Managed World

You know, I don't know Robert Scoble that well, so I wasn't really wanting to chime in to respond to this post he recently made. In fact, the closest I've ever been to Scoble is that I'm now working in his old office, that's it. But after reading Jeff Sandquist's response, I have to chime in and disagree with Scoble as well.

I won't pretend to know whether Scoble's ego is out of control or not*, but Scoble, you are just wrong. I vehemently disagree with the sentiment that a blog has to be public to be a "blog". My wife blogs, is it public? No. Why? Because it deals with issues like fertility problems and other struggles. Even though it is not "public", it is available to be linked _within a smaller community_.

You can't find any posts from Google, MSN Search, or any other external search engine. However, all her posts are discoverable by other members of the community that are facing similar issues. She is getting a lot of the benefits from public blogging while being able to limit her audience to a support group that would be able to understand and sympathize with her.  I fully support her doing so, and encourage her to continue. Would I call it a blog? ABSOLUTELY. Within her community, they all gain the benefits of blogs and accomplish all five "things" that Scoble discusses (via the use of internal tools). After blogging for almost three years, I like to think at least that I perhaps "get it" more than the average Joe.

In the comments on Jeff's post, Scoble makes the following statements:

You just gave them their own name "internal blogs." Over on my blog you called them "private blogs."
Go see a trademark lawyer. You know that "Vista" is not the same thing as "Windows Vista."

Scoble, once again, you are just wrong. I don't believe this is the same thing as comparing "Vista" and "Windows Vista." Comparing "private blogs" to "public blogs" is more like comparing "wool sweater" and "polyester sweater": they are BOTH sweaters!!! They simply use a different "medium".

In my opinion, it is pretty short-sighted to say that "private blogs" or not "blogs." Think of the use of blogging within support groups: like for people suffering from HIV/AIDS, recovering Alcoholics, etc. They can have a way to communicate "publicly" within their own support group yet still remain "private" to the outside world. In a way, it is almost like comparing the "private", "protected" and "public" keywords in a programming language. Alas, I won't go down that road of comparison though :).

So please Robert, step back and look at the bigger picture. By taking the perspective you are, you are only hurting the topic that you say you are an "expert" at. If you really love blogging as much as you do, please open your eyes to the different ways blogging can be used to help make this a better world, not just the ways that "you want" to use them. Remember, you != everyone.

*although statements like "Blogging is something I'm a weeeee bit of an expert on" in this response post certainly make it seem that way. With how relatively young blogging is compared to other forms of communication, I don't believe that any single person can be considered an "expert" at it.

I now officially HATE Sea Fair / Fleet Week or whatever the hell it is called up here. Don't get me wrong, the Blue Angels are pretty cool. But, the traffic SUCKS. And NOONE, no official city organization or anything is doing ANYTHING about helping it out. It's like seeing Survival of the Fittest, only with cars. I'm pretty sure I saw 11 misdemeanors committed while I was on the freeway, and that's just the vehicles, not even counting the crimes committed by the humans inside. That's right, it was SO bad, the CARS were committing crimes to get around.

Of course, some might argue that it is my own damn fault for trying to sift through traffic. You see, I mistakenly forgot it was Big-Scary-Underwater-Squid-Monster-Celebrating-Wicked-Fast-UFOs-Or-Whatever-The-Hell-Else-Fair this weekend. But, alas, my wife and I need to return the rental car we used while relocating today. On our way back, it took us TWO HOURS to drive a SINGLE MILE on the freeway. No lie, no exaggeration (I have witnesses to prove it). You don't quite understand. Even with my so-called "weight problem," I could have traveled that mile faster doing The Worm for goodness sakes. I don't even want to do the math to calculate what amount of measly feet per second we were traveling because I know it'll just cause me to go (as Rory so eloquently puts it) "Bat-Shit Crazy."

The worst part is that these kind of conditions brings out the worst in people. You know, those people that think it's fine to drive the 3/4 mile on the shoulder and then get pissed at us (the ones that have been sitting patiently in this crap condition) when we don't let them over. Well, I'm sorry misses Important-BMW-Business-Woman-Talking-On-Your-Cell-Phone that you're running late to get your manicure. Hell, I don't care if you're going to get the crap beaten out of you by your pimp because you're running late dropping off the money from your tricks, you can wait in line like the rest of us.

It amazes me how people change once they get into a car. You won't cut in line like that while you're waiting to order your Double Cheeseburger and Large Fry, but hell, you and your Beamer are so much more important than everyone else that we should be the parting waters for you like you're friggen' Moses parting the Red Sea. Well, excuse me, I don't mean to insult you, but YOU'RE NOT MOSES, DUMBASS. Get back in line, and take it like a man/woman/thing. You don't see the rest of us getting bent our of shape because we have a metaphorical banana up our metaphorical tail pipe, so chill out. (Ironic, I know, since this post itself could be constrained as being all bent out of shape myself. Well, I'll tell you a secret: I'm not exactly in the kind of mood to care about irony.)

