tankete.com

Community Server 2008.5 is almost ready

Jose — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:08:00 GMT

In the near future, Community Server 2008.5 will be released. In this version, we've adding wikis, modified the forums to better support questions answers, and made lots of small feature tweaks. Expect to see the final release *very* soon.

More later...

Share this post: StumbleUpon | email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit!

Graffiti Marketplace Walkthru

Jose — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 04:30:00 GMT

Tonight I figured I'd give a brief walkthru of how to use both the Graffiti Marketplace website and the integration of the marketplace into the Graffiti Control Panel.

In order to see the details, I chose not to shrink the 1024x768 video within the post. It's only three-minutes long, but worth it!

http://www.screencast.com/t/gXcBLdV9goB

Share this post: StumbleUpon | email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit!

Graffiti v1.0 is now available!

Jose — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 03:00:00 GMT

In case you've missed the announcement, today we are happy to announce the immediate availability of Graffiti 1.0. Available under a couple different licensing options (including a free edition), you can now purchase and/or download a copy of the latest product offering from Telligent (creators of Community Server).

I'm especially excited about the integration with the new Graffiti Marketplace. Not only is the marketplace a website where you'll be able to download, purchase, and share themes, widgets, and plugins, but it's also *directly integrated* into the Graffiti Control Panel (as previously discussed). So as we (and the community) continue to build up new items (themes, widgets, plugins), you'll be able to browse, download, and install many without ever leaving the product!

...and I almost forgot...I recently decided to set up a new site, running Graffiti 1.0, over at http://joselema.com. So be sure to stop on by!

Share this post: StumbleUpon | email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit!

Hush Yo Mouth (Zune Revisited)

Jose — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 20:45:00 GMT

While I have been looking forward to the latest upgrade to the Zune 2.0 software, I didn't get a chance to download it until today. After reading Joe's review (and Jim's rebuttal, see the comments) I figured I'd make my own conclusions.

Part of the update to "The Social" is the concept of a ZuneCard. So, before even downloading the software, I created an account online at zune.net and then was asked to "personalize" my ZuneCard. Now, to be fair, my beef isn't with the Zune software (yet), just the website. But what I found was absolutely ridiculous. First, regardless of which file I picked, I wasn't able to update my picture. But even worse, when I tried to set my ZuneCard "status", this happened:

"Zune" is a *restricted* word? Are you kidding me? If they can't get *that* right, dare I even open the software?

Share this post: StumbleUpon | email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit!

Can you believe it?

Jose — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 17:45:00 GMT

This past week, I took a couple days off (plus the weekend) to attend the Fall Men's Conference with some guys from my church up at Hume Lake. I took quite a few pictures and had a great time and will blog about that soon. But if you follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or IM, you may have noticed something interesting. Since I've been getting questions all week, I figured I'd write it up sooner than later.

Throughout the conference, we were given the opportunity to buy raffle tickets, the proceeds going to send kids to summer camp that couldn't afford it. Like most of the guys in attendance I bought 10 tickets for $20. On the final day, 10 tickets were selected as "potential" winners (from at least 1000)...and *two* of mine were selected! In fact, two of another guy, Larry "something", were also selected. The eight of us got up on stage and our tickets were placed in a new box. At this point, if your ticket was pulled from the box, you were out (as there was only *one* prize). One by one, people were eliminated and at the end, *both* of my tickets were left in the box...making me the clear winner!

So, what did I win?

Can you believe it?

Share this post: StumbleUpon | email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit!

Blue Thunder: Season Ends

Jose — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:55:00 GMT

Another season of soccer has ended, and Noah and I are already missing Monday/Wednesday night practices. Since I wasn't going to be able to attend the final game (I was presenting at the Community Server Developer's Conference), we managed to have our season-ending pizza party a week early. Each of the boys got a trophy, cake, and a goody bag (in addition to pizza and drink). We also took a team photo (below).

To my surprise (and delight), I was offered the team banner at our last practice. After the final game, the team mother gave it to Noah and now we just need to figure out where to put it. I think my office has plenty of white walls that need covering. I had a really good time this season and can't wait until next year. Go Blue Thunder!

Share this post: StumbleUpon | email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit!

