Gear Up for Valentine's Day

This one is for my buddy Scott:

"I got married, had two kids, was accused of abuse, got divorced, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt. Happy Valentine's Day, Good Luck."

dodoskido shop > and all I got was this lousy t-shirt

TivoToGo Really ToGo

TiVoToGo goes mobile

I love both of my Tivos, but I too wish for my content to be unshackled from the domain of my home and set free into the depths of my pocket. I don't like watching stuff on my Sprint PCS phone (although they claim it has gotten better). What I'd really love is a video iPod that works with TivoToGo. Will I ever see it? Doubtful...with all of the DRM Tivo and Apple love.

Einstein T-shirt

dodoskido stuff : CafePress.com

Come one, come all! This is our first image. My wife is an artist and drew the picture of Einstein herself! I think it looks awesome and we've put it on all kinds of items at cafepress. We have T-shirts, mugs, clocks, even a beer stein. Don't forget, father's day and graduation is right around the corner...wouldn't your grad look great declaring their devotion to Einstein?

Man, this site needs a redesign

MSN TV 2 Enthusiasts

It's just not pleasing to the eye...am I right, or am I right? C'mon be honest, I can handle it. Who knows when I'll get a chance to address a sprucing up (maybe in time for spring cleaning?).

Back Home

I just got home yesterday and will need some time to get back into the swing of things. We have to unpack and figure out the whole DSL situation (SBC sent my new DSL modem to my home instead of the office as I requested since they're dumb like that...it was returned to the sender since UPS couldn't deliver it). Anyway, I'll be answering questions again soon (I have to get up to date on the state of things in MSN TV land as I haven't been keeping track while I was in China).

Cheers!

A week to Christmas

Here I am in Huhehote, China (capital of Inner Mongolia). My in-laws have just completed decorating my brother-in-law's home for his wedding tomorrow. You can read more about my adventures in China here.

See what I'm eating in China here.

Less than 1 week left to Xmas! We'll be in Shanghai for the 25th (I've heard it's a blast!).

Order from Amazon now to ensure delivery in time for the holidays!

Tivo User Experience Interview

The PVRBlog Interview: Ten Questions with TiVo's Director of User Experience, Margret Schmidt | PVRblog

I have to say that I really enjoy the Tivo UI as it is very simple and quite easy to use. MSN TV 2's is not bad, but could be better in my opinion. I especially like Tivo's Design Mantras:

It's entertainment, stupid.
It's TV, stupid.
It's video, damnit.
Everything is smooth and gentle.
No modality or deep hierarchy.
Respect the viewer's privacy.
It's a robust appliance, like a TV.

Rant, part 2

Original rant is here.

Here's a comment I received:

"Was I too mean?" Of course you were! ;-) My question could not have been more diplomatically worded, and was at pains to avoid any editorializing. And it's a question that has, understandably, been in the air. It wouldn't be an entirely unreasonable proposition if MSNTV2 had followed a PC rather than a WebTV model, and acknowledging it would be the first step to understanding it. Now if only I had written, as in fact has been the case, "Some people in the WebTV newsgroups have been wondering how familiar, if at all, the designers were with the original product," then you could have called *them* all asses, too! Just a bunch of asses and laggards... ;-)

Seriously, though, no insult was intended, and certainly not to you -- you've been our shining light, going out of your way to offer insight and information at a time when speculation was rampant and zero official communication was being provided by the corporation. And in your descriptions of the development process above, you've continued to put a welcome human face on a company that often seems to prefer to be seen as a faceless monolith. We're all lucky to have you.

Still, it's important to remember that this is a time when many WebTVers *have* felt "insulted," to say the least, by the company's prolonged lack of communication in the handling of TNB's launch, the often confusing, inadequate or even contradictory information ultimately provided, and the throwing around of those epithets like "laggards," all against the background of an apparent widespread breakdown of service for TOB subscribers which unfortunately began, coincidentally, just around the time TNB was introduced. (We've even seen reports that users complaining about this have been advised by customer service that their boxes are "old and worn out" and should be replaced with the new one!) So if my useless rhetorical question has at least opened up a little dialogue here, I hope that will prove beneficial at the present moment.

Posted by: whom e at October 25, 2004 11:42 PM

My response to the above:
I thank you for the careful consideration in your original question. I also understand the frustration that you must have as I have felt a siimilar frustration. It does suck not to know what is happening or why it is happening. It also sucks to be apathetic about it and to not care about the people who it affects most: the customer. This website came about because of my and your frustrations.

I wanted to do two things:
1. Give you the information you need to make an informed decision. I wanted to do it not in a way that "markets" the product to you, but just gives you the facts. Some of you have asked me about "why doesn't it do this" or "why doesn't it do that". I usually give you as much information as I have and end with a recommendation similar to: If WebTV serves your needs and MSN TV 2 doesn't have everything you want, then by all means stick with what meets your needs. I only ask that you let me know why MSN TV 2 doesn't meet your needs and I may be able to help get the ball rolling on getting your ideas implemented (as usually, there are no guarantees, but I ALWAYS try).

