $4.

I just love Amazon. I can't wait to play with the Kindle.

Amazon's moto should be do no evil. They are a fantastic company, part of the fabric of my geekiness. I've known them since the intertubes became a vital part of my life, and they never cease to impress me. I'm looking forward to going along for this journey with them and help them continue to branch out from their first business, selling real books. These days I buy diapers from them...

BTW, I love that Amazon reserved omar@kindle.com for my device email address. Did you know you can email your Kindle? I love that it has EVDO and that I don't have to pay a monthly fee to use it.

So far I don't have a Kindle, but Amazon already:

• set up an email address for my device
• authorized my email address to send mail to the kindle
• set up my one click settings to I can start getting books for it
• delivered a thank you letter to my device

One of the best parts about this device is that no PC is necessary to use it.

VibeAgent, a killer site for hotel reviews and booking launched last week. VibeAgent is co-founded by my best friend and it's a great site. I've placed a few reviews there of some of my favorite hotels around the world, but I have many more to review.

VibeAgent really solves the problem of hotel reviews by allowing me to leverage my network of friends to clue me into good and bad places to stay.

Here is a link to the TechCrunch coverage and the post on the VibeAgent blog.

There is no doubt about it, Compact Fluorescent Bulbs (CFLs) are waay cheaper to run than Incandescent bulbs. With Electricity for me averaging close to 20 cents a kilowatt hour (welcome to California), this can mean a lot of dough ($8.64 to run 60w for a month).

However, CFLs just Suck. Here is why:

• Warm up time is annoying.
• when you turn one on, it can take a while to get to full brightness. If you mix incandescent and cfl on the same circuit it's noticeable.
• Color is wonky
• you can find the right color bulbs, but trial and error with these bulbs is no fun (see next point)
• CFLs contain mercury.
• That sushi grade Ahi Tuna I had for lunch today? I'm sure some of the mercury in there came from some one who threw their CFL in the trash. In my county they are considered hazardous waste and I have to literally go find some recycling center somewhere to drop them off. haven't figured that out yet. Definitely an inconvenience, and the country trash company should supply curb side recycling like they do for batteries and cell phones.
• CFLs are not dimmable
• My house has lots of dimmable lights.. and I like being able to dim the light. True they make dimmable CFLs but they are hard to find and don't work very well. They don't really dim, but they have different voltages. They are like a 3 stage bulb.

CFLs have done wonders for industrial/office energy use, but right now, I only let them under my cabinets, in our garage, outdoors and in our bathrooms. I'm holding out for LED lights.

In California there is this thing called Title 24. When you remodel a kitchen or bath there are special rules about CFLs. The new law says that 50% of your kitchen wattage needs to be CFLs... good luck with that. It means if you want a single 60 watt bulb you need like 3 equivalent CFLs somewhere else in the kitchen. You can't just use under cabinet lights and get away with it any longer.

Anyway, no one does this, once folks pass inspection the CFLs are replaced with incandescent or halogen HALO's or something.

I pretty much ignored everything with the word Zune in it the past few months. After all, I dropped a few hundred bucks this year on 2 new iPods. What did I care?

Well of course I care, I love gadgets. It was impossible to ignore the Zune hype this week. My office buddy Zeek was proudly sporting his Zune 80 which he drove like 30 miles to get the day of launch. Of course, he keeps it on his desk right next to his iPhone.

Anyway, I played with this device for a bit and let me say, I was impressed. First thoughts:

• Light. Very Light
• Nice Feel
• Love the squircle navigation thing
• UX is a huge improvement. I always loved the Zune UX, but that was before the iPod touch.
• Your finger prints are not left all over it (I hate this about the iPod)

Later in the day I downloaded and installed the Zune player. Wow... that thing kicks the pants of iTunes. It makes iTunes look like Excel. Anyway, I'm happy that it shares no resemblance at all to Windows Media Player which the first Zune program was. Some one should just take WMP out back and put it out of its misery. It has no place in my life any more.

Anyway, they did a great job on the software and I love it.

To bad I'll never use any of it cause Apple has me locked in with accessories, car kits, and other stuff not to mention family with iPods to support.

I have to say, the killer iPod feature is my car kit. When I shut the engine off, the car pauses the iPod and charges it for 15 minutes. Not to mention the digital interface right into the stereo.

Anyway, congrats to the Zune team. If there is one thing though that you are going to read about the Zune, read the Ars Technical Review. I also discovered from a friend that the Zune does not support High Def Recorded TV from Media Center... that just plain sucks.

I recorded a batch of digital broadcasts in both SD and HD off my over-the-air antenna. None showed up in Zune. The only one that did appear was an analog recording of Family Guy that looked like an analog recording. Did digital recordings, the kind that won't be obsolete in a couple of years, not work?

I found my answer on the last line of the last page of the Zune manual in gray text on a white background that could only be seen after opening a fold. "DVR-MS support for unprotected standard definition TV recordings from Windows Media Center. HDTV and protected recordings not supported."

Let me make sure I understand this: at this point, a consumer has purchased a PC, Vista, a tuner card, and a Zune, but still can't be trusted with high-def content? Nice.

