PCWorld: Best Free Stuff on the Web

Chris De Herrera has been busy. This time he's pointed out that not only has he just received a new HPC (the NEC 900, which just started shipping) but Microsoft has pulled down its HPC Web sites, he says. I wonder if there's something we can do to help out the community that Chris is serving so well?

I agree with Doc Searls, there's nothing on TV! I haven't watched more than an hour or two since joining Microsoft. That's really weird, since we own a piece of a TV network. In our cafeteria they play MSNBC. Blah blah blah. Weblogs are so much more interesting.

Michael O'Connor Clarke has a ton of great ideas for how to deal with reporters. He should know, he works for one of the world's leading PR firms.

Sorry for all the Iranian stuff, but Andrew Sullivan points us to pictures of what happened in the dorms in Tehran in 1999 at the hands of the government goons. Another warning: bloody. Sad.

Maryam translated some of the video's text for me. Here you go (roughly). Maryam can't watch this video without crying.

We are alive if we are not quiet. Like waves, if we rest, we will die.

Yare Dabestani means "A School Friend."

You are my school friend.

Hey my school friend. You are with me and of me. Our names are carved on the blackboard. The whip of tyranny has left its scar on our backs.

Our hands should tear through these veils.

Written on a woman's headband: "Freedom/Equality."

The valley of our culture is filled with weeds.

Good or bad the hearts of all our people are dead. Who else but you and me could find a cure for our pain? You are my tear and my moan. Referendum referendum (sign held).

With the hope of a free, proud and flourishing Iran.

Maryam notes: The guy holding the bloody T-shirt in the video is now in prison. Serving life.

While we're talking about Iran, Maryam showed me this Flash movie about the 1999 killings of students in Tehran. Warning, bloody. Disturbing. Plus, takes a while to load.

Chris De Herrera outlines an area that Microsoft could make its operating systems more usable (better pre-emptive multitasking). Agreed!

You know, I usually stay away from politics. Why? Because I've decided to focus purely on technology, and the business strategy that goes on in this market. But, my wife and I have been following the Iran students very closely.

It's amazing how fast information moves, even when satellites get blocked.

It makes me realize that technology has, and will change lives. What would I rather own? A computer and a blog system or a gun? No doubt in my mind. I'd rather have the computer and a blog. Why? Guns are ineffectual against governments. Particularly ones that come in the middle of the night and kill you.

Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit, who's one of those bloggers really doing a great job on the Iran issue) wanted to know how to say regime change in Farsi. My wife gives me these:

Revolution=enghelab

Regime change=tagheereh regime

Here's a good page on "five things to know about Iran."

Here's a great weblog about all the latest Iranian student stuff.

Wiki wiki wiki. I just like saying that.

I finally got around to watching Steve Jobs' recent keynote at the Apple WWDC. It's hillarious. Steve Jobs can make everything seem so cool. I wanna buy a Mac. Just for the video camera. Heh, that brought back 1995 for me all over again (I was working at Winnov and had video cameras coming out of my ears). Just don't ask me about the time that "the Naked Guy" called me up. It's been eight years and I'm still trying to remove those images from my brain.

One of my Longhorn teammates told me "just go to the 51st minute for a really fun poke at Microsoft." And, that's true. Go there and see it. It's a nice jab at the fact that Longhorn won't ship until 2005, but Apple's new OS will ship in 2003. At least that's what Steve Jobs says.

I know Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates have quite a sense of humor (have you ever seen their parody of the VW "da da da" commercial? Or, when Gates dressed up as Harry Potter?). I wonder what they'll do to Jobs in retaliation?

I have a date with Don Box for lunch next Friday. Shh, don't tell my wife!

Rumors are that IBM and Toshiba will bring out low-cost Tablets by the end of the year. Cool!

I called Fry's today at its headquarters in Palo Alto, but they wouldn't talk to me. I did manage to ask them when the Renton store would open up, and they said "a couple months from now." I don't believe that, though. I think it's closer than that. But, I guess we'll just have to watch for the ads to start showing up.

Loren, in a hillarious post, analyzes my 80 readers.

Anyone know when the Fry's in Renton, WA will open? A quick look through Google shows me the planned opening was mid-July, but I haven't been able to find any other details. We gotta get a weblogger meetup going for the opening day.

Sebastien Lambla says that about 70 people visited him from my weblog yesterday. Carl Franklin told me yesterday that about 80 people visited his site from my weblog in all of June (I wrote about his dotnetrocks once or twice).

So, it looks like my 18 readers are now about 80. Yeah, I assume that only one out of every five of you (maybe one out of every 10) clicks on any one link. So, that means that there's probably 300 to 800 people reading here every day.

I think the press is going to start picking up that webloggers aren't able to aggregate much traffic and they'll use that to push us into the next cycle of Gartner's hype curve: the valley of disillusionment.

Oh well, I'll keep posting, even if I go down to only 18 readers again. It's actually easier to write with fewer readers.

Good morning! Found this interesting comic about geek life: Penny Arcade.