Jeremy de Souza

Google/Doubleclick

With Microsoft bid for Yahoo at $45b afoot, more than a few employees at MSFTare talking about the deal. I was chatting with a coworker about the deal and the Google Doubleclick merger eventually came up.

I remembered this New York Times blog entry a while back that's worth looking at:

Microsoft's argument against Google/Doubleclick marriage

The article links to a diagram modelling the effect of the merger on the online advertising space:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/technology/bitsonlinead.prf.pdf

Facebook iPhone Poll

Interesting:

Leopard chasing Vista

I just saw this article written by Mary Jo Foley that questions the originality of features in Leopard. "What struck me at the June 11 Apple Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) event wasn’t the glitzy demos, the rockstar-like worship of Apple CEO Steve Jobs or the “I’m Steve Jobs” parody video by the “I’m a PC” guy. Instead, it was the excitement by the 5,000 WWDC attendees about many technologies in the forthcoming Mac OS X “Leopard” release that already exist in Windows Vista." Don't forget to look at the comments under this article to see how some pro Apple readers reacted.

TechEd Developers Barcelona in review

TechEd was a great time. My baggage was delayed on the way into Barcelona but other than that the week was pretty positive. We had a booth for Accessible Technology in ATE and we got a fairly high volume of traffic most of the week. I was a the booth following my talk and I got some great questions from developrs working in the space.

This was also the first year that TechEd was split into two events: TechEd Developers and ITForum. I was there exclusively for the developer event. At the end of the conference we were told that feedback from atendees regarding the split was generally positive.

I saw a lot of people that I knew and met some new people too. Folks I know from WPF were also at Ask The Experts at TechEd Developers: Rob Relyea, Henry Hahn. I also ran into Miguel de Icaza from Novell who was at TechEd spreading the word about Mono.

I also managed to do some sightseeing with Bonnie. We checked out some Gaudi architecture such as the unfinished Segrada Famillia and La Perdera.

   

After that we were on our way to try some Tapas with Constance Audren at El Choquito which is a little restaurant on La Rambla. The meal ended with these three local students playing music and locking us in as customers...

The week ended on Friday with the Speaker Dinner at El Principe which was pretty nice. Champagne and wine were free-flowing and we were bused from the speaker hotel to the the restaurant and back. If wasn't flying to Lisbon the next morning at 7AM, I'm pretty sure my night would have ended pretty late.

TechEd Developers Barcelona

I've been invited to speak at TechEd Developers in Barcelona next week on Accessibility in Windows Vista. It's a 300 level session that will give developers an overview of our new platform accessibility investments that allow them to build accessible applications and assisstive technology aids. I will also be at "Ask the Experts" right after my session.

Accessibility in Windows Vista (DEV367)
Date: 9 November 2006
Time: 13:30 - 14:45

I'm super excited about giving this talk and interacting with developers in Europe again. When I've worked in Europe in the past, it was as a direct consumer of developer platforms so it's exciting to switch places and help developers understand the value proposition for our platform.

TechEd is going to be a great opportunity for people to learn about Microsoft technologies and network with people in the industry. If you can make it to Barcelona, I would strongly recommend it!

After TechEd concludes in Barcelona, I'm flying to Lisbon to spend a few days vacationing and hopefully meeting up with some family. I've never been to Portugal so I'm even more excited about that.

Call of Duty 2

Growing up I always had an interest in the First and Second World Wars. My fascination extended from a passionate study of history in school to playing war strategy games like Command & Conquer: Red Alert for hours on end. This weekend I picked up Call of Duty 2 for the Xbox 360 - it's such a beautiful game! I'd easily put it in the same category as Halo 2 and Half Life 2 as one of the most visually polished games I've every played. The lighting and smoke is amazing tempting me to throw smoke grenades wherever possible.

You can play through the Russian, British and American campaigns; so far I've liberated Stalingrad and am currently fighting in North Africa for the British. I think my favorite part of the game is the new AI system called "Battle Chatter system." All the soliders, both friend and foe respond dynamically to their surroundings and context with audible radio chatter. Unlike other games, the chatter does not get repetitive and annoying because it's actually relevant to survival and success in the game. Other nice touches include wounded enemies trying to take you out with their sidearms just before they die and enemies lobbing your grenades back at you.

Aside from its realism, Call of Duty 2 stands out because the gameplay is intuitive and the missions are just the right length for gamers who aren't willing to play all night to finish a mission or a game (see myth of 40 hr gamer).

TECHConnection and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition - Llanes family

Great essay by Joanne Castellano of TECHConnection regarding its consulting role to ABC's Makeover: Home Edition design team as Microsoft's Accessibility Resource Center in New Jersey. Joanne's organization recommended the AT (assisstive technology) products that the Llanes family needed. Her organization tackles the general challenge of awareness; to be able to choose the right product for your needs, it helps to know it exists.