In classic Microsoft fashion, an end to end scenario doesn't totally work. There is a good reason for this, but it's lost on me... just like how lame it was that Media Center 2005 didn't come with the ability to play DVDs or record TV out of the box (fixed in Vista).

I will say this. If there was ONE thing that I wish Microsoft could do... pay Apple whatever amount of money it takes, and license the iPod Dock Connector and Interface... I can dream can't I?

I worry that there is too much inertia behind the iPod... a lot of cars and hotels now come prewired for iPods.

A few weeks ago I purchased a Sony Reader. I had a couple of reasons to do so:

1. When going on vacations I never know how many books to bring, and am actually terrified of running out of stuff to read.
2. I actually don't like reading... I mean, I don't like turning pages, and bookmarks, and some books are just annoying (construction)
3. I don't read enough, and since I was a kid, technological innovations have always motivated me to change behaviors.

I was mildly curious about the first version of the reader, but it seems to have many shortcomings. When the new version was announced I figured it was time to see what all the hype was about.

I'm pretty happy with the product. The worst thing about it is the craptastic Sony Software that you have to use to purchase ebooks. It's like a circa 1995 version of iTunes (of course, no such thing existed then). But you get the drift. Scott Hanselman says it best:

The Desktop Connect Reader software is so profoundly bad, so poorly designed, so truly evil that there are not word to full express the breadth and depths of its unspeakable lameness.

The selection of eBooks isn't terrible, but it could be better. You'll find a number of best sellers there, like Kite Runner, but you won't find things like Harry Potter (go figure).

In a perfect world, you'd replace Sony with Amazon and the same product would be better.

Anyway, I was going to write a review, but ArsTechnica beat me to it, and as usual, they did a fantastic job.

Still, if the Reader sounds like the sort of gadget you can't live without and you can live with its quirks, it's a superbly built device with a screen that will blow you away. It comes highly recommended, but only to those certain they have a use for it. Everyone else will want to check one out, wonder at the screen, then leave it on the shelf.

Enjoy and let me know if you have any questions.

The screen is amazing.

Our daughter was born a year ago. This week my wife got a call from the hospital trying to get payment from our insurance company for something or other.

A full year as gone by!

Not even the government is that slow.

It reminds me of the benefits statement we got from the insurance company a few months after the birth. My wife had a normal delivery (no complications, no c-section, in and out in 48 hours). The bill said something like:

Delivery etc: $20,000

Negotiated Charge: $4,995

WTF.

You go from one OS version to another, and it doesn't matter what the company's name is... the problems are the same.

I probably link to Dave Winer once a decade, but I find it interesting that he posted such a negative comment about Leopard... given there are so many Apple Fanboy bloggers these days, and they are so forgiving of Apple (note: I was a fanboy most of my life, even after 9 years at Microsoft).

One thing I've learned is that generally speaking, most people don't like and don't want change in their software. Software for many is just a tool. You move things around in the name of "making things better" and they could care less, and if something, anything they depend on has changed for the worse... hell hath no furry like a user in that situation.

Me? I upgraded every PC I use to Vista a long time ago. I can't use XP, nor can I even really look at it. It seems old and antiquated. Sure, Vista has its problems (most of mine are due to bad drivers)... they'll get fixed and hopefully things will remain relatively stable for 3-5 years before they'll take 3 steps forward and 1 step backwards, which is exactly how I would characterize Vista.

TripIt has become an indispensable tool in my Web 2.0 arsenal. I use it to:

1. Organize my trip plans
2. Organize my business trips so my wife knows when I'm out of town
3. Plan travel
4. Share travel plans with my extended family
5. Build cool fun trips

This past month the family took a trip to the east coast. This was a complicated 8 day trip with the following items in our itinerary.

1. Limo pickup to the airport
2. flight from SFO to IAD
3. Rental Car Pickup
4. Drive to Washington, D.C.
5. Hotel Checkin
6. Day Trip to visit friends and National Zoo
7. Drive from DC to Charlottesville for lunch with friends
8. Drive from Charlottesville  to Winston-Salem, NC to stay with the in-laws
9. Drive to airport to drop of rental car
10. Flight from CLT to SFO
11. Limo pickup to drive us home

TripIt managed all the details for us. It even helped me out in a pinch when I lost the print out and I needed the phone number for the limo company. I was able to email trip it from my phone and get back the info I needed using Trip To Me. It's like having a virtual travel agent.

Well, just a few days ago, I was email with Andy Denmark about some Hotmail issues TripIt was having, and I mentioned that it would be cool if Microsoft's Travel system was supported by TripIt. I forwarded him a sample email that you can get from our travel system (text/html not the PDF one) and he had coded up a solution a few hours later. SWEET! (FYI to the Microsoft peeps).

Now whenever I am going to Redmond, I can just forward the email to plans@tripit.com and my wife can automatically see my travel details right in her calendar (via subscribing to the TripIt iCal url). As you can see below, I'm going to be in Seattle next week:

wOOt! what a timesaver.

Oh, TripIt just added OpenTable support. Sweet.

Email is the new API of 2007.