Year: 2008

Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) RTM

windows It’s official, Windows XP SP3 has finally been released to manufacturing. An announcement was quietly made today on the TechNet XP forum:

Today we are happy to announce that Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) has released to manufacturing (RTM). Windows XP SP3 bits are now working their way through our manufacturing channels to be available to OEM and Enterprise customers.

The update will be available at Windows Update and on the Microsoft Download site on April 29th. It will be pushed out via Automatic Updates starting June 10th. MSDN and TechNet subscribers should have access to the download later today.

There isn’t a lot of new functionality in SP3, but it’ll definitely be nice to avoid having to download dozens of updates after a fresh install of XP with SP2. Here’s a list of some of the included improvements.

Keep an eye on the Windows XP site for updates. There’s more commentary at Techmeme.

Notes for 4/20/2008

Here are my weekly notes:

  • Sharon and I went to the New York Bagel Cafe today for brunch. Food was good, but the wait was impossibly long. And I was extra annoyed by the signs and messages that remind you to be patient.
  • Starbucks splash sticks are quite possibly the dumbest idea ever. Wasteful and entirely unnecessary.
  • Here’s a neat trick for Outlook users – a safety net for the Send button. You can delay sending for a period of time, so that you can fix errors or accidental disclosures!
  • More proof that Blockbuster has lost its way…they made an offer this week for Circuit City. No one knows where they’re going to get the money though!
  • How Twitter saved one man’s cell phone.
  • Speaking of Twitter, it looks like the Edmonton Tweetup is going to be on May 10th at noon, downtown at Three Bananas. Hope you can join us!
  • The story of the week has got to be the weather. We went from spring looking like summer right back to winter again. I can’t believe how much snow there is! Totally sucks.

FoodFeed and other Twitter dependents

foodfeed As Twitter is used by more and more people, the ecosystem around it continues to grow. There are lots of client applications of course, and increasingly, there are lots of services which leverage and in fact depend on Twitter. I came across another one today, called FoodFeed:

foodfeed is a service that helps you share your eating habits with everyone, from anywhere. Just be sure Mom doesn’t get your feed.

Here’s how it works:

  1. Follow the @having account on Twitter.
  2. You get a website generated for your username – mine is http://mastermaq.foodfeed.us
  3. Post updates by prefixing what you’re eating with @having, or by sending the service a direct message (on Twitter, that would be “d having” followed by whatever you’re eating).

I kind of like the concept, so I’ll use it for a little while. It creates a network within the larger Twitter network. Wondering who likes Coke? You can search for people who do.

FoodFeed is also interesting because it cannot survive without Twitter. Like most of these services, it contains Google ads, but I can’t imagine the creator makes much from that. What would happen to FoodFeed if Twitter started charging for API access? What if Twitter goes down? FoodFeed is only useful as long as Twitter continues to exist and enable access.

Some services, like my favorite Remember the Milk, use Twitter as just another method of interaction. RTM doesn’t depend on Twitter at all. FoodFeed on the other hand does depend on Twitter, and I think that makes it both easier to use and less useful at the same time.

Apple Service Experience was AWESOME

apple logo As you may know, my beloved iPod touch died recently. On Sunday, April 6th, I went to plug it in to charge it, and it fried. Wouldn’t turn on or reset or anything. I poked around the support website for a bit, but I was fairly certainly I’d have to get it serviced.

I found myself wishing this had happened after Canada Day – a new Apple Store is opening up in West Edmonton Mall on July 1st, 2008. I had no choice but to fill out the service request online. It told me to expect a package with instructions in two business days, but I wasn’t going to hold my breath.

Then, on Tuesday the 8th, I received the package. Count me as surprised! The instructions were really easy to follow, so I packaged up my iPod and dropped it off at UPS later that day. I figured waiting for the replacement would take a while, so I sort of forgot about it. And of course, I traveled to San Antonio this weekend.

Less than a week later, on the afternoon of Monday the 14th, my replacement iPod touch was delivered! How’s that for turnaround time?! Of course, I didn’t get back to town until last night, so I didn’t get to restore my iPod until today.

Restoring, by the way, was dead simple. I plugged it in, registered it with my Apple account, and then chose the option to restore my previous iPod. After a few minutes I found myself with everything exactly the way it was before. And I do mean everything (well except the passcode lock, which makes sense). Even the last page I had opened in Safari reloaded!

I’ve heard some good things and some bad things about Apple’s service, but I had never needed to use it until this happened. I’m so happy to report that it was a superb experience.

Thanks Apple!

DemoCampEdmonton2

democamp The second DemoCamp in Edmonton now has a date! It will be held at the Billiard Club on Tuesday, May 20th, at 6:30pm. So far there are going to be demos from Coolite and nForm. If you’d like to demo or attend, sign up at the wiki!

