Well, I only posted once – in uninspired fashion about soccer – in all of March until now. And that one post was more a test as I used Microsoft Live Writer with my blog for the first time. So here’s the TV Guide capsule version of all the posts I intended to make in March but never got to.

1. Live Writer Testing: I’ve had trouble working with images in WordPress for some reason, and I wanted to test Windows Live Writer. In WordPress, the text editor could become confused especially when I used the integrated photo cutline feature. Everything worked great with my free Windows Live Writer download, and with my test, except that once I posted the blog, Live Writer no longer could open it. Ironically, it could open all the blogs I’d authored in WordPress. Just not the one authored by the application itself. I’m using Live Writer for this post; so far so good. It just kicked ass on embedding the vimeo video below…in Live Writer. When I posted it to my blog, however, the embedded vimeo player is replaced with hyperlinks.
2. I have a blog in my drafts entitled “The future of computing? Visual computing.” I’d planned a tour de force on what I believe is the inevitable future state of computing; a future state that dramatically transcends today’s debate construct of Mac vs. PC, Intel vs. AMD, HP vs. Dell. Then along came this video that people are for some reason relating to Second Life. In my book, it’s just a sentimental look at why the future of computing is visual computing…and we’ll need serious graphics compute power and UI innovation to get there. But we will.
   World Builder from Bruce Branit on Vimeo.
3. Next blog in my draft folder: the surreal experience of looking at old headlines touting high-risk, high-reward hedge funds. A friend of mine told me a couple weeks ago that as she was cleaning out old files of AMD business press clippings from circa 2005-2006, she saw lots of headlines pertaining to hedge funds and the amazing returns being achieved. You know, publications like Forbes. the same Forbes that several years ago ran a story with the headline: “Intel to AMD: Drop Dead” which has since been re-titled “Only the paranoid resurge.” Intel sounds like a fun place to work!
4. And finally, an update on my Monsters vs. Aliens 3D post. The film came out to solid box office last weekend, but decidedly mixed reviews. Roger Ebert’s review brief:

"Monsters vs. Aliens" is possibly the most commercial title of the year. How can you resist such a premise, especially if it’s in 3-D animation? Very readily, in my case. I will say this first and get it out of the way: 3-D is a distraction and an annoyance. Younger moviegoers may think they like it because they’ve been told to, and picture quality is usually far from their minds. But for anyone who would just like to be left alone to see the darned thing, like me, it’s a constant nudge in the ribs saying never mind the story, just see how neat I look.

Now, if only it were always this easy to write a month’s worth of posts.

1. Henry is really putting forward more visible effort this season. I loved seeing him be more aggressive in practice contending for the ball, and his shins are covered with bruises that prove it.
2. I have a great team of 9 and 10 year-old boys. I couldn’t believe how quickly they took to my drills this week as we worked on striking the ball, ball control and all the set plays that this age group can struggle with in the first game: throw-ins, goal and corner kicks.
3. Instead of occasionally coaching and filling in, I’m coaching for the first time. I highly recommend it: your brain really enjoys and responds to having a new challenge that is so different from our professions or typical family time pursuits. The boys came up with the name “Blazing Stars” for the team. “Stars” for short. As a closet astronomy buff, I love it.

I’m now trying life at work with a new netbook, I gave up on the Intel Atom N270 powered Dell Inspiron 910 after less than one week and returned it to Pat Moorhead. As attractive as the Dell exterior was on that netbook – it looked like a high quality little machine – it was barely usable to do much more than use a basic browser for reading.

During our event last week in which several reporters came to the AMD Lone Star campus to see “Istanbul” six-core server CPUs demonstrated for the first time, I experimented and used the Dell 910 all day. The event was held on the other side of campus from me in the Customer Engagement Center, and I wanted to see how the Dell netbook would work during a day of meetings and note taking while trying to stay on top of email.

