Sorry I haven't written much here in the past week or so.  Last week my wife became very ill with what started as a viral infection two weeks ago and was compounded by an unusual strain of pneumonia.  Her pain level was about a 8 or 9 on a 10-point scale after multiple Dr's appts (where they missed the pneumonia), I took her to the ER where an X-ray confirmed it.  This was the same woman who took bare minimum painkillers in 2 C-Section deliveries and was off painkillers a day after each birth.  At 4am on Saturday, a combo of painkillers, anti-histamine, and antibiotics were administered, and we went home. 

The next day, the painkillers caused a severe histamine response which yes, you guessed it - attacked her joints and caused her to break out in hives all over.  So two days ago, we were back to the ER when she started having trouble breathing.  The Dr's narrowed down the offending class of painkillers, prescribed an anti-inflammatory and inhaler and she's doing better now.

This has been one of the scariest experiences of my life.  We're young- in our early 30s and I haven't set foot in an ER more than twice in the last 15 years.  Our sons thankfully are healthy and outside the occasional cold or flu, we've never had to deal with the medical industry in our adult lives outside a short visit or checkup.

A few things I learned throughout all of this:

• Have Family Emergency Information Organized in one Place - My wife had changed primary care physicians and mentioned in passing in a conversation but I missed which made it harder to get a clear picture to give the Drs.  Have all pertinent Dr's info (including past Dr's) written up with phone #'s, medical group, dates the Dr. was seeing you etc.  Even more important is any known allergens and have a good family history. 
• Know who you can call to watch the kids/pet in an emergency - Do you know who you would call at 1am? Our very good friends came over at 1am to watch the boys while we went to the ER before family arrived.  For extended care, fortunately, a family member flew in to help with the kids so I could focus on Nickie. 
• Take Control of the Situation if the one who is sick cannot - After seeing five Dr's over this, my Type-A wife wasn't making sound decisions while on painkillers which meant I had to take control of the situation.  I called in a family member who is a Harvard-educated Family Dr on the east coast. When he offered to speak to the attending Dr., I politely asked the ER doc to speak to him as he had been the only consistent Dr. monitoring.  Taking ego into account so you don't appear to be questioning his/her diagnosis and he gladly obliged.  Talking to my Uncle later put me at great ease.
• If you aren't getting the Medical Service you need, go elsewhere - If you don't trust your Dr. or believe that he/she is working in your best interest, find another Dr.  Dr's offices where you're regularly shuttled to a "partner Dr." to be seen in emergencies in my opinion should be a warning sign.  Good Dr's manage their schedule to allow time for last-minute/emergency patients.
• If you do have respiratory illness - wear a mask! Yes, you look goofy but it's good protocol and courteous to others- it' other patients were administering masks to people who were coughing with dirty looks.   In today's hyper-connected world, you never know what people might have.
• Ask questions and document - I am not a Dr. no matter how many episodes of ER I may have seen.  I will have questions - if I don't, that's a problem too. Also take notes - I found it difficult to memorize all the new terms and lab counts on the fly.

My wife is doing much better now - for those who have been aware, thanks for your well wishes and I'm looking forward to returning to work tomorrow.   If you have other suggestions for above- post them in comments- the top 4 will get invites to xobni (see last post).

It's rare I get this excited about a productivity tool but this is one heck of a great solution. It's causing quite a buzz among a group of us. Check out the Lifehacker coverage here.

Click the button below to sign up for the beta.

By popular demand, Bill Gates' last day at the office video, courtesy of Channel 10.

Bonus points if you can name all the cameos and the song he's playing on Guitar Hero. ;)

Bill's Last Day: The CES Keynote video
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CBS/Paramount's Entertainment Tonight just launched their Golden Globe Awards mini-site in Silverlight.  The new mini-site is being promoted on the www.etonline.com homepage as powered by Silverlight.  Check out clips from the nominees, news and more here.

First a successful Bill Gates CES Keynote simulcast on the web, now the Golden Globes- Silverlight is ringing in the new year in style.  Kudos to IdentityMine and Rezn8 for putting this together, showing what designer/developer collaboration can do.