I don’t think I’ve ever been to the Billiard Club; here’s a brief intro from their website:

The Billiard Club is located on the second floor of Old Strathcona’s historic
Post Office building. The Billiard Club is a landmark in an area rich in heritage, culture and diversity. After more than ten years of business in this location, The Billiard Club has established itself as an institution on Whyte Ave.

Sounds interesting! Here’s the Google Local map/entry for it.

You can read my recap of DemoCampEdmonton1 here. Hope to see you at #2!

Questionmark Users Conference Day 3

The conference is now over! Today’s half-day included three encore sessions from the previous two days, and the closing session, “The Road Ahead”. Some news on the next version of Perception was shared, and lots of feedback was gathered using these nifty little electronic voting devices.

It was a lot of fun for me to meet my colleagues face-to-face, many of whom I have only spoken to via email. More importantly though, I got to meet and talk with customers – the people who actually use the software I help to create. Getting their feedback was really great!

If I met you at the conference and you’ve stumbled across this post, please feel free to get in touch! I’d love to catch up.

I’ve got one meeting left today and then I have some time to explore San Antonio before I head to the airport tonight. I probably won’t venture too far, but the weather looks great for wandering. Actually, I’m sitting outside writing this!

Questionmark Users Conference Day 2

questionmark I think today went more smoothly for me than yesterday, probably because I felt a little more comfortable having met a bunch of people. I still learned quite a bit too, so I am feeling pretty good about the trip as a whole. I think it was a worthwhile experience for me.

Sessions I attended today included an overview of our reporting options, a session exploring the ways to integrate Perception with other projects, and a couple of Q & A sessions. Again I was struck by the high level of knowledge that some customers have.

Tomorrow is the last day of the conference, but it’s really only a half day. The big news will be an announcement about the next version of our software, so that’s exciting!

Drinks with epodcaster! Wes, Greg, and Mack

After the conference ended today I had the pleasure of meeting up with Jennifer Navarrete and her family. Jennifer is a fellow podcaster, and we’ve been Twitter buddies for quite a while (she’s epodcaster). When she saw my status updates about being in San Antonio, she asked to meet up, and I’m glad she did! It’s always great to meet people in real life 🙂

Tonight’s conference event was pretty cool – they got us all into buses and took us to a place called Sunset Station. They handed out drinks as we walked in! There were nacho and fajita bars inside, and they eventually expanded into a dance room for line dancing and the like. Music wasn’t too loud either, so it was great to walk around and chat with people.

I don’t leave San Antonio until tomorrow evening, so I plan to do a bit of exploring/shopping in the afternoon. Should be fun!

Contributing to Techvibes

techvibes I recently accepted an offer to contribute Edmonton-related content to the Techvibes blog. They’re trying to create a destination site with hyperlocal tech content from all of Canada’s major cities. The blog already has some great, unique stuff, such as the Start-up Index series, and I’m excited to be able to help it grow.

I did my first post Saturday, on the official opening of TEC Edmonton’s new TEC Centre. I’m hoping to post a mix of news, analysis, event notifications and reviews, and startup profiles.

If you’ve got an idea or story or event or tip or anything else related to technology in Edmonton, I’d love to hear about it! You can always leave a comment here, you can email me, or you can find me online (for instance, Twitter is a great way to get my attention!).

Joining along with me is Cam Linke, who was the driving force behind our recent DemoCamp event in Edmonton. Rob at Techvibes has written a great introduction post for us, which you can read here.

Questionmark Users Conference Day 1

questionmarkToday was the first official day of the conference, and it was really interesting. The hotel we’re at (Westin Riverwalk) is a great venue because all of the meeting rooms are on the same level. We started out with a “birds of a feather” breakfast, followed by the conference kickoff and general session. Our CEO, Eric Shepherd, shared a number of company highlights. Notably, Questionmark turns 20 this year!

The rest of the day were breakout sessions. I attended a “Training with the Techs” session to learn more about assessment authoring with our Windows tool, a Product Central session to hear from customers about how we can improve our product interfaces, and another training session on reporting. I learned quite a bit at each one, not only from the Questionmark staff who were presenting, but from customers too. Some customers have an incredible amount of product knowledge, they truly are experts.

This evening was the “Dine Around” event. We broke into groups and ventured out on a photo scavenger hunt! Each group also had a reservation at a particular restaurant along the river walk. It was lots of fun! I can’t wait to see the slideshow tomorrow morning.

I’ve started uploading some photos to this photoset, but it’s slow-going. The upload speeds for the Internet here aren’t very good.

Notes for 4/13/2008

Made it to San Antonio tonight finally, and then spent a couple hours meeting both Questionmark staff and customers. Should be a great conference this week!

Here are my weekly notes:

Not sure how much I’ll be blogging over the next few days, but I should be able to sneak in a few posts! I’m gonna get some sleep now though, it was a fairly tiring day.