Paul Thurrott says that MVPs won't help Microsoft beat Linux. Heh. Is that a job of MVPs? I'm an MVP cause I help people (by the way, the award isn't just for helping in the newsgroups anymore. I know quite a few MVPs who got their award and don't help in a single newsgroup). Sounds like a case of sour grapes. By the way, I'd do what I do with or without the reward. Funny, though, that I agree with his basic thesis. MVPs can't beat Linux unless Microsoft steps up to the plate with a kick ass product.

Lately Microsoft is moving so slow it makes a banana slug look fast.

Tell me again why companies with one, two, or maybe a handful of employees can come out with products like Blogger, Radio UserLand, Moveable Type, TopStyle but the 45,000 employees of Microsoft can't figure out how to upgrade Office or Windows or many of its other products with many new features that anyone is willing to pay money for?

I think Microsoft has a leadership problem. What's the problem? They've forgotten to ship new things once in a while. Tell me again, what's the thing that Microsoft has shipped in the past year that's really new and has radical new features?

Windows XP? It's more than a year old now and it really didn't have a radical new feature set over Windows 2000. Xbox? Oh yeah. Anything else? PocketPC? Come on.

The problem isn't with the evangelists. We're out here. The problem is we don't have anything new to talk about. So, we're going elsewhere. RedHat is shipping a new version. Mozilla is shipping a new browser. Macromedia is shipping a FrontPage-killer. ActiveWords has a better way to interface with your computer. Radio and MoveableType and all the other blog tools are giving us a better way to build a Web site.

Anyway, that's enough to chew on for the weekend. Have a good one while I pack and move.

I have a feature request for Radio UserLand. It might already have it, but I want to reverse the posting of items. Right now newest items go on top. That doesn't really make sense, does it? I want newest items to go on the bottom of my page. How can I do that?

Yes, I won't be posting during the weekend again. I'm moving and don't have connectivity. Sigh.

Regarding Transmeta's speed? I can't tell the difference between my 1GHz IBM ThinkPad and my NEC PowerMate eco. We're working on some benchmarks, but I hope an independent third-party does some. That'd help show that Transmeta is a good alternative to Intel, particularly when you want a low-power-using and low-heat-generating processor.

One other thing. I don't believe NEC has advertised with this particular magazine for quite a while and even if we have, it hasn't been a very large amount. So, we won the contest based on the merits, not based on who would buy more advertising in the magazine. It's nice to see the computer press get back to editorial integrity. Of course, that might be explained by very little advertising being done by anyone in this market right now, but what the heck? Might as well enjoy good reviews until the market comes back. I'll post a link to the review when the magazine comes out next week.

At NEC we're partying today. A major PC magazine next week will announce that our new PowerMate eco won its editor's choice award. And, Forbes Magazine today wrote about the "all-in-one" computer space. I have one of the eco's here. It's the quietest computer I've ever used. Yeah, it won't make waves as a game machine, but tell me, how many of you need more than a 900MHz processor? Unless you're doing video editing, or something that uses a 3D card like CAD or video games, I doubt you do.

Yeah, we're one of the only companies using Transmeta processors. That's the company that Linus Torvalds works for. I think they have a tough road ahead of them. Intel has done such a good job in marketing. I've been handling hundreds of calls on the eco in the past month and usually the first thing people ask is "what's a Transmeta processor and does it run Windows?" It's a great processor. My eco tested out as using less than half the power of a traditional desktop machine. Plus, it's quiet. My IBM Thinkpad makes more noise.

Another Photo Challenge for Nikon Coolpix Owners. Wanna see some interesting photography? Check this thread out. If you have a CoolPix, you can enter your own photos too!

FleetWeek is coming to San Francisco on October 12. We're planning on being there. Tickets get handed out for tours of the ships on October 2. More info was just posted on the FleetWeek Website. It's one of the largest airshows in the world and if you're in San Francisco it's a must-see event.

.NET Programmer Bill Storage has a hobby: taking photos. He's just posted some new ones of San Francisco here. He uses a Canon D60 digital SLR. Excellent stuff.

Ahh, it's moving Friday -- I'm packing and moving to a new place tomorrow. Did I mention that I hate moving? Well, I donated four bags of clothes to Goodwill. It's amazing how many clothes I've gathered that I never wear.

Steven Vore points out that Top Style is one of the first products he's seen that has a weblog built into it. Here's the Weblog. Update: here's a picture of how it looks inside TopStyle.