Barbie’s new girls

May 21, 2007 Leave a comment

’twas back in August 2005 that I posted "Competition: Watching the Perimeter".  I was inspired by an article in Baseline Magazine "Barbie Lost Her Groove, Competitors Picked It Up".

Seems Mattel is keen to bounce back in a big way: online.  Additions to their Barbie ‘fleet’ include plastic "Barbie Girls," an MP3 player that can be accessorized like a doll.  The ‘girl’ has an online component; social networking and shopping in a virtual world on the web. From the post:

The overall audience for Barbie sites has declined slightly over the last year, and has failed to grow over the last three years. According to Nielsen NetRatings, the Barbie site attracted about 1.9 million unique visitors from home and work in April 2007, down from 2.1 million in April 2006. Those numbers are in line with about 2 million visitors in the same month in 2004.

Meanwhile, online competitor Webkinz (virtual plushies) has increased market share significantly, usurping Barbie and and Neopets (all targeting roughly the same age demographic).

CNET: "Barbie’s Last Online Stand"

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"You have a meeting in Building 7 in 30 minutes"

May 17, 2007 Leave a comment

I just celebrated my second year at Microsoft (see "Redmond Monsoon Season / Some New Directions").

That aside, no one ever tried this bit of hazing on me when I joined Microsoft. However, I heard about it from multiple sources: despite that, it could be a thing of Redmond legend.

As I heard the tale, you’ve just joined Microsoft, been through new employee orientation (NEO; your first week onsite is in this three-day meeting) and you’re settling in your office or cubby.  You’re setting up your shiny new PC with all the MSIT stuff on ProductsWeb and the phone rings:

"You have a meeting in Building 7 in 30 minutes!"

You grab the nearest map of campus (online or printed; it doesn’t matter) and note the group of ‘X" shaped buildings, 1-8 in the center.  You realize it’s walking distance, so you set out straight away.

Not that you would know this in your first week, but there is no building 7.

The thinking person would assume it’d be in the group of buildings 1-8, but it isn’t.

CIO says more in "The Mystery of Microsoft’s Building Seven Lives On".

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Is iGoogle the uber customizable / personalizable portal?

May 15, 2007 Leave a comment

Well, when I was working at Microsoft, I hoped not. I wanted us to get there first.  😉

It’s not any more functional than MyMSN, but is a logical next step; but what’s next-next?  At what point is will this extend to other devices and include data from outside a walled garden?

I referred to this paradigm in “What do you call the uber personalized site for information snacking?“, “The next thing: Minis, Flakes, et. al“, “The User at the Center” and most recently “Information Snacking in the real world“.

In these posts, I’m guessing this concept would emerge as the next big thing on the web: a ‘blank slate’ where users could connect to the data that matters to them, no matter the source.

I christened the concept “Information Snacking“, describing a user-centric view of a user’s own data, aggregated from multiple sources; likely outside the sources’ native interfaces.  Data that is available on multiple devices through layers of abstraction.

Heh.  See why I call it “Information Snacking”?  The description is practically a thesis.

In a few words, your data, when and where you want it:

  • You might use Yahoo! mail as your primary email account.
  • You might have oft-traveled cities and want to monitor weather.
  • You might use Flickr for your online photo storage (I use Live Spaces).
  • You might have a few favorite RSS feeds.

The page that can pull all these sources together will win the much-coveted Home Page position on all my browsers.  It might also net a blog post or twenty-two.

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BizTalk and SOA

May 5, 2007 Leave a comment

Thrilled to see BizTalk being recognized as a services-orientation enabler; it has the lot:

  • messaging infrastructure
  • file / format conversion via adapters
  • business rules engine

.. and much more, of course.  I’m a huge fan of Biztalk; tempted to dive in again, as the 2006 version is so much more extensible than the 2004 version (which was, by no means, a slouch).  Check out the BizTalk Home Page home page for more details.

Baseline Magazine reports that analysts are recognizing BizTalk’s value as well in "Microsoft’s BizTalk Services Simplify SOA".

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Immortalized(?) in Charcoal

April 23, 2007 Leave a comment

Amazing to me that the artist produced this 20 minutes:

MichaelCharcoal20070423

Okay, I think the eyes and nose are a little too big .. and my left eye seems a little ..

Overall though, it’s a fair likeness of me.

He got extra credit for knocking ten years off me as well 😉

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Hunter at the dentist

April 23, 2007 Leave a comment

Poor little guy .. he was quite a trooper, though.

HunterDentist20070423

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Team Caterpillar!

April 23, 2007 Leave a comment

I went on a field trip of bugs, bugs, more bugs and Grossology at the Pacfic Science Center with Cassie’s class.

Team Caterpillar and the Grossology exhibit (just in case you thought I was kidding):

TeamCaterpillar01_20070423TeamCaterpillar02_20070423

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Remember WiFi ‘Roguing’?

April 20, 2007 Leave a comment

I do. See “WiFi Roguing” on this blog. This is where you, umm .. steal wireless that’s just ‘out there’.

Turns out, folks do object to your snarking off their wireless.

I object; so have appropriately protected my network:

  • Encryption
  • IP restriction (I only allow two, unless Connor’s friends have their laptops)
  • Unnamed network (I don’t broadcast my SSID)

This guy crossed any number of lines; parking in a car outside a wireless owner’s house.

‘Piggybacking’.  Heh.  I like ‘roguing’ better 😉

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South Park and Internet Theory

April 7, 2007 Leave a comment

I just saw the South Park titled “Canada On Strike“ (link to South Park Studios where you can view the entire episode).

A critical story arc included popular(?) videos on YouTube. I’ve captured a few for posterity .. and wondering what all the fuss is ‘aboot’:

Dramatic Gopher:

 

The episode points out the value of "theoretical earnings" from the Internet (quoted as dollars).

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SOA Facts

March 27, 2007 Leave a comment

I was one of the early proponents of a "Services Orientation" when I was working with Avanade a few years back. Since then, said orientation became a noun, as "Services Oriented Architecture".

Bah. It’s not a noun; it’s a technique; a methodology. I blog about this.

Climbing off my soapbox, I thank my bosses’ boss for "SOA Facts".

The third one is the best. The rest are just silly 😉

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