i've been looking at options on feedburner and saw something called a 'photo splicer' that you can add to your feed.  basically your provide them your user name of a photo service and they'll add that feed into your current feedburner feed -- a feed merge if you will.

cool, i thought i'd try it out (i immediately took it down because for me it just didn't make sense).  the first thing i noticed was something akin to seth godin's new site www.thisisbroken.com.  here was one of the configuration options:

note the text box label: "Flickr ID or Screen Name" -- it says "or Screen Name" right?  i'm not just seeing things?  okay, so i try the screen name...why?  because that is what every flickr user immediately knows, duh.  error.  "XXXXXX" is not a valid flickr id.  yeah, i knew that...your label said "or" so i'm trying the "or."  okay, clearly it wasn't working.  now, i was smart enough to read the fine print that is there, but heck it still said "or" on the label.  now take a moment and read the fine print.  okay, quick, what's your flickr id?  exactly.

feedburner is basically saying: "okay, go here, do this, look at the url, and get this random string of characters" -- yeah, unintuitive.  by the way feedburner...my flickr photostream doesn't have that :-) -- guess what it has?  my screen name.  argh.  and by the way, the flickr api's allow you to take a screen name and interpret the id...so feedburner...don't make me work so hard!

just got pointed to 'postitboard' which is a windows presentation foundation (wpf) application using flickr services.

check out the result when i searched on one of my tags:

very cool.

wow, i just got an email with a great deal on training.  available now are some e-learning clinics around .net 3.0.  and guess what the price is: free.  this will be free until the launch of .NET 3.0 and even after that they will only be $9.99 per collection...but that's beside the point...THEY ARE FREE TODAY.

spend some time and register for these...a great way to jumpstart learnings on WPF, WCF and Workflow!

the collection is 3 2-hour clinics.  here's the registration link: FREE .NET 3.0 eClinics

after hosting a developer installfest in phoenix and watching people go through the upgrade process (some easier than others...some very painful), i decided to give it a whirl.  I'm a bit of an operating system snob, that is to say that i'd never upgrade...i just don't believe in that -- operating systems represent the slate to me, and it should be clean.

so here i go...here's the specs:

• Dell Dimension 4400
• Pentium 4, 1.7 GHz
• 1GB RAM
• 40GB HDD

Start time: 21:00

could not get the dvd to work...but i couldn't get any dvd to work...argh..something jacked with my dvd drive on winxp.  okay, i fiddled with it enough and am going to try to use an ISO mount of vista.

21:40: real start time: 21:40
21:46: vista upgrade informed me that nero 6 needs to be uninstalled...okay, uninstalling
note: i have a bunch of other random stuff on here: quickbooks, quicken, a random ancestry program, photoshop cs, windvd, avg antirivus, acrobat reader, vnc, alltunes, etc.
21:48: upgrade starting again -- it asked me to enter the pid key again -- kinda frustrating -- i already entered the long key...would have been nice to been saved.  process started...windows says "your upgrade may take several hours to complete"
22:09: Gathering files (41%)...
22:19: Restarting... (this will be interesting since i used an ISO mount -- curious if Vista setup copied all necessary files it needed)
22:21: Reboot success -- and back into the Vista setup!
22:23: Expanding files (21%) - at the installfest, most machines seemed to be consistent on hanging out here at the 21% mark for a while
22:48: Installing features and updates completed
22:52: Rebooted..."Please wait a moment while Windows prepares to start for the first time..."
22:57: Completing upgrade...
23:24: Completing upgrade (36%)...
23:44: Completing upgrade (53%)...
23:49: Automatic reboot
23:52: Completing upgrade (64%)...

i've got a car appointment in the morning...heading to bed now.  not sure if my tracking will be accurate anymore as i need to hit the sack...so as it stands, i'm not at a vista desktop yet, and it's been 2hrs, 12 minutes.

00:38: well, my daughter just woke up screaming so i thought i'd take a look.  boom, vista desktop.

so in total (and maybe actually a bit shorter), it looks like my upgrade took about 3 hours.  i'm not sure what is optimal (i have never upgraded an OS before myself to even have a benchmark of if the WinXP upgrade was the same or what), but it definitely took shorter than some of the experiences at the installfest.  i don't think my machine is anything to write home about either when you look at the specs.  regardless of the time, all programs worked and all settings remained in tact, including the remote desktop settings (which i use for this machine because it doesn't have a monitor).

i can't say that i'll be doing a ton of upgrades still, but at least it makes me feel a little bit better about the upgrade process.  i know that others at the installfest had less-than-positive experiences, but again, i'm not really sure what the benchmark for time is (note: the installfest participants also were asked to run an analysis tool that took some time on their machines -- but not part of the normal consumer upgrade process).  i consider my home machine pretty mainstream (dell, etc.) and i *may* consider upgrading my mother-in-law's computer if i'm brave.  my brother-in-law has already agreed to take the plunge.

a while back i posted about my feelings about gmail and the report spam feature.  well, i decided to give them the benefit of the doubt.  rather than complain i thought i'd submit a support ticket about the issue and see what they say.

here is what i submitted:

Problem: i consistently get russian spam and despite EVERY time i click report spam on them, they keep coming in...isn't gmail intelligent enough to recognize a pattern and see that my russian email should be flagged as spam?  can't i put a setting to say 'anything non-english is spam for me'

here was their first response:

Providing you with a spam-free inbox is very important to us, so we're continuously working to improve our filtering system. To help with this process, we ask that you report any unsolicited messages you receive in your inbox. To do so, check the box next to the unwanted mail and click 'Report Spam.' If you decide an email is spam after it has been opened, simply click 'Report Spam' along the top of the message.

um yeah, okay, *please* tell me this is an automated response, because if it isn't, then i'm more frustrated.  READ THE FRIGGIN PROBLEM IDIOTS!  i already told you i was using the 'report spam' feature!

my response:

kind of a stock answer -- i have been reporting spam...that's my point. every russian email i get i report as spam -- shouldn't gmail wake up and smell the coffee that it is a pattern i want to repeat and automatically start marking my spam?

and the final response from them:

To help us investigate your situation, please send us the full headers from the most recent message(s) affected by this issue.

yeah, okay, enough with that...i've already wasted enough cycles on them.  why is customer support/service so unsupportive?  seriously.  take a moment to read the issues and intelligently respond.  let's just not use automated scripts and waste each others' time!

and another thing...(this goes to all mobile search operators)...

if i'm on my mobile device, and go to your search engine -- AND YOU KNOW I'M ON MY MOBILE DEVICE, then don't show me regular search results.  here's what i mean.  i'm driving in to work today and needed the number of my dealership to take my car in for service.  (why don't i call 411?  because i pay for internet on my phone and don't feel like paying the $1.50 411 charges.)  i go to google.com first (yeah, i know, why not msft...wait).  it knows i'm on a mobile device and adapts the ui.  i type in my dealership.  it shows me normal results to web pages.  what was i looking for?  well, the number.  they should change it and adapt and make it default to include a clickable link to phone listings that match as well -- that's what i needed...not to navigate through a normal web site on my little pda screen!

so why not msft?  well, i tried it.  i went to mobile.live.com and basically had the same experience.  it was only until i went to the local mobile live.com experience did i get exactly what i needed.  it showed me "local" results first with a "Call" link to the number...then normal web results.  why isn't that the default view?  no idea.  it should be.  mobile means mobile...make the anticipated experience the default one!