the utah code camp is just around the corner.  unfortunately i won't be there due to some previous travel, but if you are in the area, it would be great to participate in!

• When: April 14 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
• Where: Neumont University
• Registration link: http://utahcodecamp.eventbrite.com

you can visit www.msutahevents.com for session schedule, speaker profiles, etc.  check it out and attend!

a colleague recently showed me the latest edition of wired magazine (something i used to subscribe to but don't anymore just because i'm more "online").  after getting past the cover, peter showed me the article where channel 9 was featured and jeff sandquist interviewed.

first, i think that is pretty rewarding for the channel 9 team [for the record i'm not on that team...i wonder if they have an opening for field reporters :-)].  i know that jeff and others team members work hard on channel 9 and reaching out to the community, bringing transparency to microsoft, etc.

SIDEBAR: What is Channel 9?
You can take a look on channel9.msdn.com for what it is and how it is evolving, but here it is in a nutshell (from my words).  Ever fly on United airlines?  Ever plug in your headphones and listen to the airplane audio?  If not, do it and turn to channel 9 -- you'll hear the cockpit, conversations with air traffic control, etc...a view from the inside.  There's the genesis...bringing you a cockpit view from Microsoft...and thus Channel 9 for Microsoft.

This has spawned other communities for a "prosumer" crowd (read: probably not as propellerheady as you/me) called On10.  This has some great stories/content as well that you might want to look at.

i thought one of the funniest things was the photographs in the article (by the way, wired has the article online if you aren't a subscriber).  i particularly liked this one:

i'm picturing some captions:

• "i didn't say that, ballmer did."
• "not that there's anything wrong with that"
• "i'm not sure i can tell you since we're not under NDA"
• "whoa, wait a minute, that was scoble, not me"

i know that scoble will (and is) talking about his contributions to channel 9, and i think there is some credit to be given here, but it is always a team effort of enablement, management support, production, etc, etc...so great job team and let's keep the raw conversations coming.

i've recently been armed with some new audio/video equipment and am planning on bringing some field (read: not-in-redmond) perspectives to the channel 9 content arena if charles/rory/jeff allow me to.  look for podaudiocast content, video interviews and some other good stuff.

i'm on a plane back from seattle and the movie on the plane is the latest rocky balboa.  now unfortunately my wife and i have already seen this movie and i'm now reminded of the horrible nature of it.  i'm watching the scene in the beginning where rocky goes to his old bar and meets up again with "little marie" again.

since when did rocky become an *incredible* idiot?  when little marie tells him she's sorry for the loss of his wife, his reply: "yeah, woman cancer" -- wtf kind of a dialogue is that -- seriously, does anyone (even people with their heads rocked) talk like that?  other terrible lines? "jamaica huh, eurpoean."  ugh, i don't even want to waste any more of your time.

don't see this movie.

first of all, what's up with dropping the "i" brand -- no iTV...was there a company that already had that too?

i recently was contemplating something a friend did lately and it made me really look at the apple tv...he's not a dumb guy, so i had to look.  i'm unimpressed.  not just because i'm a microsoft guy (recall: i have a mac at home as my family's primary computer, my wife and i use ipods, and i want a macbook), but from a practical sense...allow me to just dump my thoughts:

• it's an extension to itunes only. it isn't a standalone unit
• i remember watching the launch -- when steve jobs was trying to get people excited about it...my gut was "huh, no excitement...i've seen this stuff before .. it's called media center."
• the setup scenario -- per ben's comment below this may not be accurate -- i've seen reports and other friends tell me they had to do this step to get the pairing with a machine correct on a secure wireless network, but maybe it's isolated must be plugged in to a hard-wired connection before it can be configured.
  • oh, and they don't include an ethernet cable -- sounds trivial, but an oversight in my opinion if the first step requires one
• parental controls? -- seem to be lacking
• purchase from apple tv -- nope
• browse library? -- nope, only "top"
• basically it's an extender only -- but i don't think it really is being presented as such

i don't know, clearly i'm not the market for it -- but do people really buy content from itunes they want on their 60-inch tv?  they don't even sell quality video on itunes.  maybe i'm cynical, but it's kinda of redemption that apple has a crappy v1 product supported by crappy marketing for it.  for me, there is no story here.

the *only* think i like what they did -- and in typical apple form they succeed -- is the physical nature of it.  media center is in "pc" form except those like vidabox.com.  apple tv -- great form factor.  i can't help but really think it is just a smashed mini with front row on it.

or at least by a letter online...got an email from Timo Heuer (www.timoheuer.com) -- i wonder if he's my doppleganger as well?

anyhow, Hallo Timo! Willkommen zu meinem blog. Viel Dank!