I'm watching the CES 2008 keynote right now, streaming live on the web with Microsoft Silverlight at www.microsoft.com/ces.  I'm so happy they allowed the funny video with a long cast of celebs in the simulcast.  I have four streams going right now for test purposes. Kudos to the istreamplanet team for keeping up with the crushing stream load, I understand it kept rising and rising during the keynote.

Speaking of which, I'm happy that Bill just unveiled that NBC Universal has selected Silverlight exclusively for online delivery of the 29th Olympics in Beijing, PRC in partnership with MSN.  Lots of exciting stuff to come there.   I'll write more on that later.

More pictures below:

Update: If you're unfamiliar with this whole Silverlight thing, check out Andy Plessner's Beet.TV interview where we discussed Silverlight last year. For some reason that day, I opted for the Quicksilver T-shirt instead of my "Evil Monkey" shirt.  Perhaps it was partner love.

The new Microsoft at CES site is up, and it's powered by Silverlight. There are so many projects underway now it's hard to keep track of them all and this was a great one to see.   
What's more, you'll be able to watch the keynote live in-page with Silverlight or via WMP/default browser.  Take a look, spin the wheel in LV fashion and check out the latest news from Microsoft at CES.

Hope y'all enjoy the show - Sunday night @ 6:30pm

Todd Bishop of the Seattle P-I provides a glimpse into the Take-Home testing that many of us do on digital home technologies at Microsoft.  Scott and Hakkan are two of the guys I've had the pleasure of working with in the past - nice to see inside their homes. 

Which brings me to realize my setup has changed so much in the past few years since I was GPM for Media Center- it might be time for a video this weekend walking around our Digital Home 2.0 ;)

Microsoft employees try out new technology at home

Earlier this AM, HP shot me a mail with the latest details on announcements they're making for CES.  Here's the latest:

• MediaSmart Receiver - works with XP and Vista PCs, offering wireless delivery of media via 802.11 ABGN and is also DivX certified.  Includes a Pocket Media Drive slot on the front for the big files and will offer Media Center Extender support this spring via an Internet-delivered update.  No note on whether that's an additional cost.
• MediaSmart TVs - Updated 1080p TV's with three (3) HDMI ports, wired and wireless connectivity and (drumroll please) Media Center Extender support built in!
• Media Vault and Media Vault Pro - Home "NAS Plus" offerings in 500GB and 1GB offerings for the Media Vault mv2100, and up to 1.5TB for the mv5100. Both include Photo Webshare and iTunes server features previously seen in HP MediaSmart servers. These units are Linux-based, unlike the HP MediaSmart Server which is powered by Windows Home Server.

All products will be available in Spring 2008

Jake's got some great guidance here for those of you going to this year's CES.  After 7 years of attendance, I'm sitting this one out and going to watch from afar.  A few more suggestions:

1.  Bring a 3 prong Multi-Outlet Adapter - you know, one of those little doo-dads that turns one 3-prong plug into three.  Now, when you get to McCarran airport and can't find an outlet during your flight delay, you can share with a spare.

2.  Hydrate Hydrate Hydrate - drink 2x as much water as you think you need.  Stop by the grocery store in Las Vegas and stock up or you'll pay $$$$ elsewhere. We used to get palettes of water at the local store and bring them into LVCC for the booth staff.

3.  Bring Mints for you and others - you're sure to encounter others who after last night's bender didn't rush home and brush their teeth.  A polite offering of a mint as you take one can often improve the persons outlook - with you and others.

4.  Bring Airborne - Placebo effect or actual benefit,it doesn't taste bad and can help ensure you're more in balance beyond vitamin B suggested by Jake.  I'm also a fan of melatonin if you're from a different time zone.

Hope that helps, as always be sure to share your CES war stories and tips here.

Update: Even more great suggestions from LiveDigitally's Jeremy Toeman here.

CES Survival Guide - 7 Tips For a Successful Consumer Electronic Show ~ Jake Ludington’s Digital Lifestyle

Apparently Wired Magazine's readers also took note that the Blackjack has yet to get the promised WM6 update nearly a year later... this is one of the worst PR/Customer sat blunders I've seen from Samsung in a long, long time. This from the same company that offered DLP TV owners a $100 upgrade to their mainboards with no additional markup just a few years ago.

