Windows XP Expert Zone Community WebLog

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Windows Media Digital Rights Management Talk

Mike Coleman, product manager for Microsoft's Windows Media Digital Rights Management, will be on the Chris Pirillo Show online. The interview is live at 7 Pacific Time tonight, and on demand later.

Book Update: Windows XP Inside Out Deluxe, second edition

TweakXP.com Tweaking Utility

Steve Sinchak, one of the first enthusiasts to launch his own Windows XP Web site in 2001, TweakXP.com, an Expert Zone Featured Community, has teamed up with the creator of Tweaking Toolbox XP to launch a program for tweaking Windows XP settings. This is a program for advanced users, and you can't call Microsoft to get help with it. But it might be of interest if you're one of those folks who can't resist the urge to see what happens when you change a mysterious PC registry setting.

http://www.tweakxp.com/tweakutility/

-Chris Norred, tech editor

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Windows Media draws crowds at CES 2005

Once again, Microsoft's sprawling booth at the Consumer Electronics Show was packed full of people, products, and new technology this year. More than 140,000 people attended CES 2005 and, from these photos, many of them flooded into the Microsoft booth to take a peek at the latest gadgets, software, and online services that support Windows Media.

Next week, look for additional coverage of CES 2005 on the Windows Media Web site.

Consumer Electronics Show: The Paradox of Choices

A couple months ago, Barry Schwartz, author of the Paradox of Choice http://eshop.msn.com/search/detail.aspx?pcId=14542&prodId=2446533 spoke to a group at Microsoft. In his book, he makes a provocative case that the "freedom of choice" we enjoy so much in the US can actually be harmful psychologically and economically. For example, he shows that the more choices an employee has in a 401k retirement plan, the less likely the employee is to participate, even if it means loss of income. The choices are just too difficult.

I thought about this while exploring the 2,400 exhibits of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, seeing thousands of different options for watching digital video or listening to digital music. Even if you're a deeply committed geek, it can be a bit overwhelming. Thrilling, yes, but overwhelming.

However, if you believe that such overwhelming choice can be a form of adversity, the bright side is that adversity brings people together. In the Windows XP user community that you find on the Expert Zone, there are  user groups, newsgroup MVPs, independent community Web site publishers and other people who are getting together in clubs and online to help each other. They're helping each other figure what new technologies are useful, and how to make them work. In the new Windows Marketplace , people are helping each other figure out what is worth buying.

Getting involved in the user community is a good way to learn about technology and meet other people who are happy to share their knowledge. It's a chance to meet people who share your interests, and make some new friends.  It's a good choice that I think Mr. Schwartz would appreciate.

-Chris Norred, tech editor

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Mikehall's Embedded Weblog from CES

http://blogs.msdn.com/mikehall/

Mike, from the Windows CE team at Microsoft, is blogging daily from CES.

Behind the Scenes at the CES Keynote by Sean Alexander

http://blog.seanalexander.com/PermaLink,guid,586bac82-e272-44f7-a439-a3d1e6176aef.aspx

The excellent blog by Sean Alexander, a product manager now for Longhorn, frequently appears on the Expert Zone site. The feed from his blog has fallen off the Expert Zone home page aggregation for some reason so I linked to his new post "Behind the Scenes at the CES Keynote".

-Chris Norred, tech editor

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Community Service in the name of technology: Talking with PC User Group Leaders at Consumer Electronics Show

About 300 user group leaders from the Association of Personal Computer User Groups are in Las Vegas for the association's annual conference coinciding with the Consumer Electronics Show.

Microsoft Product Manager Aaron Coldiron, who runs the Mindshare user group support program, organized a luncheon with presentations, questions and answers covering Microsoft software and Web properties.

I spent time talking with several computing enthusiasts like Sherry Zorzi of the Cajun Clickers Computer Club in Baton Rouge, LA. Sherry hosts a call-in radio show offering tech help to people in the Baton Rouge area. Most of the user group leaders seemed to agree that reaching out to the public is an important goal for their groups. Some of the ways they're reaching out and attracting new members is by offering public workshops on how to buy or upgrade a new computer system. Getting expert advice on what technology to buy and how to set it up can save anyone a lot of money and time. Some user groups also hold "Tune Up Day" events, in which their members help anyone from the public perform PC maintenance and repair for a bargain fee, which also includes membership in the user group.

An interesting thing about the user groups is the demographic makeup. There are a lot of members in their retirement years. There is a potential bonus in this for working age and younger computer enthusiasts.

Remember all those really cool home computing projects you intend to master? For me, it's the DVD scrapbook of my son's first years. But you can't find time because the porch needs painted, the kids have soccer, and the boss wants another batch of paperwork by Friday?

Well, a lot of user group members, apparently, don't have kids or bosses anymore. They have time to figure out how to use the software, or put together the PC and the home network, and they're eager to share their information. All you have to do is go to a user group meeting and ask them.

-Chris Norred, tech editor

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Bill Gates CES Speech Online