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Windows Live QnA

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Another day, another Windows Live product!

Introducing.......

Windows Live QnA (beta)


In January of this year, we were privately briefed under a very strict NDA about what would eventually be called Windows Live QnA, a product akin to Yahoo! Answers! but aiming to mightily surpass it.

Now that the NDA has been lifted, more info from the team behind it:

This new Windows Live Search vertical offering will help consumers simply find what they need, from anywhere by providing a place for people to ask any question, get credible answers and vote on the quality of the responses on any given topic from a large community of helpful people, not just experts. This service will allow consumers to tap into the power of the online community by facilitating a melting pot of human knowledge that isn't easily accessible or available on the Internet today.

Topics will range from business, health, arts, sports, technology and more.

[...]

Key features include:

* In a one-to-many system, consumers may pose questions to the Windows Live QnA community, thereby creating a store of human knowledge containing facts, opinions and experiences on topics ranging from business, health, arts, sports, technology and more.

* People then can rate answers and reputation-based scoring is available so you and others know which sources are most reputable.

* Questions are tagged so others can easily find similar or related questions and answers to learn from

· The ability to mark and remove inappropriate content

Ultimately, QnA will be deeply integrated with Windows Live Search, providing a rich, integrated searching service - enabling you to search and find answers on the Web, or from experts on a given topic as part of a vertical search experience.
Nice, isn't it?
Copyright © 2006, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®

A Tale of Two at&t Support Reps

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In my post about AOL found here, I promised to tell my experience with a support representative at at&t who put the service in customer service.

When I tried to change my phone and DSL service to my new address, I was told I could only get the $17.99/month Pro package if I signed up online; also, my new number had to be working before I could perform the order.

Wha??? Yes, believe that! OK, I said and upon getting my family ensconced at mi casa, I went to wifey's clinic to order DSL.

Hello!!!! Screeching stop! System couldn't find my new phone number and tried to upgrade my former number. Fortunately, there was a customer service number to call and I did just that. Support serf couldn't help me and offered to escalate my problem to a specialist. "Do that", said I, and was given the phone number to the specialist I was being connected to.

Specialist came on the line and intro'd herself as Margaret. Cool, calm, and helpful; totally unlike the initial order-taker.

Unfortunately, I got disconnected. Called the number the support serf had given me. Got to a support droid masquerading as a specialist. Totally unhelpful. Told me I had to wait for a week to ten days before I could order DSL from at&t. Did not want to take any of my info to look into my account. Just as I was about to tell her how to perform recto-cranial de-insertion surgery on herself before screaming at her to copulate with herself, my cellphone rang. It was Margaret the at&t Specialist.

Thankfully, she had looked at my account details, retrieved my alternate contact info, and took it on herself to initiate the callback to finish the order. Contrary to her idiotic colleague, and I use the word colleague in the loosest sense, I did NOT have to wait for a week to ten days. My DSL should be active on Monday, May 8, albeit at 756Kbps to 1.5Mbps. I thanked her profusely for her assistance.

Her willingness to engage customers at such a high level is very commendable.

One company, two representatives, two levels of assistance. I am upset that I don't recall the name of the droid who was totally unhelpful.

Specialist Margaret, props to you.

Honorable mention in the customer service space: PG&E for the use of technology in alleviating customer frustration due to long wait-on-hold times. The technology: callback. The call management system offers to call you back without your losing you place in line. Great idea.
Copyright © 2006, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®

7th Level of Hell

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Whoever is in charge of usability for AOL deserves to be banished to the 7th Level of (AO)Hell immediately.

Moving this week, I tried to get the morons at SBC, 'scuuuuuuuuze me, at&t, to transfer my old number and service to my new address.

Could these Mensas do it? NO! I had to cancel my prior account and start a new one! Adding insult to injury is the fact that my DSL service is interrupted. (No, I don't want cable broadband; those cableco clowns have never heard about the phrase, price normalization. As it relates to cable broadband versus DSL in all [forms].) Was that enough? No. To rub salt in the wound, my new home is so far from the CSO, I can only receive the lowest tier of DSL service.