Unfortunately, the Dell 910 let me down in three important dimensions:

1. Keyboard arrangement. Even the misplacement of one key – in this case the apostrophe – greatly reduced the speed and accuracy of my typing. By the end of the day, I concluded I typed faster with my thumbs on my blackberry due to fewer errors. That’s it in the photo down by the left arrow key where a CTRL key usually sits.
2. Bloatware. as bad as bloatware is on many OEM PCs, it seems to be debilitating on an Atom-powered netbook. In my experience startup times were slow, browser loads were slow. Perhaps Intel could help bloatware inclined OEMs deliver the ability to have a zippier experience when you need it with a tool like the AMD Fusion for Gaming Utility and shut down all those unneeded processes?
3. Wake and recovery from various power and sleep states. It’s possible I could have gone into the BIOS and done some serious troubleshooting to amend this, but the little guy always seemed confused about recovering from a suspend or sleep state. Several times it would not recover with keystrokes, the screen remained black, and when I tapped the power key it shut all the way down.

On the plus side, the Dell got about 3.5 hours of battery life with Web and lightweight application use.

So I went to trader Pat and obtained a new Lenovo ideapad S10. The specs are almost identical to the Dell 910:

• Retails for $399, currently on sale from Lenovo at $349 (this is cheaper than the Dell 910 configuration I used)
• Intel Atom N270 Single Core (1.6 GHz)
• Windows XP Home Edition
• 10.2 WSVGA AntiGlare TFT with integrated camera and 1024×600 screen resolution
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950

I used the S10 for the last week as my main device in AMD meetings across campus and a few nights as an email tool at home. I also let my 9 year old borrow it for a bit to look at ways to spend a $25 Target gift card on line. My main applications used thus far on the S10 are Internet Explorer 7, Destroy Twitter, Yammer desktop application, and Microsoft Outlook Web Access.

First impressions are overall more favorable:

• Lenovo provided a relatively bloatware-free image and, despite using the same CPU, there is a noticeable difference in faster application and browser load times compared to the Dell 910.
• Good responsiveness in all sleep and power states.
• Like the Dell, the S10 is a good looking little device with a couple design accents.  The Dell has its glossy shell and logo, the Lenovo a fancy hinge with a splash of polished steel.
• A keyboard that felt far more natural to use.
• But less battery life than the Dell – I’m averaging under 3 hours.

However, when my son tried out target.com on the S10, that netbook fatal flaw revealed itself. It just seems intuitive that something called “netbook” would be good at running “the net” if nothing else.

But thanks to that 1024×600 screen, the first site my son wanted to use did not display properly. As he scrolled through Lego Star Wars sets, he noticed that the buttons that controlled the product image he was viewing were cut off. He couldn’t easily click “close” nor click the thumbnail for the next picture.

So let’s leave it at this for now: The S10 helped me see a little more of the basic attraction to netbooks in that I was able to use some of my Web-based email and social media desktop applications with decent productivity. But it failed my son’s test immediately. All things considered, I remain convinced that AMD is on the right path with “Yukon” and “Congo” and it would be ideal to see Dell and Lenovo join HP in offering affordable, ultrathin designs with real keyboards and the full Web.

Earlier this week I read a reference to the Intel Atom netbook processor as “recession proof.” I think for anything to be recession proof, it must offer bullet-proof value.

 I know the AMD Yukon platform and upcoming HP DV2 will offer bulletproof value as an ultraportable notebook after using one extensively at CES 09. Gorgeous HD visual computing, man-size keyboard. But light and sleek like a Trek racing bicycle made from carbon fiber.

How a real man like Popeye fell for a neck like this is an enigma wrapped in a riddle shrouded in mystery.

This weekend, I borrowed a new Intel Atom N270 powered Dell Inspiron 910 netbook from Patrick Moorhead. My intent is to keep my knowledge of netbooks and ultrathins sharp.

