BOOM!

Yes, it’s an all-star game (Pro Bowl) in Hawaii, not the regular season or playoffs.   And yes, it was a poor, defenseless kicker.   But when AFC punter Brian Moorman executed a fake punt on Saturday instead of kicking it away, he became fair game for this unbelievable hit by the Redskins’ Sean Taylor.

 

 

It doesn’t add up

One of the Spaces features I’ve worked on a lot over the last 3 years is the Profile module.  Anyone in the software business will tell you that for every feature request made by a customer, the product team has a mile-long list of issues that drive us nuts about our features and it kills us when we have to continually postpone them to a future release in favor of improving other higher-priority areas of the service.

I turned 31 today and ran smack dab into one of those nagging issues I want to fix and one that Spaces loyalists inside & outside of Microsoft have contacted me about regularly — having to update the age in your profile every year.  We’ve got Xbox Live modules that automagically update when you pop a new game into the Xbox 360 in your living room, but your Profile module at birthday time acts more like the Neanderthal clocks in your house when Spring-ing ahead or Fall-ing back!

It may seem like a simple math problem, but there are some minor design challenges with the Age field being part of the General section of your profile while your birthday is part of your Personal Contact Info.  Nothing insurmountable, though. 

While I can’t make any promises about when we’ll be able to fix this, it just became my #1 birthday wish if Ben, German, and DeEtte are listening right now

Slick Vista gadget

 

Donavon West, one of the first developers to test drive the Microsoft Gadgets platform, has released some eye candy for your space, Vista sidebar, or Live.com start page.  It counts down the time remaining until Vista (gorgeous and solid!) hits the streets.   Check it out in the righthand column of my space homepage (or my Vista desktop if you’re ever in the same room as me).  

 

Get more info from Donavon about the Vista Countdown gadget

 

Check out other gadgets Donavon has posted to Windows Live Gallery

Customize ‘til you drop

 

If you’re interested in how to add new gadgets to your space as they become available in Windows Live Gallery. head over to the Space Craft to see my latest post with the same subject. 

Jack Bauer: hero or control freak?

If you watch 24 like the rest of the free world does, it’s probably because Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland’s character) is a much cooler and more violent McGyver!   Every week you’re left shaking your head at Jack’s escapades.  I’m pretty sure my wife fantasizes about him, too.

 

I have no idea how Jack used to be in charge of the entire Los Angeles Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU).  He is pretty much the anti-manager.   Yeah, he barks an order at Chloe every once in a while and she does what he asks.   But, he does what no manager is supposed to do — makes himself indispensable. 

 

Anyone who runs around saying "I am the ONLY one who can interrogate him" or "Bill, you know I’m the ONLY one who can get the answer we need right now, so put me back into play!" has control issues.  He needs to delegate.  If he tried doing that, I bet he would find he has more time to keep key witnesses from dying every damn episode…

Dallas puts me in weird position

There are great players in sports, and there are superstars.  Terrell Owens is a superstar – he’s silky smooth running with the ball after a catch.  It’s killed me to watch him wreck his two teams (49ers and Eagles) and screw with another (Ravens), and I wrote him off completely after he bashed Donovan McNabb and the Eagles last season.  Neither integrity nor being a good teammate are high on T.O.’s list.  T.O. is all about T.O.

However, the news just broke that my Cowboys went off and signed him to a 3-year deal worth $25 million, which is more money than he made with the Eagles:   

 

ESPN.com – NFL – A star is born: Owens signs with the Cowboys

 

Part of me hoped that the NFL owners would conspire to lock him completely out of the league this year to send a message to him and other primadonnas/would-be-team-wreckers that it ain’t about them, it’s about the game itself. 

 

While I can’t look past what he’s done or not worry about him doing it again in Dallas, I’m gonna be excited this season when Drew Bledsoe comes to the line with Julius Jones in the backfield, speedy Terry Glenn on one side, and T.O. on the other.  Michael, a friend at work,  just likened it to his Bulls signing crazy Dennis Rodman and then going 72-10.  Bittersweet….

 

93 million users can’t be wrong…

and the hits just keep on coming!  We’ve seen incredible growth of the service and today we’re releasing a bunch of cool features.  We’ve received a ton of great feedback from YOU that we’ve tried to incorporate.  I won’t try to list all the changes here since you can read more on the Spaces team blog – http://spaces.msn.com/thespacecraft – but here’s a taste:

 

Don’t like "/members/blah"?  Perfect – you can now drop "/members" from your URL.  http://spaces.msn.com/jay definitely looks better on a business card or in an e-mail signature.  Your old URL will still work so don’t worry if you gave it out.

 

Wish the Custom HTML powertoy could support more characters?  No sweat – we doubled the character limit. 

 

Want to write your blog entries offline with spell-check instead of using our Add Blog Entry page?  Use a 3rd party app like BlogJet to create/edit MSN Spaces blog entries thanks to our support for the MetaWeblog API.

 

Wish you could make some money with your space?  Choose our new Sponsored Links module or create a book list with Amazon affiliate integration so you can get paid when visitors follow your links/recommendations!

 

Love your Xbox 360 and want the world to know it?  Add the Xbox Live GamerCard and Recent Games modules to show off your gamerscore, achievements, and link to your full Xbox Live profile. 

 

and you’ll have to check out the Spaces team blog for more…

 

The buzz in the hallway right now is intense.  In between powwow-ing with Operations on the actual rollout, folks are hanging out in my office playing an Xbox 360 trying to get their gamerscore up (you know who you are!).  Hope you enjoy all the new features and keep the feedback coming!