Vaporware 2007: Long Live the King

The NY Times this AM is running an article on the ongoing battle between HD DVD and Blu-Ray. Frankly I'm getting pretty tired of the whole thing.  The video quality is better - noticeably better than DVD but would I not watch a movie because it wasn't available in my format?  No. 

NetFlix subscribers are the big winner in the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray battle by remaining largely agnostic.  I continue to say, don't buy the discs- just rent for now while the market sorts out.

In the DVD War Over High Definition, Most Buyers Are Sitting It Out - New York Times

Reason #1574 why I'm going to skip CES in-person this year:

As of Jan. 1, one of the most common types of rechargeable batteries used in gadgets ranging from laptops to cell phones will be subject to new restrictions on American flights. New rules from the US Department of Transportation will limit the size and number of lithium batteries allowed, as well as laying out other stipulations for safely traveling with them.

Lithium Batteries Face Travel Restrictions - Lifestyle News - Digital Trends

A few friends/family members have reported a rash of JS/snz.a virus messages when surfing this AM.  I'm not sure what is going on, but it looks like the issue just popped up and almost all of these users are running CA anti-virus software judging by the comments on Dynamoo's blog.  If I learn more, I'll post it here.

Update: The Register is commenting on the situation here.  Here's to hoping for a quick response from CA.

Dynamoo's Blog: Js/snz.a - likely false positive in eTrust / Vet Anti-Virus

Unfortunately I live in an area unlikely to get Verizon FiOS fiber-optic ultra broadband TV, internet and voice service, but that doesn't mean I can't pine for the goodies that go with it.  According to this Verizon Site, coming soon is the Verizon hub:

Simplify your life at home and stay connected.
News. Weather. Directory. Maps. Calender. Memo Pad.
And yes, it's also a phone.

Let's hope it works better than Verizon can spell "Calendar" ;)

Verizon - verizon hub

Setting aside some of the complaints that users have had with Vista, Thomas calls out one of my favorite features of Vista as well- file moving and conflict resolution.  To quote Thomas:

One of the things that I hated about XP and Mac OSX as well for that matter is that frequently I'd try to move my photos from my MacBook to my drobo after I uploaded them and I'd get a message reminding me that I already had a file with that name in the folder and would I like to replace the file or not replace it. The problem though was always that I didn't know if it was an actual physical dupe file or a different photograph using the same name.
Well now with Vista when it notifies me of this conflict, it actually shows me thumbnails of the photos in question and then gives me three choices. To replace the photo, not to move it, or to move it and give it a new title.

This is one of my favorite useful features along with Media Center which is now powering two HDTV's in our household via Xbox 360 Extenders.

Thomas Hawk's Digital Connection: Moving Files With Vista is Awesome

After perusing this book, I'm also convinced it's a must-have.  Thanks Kevin, my NetFlix queue will be filling up fast.  (Yep, that's right, I'm back to Netflix thanks to superior customer service and online UX, more on that at a later date).

Having just installed an Nvidia 8800 series video card, I'm off to see what Dx10 can offer. Sadly, this will be my first foray back into PC gaming in quite some time :)

Cool Tool: True Films eBook

Happy Holidays everyone.  Catching up on the news, the venerable Steve Garfield is one of the first to get the new service update on his set-top box- be sure to check out his video here.  The filter HD channels guide took a whopping 53 seconds to show up which is disappointing.  No word on when we will see the update here in Seattle, but at least we have a few new HD channels to work with. 

A tip for those interested in following the latest Seattle Comcast news- this thread on the AV Science Forum is among the best I've seen for news, details about outages and glitches, etc.

Steve Garfield's Off On A Tangent: Daily weblog on pop culture and technology.

Dear Santa...

Detroit Auto Show Preview: 2009 Chevy Corvette ZR-1 Officially Unveiled! (The Torque Report)

A lot of you will be traveling over the holidays and may find yourself in a similar situation; I hope you'll take a moment to say thank you.  It isn't about politics, it's about people.