But I can already tell you, no way in hell would I want to write this blog on that netbook (or others like it; the Dell I believe is a cut above the current netbook crowd). I know this isn’t breaking news, but I can quickly categorize it as purely a Web consumption device. And as an aficionado for 3D visual computing, after 30 minutes I was left craving my self-built desktop with its bright 19” NEC Multisync 90GX display like no notebook ever left me.

While I do believe that some things are recession-proof, I stand convinced that for netbooks and affordable ultrathins to achieve anything like the 100+ million units projected in the next few years, the category desperately needs AMD and Nvidia. Intel knows how to make tiny cheap CPUs – give them credit. But Intel is lost when it comes to 3D and visual computing.

This generation of netbooks simply don’t offer bullet-proof value in my book. But the potential is there with a little help from the visual computing experts and a man-sized keyboard. (Men either type with our thumbs like we’re snuffing out hot embers, or we want a big keyboard with room. Anything in between is just effeminate.)

Also considered recession-proof yet proven to actually be so during the 20th century? Spirits.

So if I worked for Austin, Texas-made Tito’s Handmade Vodka, I’d launch a “Real men don’t use netbooks. Real men drink Tito’s.” campaign to uplift economically downtrodden tech industry workers with my six-times-distilled spirit. It would go something like this:

(Read this section as though it were a Sam Elliott voiceover).

Why is Tito’s Handmade vodka my brand of choice in tough times?

1. Pour yourself a glass of what the Wall Street Journal calls “America’s first craft sippin’ vodka” and visualize yourself surveying a sunset in the Texas Hill Country where this one-of-a-kind vodka was made.
2. For $30 bucks in Austin, Texas, you can buy nearly two liters of “Double Gold World Spirits” Tito’s Handmade Vodka. That’s a big bottle, no compromises, no regrets.
3. See the value. Although a first-rate vodka, Tito’s doesn’t resort to ensnaring you with pretty pictures of flying French geese or fancy frosted bottles with necks like Shelley Duvall. With Tito’s you get a glass-bottom-boat-sized view of your exceptionally distilled and cleansed vodka. No more, no less.

Which do you choose as recession proof with your last roll of Andrew Jacksons? I know what “Old Hickory” would reach for…

The meaningful moment for me came in the story of how Obama dealt with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright issue at its height. It is both the descriptions of what made this a pivotal moment, and how Obama responded, that lingered with me:

·         “His hand is forced” to deal with the Rev. Wright issue.

·         It is a moment of “maximum peril” for his campaign.

·         Jeremiah Wright allows Obama to “confront this issue sooner rather than later.”

Obama chooses rather than continuing to tactically deal with Rev. Wright’s sermons, to transcend the debate. He decides to write a very personal speech to address race in a much broader and more meaningful context. In delivering the speech on a Monday morning in Philadelphia, Obama regains control of his campaign’s narrative.

The personal computing industry — faced with global economy-driven reductions in demand, 20 million cheap-n-crappy netbooks sold in 2008 (and expected to quadruple by 2013?), dysfunctional and unfair competition, cloud computing/storage and more — perhaps faces just such a moment.

·         OEMs and chipmakers alike may “have their hand forced” to try new things and rise above classic PC industry tactics.

·         It feels like a “moment of peril” for dinosaurs like the “Intel Inside” iron fist that grips the industry. The prospect of 100+ million netbooks selling in a few years could unhinge Intel’s ability to keep the global PC industry under its thumb. If consumers by the tens of millions will buy an Atom-powered netbook with all its limitations – because they just want to surf, e-mail, Twitter and use cloud computing on a very portable device — what will that do to errode the potential returns on bringing arguably overwrought and reportedly underselling processors like Core i7 to a declining desktop tower PC market?

·         And with economic forecasts showing no immediate relief for the PC industry, perhaps the OEMs and chipmakers that “confront the issue sooner rather than later” will emerge as the new leaders.

2009 presents clear and immediate opportunity to transcend traditional PC industry dynamics and, hopefully, mature to a logical and healthier state sooner.