It is moments like today that I realize Darwin was a dumbass. "Survival of the Fittest", ha, that's a joke. If that were true, these people would have blown out their brains with an empty shotgun long ago. What pisses me off more is that people like this are MULTIPLYING. It almost makes me want to run for president and prevent dumb people from procreating. I know that's not very nice, but I'm a little pissy right now, and I don't particularly care. Why this Dumbass DNA is still in our Genetic Ecosystem is beyond me.

On the other hand, days like today make me think that people like Trisha are perhaps the most enlightened of us all. Sooner or later, I'm sure I'll get super pissed and just sell off my car and take the bus everywhere. At least then, if I'm stuck in traffic for two hours like today, I can be doing something productive like reading, writing, or arithmetic, or saving the human race for all I know.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have some H2's to go flip off.

I'm going to warn all of you out there now: I'm about to break down the walls and get honest about some of my feelings. If all you want to hear about are unicorns, pretty pink bunnies, and how cuddly-wuddly the whole world is, I encourage you to leave now. No group hugs here. No kumbaiya here. No other camp songs either, for that matter. With that said, let's now move on to the real "schtuff", shall we?

I would like to talk a little bit about the decision to rename WinFX to .NET Framework 3.0. Do I agree with the re-branding of WinFX to .NET Framework? Absolutely. I believe it does communicate the fact that the various WinFX technologies are a _part_ of the Framework now and it will lead to less confusion in the long run. It is now clear that the various WinFX technologies are part of the core platform and, in my mind, that is "A Good Thing."

So, if I am behind the re-branding, what is my problem? Well, my problem is three simple syllables: "three point oh". I can see more confusion being caused by using the 3.0 label for this "version" of the framework in the long run. What does .NET Framework 3.0 have to do with C# 3.0 or the 3.0 runtime? Nothing. What version of the runtime is packaged with .NET Framework 3.0? 2.0. Are there any breaking changes between .NET Framework 2.0 and 3.0? Nope. Why? Because the .NET Framework 3.0 uses the 2.0 runtime. Huh? You mean there's no breaking changes even with the major rev of the Framework? No, because they are the same runtime under the hood.

For me, it is slightly reminiscent of the naming mess Sun is in with Java. After all, you have J2EE (Java2) 5.0 (which actually uses version 1.5 of the Java language). It's disappointing as Microsoft had done relatively with with 1.0, 1.1, and 2.0. So, what are the other options?

One option is .NET Framework 2.1. To me, this option is only slightly better than 3.0. True, people won't think of breaking changes taking place. However, this still suffers from the fact that the Framework version is different than the runtime version (and hence, leading to some of the same confusion). Cross this off the list.

Another option is .NET Framework 2.0, Service Pack 1. With this option, the framework version is the same as the runtime version, so that confusion is alleviated. With a "Service Pack", it is not clear that there are a bunch of new features with it though. At least, not by definition it's not. However, isn't this what Microsoft basically did Windows XP, Service Pack 2?  I still think there would problems convincing marketing to go with this title as I think it would be more difficult to "sell" this to customers. I'm not in marketing though, so I could be way off on this one :). This is probably the one that I like out of the other options (including ones that other people have posted about).

So what will I personally do about this? I guess I'll just sit back and accept it (with a frown). Overall, I believe it is perhaps the lesser of all evils once the decision was made to integrate it into the .NET Framework "product". At times like this, there is one word that comes to mind: Unfortunate!

Disclaimer: as usual, this is just one man's opinion and yours might differ.

You know, either I have been waking up on the wrong side of the bed a lot more lately, or I'm simply starting to become an grump ol' codger. I'm sure by now, everyone AND their pharmaceutical assistants have heard about "Windows Vista". Well, if everyone AND their long-living, paraphernalia-selling, psychotropic drug-addict alter egos have heard of the Windows Vista news, why do we have to keep on repeating it?

I think this is why I do not like link blogs. I want to see content, or personality, or what have you. I don't want to simply see a link to a news story that I've already seen linked five million other places (let alone five million times by other bloggers on the SAME SITE). If you are going to post about Windows Vista, you better damn well be contributing something to the plate (even if it is simply a stupid, pet writeup like I'm doing here (not to toot my own horn (which I often do in private but not much in public (although I've thought about it from time to time)))). It seems like the more people that start blogging, the extraneous noise I'm having to filter through. My issue with the noise is that it's not PERSONAL noise.

If you are blogging simply to post links time and time again (without any personality or insight), than I think you are missing the WHOLE point of blogs. Of course, to each his own I suppose. But I can't imagine you can't find a better way to appease your vicious, patting-on-the-back nature. I mean, throw me a friggin' bone here. Give me some kind of clue that you're human. WAIT A MINUTE! Maybe that's the problem! Maybe most sites are actually populated by touring-test compatible cyborgs (also known as "blogging bots"). Yes, that's it. That HAS to be it. Well, at least that's how it LOOKS. And, like my mom always told me, if it looks like an apple, smells like an apple, and tastes like an apple, than it MUST be an apple (unless it's a turnip of course).

