Channel 9 - Discussions by jonathanh

Coffeehouse - Scoble leaves Microsoft - For reals?

jonathanh — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 16:01:32 GMT

nanite wrote:

Now it's time for JohnathonH to leave. I'm pretty sure that working at Microsoft has turned him into a total bästard. He'd probably be a nice guy outside of a näzi moderator setting.

Nah, it's grad school that did that to me. I've mostly checked out of Channel 9 these days - been doing a little thinking about where I want to spend my time. Looks like Robert has been doing the same thing, although to rather more dramatic effect

Coffeehouse - So... who bought an "Origami"?

jonathanh — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 15:43:25 GMT

Origami was the sexy project codename. Ultra Mobile PCs is the boring official marketing name (actually, I'm not even sure I got the name right, because it's so forgettable...)

Coffeehouse - MSDN Wiki goes live

jonathanh — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 15:40:41 GMT

jmacdonagh wrote:

Looks like we can write our own comments on MSDN's documentation

http://msdnwiki.microsoft.com

Sweet!

I've seen this being pushed internally for a year or so - it's great to know that it's finally seeing the light of day.

And yes, the Channel 9 wiki probably had a measurable influence on it

Coffeehouse - Vista Beta 2 Public Released

jonathanh — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 15:38:35 GMT

ChrisChance wrote:

Vista coulda broken the internet... read here

Chris Pirillo has a full transcript here. I figure CyberMagellan would be interested in reading the reasons for the slow downloads

The transcript also confirms the "legal and privacy issues" that are stopping us from using BitTorrent

Coffeehouse - Vista Beta 2 Public Released

jonathanh — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 20:13:34 GMT

intelman wrote:

Why doesn't Microsoft use bitorrent, it is released to the public anyways, it isn't like it is going to spread it faster. You have to get a key through Microsoft anyways. Why don't they let other people pool their bandwidth, it'd save them some money

Because our lawyers freak out about the legal liability. My personal bet is that we'll use a bittorrent-like approach eventually, but only after jumping through a lot of hoops for the benefit of the lawyers.

(Yes, this comes up on Channel 9 every time Microsoft ships some big new piece of free software)

Coffeehouse - Vista Beta 2 Public Released

jonathanh — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 20:03:15 GMT

Cybermagellan wrote:

This is insane, I'm not even trying to download it...

Funny there are no MS Employees on this thread...I guess Microsoft is dropping the ball on this too...

Funny you expect us to be able to do anything about it

Coffeehouse - Becoming a blue badge. Joining the dark side.

jonathanh — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 18:56:52 GMT

Congrats Which group will you be joining?

Coffeehouse - Sandbox terrorized

jonathanh — Thu, 25 May 2006 15:05:42 GMT

I deleted their posts.

Coffeehouse - Vista Beta 2. Anyone seen it out in the wild yet?

jonathanh — Tue, 23 May 2006 16:03:27 GMT

I believe the official announcement hit the newswires a couple of minutes ago, at 9:00 PST (timed to coincide with the start of the WinHEC keynote).

Coffeehouse - FlexGo Scares Me

jonathanh — Mon, 22 May 2006 21:43:18 GMT

W3bbo wrote:

This whole thing is an overhyped zero-interest loan equal to the value of half your computer's cost which is payed back in installments (hence the hourly rate).

It would just be easier to give them the zero-interest loan in the first place, but I guess this way you're guranteed income

No, read the article. It's explicitly NOT a standard regular-payment loan, and it WOULDN'T be easier to give them such a loan. That's been tried, and it doesn't work for everyone:

In many cases, Microsoft has already worked with local governments and businesses to offer financing programs in which consumers pay a monthly fee for their PC. But one of the things Microsoft said it has learned is that many people in developing countries do not have a steady income. With FlexGo, consumers can scale back their PC use in months that they have less money, rather than having to default on their purchase.

Coffeehouse - My Microsoft - Did Mini Prompt the Winds of Change?

jonathanh — Fri, 19 May 2006 21:43:46 GMT

Yes.

That, plus undoing some of the more... challenged... decisions that have been made in the past.

Coffeehouse - ViStamantec

jonathanh — Fri, 19 May 2006 20:35:01 GMT

Already discussed. You've gotta start searching before doing your news article posts...

Coffeehouse - Where did you start at Microsoft?

jonathanh — Thu, 18 May 2006 22:04:59 GMT

littleguru wrote:

jonathanh wrote:
Started as a Researcher in the labs in Cambridge, England. I was either employee #5 or #6 there, depending on whether you count accepted-the-job or arrived-in-the-building as being "first"

What was your position there? What did you do?