Transcendent Opportunities

• Stickers be gone: My three-year-old likes stickers and sometimes puts them places where they don’t belong. But I don’t know anyone who thinks they belong on a $1,000 consumer electronics device, especially one made by OEMs hungry to match Apple’s mastery of the aesthetic. When I bought my wife a new notebook about 6 months ago, my little boy saw all the stickers on the wristpad (yes, these included an AMD logo), and logically concluded “This is a place to put stickers.” The next time my wife opened her notebook, Jabba the Hut was looking back at her.

Should one of these ship with every PC sold?

• Netbooks that have it all (or most of it): AMD Yukon ultrathin platform is coming soon with the HP dv2 that plays 1080P video. The Nvidia Ion chipset is coming this summer, which reportedly brings 1080P video to Intel Atom-based netbooks. Faced with an HD chasm forming between AMD and Nvidia ultraportable PC capabilities and its own, Intel last week said it will pair a 720P-capabale Integrated Graphics Processor with its new Atom N280 processor some time this year. Two points on this: 1. The dark days of frustrating netbook experiences can come to an end and consumers will get the affordable, ultraportable experience they deserve. 2. What does this do to Centrino, which had an I-can’t-do-HD identity crisis of its own even at high-end mainstream notebook prices? (Note: go to 1:00 on the video.)

• Product tags that tell you something about the experience: Best Buy is a clear leader, but when I bought my wife that notebook there recently, this is what Best Buy considered the key information to put on the product tag as the consumer agonizes over a $700 to $1,700 PC purchase:
  • 3GB or 4GB of RAM
  • 250 GB or 320 GB hard drive
  • Windows Vista 32-bit or Windows Vista 64-bit
  • The price

None of which tells you a damned thing about the experience or design point of the product. Let’s tell the consumer something useful, like usage scenario categories: Good at HD video. Good at mainstream games. Good at high-end games. Good at video transcoding. Good at not using electricity or long battery life. All you need for a basic Web/cloud experience.

• Hot-Swap Desktop PCs: Another seemingly simple one, but one that actually requires innovation and R&D. One of the best and cheapest ways consumers can give PCs a makeover is to upgrade to discrete graphics. But they shouldn’t have to get all McGiever to do it. I LOVE building PCs, but I know I am in the EXTREME minority. Make plugging in a graphics card, or new memory, as easy as plugging an SD memory card into the reader on the side of your notebook. We do some of this with hot-swap server storage arrays. Let’s sprinkle a little of that on the consumer desktop market. Rahul Sood at HP with his BlackBird Hard Drives and the AMD GPG division with its Graphics Boosters are pointing the way for others to build on.

• Far more attention paid to the PC aesthetic with affordability: About 3 weeks before the initial iPhone launch, I was in Washington D.C. with Patrick Moorhead on a press tour. We met with an editor who had his iPhone review unit on him. He showed it to us without ever letting it leave his hands (don’t worry Apple, no protocol was breached). That Friday night, I remember having a fire going in the backyard with my boys, and thinking “Everything is about to change in the phone market. When the iPhone comes out, it will instantly make every other phone and smartphone seem sadly dated.” Where is THAT brand of UI and style innovation in the PC market? Apple itself took a big swing with the Mac Book Air, but perhaps overpriced. Dell? HP? Acer? Toshiba? Watcha’ got that we’ll love AND we can afford? Is the HP dv2 just such a step?

• Make it brain dead simple for PC salespeople: All this taken into consideration, you can see that much is left in the hands of the salesperson. It shouldn’t be. If $170 pocket cams can create HD video, $399 netbooks should be able to play it back. If $199 Xbox 360s play gorgeous games in HD, so should $1,000 notebooks. But today, most of them don’t. AMD introduced the 1^stmainstream HD notebook platform in 2008, and this year we’ll introduce the first affordable HD ultrathin notebook platform. Take away all the incompatibilities, up the bar on the graphics processing of everything the consumer buys, and salespeople stand to see far fewer of their customers come back only to stand in the “returns” line.

