Bnpositive's Blog

I’ve had various posts recently about people that share my name. It’s really interesting to see other people that share my name. It’s intriguing to think about the idea that there’s another person with your name out there in the world living their own life. Is there anything that connects you to them other than their name?

The downside of people having your name is when people may do a search for you online, they may get some results that they didn’t expect (which could happen either way) and results for someone that’s not you.

A new website, ClaimID, has been developed to let a person claim their online identity by identifying and tagging various webpages that are about them. You can either specify that a specific page is definitely about you, or combat a page that is definitely not you, even though it’s your name.

Here’s my official “Jason Bean” page. You’ll also notice the MyClaimID badge over there on the right now too.

An interesting note, the Jason Bean second from the right is a fireman in Laconia, NH. My wife and I honeymooned in New Hampshire in that area. One night we were at a little Mexican restaurant / bar place and there was a plaque on the wall that a “Joe Bean” had won a jalapeno pepper eating contest there in 1984 or something. My grandfather’s, who I never really knew, name was Joe Bean. Isn’t that weird?
On a side note, don’t you just love the Citibank Identity Theft commercials?

I’ve written a number of articles on Microsoft’s OneCare service that’s been in development. I’ve been very pleased overall with the service and functionality. Plus, for me, having the software integrate so tightly with the existing OS, seems like a no brainer. My other complaint is that Symantec and McAfee’s applications seem to just hog WAY too many resources.

Windows Live OneCare, which will protect up to three computers for $49.95 per year, marks the latest step in Microsoft’s effort over the years to make its operating system less vulnerable to crippling Internet attacks.

Windows, which runs on the vast majority of personal computers, has been a near-constant target of worms, viruses and other attacks, hurting countless users and forcing Microsoft to invest heavily in patching vulnerabilities and improving flaws.

I think it’s a great move for them to release OneCare for a single price, and be able to use it on up to 3 computers for the same price. For someone like myself who have multiple computers at home, the idea of purchasing multiple copies of crucial software like this suite of security services isn’t something I was looking forward to investing in. To the point that I’d avoid installing an item or just run the risk of things not going as planned. I believe this is part of the 70% of the market that Microsoft feels is their main target.

My only complaint has been that they’d expand the features and functionality of their back-up process.

Source: Microsoft launches security for Windows

Thomas Hawk provides some great user-experience insight into his opinions of Microsoft Media Player 11 beta.

If anyone is going to do a good job of testing the boundaries of an application to handle numerous (yeah, even tens of thousands) of files, it would be Thomas Hawk. Now, don’t think Thomas is reviewing this as a biased opinion. At first, he was very excited about the promise of WMP11, but has now been disappointed.

Specifically, Hawk isn’t happy with how WMP11 works with his Media Center PC.

I confirmed with a Microsoft employee that the new beta will do nothing to speed up your large digital library in Media Center. This is unfortunate. I was also told by the same Microsoft employee though that the large digital library problem with Media Center has actually been addressed in Vista and that the most recent Vista build is probably stable enough to run and that I should be able to test this out and confirm this. Microsoft’s PR agency Waggener Edstrom is sending me the most recent version of Vista and when I get it I will check this out. But in the meantime I’d recommend you *not* install the Windows Media Player 11 beta if you are using a Media Center PC.

This is again another oddity to me by Microsoft. I can understand Microsoft not being able to test and verify how things run on the thousands of other applications installed side-by-side with Microsoft apps on people’s machines, but you’d think they’d at least work well and without a hitch with each other. I’ll still give Microsoft some leeway due to hardware configuration variations, but still I’m expecting a little more with seeming, simple software issues.

I’ve downloaded the WMP11 beta as well, and have been overall accepting of it. I, by no means, am pushing it to it’s limits though. Hopefully due to the fact that it’s still in beta, some of these hurdles and challenges will be alleviated in the final release.

Here are some more reviews of Media Player 11 beta that Thomas Hawk mentioned in his post.

• Michael Gartenberg – First look at URGE and WMP11
• Paul Thurott – Windows Media Player 11 Review
• Thomas Hawk – Sad Donkey, Why Windows Media Player 11 Beta is Not For Me

Was just playing around with Windows Live Local. Sure it’s a lot like Google Maps / Google Local, but the clarity on Microsoft’s Live Local is very impressive. The picture below is a screen capture looking at my house. I’m zoomed in the closest I can get on both services.

