I’ve wanted a killer ebook reader for years: a decade or more.  When I first read about E Ink I was psyched and thought for sure someone would produce the device I wanted, which is basically exactly what’s pictured here in Amazon’s ad.

Kindle is a small device that’s easy to hold, it has web access, it can wirelessly download books, it can read blogs and play podcasts.  It has a beautiful E Ink screen that you can really read for hours without fatigue.  It has enough memory to hold dozens of volumes.  It has a method for inputting notes about the book and a dictionary for looking up unfamiliar terms.

So what’s the problem?  The problem is: I want to buy the freaking book!  I want to have it in my library, on the shelf, collecting dust.  I don’t care about the trees.  I want my book.  There is no option on the Amazon store for me to say, "I’ll pay the full price of this book.  Please send it to me.  But also, let me download it to my Kindle to read on the go."  WTF!!  This is such a logical thing to do.  But right now, the only options I have are buy the book, or download the book.  I want to download the book and have them ship me the real thing as well.  I want to have my book and read it too.

Sigh.  Amazon is one of the few companies in a real position to do this kind of thing and they let the opportunity slip.

Note to Amazon:  the day I can buy a bundle of physical book and electronic book for the same price as the physical book (or maybe $0.50 more) is the day that I will buy a Kindle.  Please!

So last weekend at IKEA, I bought some stuff to decorate my office. Including this picture frame, pictured here:

I can’t for the life of me figure out how to get a picture into that frame. I’ve been having a great first real day in the office, but this particular thing makes me feel really dumb.

Last night was the MIX party at PURE at Caesar’s Palace. It was pretty sweet. Definitely too crowded, but I guess that’s just the way it goes when you tell 1500 software developers that they can have free drinks and see the Pussycat Dolls.

Anyway, the craziest part was that on the way back I saw several women out walking their babies in strollers. This was at 11pm. wtf?! 11pm and they’re out walking their babies? Aren’t babies supposed to be asleep by then?

The Pussycat Dolls were pretty fun. Here are some pics from flickr. (Just search for tags MIX07 and Pure or pussycat dolls to find more.)

I’m sick this morning, sadly, but I don’t think it’s a hangover. It was starting up yesterday morning. I think I’ve just got the old fashioned flu. 🙁 It’s going to be a miserable 3 hour plane ride.

• Silverlight is pretty freaking sweet. Check it out.
• I’m actually excited to learn about AJAX programming with ASP.NET.
• It looks like DevDiv is doing some really kick-ass work. Congrats guys!
• That said, I’ve had a freaking HARD time getting Orcas Beta 1 installed. The DVD I got with my conference welcome pack was corrupted or something and downsloading it is a pain. Kitty’s going to get her DVD for me now and I’ll give that a try.
• I’m really glad to see more Mac support from Microsoft. Nobody’s going to write a web app that doesn’t work on Macs, especially in this age of social computing.
• I’m totally excited for my new job. And totally excited for what I was working on in my old job to be released to the public. It’s going to blow people away what they can do with that stuff.
• The moderator for the social networking discussion was suboptimal.
• It’s freaking hot in Vegas.
• The Venetian has super nice basic rooms.
• I haven’t gambled at all yet. That makes me sad. I’ll have to go lay $100 on the pass line.
• I was too tired last night to go to the Facebook party at the Playboy Club. I’m either getting sick or getting old. Given the events of this morning, I think sick is the answer.
• What can I get for a souvenier for Heather?

Technorati tags: MIX07

I woke up at 3:30am for a 6am flight this morning from Seattle to Vegas. I know, it was early, but it was the cheapest flight. Got to watch the bottom line, you know. 😉

Anyway, the flight was uneventful and I arrived at the Venetian at something like 10:30am. Turns out that my room wasn’t ready yet, so they held onto my bags while I had some breakfast. I thought about going to Bouchon, but it was too much trouble (off in some tower on the 10th floor or something like that). I’ll try going there a different day for something.

While reading the New York Times at breakfast, I got a call saying that my room was ready, so I finished up and finished the checkin process and headed up to my room. I had to wait quite a while (something like an hour) for my bags to make it to my room, which was upsetting, but the room is quite nice. It’s got to be 650sq ft. or so. There’s a bedroom, a living room, and a very nice bathroom.

So far the most dissapointing thing about the room is the internet access. My wireless signal strength is VERY weak, ranging from 18-30%. Bleh. I have big packet loss, pages keep timing out, etc. It’s a pain.

In any case, now that I’m settled in, I think it’s time to hit the casino for some craps or blackjack.

What I could really go for right now, strangely enough, is some movie theater popcorn and a pay-per-view movie. But alas, no popcorn is on the room service menu.

After something like 5 years on the MSN (now Windows Live) Messenger Team, I’m moving to a new role at Microsoft. Messenger is one of my favorite products in the world, the team is absolutely great to work with, and we’re working on what I think is our most exciting release ever,  but an opportunity came up that was just too good to ignore.

Starting next week, I’m taking a job as a (Software) Architect reporting to Joshua Goodman, who is BillG’s Technical Assistant and reports directly to the man himself.

Yeah. It’s pretty freaking sweet. I’m extremely excited. I’ll be working on all kinds of things across the whole company. It’s going to be an amazing period of learning and I hope to contribute to some wicked hot new stuff that will amaze and delight our customers. I can’t talk about anything publicly, but it’s some software that I for one would love to use.

Anyway, I’m starting the new job off this Sunday by heading to Vegas to attend MIX07. I’ve worked a ton on clients, a ton on peer-to-peer apps, a bit on servers, but basically none on web apps, so I need to ramp up quickly there.

w00t!!!~!1!!!~one!~@~~!

A few months ago, we decided on the Messenger team that we wanted to do something more to help the world. Already our service brings people together and helps distant friends and relatives communicate, but we wanted to do something more direct. So now we’ve got the i’m initiative. It works like this:

1. Download Windows Live Messenger 8.1
2. Pick a charity
3. Put the charity’s emoticon code in your friendly name
4. Have IM conversations as normal

The more conversations you have, the more of our ad revenue we donate to your charity. Pretty simple. So now when you talk to your friends, you can also help find a cure or feed children or stop global warming or whatever.

  http://global.msads.net/ads/pronws/generic_panel.swf

I recommend you buy a Wii. It’s freaking sweet. The included sports game is awesome. Obviously the control is what makes this platform and it is done very well. If you don’t believe me, come play mine (but wait until I get another 3 wiimotes).

I recommend you do not see Apocalypto. This movie made me want to claw my eyes out and stab myself in the head with an icepick. I don’t want to waste any more words on it.