The Best Developer Conference

Jose — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:45:00 GMT

Of course I may be biased, but our first Community Server Developer's Conference was a huge success! Folks from around the world (at *least* four continents) came out to Texas (on a weekend) to hear more about where we are at and where we are headed. If you missed it, our own Kevin Harder live-blogged the entire event.

I had the opportunity to give two talks at the conference. The first was about Community Server 2008 and how we'll be expanding the platform. During this brief presentation, I also ran thru our new Groups functionality and improved Permissions work. The second talk was about Shared Membership (aka Morpheus). Here I was able to demo how easy it is to bring two separate CS installs under the same membership system. The feedback from both talks was positive and I look forward to hearing from attendees about what can be improved.

The other presenters (Ben, Wyatt, Dan, Scott, Kevin, Nicole, Jason, and Rob) all had great presentations as well. We were able to show off a bit of Graffiti, Enterprise Reporting, Web Services, Chameleon, Extensibility, and had time for lots of questions, tips and tricks. We also discussed our new Partner Program. In addition to the presentations, we had a good time just meeting our customers/partners face-to-face over food, drinks, and games. If you missed it this time, be sure to be on the lookout for our next event as it promises to be even better.

Since we taped all the sessions, you can expect us to post the videos, slides, and demos in the coming weeks. (Just give us some time to get it all together). At that point I'll be sure to post the location of all this great content.

Share this post: StumbleUpon | email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit!

The "Puffer" at DFW

Jose — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 23:02:00 GMT

So today was my lucky turn to go into the "puffer" at the security checkpoint at Dallas Fort Worth Airport. For whatever reason...I was selected and got to stand in a phone booth sized enclosure while pounded by six puffs of air. When I asked what is was, the agent told me it would blow air on me releasing any explosives on my person.

Hmmm...I *knew* I should have shaved this morning! :)

Sent from my iPhone via BlogMailr

Share this post: StumbleUpon | email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit!

What's on your phone?

Jose — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 23:58:00 GMT

So Jason tagged Scott and suddenly I need to spill my guts...is that it?

Since I'm the proud owner of an iPhone, I was going to answer that I've got The Princess Bride, a couple episodes of Seinfeld, some audiobooks, some music, pictures of the family, and more, but it appears the real question is targetted at which *websites* I've got bookmarked on my phone. Ahhh...

Here goes:

Facebook (http://iphone.facebook.com/) - While I don't use it all that frequently, it's just too perfect to not have at the top of the list.
Meebo (http://www.meebo.com/) - In the rare cases that I've left my IM status improperly updated (like a lunch appt), I tend to hop on to correct it. Also if I'm looking for a quick IM with a work buddy...since SMS seems too...whatever...
Hahlo (http://hahlo.com/) - My favorite client for twitter updates
Google Reader (http://google.com/reader/) - I don't use it too often, but with their recent update, i probably will. Regardless, it's bookmarked.
iPhone Sudoku (http://www.iphonesudoku.com/) - I haven't played in a while, but during the initial weeks, I found it to be quite the past-time...okay, just an excuse to the use the phone.
Community Server (http://www.communityserver.org/) - I've replied to couple forum posts (I know...we need a better mobile experience) and checked on some of the store reports.

Also, the night the power went out, I tried to blog about it from my iPhone, but I had some kind of issue logging in, otherwise I would have bookmarked this site by now.

Update: For all you iPhone owners out there...here's a list of webapps that Apple might recommend...

So, what do Kevin Harder, Ben Tiedt, James Shaw, Joe Morel, and Kyle Beyer have on their phones? We'll see if they'll tell...

Share this post: StumbleUpon | email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit!

Gaming, Donkey Kong, and XBLA

Jose — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 02:35:00 GMT

Recently, someone pointed me to this video on YouTube and it got me thinking about my gaming history...

In my early years, I was never a big arcade game player. My parents just didn't believe it was a worthwhile way to spend my time. (Sadly, we had neither an Atari nor an Intellivision, so I didn't get to play those cool Activision titles.) My limited exposure to arcade games was at my weekly bowling league or at pizza parties, after soccer games...but I mostly just watched...since quarters weren't in large supply. Also, the games that were around at that time were most of the "classics": Space Invaders, Asteroids, and a new game called Pac Man.