Am I pissed? Yes. While I am thankful I have broadband, the speed is so slow as to be called pseudo-DSL. Still, it IS better than dial-up.

Sorry, I digressed; I will have another post about a wonderfully knowledgeable and helpful at&t support specialist who helped sort out my DSL problem.

....Back to AOL.

Since I couldn't have a broadband internet connection at the mi casa until, hopefully, Monday, May 8th, I decided to take the low road and procure one of those AOL coasters and do a temporary signup for the next week.

What an experience!

Inserting the disk into a temp XP boot partition on my test rig made me (remember &) regret using AOL again.

The AOL install program asks just one question, paraphrased as, "Do you want to try AOL?", then proceeds to install a myriad number of worthless and useless programs on your system: AOL deskbar, REAL player basic, Quicktime, are the most annoying. It insinuates itself deeply into your startup processes. Tell me: do you at any time in your life, need AOL to be started when your system boots up? Do you?

To crown it all, you cannot remove the program without it leaving insidious artifacts of itself all over your system.

Can you fu*king believe this?

Can't wait for my DSL to kick in!
Copyright © 2006, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®

$3.69 For Gasoline??? Part II

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In today's issue of the Los Angeles Times - yes, I still read it instead of the SFO and SAC papers, a story about the obscene profits of the oil companies has this quote:

On Wednesday, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) invoked the harshest image yet. "I think they have the least PR sensitivity of any group outside of satanic cults," he said.
Wow!

Makes my post here seem positively tame.

Exit Two Icons: McNealy & Kumar

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This almost slipped my commentary, but yesterday was a watershed moment for two icons of computing and the Dot-Com era: Sanjay Kumar of Computer Associates, now known as CA, and Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems

Sanjay Kumar
Sanjay Kumar was one of those guys I looked at back then and wondered where I went wrong. A year older than I am, Kumar had archieved a lot in a relatively short time. Impressive, and he was soft-spoken - compared to his predecessor, Charles Wang. He also did not seem to have the ego of other CEOs of the dotcom era. It came as a sad surprise that he was actively involved in a scheme to prop up the fortunes, and stock price of Computer Associates.

Yesterday, he pled guilty to obstruction of justice and securities fraud charges. A shame.

Scott McNealy
"The Dot in Dot Com", "The Network Is The Computer". Anytime I think of the nascent days of the Internet, I cannot help but remember those slogans describing Sun. At the time, Sun could do no wrong, the SPARC CPU (and its derivatives) were untouchable, and it had initiatives up the wazoo.

Let's go WayBack: Kim Polese & Java, SPARC, Sun Workstations, Solaris OS, etc., etc. This company was the Dot-Com in dotcom.

At the helm of all this was Scott McNealy, the intelligent, Ivy League-educated, boyish CEO with the acerbic wit and caustic tongue, master of the soundbite.

Unfortunately, he fell prey to three things: hubris, a fiixation on all things Microsoft, and the lack of a (business plan) parachute.

Hubris. When you are on top, all of a sudden, your success, for some, seem to have been ordained by a divine power; heck, some think that they have become divine! With so many things going so well for so long, we started to see the signs of hubris in product, and product announcements coming from Sun, all aimed not at keeping the company on top, but gravy-training* Java, and keeping Microsoft away. The most infamous of these failed initiatives was the Java Terminal, or Javinal, which, as its lack of success would soon reveal, rhymes with urinal. This led to:

A fixation on all things Microsoft. At this point in time, with the explosion of Java, and all the Java-based projects, and, of course, hubris, came an obsession with Microsoft. A real burning obsession. There were lots of consortia and coalitions formed to battle the MSFT threat, the most (in)famous of them being the NOISE (Novell, Oracle, IBM, Sun and Everyone else)coalition, which, unable to compete on their own merits, ran, tail between their collective legs, to the Justice Department's anti-trust division for relief. Unfortunately for McNealy, this preoccupation combined with hubris led to his taking his eye off the ball and running into the Internet meltdown juggernaut without both a clue and a strategy to cope, leading to:

The lack of Plan B. Every successful corporation should either have a strategy in place, or be developing on to combat the ills when fortunes change. By all indications, Sun did NOT, as reflected in the stock price dropping and staying there since the meltdown.

