Yes, today was the day that DirecTV came and took my old Tivo HD DVR and replaced with a DirecTV HD DVR.  Sniffle...

Background:  DTV has launched several new satellites that has expanded their HD channel lineup considerably. I am sure you have seen their commercials proclaiming that very fact.  These new satellites use MPEG4 for sending down the HD signals.  Problem is (was), my Tivo HD DVR came out long before those satellites went up and was built using MPEG2 compression - in the hardware no less.  So I have been unable to watch some of the newer HD channels on DTV like the Big Ten Network, SciFi, and more.

The Story: DTV called me a few days ago and said that they were going to actually move some of the existing MPEG2 channels to MPEG4 (in particular ESPN and ESPN2) so I was going to get the double whammy unless I moved on to new equipment.  To DTV's credit, they did replace both my DVR and my satellite dish (need one of the slightly bigger ones now) for free.

Well, I have been up and running for a couple of hours now and I have to say that all in all the DTV DVR experience is better than I thought it would be (read a lot of early complaints online), but I already miss my Tivo.  Two big things jump out right away. 

The first is truly a WTF issue.  On the old Tivo, had dual live buffers meaning I could pause live TV on one channel then switch to the other channel and watch it live, pause it, go back, etc.  The DTV DVR has dual tuners but not dual buffers so you have to record two shows and use a cumbersome menu process to switch back and forth.  The live buffer thing is a big deal once you have used it a few times since it can be sooooo convenient in a lot of situations.  A glaring omission on DTV's part and one I miss badly.

The second issue is one of preference, but I really like the Tivo Guide layout much better than the DTV one.  Tivo let me go to the History Channel for example, and see what would be on for the next 10 hours or so.  It was great to be able to find the one-off show and tell Tivo to record it.  DTV forces you into the scroll channel by channel and see the programming for the next hour or so.  To see what is on the History Channel 5 hours from now requires a lot of scrolling and then scrolling back.  Not slick.

I haven't had it long enough to comment on its reliability, scheduling, etc.  But it looks like it has the basics covered.

Can I get an "Amen"? ;-)

Silverlight and WPF development would be so much more fun (it's pretty fun already) if I could do any kind of cool design work on the UI.  I have finished scaffolding out all of the stuff I want to do to get SlickthoughtTV up and running (access in one place to all of my screencasts) and by extension for DeveloperMinute.Com (coming soon).  But I absolutely suck at doing cool graphic design for UX.  I have some neat ideas, but I just cannot execute them worth a damn.  Not sure how you build those skills since I think a fair amount of it is just "artistic sense".  I'm sure I am a bit limited in my muddling around with tools like Expression Blend and Expression Design, but even if I was a master at those tools I wonder if I could still get colors, shading, etc. correct.  Maybe, but I am not convinced. 

Alright, I know that this represents a small part of the $5B+ that Microsoft spends on R&D, but coming up with automatic background music for singers?  Seems to me a few more important things could be focused on or maybe more effort on getting some of that stuff out of R&D and into products.

How many award shows do people in movie and television need?  Not only do they need a lot of them, apparently, but they need to televise all of them.  We have the Emmy's, the Daytime Emmys, the Oscars, the Golden Globes, the SAG Awards, the People's Choice and a few others I am probably forgetting.  That is not even listing the half dozen different award shows for music.  OMG!!!!  Talk about narcissism at its worst.  The thinking must go something like this,

Hollywood Type #1:  "You know, we are great."

Hollywood Type #2: "You are right!  We should have an award show to tell our people how great they are."

Hollywood Type #1: "That is a great idea.  It's so great, we should have at least seven award shows that basically give the same awards with different names to the same people!"

Hollywood Type #2: "Outstanding!  And we can let each of those people spout inane babble, empty platitudes, and irrelevant social and political commentary when they get their awards!  And we can put it all on TV!!!"

Hollywood Type #1: "Excellent!  Let's do it!!!!  Ummmmm, what does platitudes mean?"