Kudos to the Seattle Seahawks, The Storm, Trailblazers and others for participating.

The Gratitude Campaign

From Amazon.com Package Tracking:

At least they found it. :)  Here comes my Eye-Fi card in time for Christmas!

This is for sure a trailer and a movie I look forward to seeing.  Batman Begins effectively reinvisioned a cartoony and stale franchise.  Here's to hoping the movie and Heath Ledger as the Joker can live up to the hype.

'Dark Knight' Trailer Shows A Joker Hellbent On Chaos - Movie News Story | MTV Movie News

Every year, I pore over my Christmas music looking to create the ultimate mix for that cocktail get-together with the neighborhood friends, the perfect in-car mix for shopping, the Christmas Eve Classical mellow-out of young children, and the anthem to which tiny feet run down the stairs Christmas morning.  Yes, I'm a sucker for the holidays.

I also use my free time over the holidays to try and put digital media to some unnatural uses around the home.  This year, sharing photos of holidays past with family and friends takes center stage.

Step 1: Assemble your "Best of the Holidays" Picture Collection into a Single Folder
To simplify transfer to my phone/PDA/Xbox/Media Center and call-up, I use the recently released Windows Live Photo Gallery to organize all of my holiday best pictures into a folder at the top. These are pictures I want to share during the party.

This is easy to do and can be done with any one of your favorite photo apps, though I strongly recommend WL Photo Gallery - not because I work at MSFT but because it has some really great features like ability to upload directly to Flickr.

Step 2: Sprinkle in some Holiday Trivia

I've created a set of 15 questions in the below pack and included the master images from the- all you have to do is unzip it, put the pictures in the same folder as your "Best of" collection.  You'll probably want to rename the files so as to mix them in sets with your own photos.  The pictures are from the old Winter Fun Pack I did as a side project so many years ago for XP.

Step 3: Assemble the Ultimate Christmas Mix

This year we went a little upscale with a swank set of songs for the adults and a few favorites.  Pretty much anyone can build a playlist these days.

Here are some of my favorites:

Cocktail Party Swanky Christmas (Most off "Christmas Classics" on Zune)

• Christmas Time is Here - Vince Guaraldi Trio
• White Christmas - Bing Crosby
• Baby, It's Cold Outside - Dean Martin
• Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - Lou Rawls
• Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let it Snow! - Lena Horne
• (Everybody's Waiting' For) The Man with the Bag - Kay Starr
• Happy Holiday - Peggy Lee
• Sleigh Ride - Ferrane & Teicher
• I'd Like You for Christmas - Julie London
• It Came Upon a Midnight Clear - Ella Fitzgerald
• Grown-Up Christmas List - Michael Buble
  

Step 4: Share it on the Big Screen with Xbox 360, PC, Media Center, Digital Picture Frame etc.
There are a number of ways to get your photo playlist onto your PC or picture frame.  I use my Xbox 360 as an extender, and a CompactFlash card inserted into a digital picture frame to share them in two rooms.  Here are a few examples (click images for larger sizes):

Play it on Xbox 360 from your Zune - from the Zune device or home network

Play it from Windows Vista Media Center

Play it on a digital picture frame

Hope you enjoy- Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from our family to yours.

It would look like this.

I don't always agree with Chris but this time I tend to. With the disclaimer that the announcement is huge - to enthusiasts willing to spend all that $$ to be able to watch and record HD and subscription cable TV on their PC. 

Dell’s CableCARD Re-entry Is Huge In the Grand Scheme - Chris Lanier's Blog

Since yesterday, the Microsoft.com homepage has been promoting a new game for Xbox 360 called, "Scene It? Lights, Camera, Action" with a new twist- a mini-game embedded in the ad  itself.  I can recommend this game personally as it's been playtested by our family and friends at recent gatherings.   The game itself takes over the entire top panel of the MS.com homepage interactively in what I believe is a first.

Expect a lot more of these kinds of interactive experiences on the MS.com site and others to come in Silverlight. 

Microsoft Homepage