2. Listen. I don't know about you, but I like hearing things from the horse's mouth. And I don't like the horse to sweet talk me either...just tell me what you have to say. Think of me as sort of the horse's mouth (unofficially, of course). I think of those of you who ask questions, respond to my rants, ask for features as the horse mouth for MSN TV 2's customers. I like getting the feedback (good and bad) from you guys directly. Why? Because it's a blast to learn from you and try to see how you use the product. It's from you that we get some of the neatest ideas for features. It makes me excited to know that your ideas are being heard in all corners of the MSN TV 2 organization. It makes me excited to see "it" working.

I'm sorry for the terrible comments made by others...certainly not my point of view. I also did not really mean to call your comment useless as anything that opens up dialogue is generally a good thing. I'll try to keep this in mind.

In the end, I know we're on the same team. You want a world class Internet service that teaches your TV some new tricks. You want it to get the job done and be easy to use. I want to help build it for you.

Andy Sheldon (our Product Planning Manger) thought that I was a bit harsh too and has this to add:

We have made some trade-offs in the 1.0 version of the product in order to meet the input from our dial up customers and provide significant value to a broadband digital media enthusiast. Judging by early sales figures we’ve made the right choices. That said, we are always looking for feedback from our customers to improve the product and services. If you have specific suggestions on how we might make your MSN TV experience better we’d love to hear them. We are already planning the next release of the product for the spring.

I'll leave it to Andy's expertise to come up with more "positive" responses in the future :)

Rants

Here's a questions I received:

It turns out that so many WebTV features and functions -- not just major ones like the Plus features, but numerous smaller things that added to their general usability -- are missing from the new player. How familiar, if at all, were the designers with the original boxes?

Here was my answer:

Not sure what to do with this one. Here's why:

It does not list a specific feature that is being requested.
It asks a useless rhetorical question, which even when answered will not do anything to help make the product better. Let's try: The people who built MSN TV 2 are the same folks who have been working on MSN TV (WebTV) for the past few years. Did that help you get a new feature? No.
I'm going to go through the schpeel again about how making a product works:

First engineers (or marketers, or product planning people, or a guy on the street) get a big idea for a something new and wonderful that you can sell and make people happy with. Then the business guys (the ones who will fund your new product...you need this since you will be working for a year or two to make this thing and it won't make any money since nothing is being sold yet) come in and say, "cool, but get this out the door by October 2004." You say, "no problem".

In the course of development, you want to make sure the product is a good business from the get go, so no more loosing money on selling the box (like WebTV). Also you start thinking of all of the features that WebTV had and how long it will take you to get them working and make them better. You think, "gee, we won't have enough time for everything unless we quadruple the size of our staff and spend tons of money...Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates won't be too happy about that." Then you think, "well, maybe if we do the important stuff first, then worry about the not so important stuff later we'll have enough time." Yep, that sounds like a good idea.

So the process is:

Version 1.0

Dream
Reality
Priortize
Build
Test
Ship It!
Version 2.0

Dream
Reality
Priortize
Build
Test
Ship It!
Rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat...

So you can see, if the feature you cannot live without is not in the product, don't be an ass about it and insult the very people who took upon this large task. I have enormous respect for everyone who works here (yes, even marketing people). The people who work here worked very hard, made some smart choices, and got the product out the door on time and on budget...not very many projects these days can say this.

Ok, enough of my rant. Point is: don't be an ass and just tell me what you are looking for. A laundry list is fine. One minor feature is fine. Ask yourself, "If Tommy answers/sees this, will it help me (and other people) or help get a new feature into the product?"

Was I too mean? Regardless if I was mean or not, it is how I feel. I really don't think it is useful to spend time answering questions that really don't help me or you.

No more questions?

Wow...first came the rants..."why didn't you guys do this or that?!?" then came actual questions, then silence. A haiku to commemorate zero questions waiting to be answered:

silence among trees
quiet at mytvlife
go buy it today

Remember, eventhough today is quiet, I'll be adding more articles in the FAQ...especially about releases and network setup. Check back soon!

USB = Universal Sushi Boat

shiny shiny: Sushi USB KeY

Yes those are USB key drives in the shape of sushi. Seeing as how I'm a big sushi fan (maybe except blue fin tuna now that I've been to the aquarium) I should get these. Most likely they will work with MSN TV 2. I should probably get a Sushi Clock too:

Broadband without a PC?

I think we're going to need to do some experimentation with this one. What I'd like to do is have everyone call their local broadband provider (cable, dsl, or whatever else is available in your area) and find out if they have a way to setup their broadband service without a PC. This is common for people with just video game systems like an XBox so I think some providers may have a solution already.

If you get any information, please let me know!

Dotting the i's & Crossing the t's

The MSN TV 2 crew is putting the finishing touches on the product. The factory is pumping out the boxes as we speak (we've already received a few factory packed boxes and they look pretty neat). I'll be posting more about the OOB (out-of-box) experience after launch so as not to get my knees broken by the MSN TV police.