So while I got to see, and play a bit, my real love and exposure to gaming came when our family got our first computer, an Apple II+. It was primarily for "educational purposes", but after 30 minutes of typing I got 30 minutes of gaming. I played games on a green screen for hours upon end.

Games like:

TaxMan (a pacman clone)
Hard Hat Mack (the first game published by Electronic Arts)
One on One (another EA classic)
Olympic Decathlon (killer intro graphics, huh?)
Flight Simulator (the original MSFT version)

Still, with regards to the arcade, things didn't change for me until I walked away with a *full-size* Donkey Kong machine from a raffle at the local bowling alley. (And just so we're clear, Scott/Kevin, I didn't just walk away with it, I was the actual winner.) Sure, it wasn't the newest game by the time I got my hands on it, but it was *huge* and it was *free*! (And it had a cool cigarette burn near one of the buttons.) New friends came out of the woodwork to just come over to the house and play DK in the garage. (If you're wondering if I still have the machine, the answer would be a disappointing "no". I "sold it" to a family friend who was moving out of state...in order to help his kids make new friends...for only $100...boy do I miss it...)

So, fast forward to today, and it should come as no surprise that I absolutely *love* XBOX Live Arcade (XBLA). Not only is my chance to "get back" at mom and dad, but it's also just good clean fun (without utensils). In fact, I didn't even realize how much I liked it until I had to re-download all my purchases to my new Elite system. And the final count ended up at more than 25 games! Not only have I purchased some great oldies (still no DK), but some of the new stuff is pretty original, and *all* of it is amazing compared to the "standards" set in the seventies.

All that said, I'm still looking for my DK fix, but I doubt it's coming anytime soon to the XBOX. I guess this is always an option...yeah...right!

Share this post: StumbleUpon | email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit!

MySpace and Community Server

Jose — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 20:25:00 GMT

A couple months ago, I "bumped into" an old friend on Facebook. After chatting about our families, where we're at, and what we do, he said something like, "As a designer for Fox Sports, I share the building with another group here that does something similar to you...MySpace." At that point I remember almost replying, "MySpace? Cool! They're planning on using our software for their forums...", but held back.

So, as you have probably heard by now (or here, or here), MySpace chose Community Server (Enterprise Edition) as the basis for their recent forums upgrade. (And no, it's not just an out-of-the-box install.) And while we, Telligenti, have known about this for quite some time, we haven't really been free to discuss it much.

So while I'm pretty sure you won't see "Powered by Community Server" in the footer anytime soon , we are super excited about their choice and looking forward to their continued success on the platform in the future.

Share this post: StumbleUpon | email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit!

Almost a Nightmare

Jose — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 05:55:00 GMT

While on the topic of Apple gadgets, I had a pretty big scare just last night. Just before dinner I was watching a Seinfeld episode on my iPhone. And so when Linda called, I set it down, assuming all would be well. But after dinner, when we I went back to pick it up (and check email before a movie with the wife), it was *completely unresponsive*.

I tried everything (holding buttons, charging, connecting to my computer)...all to no avail. As the tears began to stream down my face ;) Linda noticed and asked what was wrong. I quickly explained that I was the owner of a new iBrick and no clue what to do. She assured me that it wasn't the end of the world...ummm...yeah it is...but then left me alone to wallow in misery.

After a few more silly attempts at CPR, a light came on...the Internet!!! I hopped onto my laptop, did a couple quick searches and finally landed here.

My iPhone and I have been reunited...and it feels so good...

Share this post: StumbleUpon | email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit!

Another iPod in the House

Jose — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 05:45:00 GMT

Last Friday was my son Noah's 8th birthday. Since his uncle is a generous gadget freak, he asked me if any of the boys had iPods, but particularly Noah. It didn't take a genius to see where this was headed...

So, now Noah is the proud owner of an iPod Shuffle (and his brothers, especially my oldest, are jealous). He's got the "blue" one and has already started using it. At first, he thought it looked cool, but had no idea what is was. Now that he's picked a few CDs to put on it (it holds about 240 songs...) he's enjoying it. In fact, he wore it in the car to soccer practice and even asked if he could wear it in bed as he falls asleep.

Lucky kid!

Share this post: StumbleUpon | email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit!