True story. My parents, both in their 70s but spry PC-users, needed a new notebook a couple months ago. They wanted AMD, being loving, supporting parents and all. First stop was a big box store. Actual conversation:

Mom: “Can we see your notebooks with AMD processors?”

Salesperson: “We have them, but I don’t recommend AMD. They are two years behind Intel in technology.”

Mom: “How so?”

Salesperson: “It’s how Intel makes their chips smaller and some materials they use.”

Mom: “Can you show me how that affects the way the notebook works?”

Salesperson: “Uhhhh…”   It’s not an easy question to answer with a straight face, especially to someone buying an $800 notebook. (Intel is fond of saying “We’re years ahead of the competition” based on the date it begins a transistor process node transition. Now, without using bar charts or saying the words “Hi-k” and “Hafnium,” Intel, please show us what 2 years into the future looks like with your products on the shelves at the big box store today. Something we can actually see and experience. In this new era of HD video and highly popular mainstream gaming, in fact Intel’s shortcomings in graphics are the easiest difference for the PC buyer to see for themselves.)

Next stop, Best Buy. Actual conversation:

Mom: “Can we see your notebooks with AMD processors?”

Salesman: “Sure! I love AMD. It’s all I use – best value by far.”

 As happy as I am that Best Buy set my folks up with a new HP notebook based on the AMD “Puma” platform, this should not have been their experience. Diametrically opposed opinions at their first two stops, with the AMD naysayer offering hype over sensibility.

And therein lies the opportunity for transcendence, but there will be winners and losers. It can’t be both ways. The big box store can’t go on selling increasing numbers of netbooks on an endcap, powered by processors that Intel says equate to 6-year old PCs, while upselling mainstream notebooks 10 feet away based on the materials used in the semiconductor manufacturing process. But that’s the paradox we saw for the first time during the 2008 holiday season.

Big changes are in store before the 2009 holiday season. Something’s got to give, consumers will benefit, and the PC industry will hopefully progress out of suspended adolescence as a result.

Yeah, we still look THIS good in our 3D glasses 60 years later.

For the handful of you with Intel 3D glasses, it’s a truly clever way another company would like you to use them. Better than Chuck, in my book.

Spoiler alert: it’s not just about kissing in 3D.

Today, the day of Super Bowl XLIII, I will go for a run then help my wife’s friend move for about 5 hours, right up to game time. (or pre-game time. Does anyone ever really know when the Super Bowl will kick-off?). Then, with what I will consider hard-earned self-satisfaction, I’ll unleash the hounds of hell on my stomach in the form of Super Bowl snacking. Third bowl of chili? Why yes, yes I will. More seven layer Tex-Mex dip? Yes, I think there’s room on my plate next to the little smoked sausages.

On my run and while lifting (from a bent-leg position) someone else’s armoire and dining set, I’ll have plenty of opportunity to ponder these two Super Bowl certainties:

1. I will remark to no one in particular at least five times during the game: “I can make a better commercial than that. I can’t believe they paid some agency to make that commercial then paid NBC a million dollars to air it.” I will mostly say this about beer commercials. Remember the flatulent horse? The clown drinking through its crotch? Less thirsty after those two images? Intriguing Super Bowl XLIII subtext: Will we see a different Budweiser this year now that they are owned by Belgium conglomerate InBev? Will base-humor Budweiser show a more sophisticated and worldly Eurostyle? If you call Clydesdales & Conan sophisticated, the answer is yes.
2. Despite much encouragement and prodding from me, no one in tomorrow’s Monday 10 a.m. staff meeting will remark on the striking similarities between Kurt Warner’s success story, and my own. I too bagged groceries, only at age 16 for Winn Dixie in Brandon, Florida. Like Kurt, I too went on to something much better than grocery bagging. Kurt is QB for a surprisingly competitive NFL team. I’m PR for a surprisingly competitive member of the SIA. I too have a four letter monosyllabic first name. Come on, isn’t this eerie? Like that Kennedy/Lincoln thing? No?

