Archive for February, 2004

Yes the rumors are true, I know this because ever since the Microsoftrix video was released on my website I’ve been disseminating information, truth and lies surrounding the next release of Windows XP. I’ve used all of my Borg like abilities to assimilate information from all of my inside sources at Microsoft and slowly but surely used my ESP to tip Paul Thurrott off so he could write this article Windows XP Reloaded. I deliberated for ages over who deserved the exclusive more, Mary Joe Foley or Paul Thurrott. In the end I sent my telepathic messages to both of them so as to not break my NDA by revealing the information via normal forms of communication. Paul just received them quicker so obviously he got the exclusive. But now you know. It’s all one big lie, there never was or will be a Reloaded, you have all been caught up in the Microsoftrix!

Yep, that’s right, appearing till someone fixes the insect problem, Norah Jones will be performing while on LSD. It’s only available over the Internet in Windows Media Player, streaming via Windows Media Services so get your copy while you can, this is one show that’s sure to be standing room only.

Here’s a 30 second clip (240K WMA at 64kbps)
Here’s the full song (3.66MB WMA at 128kbps)
And of course the original (3.98 VBR MP3)

My quick and totally lay guess at 3AM is this bug stems from the fact WMP9 can’t properly figure out the bit rate to play the VBR MP3 at when it’s streaming over WMS, hence the wonderful drugged effect. The problem isn’t as noticeable in WMP6.4, it only stutters without the drugs in that player. If you’re from Microsoft, ping me for the URL to the actual file via WMS .

I’ve spent a good hour today just ranting to a few people within Microsoft about all the little things that piss me off. Mostly to do with Windows Media Player, but in various Office apps like Outlook (still having the hanging problem), Word (Grandma still thinks PFS Write for DOS is easier to use), FrontPage (don’t get me started). Surprisingly, I don’t have many complaints about the product I’m a MVP for, Media Center, it’s not perfect but I have yet to find any particular bug or undeveloped feature to complain about. That’s a good thing! It won’t last though, trust me . Most likely my head will start heading into the avenues that MCE could take in terms of integrating the entire digital media experience, something I’ve become totally obsessed with.

Anyone that really knows me knows how I would give my entire life and future professional career (hint) to be able to have ALL my media in the Windows Media format and to have all that media perfectly organized complete with meta data. And BTW I definitely include photos when I talk about media. I know I’ve probably become so overzealous with this idea that it’s actually slowing me down in finishing up my site which is specifically designed to help others who have the same passion.

Anyway, I sincerely apologize if I’m actually rambling on irately and I definitely must apologize for taking so damn long with my new site. I’ve definitely had enough content now since late November/December. My original design was inescapably crap so I totally scratched the entire thing and started over.

One thing I realized though is that it’s better to have one loud voice complaining (for the most part) rationally rather than infinity plus one. I genuinely hope that even just one (okay maybe two or three ) of the things I’ve complained about in the Windows Media Player make it into WMP10. Not just for me, for every poor user that has to put up with “the thing that should not be”.

Why is it that I’ve got 6 folders in NewsGator for Scoble? They’re all for the same feed yet because Scoble has been changing the title of his feed lately, NewsGator and it’s Automatic Folder Creation based on feed title doesn’t realize it’s the same feed and decides to make a new folder. What a PITA.

I keep on clicking on the wrong folder and only realize which is the newest after the fact. It’s nice to know he’s “Celebrating the Geek lifestyle“ and that he’s a “Geek Aggregator” and he’s living “A Geek’s Life” and we all know he’s the “scobleizer” so stating that it’s the “Scobleizer Weblog” is a bit obvious, I’m pretty sure we’ve all realized he’s a “Microsoft Geek Blogger“ too.

It’s fine and dandy changing the title and such or changing the description of the blog, but why should that mean breaking the Automatic Folders in NewsGator .

My Klipsch ProMedia 5.1 Ultra’s arrived today. I bought them through NewEgg.com since the price was right compared to other online retailers. And great scott! These are even better than the original 5.1’s. Only real down is that I think the headphone jack on the original unit outputted more power to my Sennheiser EH2270’s, it hardly makes a difference though since it was so much power you couldn’t wear the cans. They’d literally vibrate on the table when I played Massive Attack’s Angel.

My bedroom really isn’t built for these speakers though, it is the perfect size at 11×11′ but my entire set up is so ridiculous at the moment with all the cables everywhere. I did have 4 computers plugged into one set of Altec ADA885’s which was quite funny but nevermind. I’m not sure when it happened, but I was testing the speakers out with all the WMA Pro/WMV HD demonstrations. After walking into my room a couple times to convince my Mom even more that he doesn’t quite understand how amazing Windows Media is, I noticed a crack on this little modification we made to the upper wall. Before the ceiling was open, I had closed it off so that sound wouldn’t escape. It must have been the T2 Ultimate Edition or Beethoven’s 9th at 100dB because I noticed a crack in the wall . It’s not cracked the actual dry wall, just where it meets. I love these speakers!

A while back when I had my BostonAcoustics THX speakers (later stolen) I had broken a window. That was understandable really, I mean the sub alone was 1000W RMS iirc. It didn’t really matter back then when I had those speakers because WMA9 didn’t exist (I so wish it did) and I only had a 8.4GB HDD to hold the music anyway. But today, if you’re going to be ripping your entire music collection to the computer and really do care about the sound and plan on some day being an audiophile wannabe, do yourself a favor. Rip at 192K WMA CBR or 135-215K WMA VBR. Heck you may even want to turn it up all the way. I currently use 135-215K and you can really tell the difference on good speakers/headphones at louder volumes. For example The Moody Blues’ Ride My See-Saw, you can hear some distortion at 128K WMA and even 160K WMA in the tamborine. Symbols and tamborines seem the be the hardest thing to compress in most music. It may not matter on your portable music player and probably won’t matter on your average $100 computer speakers but spend more than $300 and it will. Keep in mind too that someday you’ll probably be listening to these same files on your home theatre system as well. Rip high, play high, and if you’re listening to Moody Blues, well, you probably already are high .