I mentioned the very cool BigScreen Pictures the other day, well in related and very exciting news a DelicateGenius has a couple of licenses for both the Photo and Weather apps to give away.

The competition ends on Jan 30th so you'd better hurry... but even if you don't win check it out (there's a free trial for all-comers)

Although there's been a bit of news recently about Dave Winers new FlickrFan product for the Mac Mini it's not the break-through technology that folks have been touting it as. It's pretty neat and certainly offers some value to the very small Mac Mini user base.

But there's nothing new under the sun. Before I left Australia I was running some of the BigScreenGlobal add-ins for my Media Center (news, weather etc).

Today a DelicateGenius and FrankArr both gave me the scoop on version 2 (that's right, the second generation) of the BigScreenPictures app which lets you use Media Center (either the Media Center Edition version of WinXP or the functionality included in Premium and Ultimate versions of Vista) to display a photostream from Flickr (and other data sources) on your high def TV.

I guess because it's running on Microsoft technology and Niall doesn't have quite the same blogsphere presence BigScreenPictures (which doesn't have quite the same catchy name as FlickrFan I'll admit) probably won't get as much attention, thought it certainly deserves it. Give it a try, and while you're there check out some of their other great apps.

I'll leave the last word to Loren Feldman.

Every time I get all excited and add another computer to the setup at home I get in trouble.

It means more cables (the Media Center is a big culprit there) or another remote control (Media Center and Xbox360 are in the bad books there), something new to learn (that happened when we went to Vista and Office 2007 as well) or (my personal favorite gripe) yet more flashing blue lights.

Luckily our newest addition to the family isn't going to cause those sorts of upsets for a couple of reasons.

First of all because the server is designed to be headless it's going to live in a cupboard (just as soon as we drill a hole in the floor to drop the Cat5 cable down to the crawlspace) and because it's pretty transparent in operation no-one will really know it's there until it saves the day.

So what the heck is Windows Home Server? That was the question I asked when I first had a look at what was at the time called "Q". I couldn't see what was so special about a headless box that I could back stuff onto - after all I had a Maxtor NAS that could do it already didn't I?

But because I can't help myself when there's something shiny to play with I grabbed my spare desktop machine, flattened it and installed the first of several betas. After a pretty painless configuration process I had a box sitting happily on the network with the router configured to its liking and both the house PCs, the Media Center and my laptop running the Connector client. Everyone had access to the shared storage for personal data, music, pictures and movies and backups were running happily.

We slowly moved a lot of the video content for the Media Center off the various external USB drives that I used because we'd run out of space on the internal drives to the box upstairs.

A few weeks went by and we didn't really think about it. It was great having all the media in one place again and we moved the SlimServer software from Storms machine to the WHS box and no-one noticed any different (apart from Storm who got a few more responsive machine and better web browsing because she wasn't sharing her WiFi now the SlimServer was on the wired segment).

Then my work laptop had a bit of a moment and had to go for surgery. Now I'll admit that I'm not the king of backups - in fact I've not actually done anything apart from random files here and there since we got to the US - so I expected life was going to be painful. Not so. Grabbed my old laptop, installed the connector, connected to the Windows Home Server, mapped the backup and drag'n'dropped the files I needed.

An insiders perspective on development of Windows Home Server can be found on the WHS blog on TechNet and a glossy overview on the Microsoft site. If you want some more in-depth documentation check out the various Getting Started and SDK guides.

Yes, there is an SDK and folks can develop add-ins to extend the capabilities of the WHS configuration. I'm using WHIIST but check out the list at WeGotServed for more great add-ins. They're also keeping a list of OEMs who will be shipping units you can buy and put in your own cupboard later this year... meantime you can discuss the possibilities and future directions at the WHS Forum.

We still need to drill that hole so we can hide the wiring but Windows Home Server is staying.... and I'm looking forward to what v2 will bring ;)

It had to happen.

Singing LOLCats.

Is nothing sacred?

It's hard to describe so check out Kittahcore, the home of FeetFirstFalling with their first single "Killin' yr d00dz".

I'm not sure if it's going to change the face of popular culture as we know it today but it's a great use of "found" footage, original content (I assume the rendered cat is original content) and some pretty wicked beats...

It's LOLtastic ;)

Over the last few years I've worked on a number of projects where a pretty important deliverable was streaming video. Lots and lots of streaming video. Some of it edited on-demand clips but a fairly significant portion of it has been live content.

Luckily using Windows Media Server as a platform it's not that difficult to deliver, manage and report on either type of content. The on-demand stuff just needs a big enough server to cater for the variety of demands placed on it and the live content needs a very reliable head end encoder to feed the distribution platform.

Even content protection and billing mechanisms, while sometimes complex and often annoying, are not that difficult to do right.

The big pain point for a lot of the projects has been the bandwidth costs. Shifting terrabytes of data every month incurs a fairly hefty data center bill that's pretty hard to avoid (hence the need for advertising, sponsorship and subscription access to content).

Ironically too late to help me be a hero on any of the projects I used to work on (but hopefully it'll prove to be a suitable platform to help out the folks now running them) a Microsoft partner called Skinkers have developed a very clever new platform that addresses the pain point square on.

LiveStation (currently in Beta test) is a live streaming client designed to facilitate delivery of live TV to users PCs. LiveStation makes use of Silverlight as the display technology (so can utilize the streaming optimized codecs specifically engineered for that platform) and a peer-to-peer engine developed in conjunction with Microsoft Research which shifts the bandwidth demands from the publisher to a shared support mode where the more consumers there are of the content the more robust and responsive the delivery network becomes - instead of the opposite in a traditional internet broadcast model.

