OK, just after all my friends are on FaceBook, now I’m getting the requests to join Spock.com. I don’t know what Spock.com is, but after the address-book thingie, MySpace, the high school alumni thingie, Friendster (?), the Google ork-something, the business thingie and most recently FaceBook, I’m all done. All I ever do on these sites is approve friends requests! Isn’t there supposed to be some value to it other than that?

Oh, sure, I’ve had a few messages from people I haven’t heard from in a while, but email works for that. In fact, email works for a helluva lot of the internet apps I see today. Plus, most of them just forward web form results to my email anyway! Why do I need a whole other thing when I’ve already got all my friends listed in my address book?

I declare the social network backlash officially started!

From now on, I’m going to be doing some anti-social networking around the ol’ Casa de’ Sells. If you want me, you know my email addresses, how to post comments on my blog and my phone number. That should be enough.

“*cough* When I was a boy, we didn’t have these fancy social networks. *cough* *cough* We had email and we were happy to have it!”

“Yes, Grandpa. Shhhh….”

Thanks very much "ET" on the Canadian Amazon. I can think of no higher compliment. : )

In the same way that .NET manages memory for you, Windows Home Server manages storage. All you have to do is tell it the names of shared folders you want it to have and which computers to back up and it will spread it and duplicate it across however many HDDs you have, without you worrying about which actual HDD your “Music” folder is on or where your wife’s computer is being backed up to.

Plus, if you have more than one HDD and you have “Enable Folder Duplication” enabled for a shared folder, the data in that folder will be shared across multiple HDDs, effectively giving you the benefits of RAID without the config muss and fuss. (It’s my understanding that this cross-HDD data duplication happens automatically for backed up data, but I don’t know how to confirm that empirically without risking the data.  : )

Because a 750GB SATA HDD was $156 at newegg.com, it was a no-brainer to pick one up. It arrived today and it was mean-time of 10 minutes between tearing the tape off the box and the new HDD being used for data storage on my WHS. I didn’t even have to turn off the HP MediaServer machine!

All I did was pull an empty drawer forward, place the new HDD into it and push the drawer closed. Seating the drawer also seated both the data and power connections on the HDD itself, no wires or plastic connectors needed. I want all HDDs to work this way!

10 seconds later, the little light went on that said my new HDD was ready to be added as storage to my WHS, which only took right-clicking in the WHS console (already updated to display the new HDD) and adding it as storage. Another 10 seconds and some additional settings changes to enable folder duplication on my shared folders and the new HDD is in active service, providing redundant storage for all the data I care about in the house.

Really, the only problem I have now is that I only have enough data to fill 14% of the 1.4TB of new storage space. Maybe we need a Windows Friends & Family Server and I could rent out the extra space? : )

Not all was gloom and blackness this XMas. Among the new things in our lives, several of them rocked*:

• Our new HP MediaServer running Windows Home Server is awesome. As a Microsoft employee, I got a killer deal on this server appliance, but knowing what I now know, I’d have paid full price — a whopping $550. In fact, I recently sunk another $200 into it for a memory upgrade and a 750GB HD, bringing it up to 1.25TB.
  
  WHS keeps all the computers in my house automatically backed up, keeps shared folders duplicated across multiple HDs which can be added via the slide-out drawers in the front of the unit (no muss, no fuss) and serves it all up over the web securely. Plus, it’s platform for add-ins, so, for example, if I want offsite storage of everything on the WHS box in case of catastrophe, I can get KeepValue for a flat $100 year.

• My youngest’s new Zune 2 is the best MP3 player I’ve ever touched. We got the 4GB version, which is tiny, but still comes with amazing video playback, an FM radio and very intuitive controls. (I know I’m unusual in this regard, but when I first touched the iPod, I had no idea how to make it work and the manual didn’t help.)
  
  The client software is also a joy to use. The look and feel is unique and simple. Both the client and Zune UIs make me hope that those guys actually are building a phone. I want it.
  