My job title was "Researcher". I did some early work on Windows clusters, and then got into performance modeling (which I'm still doing now, but in product-land)

Coffeehouse - Where did you start at Microsoft?

jonathanh — Thu, 18 May 2006 19:10:18 GMT

Started as a Researcher in the labs in Cambridge, England. I was either employee #5 or #6 there, depending on whether you count accepted-the-job or arrived-in-the-building as being "first"

Coffeehouse - Can't Figure This Place Out

jonathanh — Mon, 15 May 2006 20:34:11 GMT

sgomez wrote:

Ok, I can't take it anymore... WHAT'S A TROLL????

This is a pretty good definition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll

Coffeehouse - A Linux Confession

jonathanh — Sun, 14 May 2006 15:24:01 GMT

blatzcoder wrote:

The mods don't nix Linux threads on the weekend. Oops, did I say 'nix?

Quit being an idiot, blatz. We don't nuke Linux threads, we nuke flame threads (which often have a high correlation to threads you take part in).

Coffeehouse - Iran laying groundwork for Islamic war

jonathanh — Fri, 12 May 2006 02:59:19 GMT

Only one pointless religious flame war thread at a time. billh's was first, so this one loses.

Oh, and everyone should be prepared to be banned if they get into any more direct insults in the other thread.

Coffeehouse - a Way To Making Money ( With Poofs )

jonathanh — Fri, 12 May 2006 01:54:38 GMT

rhm wrote:

IRenderable wrote:

Nice one But this thread isn't locked. Is it JonathanH having a day off?

Indeed. I was off being trained in "Interpersonal Effectiveness".

This means that I can say "Welcome to Channel 9, now don't let the door hit you on the way out" and SMILE as I do so.

Also, where the heck are the cheesy poofs? I mean, the title SAID they were here. Dammit, now I'm hungry...

Coffeehouse - Halo 3 Announcement

jonathanh — Wed, 10 May 2006 01:01:10 GMT

zzzzz wrote:

this is the last halo

No, it's the last Halo in the current story arc. Big difference

Coffeehouse - Dogmatism

jonathanh — Mon, 08 May 2006 21:35:38 GMT

JohnAskew wrote:

Well done! Proper usage and everything. I didn't know that those across the pond could fit such a Southern US language colloquialism into a sentence correctly.

I'd have said "yinz", but I don't know anyone else here who's done time in Pittsburgh...

Coffeehouse - Dogmatism

jonathanh — Mon, 08 May 2006 21:23:43 GMT

Cybermagellan wrote:

I'm sorry I'm just recollecting all the threads we've said "Hello Mods", Hello... HELLLOOOOO? With no answer...but the next day they'll be here defending the choice on going on with On10. It's slightly annoying.

The likelihood of a mod reading a given post is pretty low. We've all got full-time jobs doing something else. My typical approach is to look at a handful of front-page threads, especially anything that's gone to a second page, has a last post by someone who's trolled before, or has a controversial title. This totally breaks down when y'all are posting to a single thread like a bunch of rabid weasels, and get deep into a flame-fest on page 4 before I even see it.

Coffeehouse - Dogmatism

jonathanh — Mon, 08 May 2006 20:35:34 GMT

Meh. I'd be more impressed with W3bbo's high-minded internet superhero act if he'd actually posted the correct link to his home site.

Instead, he just posted a link to a blank Wikipedia page. And none of the rest of you picked up on it... D'oh!

Coffeehouse - Linux UMPC "thingy"

jonathanh — Mon, 08 May 2006 20:08:35 GMT

blatzcoder wrote:

I also wrote in a separate post after the "sad piece of crap" line..."what, your telescope code?"

And the post got nuked.

I deleted it because its only purpose was to insult another user.

You can take part in rational discussions, because I've seen you do it. Please continue doing so and leave the flamebait insults at the door.

Coffeehouse - Apple's beauty inside

jonathanh — Sun, 07 May 2006 17:06:09 GMT

Manip wrote:

Of course but if you apply enough pressure it all goes off to the side (as per the picture) leaving a very thin layer. There is only about 2mm's on that chip... The excess doesn't really make the CPU any hotter.

If you apply too much all you end up doing is wasting it as excess it doesn't make the CPU any hotter.

No. A layer of thermal compound that's too thick WILL make the CPU run hotter, for the simple reason that thermal compound isn't as good at conducting heat as your heat sink is. A quick check shows that Arctic recommends the use of an amount "half the size of an uncooked grain of white rice" for small-core CPUs, and that for stock processors and heatsinks the layer should be 0.003" to 0.005" thick, which is about 20 times thinner than 2mm.

Coffeehouse - Niners Xbox night

jonathanh — Sat, 06 May 2006 02:05:40 GMT

littleguru wrote:

Cool would be if someone of the Channel 9 team could join. But I believe that is not going to happen.

Hey now, I'm up for some Halo 2