Believe it or not, I'm actually not all that disturbed about this, I simply thought it might be a good opportunity to flex my "personality muscles" for all of you to show off my entirely NON-Greek, NON-chiseled physique. C'est la vie.

It's times like these that I wish my blog was totally anonymous so I could make an incredible ass-clown of myself and not be worrying "Will Bill still respect me in the morning?" Damn!

:: BEGIN_RANT ::

Dear Microsoft,

I fear I must retract my first letter. Apparently, I am a tremendous dumb butt. I TOTALLY forgot that OF COURSE the software would work perfectly within INTERNET EXPLORER but not at all within FIREFOX. I don’t know what I was thinking. For some silly reason, I was thinking that perhaps technology has come far enough that a web browser is a web browser is a web browser. I was wrong. I can see clearly now the rain is gone. It’s gonna be a bright, be a bright, sun-shine-y day!

Now, if you excuse me, I must go cleanse my computer thoroughly from the IE-induced contaminates that have been flooding my box over the last several minutes. Hey, but at least they are MICROSOFT contaminates, I suppose that’s a start. At least then I can install MICROSOFT Antivirus and MICROSOFT Firewall and MICROSOFT Antispyware and MICROSOFT computer condoms to keep myself safe.

Man, what was I thinking?!?!? I can’t believe I could be so dumb. You know, I just thank the good Lord above that .NET and Managed DirectX are both so fun and great that even with all these announces, that you, oh Microsoft, can still be on my good side. But if that changes, so help me…. I’m out of here!! I SWEAR! Well, perhaps not, but there's a good chance!!!!! [Maybe...]

:: END_RANT ::

:: BEGIN_RANT ::

Dear Microsoft, although I have been a loyal customer for several years, I’m finding your latest practices to be fairly annoying. The least that you could absolutely do is ensure that if you tell me to automatically run a program off of your website, that you link me to the latest version of that program. Is that too much to ask? Because if it is above your abilities, I understand and I will waste my time digging around your terabytes worth of web pages in order to find the latest version that you weren’t kind enough to provide me with in the first place.

You see, I face a dilemma now. In order to make this whole situation easier on myself I either: A) Use Google to find the latest version of your “Genuine Windows” program on your mega site or B) Just say screw your “Genuine Windows” and find what I need elsewhere. As you can tell, both options require not USING YOU in the least bit. Now, if your goal in life is to drive away all your loyal customers, than fine I say, I’ll see you on the other side. However, is it too much to ask that you simply make your customers experience less of a pain in the rear than it is today (I realize that you still may have reservations about removing the pain from our ass completely as then we might focus more on you as a business and less on the extreme PAIN IN OUR REAR!)?

Because I am running entirely legal copies of Windows XP, I have absolutely no reservations about participating in your “Genuine Windows” program. However, if you’re going to make me jump through these hoops simply to download the latest DirectX SDK, please stop the bleeding a little bit, okay? That’s all I ask: just beat me a little less, massa; I promise I’ll be good, massa. If I’m having to jump through all your validation hopes, please ensure that when I get to the end, that you don’t slap me in the face, okay? For instance, I went to participate in this program to get the latest DirectX SDK, and what am I presented with when I try to run YOUR application on YOUR operating system? This:

 

So, now thanks to you, I’m going to be digging around your site just so I can get this stuff working, all because you can’t.

Thanks once again, Microsoft.

Your loyal ass-clown,

Jason Olson

:: END_RANT ::

I realize ranting is pretty juvenile. However, I have proved time and time again that I'm not above juvenile behavior (quite the opposite, I imagine). With that in mind, I have decided to actually post my rants here even though it may mean I get severely flamed and I might look like a tremendous donkey's ass. Oh well, that's the price that comes along with the territory I suppose. "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen," as my mum used to always say (okay, she only said it once; and in her defense, the house was ACTUALLY on fire at the time).

::BEGIN_OF_RANT::

You know, if I was Microsoft, and I was holding a big conference on Microsoft technology, I, for one, would not want to have one of my public facing portals to be down quite a bit. Of course, by the time you read this, it will probably already be resolved.

I've tried getting on to the site numerous times over the last week in order to prepare and make my schedule for Tech Ed. However, 90% of the time that I try to load the site, I get a big white "Cannot Find Server" page. Not only that, when I can get in, it seems that one out of every five schedule requests time out.

I may be the only one here, but I consider this unacceptable. Especially when it is hosted by the world's largest software company, and built on their own software. Is there a better way to show how absolutely infallible your software is than putting out into the world and having it fall on its face over and over (and it's not like it's suffering from the Slashdot Effect or anything).

For some reason, it brings back memories of dreams of going to school naked and having everyone laugh at me (quite the opposite of the effect that Rory had on fellow schoolmates). Or, if you will, it reminds me of several stupid Adam Sandler skits ("They're all gonna laugh at you, they're all gonna laugh at you!!!").

Please, do me one favor. You're Microsoft. You have perhaps the largest software budget in the world, and technology that I know is fully capable of large amounts of up-time. The last you could do is provide all of us with a site that a) works and b) works most of the time.

::END_OF_RANT::