Hosted Community Server - Reloaded

Jose — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 15:45:00 GMT

While this is not an "official announcement", I'm not sure that folks had noticed our newly revised offering for Hosted Community Server (HCS) at the Community Server Store...so I figured I'd mention it.

Over the past year, while in Beta, we had a couple different options for HCS. Now that we're out of beta, we have decided to focus on a single offering. And as you'll probably surmise when looking at the new package, we are not targeting small personal/family sites. Since we're not a dedicated hosting company, I think we'll probably leave those kinds of sites to the big boys. (More on that later...)

On the development side of things, though, we are now fully automated. So, when an order for HCS is placed, the new site/database is automatically created. Furthermore, since our store now supports recurring payments, a subscription is created and monthly billing occurs automagically. (It really is a thing of beauty ;) )

So if you're looking for a simple, no install way to get a community off the ground, check it out!

Share this post: StumbleUpon | email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit!

Source Code for .NET

Jose — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 17:25:00 GMT

If you thought yesterday's Zune announcement from Microsoft was big news, today's announcement about releasing the source code for .NET is even bigger for people like me...and probably you.

You'll be able to download the .NET Framework source libraries via a standalone install (allowing you to use any text editor to browse it locally). We will also provide integrated debugging support of it within VS 2008.

For more details read the full post from ScottGu...

Share this post: StumbleUpon | email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit!

DanH and Twitter

Jose — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 08:15:00 GMT

Earlier this week, DanH pinged me with a new Twitter idea. It sounded like fun, so I listened and offerred a bit of feedback. Just about an hour or two ago, he had the site up, along with a blog post.

One of my recommendations was to have a "Guest Judge" every now and then while he's building up the community voting tools. So "Today's Random Tweets" could be brought to you by José Lema (or even worse, Kevin Harder)

My favorite was the first one:

I'll bring the hangers & marshmallows. You bring the bow/arrows and blow up pool

That Laura is too funny...

Share this post: StumbleUpon | email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit!

Zune v2

Jose — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 08:05:00 GMT

Today was the day for Zune announcements, and while I'm a huge fan of my iPod, it appears that the Zune (and Microsoft) isn't going down without a fight. While there's a full list of information here and here, the biggest deal for me was this item:

All Zunes (including the Zune 30) will have a new, redesigned interface and feature parity. In other words, early Zune 30 adopters will have all the same software features as new Zune 80, 8, and 4 users.

So for all you folks that did a little early Christmas shopping and picked up the steal of a deal from Woot! (Zune 30 for $150) a couple weeks ago...it's looking like an even better decision now.

Share this post: StumbleUpon | email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit!

Bamboo Fun Coming Soon!

Jose — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 07:35:00 GMT

A couple weeks ago, while reading Engadget, I ran across a post about a new set of tablets by Wacom, called Bamboo and Bamboo Fun. Being a fun guy, I decided to purchase the latter. Actually, the Fun version comes with a mouse, software, a pressure sensitive eraser, and your choice of color (Black/White/Silver/Blue), so for the extra $20 it seemed like a no-brainer. I had previously used a tablet (about 6+ years ago) simply as an alternative pointing device and loved it.

Trying to find the best deal possible, I hopped onto Amazon. I was able to save a couple bucks (okay six to be exact) if I went with the silver (pictured at right). Since the color wasn't too important to me, I ordered it.

Little did I know that I was in for yet another interesting adventure. As you may recall, I had some interesting things go wrong with my iPhone, another interesting adventure with my XBOX 360, and today I found out that the tablet not only hadn't shipped (ordered about a week ago), but the revised delivery estimate was now in *December*. Somewhat oblivious to how each of these previous adventures ended up (all in my favor), I got a bit frustrated. And once again, thinks worked out even better. After cancelling that portion of my order, I went to see the item again on Amazon, checking to see if they'd done their part in changing from "In Stock" to "Forget About It". As it turns out, a reliable 3rd party seller was now selling the same item for only $80!!!

Needless to say, I've been slowly learning about patience over the past month. We'll see how I do next time...

Share this post: StumbleUpon | email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit!