“I didn’t like it.”

My stunned looked and instantly halted reach for more chips and habanero-and-cilantro-based salsa (yeah, it’s a good Tex Mex place) told her all she needed to know. We were about to move form chit chat to a much more serious Tech Talk and I was all in.

She expounded:

• “We were watching Casino Royale.” Gee, exactly why are so many women interested in the new James Bond movies again?
• “It’s hard to describe. I felt like I was seeing too much detail.” For a moment I thought she was going to say she oddly preferred Daniel Craig with a soft Barbara Walters style focus…
• “It was as though I could SEE the green screen.” Hmmm. Starting to comprehend.
• “I could tell when they were shooting on a set instead of shooting on location.” Bingo.

I had never heard these words uttered before about Blu-ray. More resolution is … better. Right? Hell I spent 2008 working with @GChip, @legin, and True Renaissance man Jules Urbach telling the story of eye-def computing. As in, visual computing so realistic you can’t tell what is generated by an AMD graphics computer, and what was recorded with a video camera.

Sure, I’d heard of local anchors’ faces looking pancaked and some TV stars not holding up so well under 1080i resolution.

Ladies, this is entirely too much leg.

But a 1080P Hollywood Blockbuster movie? Isn’t that Nirvana for techno moviephile dweeb-types like me?

Then, I got it. I remembered the first time I watched Star Wars on a decent DTV. You could see the little cut-outs around the Tie-fighters during dogfight scenes. Same thing when I watched Ghost Busters in HD. Those gargoyle dogs that chased Rick Moranis weren’t even remotely believable and looked incomparable to even today’s pre-vis technology. And it bugs you.

But I still need to see it for myself. An excuse to stimulate the economy through newegg.com?

Even so, there is something to be said for seeing just the right amount of leg.

In Fox News style, here are a few questions I’d ask the powers behind the push to bring “active” stereoscopic 3D to TV and movies:

1. Apparently, during this year’s “Not Exactly Patriots vs. Giants” Super Bowl, we will be treated to a Sobe beverage commercial in 3D. It seems the awkwardly-shy-about-putting-its-logo-on-anything and painfully-self-conscious-about-not-overshadowing-its-customers Intel decided this is the right moment in history to print up 125 million paper stereoscopic 3D glasses (That is not at all wasteful. Suck on THAT Mother Earth!) with an Intel logo right between the eyes. And give them away free so we can watch a beverage commercial in 3D? Oh, and an episode of “Chuck” in 3D too? My Fox news question: Were Intel marketers inspired by the movie “Idiocracy” in convincing themselves that America wants to sit around looking at one another at Super Bowl parties with an Intel logo blazed between our eyes, watching ads?
2. DreamWorks, you are going to considerable expense to make your future animated projects stereoscopic 3D. You in fact said this is why you selected Intel as your processor supplier (After all, Intel is famous infamous for its 3D and graphics capabilities). But with theater adoption of digital 3D not only off the pace but likely to even decelerate in 2009 due to economic considerations, is this the 80/20 rule in reverse? According to the Dallas Morning News: “Only about 1,300 of North America’s 40,000 or so movie screens support digital 3-D. (IMAX adds 250, which combined is still less than 1/20^th). Overseas, where films now generate up to 70 percent of their theatrical revenue, only a few hundred theaters can support the technology.” So Fox News asks: We love your movies, DreamWorks, but do you think it is a good idea to exert 80% extra effort and expense even though much less than 20% of your audience can even experience it?
3. I’ll just jump to the Fox News question here. Do any of us really want to have to look like these guys to watch something in 3D?

I rest my case for a passive (no 3D glasses) 3D viewing experience.