Work(ing Title)

The home for technology enthusiasts in the Microsoft stable (and my first home with the company), Channel 10, recently launched a beautiful site upgrade.

The revised site looks more polished and is easier to read than its previous incarnation. Duncan and the development team also included a shiny new media player with embed code for spreading your favourite videos far and wide.

In the last week, Laura has recommended a great video compression tool, Sarah found a very cool panoramic desktop viewer, and Max linked to a Media Center DVD library tutorial. Stop over and spend some time poking around 10, and don’t be afraid to feed them back ;)

Oh the puns! You try your best to leave them out, but no matter what they’ll always find a way into the conversation.

10 relaunched late last night with shiny new functionality and a glorious look. I have contributed the first in our 7 Day Software series, which looks at any bit of software that which after a week’s worth of use, is worth handing over some cold hard cash to claim it as your own.

Go poke around the site and see what you think, and as always bug-hunting is encouraged!

Work has been swallowing the lion share of my time over the past couple weeks. We’re working on a major update for 10 that should hit the street soon. It’s very exciting, as this new iteration of the site will feature more writing and video on my part (about time after my introduction).

When I haven’t been trying to tame the mechanical bull that is my job description, I’ve been trimming my waistline in the gym. Over time it has become clear to me that selfishness is a motivator like no other, and so the desire to fit into a one-piece leather jumpsuit has pushed quite effectively.

Speaking of motorbikes, Dusty and I will be departing directly from the Stanford mall next Sunday to experience the glory that is Moto GP. I’ll be packing a shiny new lens for my D50, so my pictures this time round stand to be significantly better than last years photos.

Yesterday Slate published a great article about the production of Miami Vice, which illuminates some of the absurd lengths Michael Mann goes to in order to entertain us. Any of you who are in the valley on August 6th drop a comment, because I’ll be fighting jetlag and anything else that stands in my way to see it as soon as I’m back from Europe.

Finally, the most unfortunately valuable woman in radio Terry Gross managed to get Thom Yorke on Fresh Air. It’s certainly worth a listen, as Thom’s public interviews are few and far between.

On the heels of the trainwreck that has been the next generation DVD format, there’s some light at the end of the mobile network tunnel. Almost every major mobile provider (Vodafone, Sprint/Nextel, TMO…) have joined together to form the Next Generation Mobile Networks initiative to build a strategy for 4G network creation.

By the end of the decade, the NGMN hopes to be rolling out an entirely IP-switched mobile network protocol to replace the current disparate standards. This is what 3G was supposed to do, but I’m leaning on the axiom past performance has little bearing on future performance.

The possibilities for savings in software development and cross-carrier interactions are immense, not to mention the hope of a tremendously simplified device design. One ring to bring them all…

(via Phonescoop)

Vic Gundotra leaves Microsoft for Google?! This isn’t funny anymore guys. Scoble nailed the joke and Bill managed to annouce his departure before the press cycle moved on. I wonder if announcing one’s departure will become the new-hire joke of 2007?

Good luck Vic, you’re awesome and I wish I could’ve worked with you a little while longer at least. I’ll have to show you the super-awesome Mexican place near the ‘Plex, assuming you can justify paying for your meals ever again ;)

(via Niall)