Microsoft developers taking their work home with them

Microsoft has been trying to work its way into the living room for some time. Now the company is trying to target the most easily wooed addresses: those belonging to its employees.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has an interesting write-up on how Microsoft is letting some of its workers try out elaborate digital living room set-ups to get a better sense of how its technology plays inside actual homes.

It's a start. But, of course, how Microsoft workers enjoy their own technology is often vastly different than how ordinary consumers do.

Microsoft also does plenty of field testing of its products. But I still think that many of Microsoft's consumer products, particularly Windows Mobile phones, still feel like they were designed by Microsoft workers for Microsoft workers.

I do think the move to combine Microsoft's Media Center and IPTV efforts is a positive one. Ideally, the company would be able to have one development platform for TV content, whether that is coming into a set-top box, Media Center PC, or an Xbox console.

In any case, we're likely to hear the latest on Microsoft's digital living room strategy on Sunday, as Bill Gates delivers his talk at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

[Frewgle]

Now You Can Reboot in your own living room

Just when you thought it was safe to come out of the home office/computer room, here we go. Of course, MS employees have a higher than normal tolerance for "glitches"

I'm waiting for the YouTube video of the new SNYC product going haywire. Cellphone - call Michael Bolton and slam on the brakes hard...

[radio1610]

for all the people that have the problem of screensaver not working with any wireless product - the fix is simple -go to, control panel -system- hardware -device manager- human interface devices-- HID NON-USER INPUT DATA FILTER -- right click on it and select update driver -- once done - to test it and see if it works by setting your screen saver to 1 minute -- but i know it will work - HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY !!!!!
if it works for you contact me at [e-mail]----

[cstricklen]

Thanks! This worked great! For all the rest of the "helpful" folks all over the internet who pointed me to microsoft support, for cryin' out loud, if you don't know the answer, why are you compelled to offer a solution?