I think a lot of people who watched the show and the design teams themselves may have been surprised at the variety of cool assistive technology products that are available to make computers easier to use for individuals like Zeb and Vic Llanes.

Here is some of the techology (quoted from the essay) that was installed in the new house:

• Color detectors to help the blind members of the family identify and coordinate clothing by color. They simply hold the device up to a piece of clothing, and the name of the color is spoken aloud.
• Alarm clocks that go under a pillow and vibrate to awaken a sleeper, and doorbells that flash as well as sound.
• Global tracking systems for Vic and his daughters to help them navigate city streets or store aisles without help.
• iCommunicator, which is featured on the show, is a graphical sign language translator that converts speech to sign language in real time to enable people who are deaf to communicate more easily with hearing people.
• Screen readers for computers that convert the text of Web sites or downloaded books, newspapers, and magazines to speech, enabling people who are blind to "read" the text as easily as a sighted person.

If you didn't know about these types of technologies and needed them tomorrow, it's great to have people in your community to chat about what products are available and how they could help you. Microsoft is hoping to make that easier with a network of Microsoft Accessibility Resource Centers located throughout the United States. Each center is equipped with video demos and tutorials that showcase accessibility features in Microsoft Windows. Each center is also staffed by local accessibility experts that help you learn about the many 3rd party software solutions that may be appropriate for your needs.

Not all the technology installed in the house was featured on the show, but if you truly witnessed it all in action, it would permanently change your perception of how empowering technology can be to persons with disabilities. Considering that screen reader software allows Vic to use a computer independently and do pretty much what any sighted person could do, I think the bigger change would a change in perception of people with disabilities themselves. It would allow much of society to simply look past those disabilities and recognize great human beings and their contributions to society - technology truly does empower people.

Accessibility in Seattle Times

Nice article in the Seattle times about Accessibility in Windows Vista. Rob Sinclair and Annuska Perkins whom I work with are featured in the article. What they are saying really highlights the way we think about assisstive technology at Microsoft - our approach doesn't simply target people with disabilities but really attempts to empower all our customers along functional lines. Speech recognition makes it easier to interact with your computer if you have limited mobility with your hands. Magnifiers make it easier to read text on those webpages that have ultra small type but really pretty layouts.

Extreme Home Makeover - the Llanes family visits Microsoft

Earlier this year several members of the Accessible Technology Group's marketing team, that Bonnie Kearney runs assisted with the production and filming of a special episode of Extreme Makeover Home Edition. The reality show generally tears down and rebuilds the homes for deserving families in seven days.

The Llanes family from Bergenfield, whose home you will see rebuilt next month, represent many of the target customers that we build platform accessibility solutions for in the Accessible Technology Group at Microsoft. The family consists of Maria, the mother, Vic, the father who is blind, son Zeb who is deaf and two teenage daughters whose vision is degrading dramatically.

Maria, Vic and Zeb were here in Redmond this past Thursday to meet members from our team and learn about the work we do. I have to say that they were some of the most positive and inspiring people I have ever met. What's most amazing is how enabling even simple technology can be - especially in situations where you cannot take the ability to see or hear for granted. When the episode airs, many viewers (myself included) will have a chance to see how they live as well as the wild high-tech smart house they now live in.

Microsoft Robotics & Lego Mindstorms NXT

This past week Lego, which means "plays well" in Danish, was at Microsoft giving a talk about the next generation of their Mindstorms robotics product line and the open sourcing of the Mindstorms platform.

They were describing how as a company, Lego was completely unprepared for the audience that adopted Lego Mindstorms: adults and hackers, not young children that are typically found playing with Lego. The community that grew around Mindstorms, reverse engineered their proprietary RCX brick, released software upgrades/mods and made Lego a ton of money without any significant product revision. The reverse engineering of RCX was initially disruptive from an IP standpoint, but they chose to let the creativity that was unleashed in the community continue.

For the next version of Mindstorms, the Mindstorms team convinced Lego execs that to further innovate in the space, they should adopt the community driven model that made the 1st gen Mindstorms so successful. With Mindstorms NXT, Lego has allowed key members of the Lego community to consult on the design and test the next version. A few prominent members of the community including Steve Hassenplug who were included in the initial Mindstorms User Panel were on stage demoing several of their robots.

Having played with lego most of my childhood, the intersection of Lego, robotics and software fascinates me. So I find it really exciting that Microsoft just rolled out it's new Robotics platform and is partnering up with Lego for tight integration with Mindstorms NXT. Given the size of the audience, it was obvious that there were many people just like me who are equally fascinated by Lego and robotics.