No Plan B! This from a Harvard business major.

Instead, homeboy kept on spewing forth meaningless platitudes for the past several years, ducking poignant questions about the unhealthiness of the stock known as SUNW. All the while forgetting that the sloganizing was no longer working.

What a shame as well. But for all three issues, he COULD have made a difference. Now he will be relegated to an anecdotal afterthought in history.

He won't be missed.

His story should serve as a warning to the incoming CEO, whose admirable intelligence and relative youth would serve him well.

IMO.

* Gravy-Train: The art of hanging to the (often financial) coat tails of a successful person, or product.

The trademarks used above remain the properties of their respective owners.

Copyright © 2006, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®

News Flash: Major Airlines can't count on customer loyalty.

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You think?

Reading this article on MSNBC.com made me howl in pain.

Do you mean there is an airline exec in this country who wants loyal customers?

Ticket change fee, blackout dates for redemption of frequent flier miles, no food, fee for curbside check-in, fee for blanket, fee for headphone rental, fee for pillows, fee for this, fee for that!

These guys take their cues from banks, and are worried about customer loyalty???

Riiiiight!

Steve Forbes on Immigration

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While I don't always agree with Steve Forbes on political issues where, but for his flat tax proposal, I believe he is totally outside the locus of his intellectual prowess, and that he is blithely regurtigating the right-wing neo-con rants of the Republican Party. When he focusses on business, and bussiness issues, Steve Forbes is in his métier, and it shows.

In his Fact & Comment column in the April 24, 2006 issue of his eponymous magazine magazine, FORBES, Steve is at the top of his game, displaying his acute and intimate business knowledge as he brilliantly dissects immigration issues in this article labeled Sensible, Effective Immigration Answers.

From the column, highlighted by yours truly for emphasis:

[...]

To pretend that we don't need most of these folks to work in agriculture, construction and various service jobs, such as nannying the kids of working couples, is preposterous....

[...]

The Senate Judiciary Committee has passed a reform bill. Under this proposal, illegals, in order to gain legal status, would have to register with the government, pay a fine, pay off any back taxes owed and, if they wanted to stay, learn English. This way they could earn permanent residency and perhaps, ultimately, citizenship. The whole process would take 11 years....

One critical problem is that the normal immigration channels are dysfunctional. Folks who try to play by the rules too often end up in a protracted bureaucratic nightmare with the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS). Therefore, the Senate approach must be coupled with a genuine overhaul of the USCIS, including a streamlined visa process. Currently a USCIS office in one part of the country will treat a case very differently from the way an office in another part of the country would. Horror stories of people's files being lost abound. That these things happen in high-tech America is preposterous and intolerable.

Our visa program for visitors could also use an electronic prod, since applications can take months to process. This is especially damaging to our efforts to attract high-caliber foreign students. In fact, foreign-born students in high-tech disciplines should have green cards embossed on their diplomas: If--when they graduate--they have a job offer, they should automatically get to stay.

Removing caps on the H-1B program that permits crucial scientists and engineers to come here for six years is imperative. The quota is now set at a ridiculously low 65,000. Let market forces dictate the number. At a time of rising pressure from India, China and central and eastern Europe, we can use all the bright, ambitious talent we can attract.

Instituting a guest worker program--in which people would come for specific jobs for a specific period of time and then go home--would help enormously in alleviating a future influx of illegals. The Senate panel's version of such a program would allow some 400,000 foreigners to come here each year to work. Realistically, after several years--and assuming they have a clear record--these workers should be able to apply for a green card.

[...]
Very insightful, isn't it?

I disagree totally and explicitly with in on the 11-year processing period to citizenship. However he in on point on the others.

Copyright © 2006, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®

$3.69 For Gasoline???

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This is really ridiculous!!!

In RB, California, today, I just purchased premium gasoline - 91 octane - for my rig at $3.69 a gallon.

$3.69 a gallon for gas!