  Plus, we got a pair of the Altec-Lansing Zune speaker dock from woot.com for $40 and they sound great, worked instantly and come with the cutest remote control. Very nice package.

• I can’t wait to put my new portable Bosch 10″ Table Saw with Gravity Rise Stand to use (thanks, Babe!). I’ve been remodeling my homes for years, doing as much of it myself as I have time for, but was missing a saw to do straight rips. I’m all set now!

• My brother-in-law got Rock Band for his family and it *rocks*, especially the tone feedback on the microphone. (I love to sing, which you’ll know if you’re ever trapped in a car with me and Bohemian Rhapsody comes on the radio : )

• My youngest also got a pair of the Killer Rabbit Slippers, which Chris picked up for me when he and his wife went to Spamalot. I’d covet my son’s new slippers except I love the Goofy loafer Slippers I stole from him years ago. : )

What did Santa bring you this year? Anything you’d recommend or want to steer folks away from?

*Yes, I know I’m a Microsoft employee and biased. Feel free to take what I say with as much salt as your heart can take. : )

I brought my son a Sidekick Slide cell phone for XMas this year and I’ve come to the conclusion that it sucks, or at least the way T-Mobile sells it sucks.

When I purchased it, the T-Mobile salesman offered me unlimited data and text messages for an additional $20/month on that line. The phone was an upgrade on our existing family plan, which already has 3000 minutes/month and unlimited text messaging and I don’t really need my son surfing the interweb during class, so I declined. He never mentioned that the phone wouldn’t actually work without this extra money, or I never would’ve purchased it.

Then, XMas morning rolls around, my son is super-excited and plugs his SIM card into his new phone, turns it on and is greeted with the activation screen. This lasted for hours. Eventually, he found the magic key combination and was able to use the phone, but when it crashed, it lost all his contacts and pictures. Plus, the battery life sucked, lasting maybe four hours between charges. The boy swears it’s because it’s still trying to activate in the background.

Finally, we called T-Mobile “customer care.” If I wanted to use the “full capabilities” of the phone, like save f-ing contacts, we pay the $20/month. The contacts are saved “on the network” *only*. That sucks. This was a $200 phone subsidized with a 2-year extension to the contract and it can’t store f-ing phone numbers?!?

I was about ready to cram the phone back up the T-Mobile salesman’s…. well, I would’ve returned it, but the boy was so enamored, he committed to ponying up the dough from his allowance.

And I have a sneaking suspicion that even though we now have the “Sidekick feature” package, that the battery life is *still* going to suck… Keep your fingers crossed.

P.S. I can’t tell you how much my son loves this phone…

The form factor is cool, the OS is fine (although I'd prefer Windows) but the chicklet keyboard is worthless. I can literally type faster on my t-mobile dash smartphone. Anyone want an OLPC laptop PC for $200 + shipping?

Yesterday I got an email from a fellow named Corrado Cavalli to whom I sent a free copy of Programming WPF. When he received it and read through it, he posted a note on his web site, which of course, I went to read.

Now, Corrado lives in San Pellegrino Terme, Bergamo Italy, so his blog is in Italian. That didn’t stop me from reading it in English using Google’s language translation page.

Then, just to be “cheeky” as my Australian friends say, I composed simple responses in English and translated them to Italian before posting them, you know, pretending I’m smart and international and such like. : )

To be somewhat confident I wasn’t asking him for improper knowledge of his dog, I did the Italian to English translation on the translated text and rearranged my English it bit when it wasn’t quite right.

All in all, I’d say it worked out pretty well, although I did get some flowers from his dog the other day…

Dvorak asks this about One Laptop Per Child:

“Does anyone but me see the OLPC XO-1 as an insulting ‘let them eat cake’ sort of message to the world’s poor?”

I can see his point, but I don’t see how decades of giving food and support to the 3rd world has helped them to become part of the 1st world. Maybe access to the world’s information so that they can educate themselves and learn how to solve their own problems might work a little better. It’s worth a try at least.