The concept is similar to what is behind Joost, Veoh and the Democracy (soon to be Miro) Player except where they are designed for on-demand, non time critical content (most of them need a buffering time) LiveStation has the added challenge that as a live content platform every frame is time critical.

I've been running the beta for a while (as well as Joost and a number of other next generation TV solutions) and it's not just because Skinkers are giving me a taste of home during the trial... I think it's the best player of the lot. They (in conjunction with Splendid) have done a great job designing a functional, elegant interface on top of a very powerful platform.

Don't take my word for it. Check out the interview that Steve Clayton (from MS UK) did with Matteo Berlucchi from Skinkers which explains the background as well as shows it in action.

There's been a lot of things floating around on the net recently about multi-touch displays and the new interface design that it's going to enable.

Movies like Minority Report and The Island have set expectations about how a multi-touch wall-screen or table interface should work

Now Microsoft have delivered a real world product. At various stages in its life it's been know as Play or Milan and has combined technology from Microsoft Research, the hardware group and the WPF team.

Visit the official site, and have a look at a 15 minute walk-through to see the power at on10.

Initially the hardware is going to appear at a number of partners including Sheraton Hotels and T-Mobile stores, but expect to see them turning up at technology and entertainment shows and when the volume ramps up ... a store near you ;)

The Microsoft Surface platform runs Vista with most of the UI developed in WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation - the big brother of Silverlight). It uses a set of cameras sensing differences in Infra Red light to track objects on the surface and a DLP projector under the diffuser to project the images that you see and interact with.

Wonder what the processor specs are on this machine?

Amazingly people have already started to reproduce the Surface UI using Silverlight!

Update: A fairly detailed overview from Popular Mechanics with a couple of great videos showing Surface in action.

Having lived in Australia for several years, and watched the weather change in both the UK and US I can't help but be aware that something is going on.

Too many people however are not even aware (despite documentaries like Al Gores "An Inconvenient Truth" ) that there is even a risk or reason to be concerned.

Luckily this July - 7/7/07 to be precise - MSN are presenting a series of concerts called Live Earth around the world (in the US, UK, Japan, Brazil, South Africa, China, Australia, and Turkey) to raise awareness of the problem.

To kick the process off, for the next 7 days a new song written and performed by Madonna exclusively for Live Earth is available for download from MSN so check out the site, find out where your closest concert is and check out the new track.

Then spread the word....

From Gizmodo some great news - Proposed House Bill Kills Internet Radio Royalty Rate Hike.

Looks like the RIAA and their short sighted attempts to price internet radio out of the market may be coming to an end.

Of course, it's still got to pass so make sure you follow the links in both stories to show your support.

If some members of the U.S. Chocolate Industry have their way, we will soon see a detrimental change in the quality of chocolate you love. Their proposal is to change the basic formula of chocolate in order to use vegetable fat substitutes in place of cocoa butter, and to use milk substitutes in the place of nutritionally superior milk.  These changes will have adverse effects on the eating, physical and nutritional quality of chocolate, and beg the question: What consumer benefit is associated with implementing these changes? The answer is none.

I like chocolate just the way it is. Made with 100% cocoa butter and real milk, not than some concocted blend of fats and other substitutes.

Without proper labeling, consumers will find it difficult and confusing to differentiate the current gold standard of real chocolate vs. this new concoction, which has substitute ingredients. This will amount to economic fraud to the consumer as the product will become cheaper with inferior ingredients.

The proposed formula contains large quantities of bad Trans fats, which are not good for your health.

Cocoa butter is unique; vegetable fats can only masquerade as cocoa butter.

The eating properties, flavor and mouth feel will all be different - they're messing with the user experience and pleasure.

All manufacturers, even those who do not want to support this, will be forced to convert to the new concoction due to the economic advantages associated with the new formula and their wanting to remain effectively competitive within the category. The net effect will be a total downgrade in the eating enjoyment and quality for chocolate.

When does it end? Sawdust and brown food color?

Come on, for the last several hundred years (if not longer) chocolate has been taken to have a particular minimum list of ingredients.

To allow something that's a bland artificial substitute simply to allow a few corportations to make an extra buck is just plain wrong.

Let them call it chocolike. or candy. or processed slurry - there are plenty of names for it, but leave chocolate alone. I know what it's doing to my body and accept the risks but this - it's playing Russian roulette with a nations sweet tooth

What next?

If this passes I shudder to think.

Act now before it's too late. Read more here, and sign the petition here. Do it now while you still know what's in that peanut butter cup....

A while ago the RIAA asked to be awarded royalties from Internet Radio providers such as Pandora and Live365 that was totally disproportionate to their income and not in line with what traditional or satellite radio are being charged.

The first appeal against the ruling has failed.

This gouging is apparently intended to protect the artists, when in fact it looks like it will drive many of the US based Internet Radio providers to the wall. This is not good for anyone actually creating music.

The upshot is a lot of this artist revenue will either go away, or move offshore to less well regulated environments... and the only people who suffer will be the artists (I can't find it in my heart to care about the folks from the RIAA!)

Luckily you can help. There is a letter-writing campaign underway so you can let your Representatives know this is going on (email and fax work as well), and you can write to the media and spread the word on and off-line.

Let's not let short-sighted greed destroy a nascent industry that has the potential to reverse the record labels push to lowest common denominator mediocrity in mainstream music.

Reading about the RIAA and the latest DRM snafus, it makes you wonder why people are returning to DRM free vinyl...