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184 days ago

If you want to skip my rambling and just check out my new blog, here it is: http://www.refocuser.com . Refocuser is a blog about focus; specifically the ability to apply your focus at will to whatever requires your attention. Hi folks! Since December of 2004 I’ve been blogging here on Torres Talking – sometimes regularly and sometimes irregularly :) Topics on this blog have ranged quite a bit from “what I’ve been up to” type posts to detailed descriptions of the ways I’ve applied various technologies in my life. Torres Talking was a real passion of mine for a number of years and has been very instrumental in crystallizing my thoughts and helping prove to myself that I actually have something to contribute to the overall “conversation”. It’s also how I became a published author, has served as motivation for my part in revamping Microsoft’s social networking strategy… and most importantly is how I’ve come to connect with hundreds of new and interesting ...

New Plan for Digital Books

302 days ago

A couple years ago (7/07) I wrote: I think the digital book will be dramatically different from the 1999 eBook. The hardware will be much more appealing to book worms - possibly with digital pages that actually flip - and the fonts and rendering technology will be wondrous. The dedicated device will be connected to the net for instant download (via an iTunes-like store, probably provided by Amazon.com and B&N) of new books, magazines, newspapers, and other types of content. Digital Books and the Trade-in Model In other words, I had a vision of the Amazon Kindle – and as I typed this up, they were working on it (pretty cool). I also wrote that I wanted to replace all existing paper books with digital books in the year 2012. But I’m thinking of moving that up by a few years now that I have about 40 new books on shelves that I didn’t have back in 2007. Books are starting to overwhelm our living space (just like CDs did for years) and it’s time for me to do something ...

Blogging in 2009

304 days ago

Russell Beattie sums something up that I’ve been thinking for a while about personal blogging punditry in 2009: Man, I wish I could just sit down and write like I used to on a daily basis. It feels *different* though... Keeping a weblog seems to have become a sort of a mid 2000's fad that has passed its peak and starting to fade into obscurity, and maybe even soon ridicule along with bell-bottom jeans and mullets. Even though I love putting my thoughts out there, in the back of my mind it's almost embarrassing to add to the cacophony of opinions that now flow daily from every orifice of the Internet from people who just haven't gotten the message that it's just not cool any more. I mean, hey, let's face it - Social Networking elected the current US president, not blogging. I can't seem to get into the habit... - RussellBeattie.com I started blogging back in 2001/2002 on my own domain (with about 5 readers as I didn’t have “Microsoft” attached to my name) and ...

Moving to Movie Maker

374 days ago

After some great years working on our web experiences, I realized over my parental leave that it was time for me to try something completely new; to stretch my brain in ways I haven’t before and be intimidated again by just how little I knew about something. I’ve been around these parts since the first beta version of MSN Spaces in mid-2004 – and for a year and a half before that I was working on the underlying platform still in use – and have now seen many our efforts “grow up” into amazing Windows Live functionality like the What’s New feed, our new Profile, and our new People experience (one contact list!) I can actually remember when I was one of just a few people blogging regularly about our online services. While that has taken a backseat recently (we have great marketing and a team blog) the passion to continually improve our online story is stronger than ever. This past year was fantastic. The team is functioning on such a high level and everyone is really, really ...

Favorite quotes on the Windows Live update

380 days ago

As you may have heard, the new and improved Windows Live is coming your way very, very soon. We announced it last night at 9pm and so far, the feedback has been great. This is certainly the most satisfying part of this job: shipping! Shipping something you’re proud of that is. Particularly with a release like this one that was very much a “redefinition” in a lot of ways. Long gone are the days when I was the only one blogging about our release though ;) Check out our Windows Live Wire blog for more information on Windows Live. And check out the video below for more depth: Also – read the quotes below. FUN. Emphasis below is mine. Hall underscored that Microsoft is trying to simplify the Web experience by bringing together people and content scattered all over the Web and across personal computers, phones and other devices. Having one central place to organize and manage information relieves some of the social networking fatigue people are experiencing, he ...