I guess the only thing sadder is that the American public tunes in to enough of these shows in sufficient numbers to make them financially viable.  If you are a movie buff or TV buff then I guess I can see you being interested enough to watch one show.  Apparently its a big deal for a certain gender that is not male to tune in to see what everyone wears to these preen-fests.  But six plus shows?  Come on, get a life already!  And I'm talking to both sides of this sad situation.

No, I am not disappointed in the event itself or with any piece of particular news coming out of the event, I'm just disappointed in Microsoft.  There have been some other blogs and articles around about how Bill's keynote was a bit of a yawner and how we didn't have any big announcements or anything and I would have to agree.  For the Microsoft field there is a big focus on things like "buzz", "wow factor", and other things to energize various communities and to install the idea that Microsoft is "cool".  Unfortunately, there was not a lot of "buzz", "wow", or "cool" from Microsoft Corp at CES. 

There has been some buzz around Home Server (ignoring for a moment the file corruption issue - uggghhh).  By all accounts, the marketing has been catchy and well done and HP reports that is has already sold almost all of its initial production run.  Way cool!  But I was hoping to hear more about Media Center Extenders, some fruit coming from the DirecTV-Media Center work we supposedly doing, and maybe some update on IPTV XBOX360?  Not a peep on any of those fronts. 

Microsoft has a potentially great end-to-end media experience we could talk about.  At an internal tech meeting a while ago, we were shown a great, compelling video on that experience.  It was one of those moments where you sit back and say, "We really do some cool sh*t".  Unfortunately, those moments are all to often followed by "Why don't we tell anyone outside of Microsoft that story?" or "Why don't we really finish this thing and make it cooler than anything on the planet?".  Some day....

As I come up on the end of my lease, I am starting to get back into the car market.  I have not bought an American made car in about 15 years.  In general, I find it is just the little things that makes the difference between an ok car and a nice car.  For example, and this is one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to cars, what is up with American manufacturers and the "Auto" feature on automatic windows.  Not all cars have this feature, so in case you don't know what it is, the "Auto" feature allows you to just click the window button and instead of having to hold the button down (or up), the windows will go all the way down (or up) on its own.  It makes tremendous sense, and it is one of those little things that just makes being in a car a bit nicer.  One click - and bang - the window does it's thing.

But, and you knew that but was coming, I have yet to ever find an American car that implements the Auto feature for putting your window up, only for down.  I have had two Nissans over the past six years, and both of those implemented the Auto feature for the up and down motion of the windows.  Now, you may say, "Jeff, aren't you nitpicking just a bit."  But if you really think about it, what is the more useful direction to have the Auto feature working - up or down?  It is clearly up.  Why?  Well, what is the most common scenario that you are putting a window up and down when you are in your car.  For me at least, and I suspect for a lot of other people, it is the drive thru window or ATM.  So why is up more useful?  Putting the window up is something you need to usually do at the same time you are doing something else - sticking your money in your wallet, getting your fast food bag neatly arranged on the passenger seat, etc. - all while simultaneously pulling away from the drive thru.  Clearly, having a "one click" up feature is the most useful. A quick flick of the finger and my hands are now free to drive and organize while my window goes up.  Putting a window down is done with far less commotion in the car.  So why can't an American car have this feature?  If my Nissan's can, couldn't an American manufacturer do it? 

Yet, I have not come across a single American made car that does that.  Most now put the window down with an Auto feature, but no American cars  do up.  Maybe I just haven't come across an American car that does.  I really like the look of the new Ford Edge and the reviews I have gotten from owners of the Synch system have me totally jazzed.  I am just really hoping Ford has figure out the Auto feature.  I'm tired of my Nissan and it's gas guzzling ways, but Auto up rocks! After all, it's the little things....

An interesting read on ComputerWorld discussing a bit of backlash to some of the IE 7 "boasting" that was going on on the IE Blog.  I put boasting in quotes because I don't think it really was boasting (maybe a smidge) though others claim that it was.  I think it was simply stating some facts that indicate some measurable success for the IE team.  That team put in a lot of work and deserve to be proud of their accomplishments.