Google is on the left, Microsoft is on the right. Pretty clear to me which one wins the clarity contest. I do like Google Maps for the mapping functionality itself though.

The latest rumors are that Microsoft is interested in purchasing eBay to beef up it’s MSN franchise.

“If Microsoft purchases eBay, it would certainly invigorate MSN and create a stronger community due to the growing use of Skype and PayPal,” she said. “A dramatic gesture of this sort is needed to achieve the promise of MSN to be a leading content- and services-delivery model.”

“Microsoft has no expertise in actual commerce and transactions, and there is no natural synergy between the two companies other than that they both have a major Internet presence,” she said. “Surely, there are less painful ways to improve the stakes for MSN.”

“Less painful ways to improve the stakes for MSN” ? Yes, there may be less painful ways, but are their more efficient and promising ways? I’m not sure about the answer to that question, but I’m sure it’s more about the answer to that question than trying to be less “painful”. Sure there’s something to be said for things going smoothly in a business deal, but I don’t think that’s the point of purchasing other companies. The point is to strengthen an area where you’re weak, or expand your market or presence in your existing market. All of which this purchase of eBay would do for Microsoft.

My biggest question though is how the advertising deal would work out that Yahoo! and eBay just entered into with each other. Would seem pretty weird to me to see Yahoo! advertising on a Microsoft owned web entity.

Source: Microsoft Rumored to Be Planning eBay Buyout

Are there any features or specific screen shots you’d like to see for yourself? Let me know in the comments.

It seems I’m jumping on a file size soapbox lately, but the new Word files seem a lighter lighter.

I’ve not done any scientific tests to prove this, but it seems like the newer version of Word is really capable of reducing file sizes dramatically. I may have to do some side-by-side comparisons.

Maybe you didn’t really see what you thought you saw. See how much “magic” can be done by “photoshopping”.

I’m frequently getting crashes when using Outlook 2007 Beta. They seem to occur frequently when I hit “Reply” for an e-mail. I’ll submit the error to Microsoft and the program will restart and everything will work fine then.

This last time I ran the Microsoft Office Diagnostics tests and didn’t get any results after the various scans.

Has anyone else run into these problems? Anyone got any ideas? I was actually prompted to download a patch to Adobe Acrobat Reader as it was recommended. The patch was 17MB! That’s one, big patch man! What’s the deal with Adobe Reader’s burgeoning file size? The trial for 7.0 was 115MB! I don’t want to hear anyone complain of bloated file sizes if they’re using Adobe products. “Hello, Pot? This is Kettle, you’re black!”

[UPDATE: Whew! This is happening on pretty much every other reply/restart combo. I must be really patient though, because it reports, shuts-down and restarts the application so quick, it's really not too annoying.]

More than 1,000 words

Not sure if it’s related or not, but after installing the Office 2007 beta preview, I began getting the Error Support Code: 85010014 again. However, I just visited the Microsoft Mobile website again and noticed they’ve got ActiveSync 4.2 beta available.

I installed it and everything synch’d right up again with no errors, so that’s definitely a good sign. We’ll see how it goes over the next few days and I’ll give you some feedback. If you don’t hear anything, it’s all good news right?

On another note, I dropped my PPC-6700 over the Memorial Day weekend. I didn’t notice any new scuffs on the casing except for some on the belt clip holster. I thought everything was fine, but now it seems to lock-up in the off mode and won’t turn back on with the power button. Not sure if something jarred loose in the power button itself, or if it’s more widespread. I’ve changed my settings to allow any button to turn it back on, let’s hope that works. Has anyone else experienced this?

Anyone want some free ring tones? I got some free cards during our trip to Chicago to download free ringtones at www.pepsismash.com

The only problem is that they don’t work with our phones. Why the heck wouldn’t they work with my PPC-6700 Pocket PC Phone? Why? WHY!!

Anyway, first come first serve if they work with your phones, here’s the codes:

• NZL7NZ6IHW
• BKA6WRO4AF
• MXZJYVLBC9
• T9OX7EIYSV