Change in Direction

I've been reading other blogs lately, notably Raymond Chen's Old New Thing, and one thing is clear:

Real bloggers write.  A lot.

So, I figure, If I want to be read, I need to write.  A lot.  Actually, a lot more.  But there are two problems.

The first is that I don't seem to have a lot of extra time to devote to a blog.  But when I think about that objectively, that's really a crock - I've got plenty of time I waste every day, most of it watching television (yes, I'm a TV baby, and a TV adult as well).  I've been wanting to break that habit lately - hell, I quit smoking, why not quit TV as well...

The second is that I don't have a lot to say about XPE anymore.  It's not that there's nothing to say - there's lots to say, but others are saying it, and better than I.

So, we'll take a slight change of tack here, and make this blog nominally about XPE, but also about technology in general, and my views on some of it.

First stop - the Zune.

Don't get me wrong - the Zune is a very cool device.  My daughter has one, we have never owned an iPod, and I want one myself (once my wife releases the funds for one).  I actually have no problems with the device or anyone who owns one - my problem is the entire marketing campaign that states the Zune is a "social" device.

You see, when I was a teenager in the early 80's, there was this really cool device called a Sony Walkman - for you young'un's out there, it was an MP3 player that played cassette tapes.  I had one, and used it all the time.  The Walkman - and it's distant ancestor the Zune - is not social device.  It's actually an anti-social device.  When you have one on, you're not being social - you're tuning out.  Being social is getting on a bus or a plane and saying to the person sitting next to you, "Hey, how are you?  Good to see you!  I like the outfit - where did you get it?"  Putting on headphones is saying, "I'm in my own world, do not bother me."  You might even cap off your anti-social attitude by burying your nose in a book or a magazine - I do this a lot when I'm eating lunch alone.

The point is that putting on a pair of headphones to listen to your own personal life soundtrack is not a social activity, no matter what the marketers would have you believe.  Buy a Zune because it's cool, not because you want to be social.

For those of you wanting something about Embedded - we're working on February package.  It's a beast as far as the engineering work goes, but it's moving forward.