The Venetian

30 04 2007

It’s quite funny walking around this hotel, you really lose all sense of day and night, people are playing on the slots machines day and night. Coming to think if it, you won’t see a clock anywhere around here. Well it probably all helps to keep you gambling I guess.

Today we saw our first presentations, mainly about Expression Studio and Silverlight with some pretty cool demos. After that we went out for some activities. Bert, Geert, a few others and myself went to do some baseball and karts which was good fun, hopefully I have some pictures of that later on.

Last but not least, the whole European group got a Samsung Blackjack which is a really cool smartphone that I actually wanted already for a long time so lucky me :)




What happens in Vegas …

29 04 2007

Almost a full 24 hours after leaving Brussels I finally arrived in Sin City for MIX07. And hopefully I do find the time to update you on a regular basis so it doesn’t stay in Vegas.

I’m blogging this using http://m.wordpress.com
on my mobile so hopefully this post will appear online, I haven’t tried that before.




links for 2007-04-27

27 04 2007



Dopplr: where are my fellow travellers?

27 04 2007

Earlier this week Loic helped me to get an invite for Dopplr, a new webservice for travellers that I had read about on his Twitter. I’m a bit of a traveller myself so I was more than keen to try that one out. Thanks for the invite by the way!

” Dopplr is an online service for frequent travellers. It was created by an international team of world travellers as a tool for our own use. We liked it so much that we decided to open it up to our global friends. If you travel more than five times a year and have friends who do as well, then Dopplr is for you. How does Dopplr work? It lets you share your future travel plans with a group of trusted fellow travelers whom you have chosen. It also reminds you of friends and colleagues who live in the cities you’re planning to visit. You can use the service with your personal computer and mobile phone.”

First of all, reading this, this looks even more like a service that I can use. Traveling more than 5 times a year? D’oh! The interface is very simple and knowing that it started as a tool for own use, that explains a lot. That said, it does what it should do. You enter your hometown to start with and then the cities you’ll be in from when to when, and then you’ll see who of your fellow travellers will be in the same place at the same time. Nothing more, nothing less but indeed useful. If you are on Dopplr already, you can add me using this link: http://www.dopplr.com/traveller/crossthebreeze.

I have 3 invites to share with you if you want. I don’t normally do this, but I’ll make an exception for fellow travellers this time and it gives me a reason to try out this new contact form they’ve built in WordPress.com. So if you want an invite leave me a comment or use the form, but I only give it to frequent travellers so prove me you are.

Update: I didn’t have time to update this earlier, but all invites have long gone by now




Meeting of Minds

27 04 2007

Yesterday and today it’s Meeting of Minds in Antwerp. I was going to go, but my agenda decided otherwise the very last minute which is a bit of a shame as I’m reading a lot of good stuff about it. Take a look for instance at what Clo had to say about it, she seems to have loved it so far. I’m trying to follow it a bit on Twitter, but that’s hardly the real thing is it…

Luckily, since Loic Le Meur was coming to MoM, we had a chance to reconnect. We went out for dinner Wednesday night in the renewed ‘Wok & Tandoor’ and had some interesting conversations around LeWeb3 and next year’s LeWeb, the new & exciting project he’s working on, Microsoft, …. and much more. It was good to meet again, too bad I had to miss out on the discussion at MoM on television 2.0… who knows next time.




links for 2007-04-26

26 04 2007



Weblin: meeting people on websites

26 04 2007

Geert Desager sent me an invite for Weblin earlier today, and since Geert and I are pretty much on the same page when it relates to anything interactive that definitely means I should check it out. How does it work? What does it do? 

“Weblin the perfect addon to your Windows Live Messenger. Weblin makes you and your friends visible in the Internet as little avatar characters. You are not alone when you surf the web. Weblin brings you a new exiting and lively world on every website. Get to know People, who share the same interests with you.”

On the screenshot below you can see my Weblin (or whatever they call this little avatars) on the Weblin homepage together with 3 other persons. People on the same page can initiate a chat together (in a little chat window) and some will have the little Messenger buddy icon next to it so you can start a Messenger conversation, with all features you have in Messenger.

weblin

All pretty cool stuff, I’ll try it for a while and see if it sticks but I do like the idea.




Windows Live feature hotlist

26 04 2007

LiveSide made a nice post today about the ‘10 Windows Live features you don’t yet use and should‘. Even if you don’t use the Windows Live services these features belong to, they still make ‘em worth a look.

I remember Chris from LiveSide asking me on IM a couple of weeks ago which litlle - not well known features - I like most and I think these must be it:

  • Windows Live for Mobile (aka G2) and Live Search for Mobile which offer you very nice apps to have your Messenger, Mail and Maps Search on your mobile. The Live Search for mobile is even available for Java-running phones
  • Live Search activity in Messenger: You’re in a conversation and looking for something on the web, no need to open up a browser, just launch the activity in the conversation window and search the web/images. With one-click link to share specific results in the conversation
  • Add a nickname in Windows Live Messenger which will allow you to change any name in your buddylist to something less cryptic than these names usually are and avoids having 8 Tom’s, 4 An’s, … in your list
  • Windows Live Writer, now that is a great tool for any blogger out there. And hopefully more people will develop plugins for it like the Flickr4Writer that make things really easier

… and Bird Eye view for Antwerp of course :). Expect more soon.




links for 2007-04-25

25 04 2007



Nothing wakes you up as Nescafé

25 04 2007

Great ad from Nescafé, very simple but very clear. No need to explain.

[Via AdPunch]