My iPhone Adventures

Jose — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 07:15:00 GMT

So, I know I've mentioned the iPhone a couple of times :), but I haven't talked about the drama surrounding how I finally got my hands on it. After winning the hackathon, Delia shot me a note that it had shipped from Apple. All excited, I started tracking the package via the Fedex website. Then one day, it stopped moving. I figured it had arrived at the local facility, about 20 miles away, just after they packed the trucks, so I wasn't too worried, just a bit impatient. After all, it was a Tuesday, and they had projected delivery on Wednesday. Then Wednesday morning came...and went. I thought that maybe somehow the website hadn't been updated, but that it would still arrive, so until 8pm (their cutoff for residential delivery) I kept the front blinds open, hoping to see the truck pull up front. Nothing...Nada...Zilch.

On Thursday morning I immediately looked at the tracking site only to see that it was *still* not out for delivery. So I called Fedex, and after a couple transfers and being put on hold I found out the truth. "I'm sorry sir, but we can't find your package. It appears that there has been a security violation and we take this very seriously." Basically, someone stole it, and had I not called, who knows how long it would have taken for them to reach me.

So, since I didn't trust that the replacement would be safe, I asked Delia if I could make the purchase and be reimbursed...after all, the Apple Store was about 20 miles from my house. I also called the Apple Store and gave them the heads up about the Fedex issue and that we'd be cancelling. Since Delia had placed the order, she was going to have to cancel they told me. So, in the meantime, I visited the Apple Store and made the purchase and all was well.

Fast forward about two weeks, when out of the blue I get a package. Thinking it was something else I opened it, only to find another iPhone! Ahhhhh! So not only did I have to make the trip to the local Fedex to return it, but I also had to explain to the wife that it really wasn't a gift, just a mistake.

Thankfully no more iPhones have been spotted remotely near the house for a couple weeks. I think I'm safe now...

Share this post: StumbleUpon | email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit!

Short-Lived Power Outage

Jose — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 06:55:00 GMT

Well, it happened again. But unlike last time, this time the power was out for only about four hours and the temperature outside was in the high 60s, not 110+. I had just started to replay the Halo 3 single player campaign on Legendary. I guess I'll find out soon enough if anything was saved.

This time we were a little better prepared and had a flashlight (with batteries), some halloween candles (and matches), and one laptop which had enough juice to show a short movie to the boys before sending them back to bed.

I was also pretty jazzed to have my iPhone, since I was able to update my status on Twitter and Facebook, check the PGE website (and call for more outage info), take this picture, and watch a couple episodes of Seinfeld I had moved to my iPhone for just this kind of situation. I also had a morning alarm set just in case. Have I mentioned how much I'm digging this iPhone?

The only bummer was that I figured I'd still be able to complete the blog posts that I had nearly ready for posting, but for some crazy reason, I wasn't able to login to my site. I guess I'll need to look into that...and maybe revisit BlogMailr since email is still working pretty well.

Share this post: StumbleUpon | email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit!

I'm an Uncle! (again)

Jose — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 05:05:00 GMT

Earlier this month, my brother and his wife had their second child. This time around, they had a son and named him Christian Alexander. It's funny that both our second children are named after their father with Alexander in the middle. (My second is actually J. Alejandro, but that's close enough). I have a feeling that as a Cal graduate (Go Bears!), there was a bit more to the name selection than he's leading on...

After they got home from the hospital we (all six of us) managed to visit them at home, where I shot this beautiful picture of my new nephew in my arms (with my iPhone, of course).

Congratulations!

Share this post: StumbleUpon | email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit!

Poor Planning...Frustrated Customers

Jose — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 04:25:00 GMT

What's wrong with this picture? And before you make any disparaging comments about the Raiders, or this particular fan, it has nothing to do with either.

Any ideas? Well, without the proper back story it's probably too subtle. Let me explain.

The problem is that whenever the stadium was built, noone thought about how big the parking lot should be. And, worse than that, nobody thought about how many overflow lots would be needed for a sellout crowd (the last one closed with the car immediately in front of us...no joke). You would think that this isn't rocket science, but somehow, arriving at the stadium entrance more than *an hour in advance* landed us on a street far far away...*after* the kickoff. So if you look in the background you just may notice the stadium. And if you were with us, you too would have arrived at your seats in the 2nd quarter with about 6 minutes remaining in the first half! Absolutely Unbelieveable!!!

