MCE's challenge (at the time) was the cable networks death grip on the signal. It took years for CableCARD to surface, and even then it was limited in its deployment geographically and provider wise. If that had been solved much quicker I bet we would have seen a larger MCE ecosystem form. Nowadays the world is moving on to online streaming which presents other challenges. Looking at Boxee's solution shows how hard it is to get it to work as smooth as possible. Apple is besting it by brokering deals with content providers, perhaps something Microsoft should have pursued earlier. It's tough when you've heard the internal vision of what it could have been and seen what is has become. There was so much not brought to the public that would have made MCE a staple in the home theatre.
HN user
i2o
An abstract artist and a concrete analyst interested in full-contact origami.
For those who don't know Charlie his contributions include (as listed at http://www.liveside.net/2011/08/08/charlie-kindel-to-leave-m...):
- Founded Premier support
- Built ActiveX and DCOM
- Shipped Internet Explorer 3.0
- Drove the development of the home networking features in Windows XP
- Founded eHome and shipped the first version of Windows Media Center
- Drove the invention of Windows Smart Displays and Windows Media Center Extenders
- Served Bob Muglia as executive technical assistant as he ran the Enterprise Storage business through to him running the Server and Tools Division
- Was the driving force behind Windows Home Server
- Led the design and development of the Windows Phone 7 Application Platform
- Drove the Windows Phone 7 application platform ecosystem development and evangelism effort
On point #3, while I'm sure it can be better, it is worth noting out that historically medicare has done better at cost management than private healthcare (http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/29/medicare-versus-...). I don't have the answer either, but health is one of those areas we know enough about yet to optimize using the same techniques you would in manufacturing, for instance. It is about investing in preventative measures as it is in reactive treatments. In Canada we face similar issues where more of our tax dollars being spent on healthcare with lesser returns. This is due in part to an ageing population, but can also be attributed to the lack of broader innovation in the delivery of care. A first step would be to encourage a more team-oriented approach where the doctor's lobby group (aka union) doesn't retain so much influence and control over policy decisions. From afar it looks like the private insurance lobby is one of the larger distractions preventing the US from getting down to the real issues of efficient and effective health practices.
On the business front propping up failing business models is a tough one. There is something to be said about preventing a complete and sudden collapse. The number of unemployed would hit the system in so many other ways. What we have seen from the auto industry, as much as I disagreed with the bailouts, is reinvention and retooling. I hope they take their bailouts with a great deal of thankfulness and invest wisely. I look at the next generation of companies like Tesla Motors and hope that more auto industry giants will seek to innovate and evolve rather than focus on just getting bigger (and slower).
The message I believe we all (conservative and liberal) can and should agree on is respect for the tax payer dollar. Money in government isn't free, the debt and deficit isn't free. As they plan out capital and operating expenses they need to do so with an passion towards building a better country while taking calculated measures and risks. Government's role, in my mind, isn't to innovate itself but instead to facilitate innovation by its people. It should focus on facilitating the success of the people through "just enough" regulation which means refactoring how they work on a regular basis to find the most effective means in which to operate. They need to continue to question their own purposes, not get comfortable in the security of a public sector job for life. Most importantly they need to share with their shareholders, we the people, on their progress in an open and transparent manner. I don't need fancy marketing campaigns to tell me about the good work that they do, but I don't want to see them hiding it either. One way to do this is to add a more direct measure of how tax dollars are spent. In Canada we pay a good portion of our taxes into a general revenue pool. I would like to see that eliminated in favour of a clear indication of what portion of my taxes go towards specific ministries or sectors of government. I think that next level of granularity would provide a bit more awareness that public money really belongs to the public.
This is turning into a big pissing match. If Google was really focused on innovating instead of patenting like they said they wanted to do a few days a go they would let this drop and focus on innovating. The real proof is in the execution, not the banter.
The real question is do the lawyers get to charge back to the business for every the tweet? Because if so these guys are racking up some big bucks.
Looks to be over quota on Google App Engine. Can we call this the HN Effect? :)
Is it a result, however, of business trying to plan/schedule/measure everything?
Memory is cheap these days - you can get 24GB for a couple hundred bucks depending on speed/ECC requirements. I always try to max out the memory based on the median cost per GB.
yawn still US only, no service in Canada. Back to Grooveshark or Rdio. Carry on.
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