The Daily Ed

Oblivion is such an addicting game, and probably a good enough reason in and of itself to pick up the Xbox 360. IMHO, it's the best game overall available for the console. While there is a "main quest" to "beat" the game with, there has to be at least some 100+ other quests on a variety of storylines to go through.. I have already played 10 hours and I haven't even scratched the surface of the game.

BTW, Xbox Live Arcade is equally as addicting. Especially UNO... you can play with people around the word. Never heard so much trash talking over a card game in my life! :)

Broke down and bought an Xbox 360 earlier this month. Have to say I'm completely addicted to Geometry Wars. So any of you with 360s add me as a friend.. my Gamertag is "EdOzz". I know.. pretty unorginal but didn't feel like being witty when i created it.

See you on Xbox Live..

There's a bit of a online tiff going on right now between JupiterResearch's Joe Wilcox and Microsoft evangelist Robert Scoble over this recent post by Joe, which I agree pretty much 100 percent with (link):

Joe's basic premise is this: "Journalists get three sources because it's more important to get the story right than to get it first. In my experience, many bloggers take the "get it first" position--and Robert seems to think that's OK. I'm much more concerned about non-credible bloggers (of which there are many) than non-credible journalists (whatever they are supposed to be)."

For all intents and purposes, Scoble's argument and retort (found here):

"But, I'm left wondering. Does Joe care about accuracy in reporting or not? His post here seemed to defend journalists, even those who just do shoddy reporting, while making ye olde attack on bloggers."

And for more background, a previous post (link):

"We need to be vigilant against bad journalism. Here's a hint: when you see a story about a company and that story doesn't even attempt to get that company's point of view, then it probably is a non-credible journalist writing it. All credible journalists will get at least three sources to every story and will try to remain objective and impartial."

While I respect you Scoble, how about vigilance against bad blogging? I love how bloggers want complete freedom from rules governing journalists, yet are the first in line at these trade shows demanding "press" credentials -- and then further clogging the press room, when many of them are only there to further an agenda rather than the purpose of newsgathering and "fair and balanced" (thanks Fox, I now gag when saying that) news.

Most bloggers also suffer from a heightened feeling of self-importance, and this attitude bleeds into anything they cover. Case in point, Engadget. Some may remember their stunt at CES 2005 at the XM conference where the site attempted to make XM management appear racist and homophobic over their hires of conservative commentators Laura Schliessinger (sp?) and others. Contrast this with their hoo-rah 100 percent positive coverage of Sirius at that show. Showed no integrity at all.

And now, they've been accused -- and caught -- plagiarizing somebody else's work. But you don't hear people calling for their heads.

I do agree with Joe's reasoning that Microsoft is increasingly attempting to bypass the press with its Channel 9 and 10 outlets, as well as blogging. They realize that in the blogosphere, you can get away with being far less credible and be taken seriously these days.

Bloggers often whine about corporate control of the media, when increasingly the blogosphere is just becoming another outlet for corporate-sponsored propaganda, fueled by bloggers who feel no need for any kind of journalistic integrity at all.

Describe's BillG's comments on the $100 laptop.

To me, it came across as "cheap and tawdry" (to quote Laura Bush during the 2004 election) and really just, well, pouty. You could have pulled em right out of Intel exec Craig Barrett's mouth, who derided the project in December.

The connection between these two? Neither company's products are included in the project. Seems like sour grapes to me. I bet the PR people at Microsoft are burying their face in their hands. You definitely didn't win brownie points with a lot of people with this one, Bill.

My personal favorite:

Wow, shows a complete misunderstanding of what the project is about.

.. and the Ultra Mobile PC vid is no exception.

However, gets the point across on what Microsoft wants to do with the device.

I've gotten pinged quite a lot regarding my thoughts on Microsoft's Origami device. I really should make it clear that I am not really disappointed with the device (although, I'm kind of disappointed in the design of them). More so, I'm disappointed with the way this was handled by Microsoft, and moreso on the price issue which I think is going to be this device's demise.

I've said previously that anything above $500 would really severly limit this products acceptance, and sure enough, the first manufacturers are throwing a $599-999 price point around. This is simply too expensive. $599 should be the high end... not the beginning.

Secondly, the devices design looks horribly like a Portable Media Center, which itself was derided for a lack of innovative design. In this iPod world, boxy just doesn't work anymore. Hell, Microsoft's prototype looked ten times better than what Samsung and Asus are throwing at us. This needs to be addressed.

(oh Apple, where art thou? :))

Finally, Microsoft should have tapered down the hype.. I think it was a little too big for what was delivered. This resulted in a large portion of the tech punditocracy having an negative initial reaction, and that is never good for a product.

While yes I have people like Paul telling me about his "unsolicited feedback" (I love how he always has this positive phantom feedback on every Microsoft announcement, heh -- although he is a Microsoft evangelist, so I guess I should consider the source) is so positive... but hardcore techies are the only ones I see responding favorably enough to actually buy the product.

There is a HUGE difference between positive feedback and the actual action of purchasing, mind you.

Now, this is not to say that secretly I would like to get my hands on a demo unit of this device. Oh Waggner Edstrom...

Paul has the deets on some new features added to Windows Live moments ago....

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another busy couple of days...

I'm out in Houston and a bit disconnected during the day...just catching up here, and as I'm starting this post just got an email from Microsoft Beta that the new Windows Live Favorites beta has launched @ http://favorites.live.com You can now create folders and add tags to your favorites for easy retrieval later. I know a few of you that have or had MSN Explorer...sign in with this service and you'll see your Favorites from MSN Explorer displayed. You can also synchronize them with Internet Explorer! :) A lot more going on there...so keep your RSS readers and web browsers pointed at http://www.liveside.net.