Having said that, however (and you knew that was coming), I can fully understand the level of dissatisfaction around IE and Microsoft's overall position on the browser in the broader Internet ecosystem.  While IE was in beta and even after its release, I didn't agree with all of the rants about how IE didn't do this right or didn't support a particular standard .  I was a) impressed with the amount of work that was accomplished by a team that was basically resurrected from the corpse of the IE 6 code base (I have it on good authority that several chickens gave their lives at the necessary voodoo ritual to raise that team from the dead) and b) I figured we had a plan for moving forward.

It's (b) that has really got me shaking my head.  During the entire IE 7 dev cycle, we heard when asked why Microsoft was not doing x, y, or z was that this version 7 was the first step in a long journey.  Well, it really looks like that journey has turned into an extended layover.  No, I am not "plugged in" to what is going on with the IE strategy or futures. I am as much a mushroom in that regard as the average Joe or Jane on the street.  But, here are two things I do know.

1.  Its been quite a while since IE 7s release and we have heard zero hard details about what will be next or when it that "next" will happen.  In an era where Microsoft is trying to be more transparent about its product plans, this seems strikingly odd.  I'd like to think that there is some amazing plan brewing, and maybe there is, but as of right now all the tea leaves say we don't have much to talk about.  That's a shame for everyone affected, and that includes Microsoft.

2.  The state of IE on mobile devices?!?!  Good Lord, if I was to point to anything that makes someone question Microsoft's browser strategy, this is exhibit A.  The Windows Mobile browser is utterly atrocious and has not been updated in forever (at least five years or thereabouts???).  Its pathetic.  Its slow.  It crashes often.  It renders awfully compared to what is offered elsewhere.  It makes using almost any Internet site extremely tedious. The thing that makes me admire an iPhone is the better browser experience.  Music - whatever, I have a Zune that works great and I am not one that has to listen to music all the time, so having a separate dedicated device works very well for me.  UI bling - whatever, I use my phone for calls, calendar, email and I wish web browsing.  My Treo does all of those just fine, TYVM, except for the browsing.  We have had at least two major Windows Mobile releases (5 and 6) and Pocket IE has not changed one bit.  Shame on us as a company that claims to "get" the mobile computing market.

I like IE 7.  It's the browser I use by choice (using Firefox is totally allowed at Microsoft - more or less).  Firefox is nice, but IE is like a comfortable pair of jeans and I haven't experienced a big "ah ha" moment that has compelled me to switch.  I revisit Firefox with each big update and can feel the gap widening and it's probably a matter of time before I succumb to some new feature. I wish we all knew where IE was going next so I had something to look forward to.

Update:  Not 60 seconds after making my post, I saw in IE 7 (of all places) this post from the IE team that at least uses the words IE 8.  Short on details, but at least it appears that we may hear some details at some point in that hopefully not to distant future.

Ok, I'm (was?) a huge Scrubs fan.  I know the show is not for everyone, but I found the show really funny over the years.  Anyone who can watch their "musical" episode and not say it was great entertainment, regardless of what you think of the rest of the show, has a screw loose! ;-)

This is Scrubs last year after having barely dodged the cancellation bullet on more than one occasion.  I will tell you what, however, if the first few episodes are any indication, they should have just ended it last year.  The writing has been substandard and they are reusing the same style of jokes, sight gags, etc. that used to be great when used in moderation, but have lost their touch when they are the staple of every episode.

I am becoming more and more a fan of the "fixed length" model that seems to be taking hold in television.  Go into a series saying it will last exactly "x years" and its off the races.  The focus really keeps the writers on point since they don't have to try and make stuff up just to keep things going.  Lost is a great example of how a show, once it was decided it will only last three more seasons, suddenly got back on track and started to recapture some of its initial edge (not all, but a big improvement).

I don't watch a ton of TV, but I can appreciate quality when I see it!  Ok, maybe that statement shouldn't be used when discussing TV. ;-)