Are you fucking kiddin' me?

$3.69?

You can tell how happy I am!
Copyright © 2006, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®

IE7 beta 2 released into the wild!

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From Sandi Hardmeier's blog:

Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 has now been released for download and evaluation by all Technology Enthusiasts. This is the 'full' Beta 2, not just a download.

For the IE7 Beta 2, Microsoft is providing consumer customers with unlimited phone support at no charge! They are doing this to encourage adoption because we feel that IE7 – even in the beta stage - will help keep customers safer online and provide them with an improved browsing experience.

Also, IE7 Beta 2 is available in English and will now run on Windows XP 64-bit Edition and Windows Server 2003 SP1 in addition to Windows XP SP2.

New! IE7 Beta 2 for Windows XP Fact Sheet:

New! IE7 Add-on Site: www.ieaddons.com

You can find the IE7 Beta 2 Preview here:

Release notes:

Installation tips:
Please remember that this is a Beta build, and some stuff may still be broken. There is a risk to downloading and installing beta software. Please do not install it if problems are going to cause a crisis for you.

Note: The activex update commonly known as the 912945 update is an integral part of IE7 Beta 2. Please review this Blog post to familiarise yourself with the changes to activex behaviour:

Copyright © 2006, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®

Schumacher wins at Imola

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Michael Schumacher proved that he is the King of San Marino, winning the 2006 FIA Formula 1 Grand Prix race today at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, in Imola.

Driving his Ferrari 248 F1 and with a two-stop strategy, Schumi held of Fernando Alonso to win the race.

Hopefully, this late first win for Ferrari will signal the end of the nightmare that was the 2005 FIA Formula season, and herald in a victory-laden 2006.

After passing the late, great Ayrton Senna for number of pole positions this past weekend, Schumacher notched his 85th Formula 1 Grand Prix win, also a record.

He had passed Juan Manuel Fangio for total number of world titles, a while back, with a total of seven.

Digital cameras with unique noise fingerprints!

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This story from Boing Boing has got to have privacy advocates hoppin' freaked out!

... Like actual fingerprints, the digital "noise" in original images is stochastic in nature - that is, it contains random variables - which are inevitably created during the manufacturing process of the camera and its sensors. This virtually ensures that the noise imposed on the digital images from any particular camera will be consistent from one image to the next, even while it is distinctly different.

In preliminary tests, Fridrich's lab analyzed 2,700 pictures taken by nine digital cameras and with 100 percent accuracy linked individual images with the camera that took them.

Wow!

First laser printers, now cameras!

Hard to stay anonymous in the digital age.

HD DVD, Blu-Ray, & DVD Alliance DVD+R DL

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Am I the only one shaking his head in wonderment about all the optical disc formats going around?

HD DVD

Blu-Ray

Now, you have the geniuses at the DVD Alliance certifying a new standard, the DVD+R Double-layer with a capacity of 8.5GB or thereabout.

What???

I think the problem with all the next-gen optical formats is that consumers are now are of their shortcomings, especially as it relates to DRM.

Purchased a DVD and mow your toddler has scratched it? You are supposed to bin it and purchase another copy. This is the restrictive policy of the DVD era.

Thanks to Microsoft and Intel for breaking with the mould as regards next-gen optical drives and requiring that any format requiring their blessing must have 'mandatory managed copy' functionality built in.

Trevor's (1st) Birthday Party at School

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At his daycare today, Trevor had a birthday party.



The kids had pizza, a clown, balloons, gifts,...... the works!

This is just the preliminary thing, since we are planning a big event for the summer.

He loved it.

The other kids at his daycare, including his Big Bro' John, loved it as well.

Thanks to all who made it happen:

God, without whom we won't be here


His mom (and my wife) Kehi - always doing whatever it takes to be make them happy



John III - consummate big brother

Rhonda Glenn - owner and operator of Rhonda's Rascals, the daycare my sons go to, a totally fun and educational facility, best in Red Bluff - as I have blogged here, here, here, and here before. (Also thanks to her husband Terry, son Anthony, and daughter Amanda.)

Copyright © 2006, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®