Similarly, I received my copy of Halo 3 Limited Edition in the mail last week. And as many have described, mine too was both scratched and scuffed. In fact, it appears that it may have led to the complete blow up of my XBOX 360. Again, it seems like a bit better planning could have saved the company significant headaches and frustrated customers. Halo 3 isn't the first game to be shipped in the mail, and it's absolutely unbelieveable that this could have happened.

Now I'm not sure that the Raiders organization cares that much...or even feels the pain it caused me, but I wouldn't want to be the guy responsible for the Halo 3 LE packaging!

So here's the important question, what areas of Community Server have caused you serious frustration due to our poor planning? What about other software?

Share this post: StumbleUpon | email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit!

Recent Increase in Blogging

Jose — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 03:35:00 GMT

While I'd like to take full credit for my recent blogging run, the credit really belongs to my iPhone. Since it's got a decent built-in camera, I've had the opportunity to take quite a few pictures during recent activities. So, when I got bit by the blogging bug (again), it has been pretty easy to look at those recent photos and tell the story. Since it's always with me, there's hardly a picture I miss, and since I sync it almost daily (for podcasts), I also get the images to my desktop computer on a regular basis.

This makes it more likely that I'll be making more personal posts, in addition to strictly work related posts, but I'm okay with that...hope you are too.

Share this post: StumbleUpon | email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit!

Graffiti Marketplace

Jose — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 00:40:00 GMT

As I mentioned earlier, I recently checked in some changes into the Graffiti core to support what I'm calling the "marketplace" feature. Since Graffiti is a new, and therefore smaller product than Community Server, it's a bit easier to try out new ideas. The concept of the marketplace is simple.

In Microsoft Word, when you want to create a new document, you can start with a blank document or select from a list of templates...all shipped with the product. Additionally, however, you can grab a template from online without leaving Word. This was the basis for the marketplace idea. Initially, for the hack-a-thon, I built it for widgets. Knowing that many people would create new widgets for their entries, I realized that I couldn't compete at that level...I just wasn't creative enough. But, I thought, do we really want to ship with *every* widget ever created?

Conceptually, that presented a couple problems:

A particular widget may be completely inappropriate for a particular site
All possible widgets must be complete before we ship v1
Too many widgets will be available and admins will have a hard time selecting which seem like a good fit
If we ship widgets after launch, users (probably non-technical) will need to "install" the new additions
If 3rd parties wanted to create widgets, and we're hoping they would, our widget catalog would be dispersed

The solution, IMHO, was to build the portion of the Control Panel that would allow admins view, filter, download, and install these widgets and keep an updated "catalog" of widgets available online.

So, that's what I did...

Earlier this week I took that prototype, flushed it out to be a bit more generic, added single-level category support, added the ability to view items by the same creator, and then checked it into the codebase. So as of today, Graffiti supports both a theme and a widget marketplace. And plug-ins are coming soon. Below you'll see an early screenshot of what it *may* look like in final form.

One of the next steps will be to begin to decide which items will live in the marketplace and which will ship with the product. Then, once we're solid on the API, we'll be able to publish the specs and begin to allow 3rd parties to create items that will easily plug into the product.

Sound interesting? Thoughts?

Share this post: StumbleUpon | email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit!

XBOX Watch: The Good News

Jose — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 23:55:00 GMT

As I recently mentioned, my XBOX 360 died almost immediately after finishing the single player campaign of Halo 3. I think it was mainly the DVD drive, but either way, nothing I did worked. I tried multiple game discs, movies, unplugged it completely, laid it on it's side, left it off for hours, and all to no avail.

So, what's the good news you ask? Well, since I had the 2 Yr Protection Plan from Best Buy, I was able to return it and get FULL credit. That's right, even though the current price is $350, I got credit for the full $400. Not being an idiot, I chose to upgrade to an XBOX 360 Elite and only paid $54! So now I've got 100GB more hard drive space, a brand spanking new system, an HDMI cable (not sure I'll use it), all for the low price of $50 and a lost hard drive (soooo happy I finished the campaign...)

A couple months ago, the only way I was getting an Elite was to fork over $500 cash. Or maybe even have the system malfunction, and throw $100 at the situation. But since the price drop...it's turned into the gift that keeps on giving! (Similar to my iPhone adventures...but that's another post)

God is good...woohoo!

Share this post: StumbleUpon | email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit!