Life On the Wicked Stage: Act 2

The Killer Angels Diaries: Fieldtrip

On Monday, most of the cast and crew of working on The Killer Angels took a road trip to Gettysburg (about 45 minutes from the theatre.) Until you visit this battle field you have no idea of the size of this amazing battleground. The cast was awed by what they saw and also the info related by the tour guide. Great trip. Let's hope it serves us well in rehearsal. More pictures after the jump.

The Horror Of The Aftermath of Katrina

I just returned to my office from recording a radio ad for our theatre. While there at the station I had a conversation with the news director. His brother lives in Mississippi and had been pre-positioned prior to Katrina coming ashore to assist in the cleanup.

He had just heard from him this morning for the first time since the storm hit. The news he related is terrifying. According to his brother we are not prepared to hear the casualty statistics. He said they were literally pulling dead bodies out of trees 10 and 20 at a time and that he guessed the final count could end up in the thousands in Mississippi alone.

We are far from knowing the full measure of what has just passed and what is to come.

Microsoft Releases SyncToy 1.0

Microsoft has taken the new SyncToy out of beta and released version 1.0. From the download page:

We listened to your feedback. SyncToy was released as a beta in early August 2005. We collected feedback from the discussion forum on the Windows XP Professional Photography web site, from the customer feedback survey in the product (to access the online survey, open SyncToy and select Help, then select Customer Feedback), from a large number of professional and hobbyist photographers at Microsoft, and from various world-wide forums, sites, reviews and blogs on the web. Most of you (55%) asked for the ability to type in a UNC path to select a folder. We added this feature between the beta release and the current v1.0 release. Features we added in response to customer feedback include:

• The ability to type in a UNC path;
• Support for longer folder pair names and ability to widen the left pane to see those longer names;
• The ability to support the maximum length for folder paths, and documentation was added to the help file about how to set up a share to be able to sync deep folder pairs;
• Better handling of the difference in precision between NTFS and FAT timestamps;
• More discoverable link to the help file for information on how to schedule SyncToy using the Windows XP Task Scheduler;
• Support for 800x600 screen resolution;
• Added a warning for users if the selected action will take some time to complete;
• Added brief explanations of the actions in the user interface;
• Improved behavior when choosing folders to include or exclude when there are large numbers of folders involved;
• Improved support for accessibility modes

Devastation

I am having great difficulty viewing the utter devastation from Hurricane Katrina even as the fringes of this horrific storm drops what seems like a gentle rain amidst lightning flashes here in Winchester, Va.

Without a doubt the Gulf Coast has been irrevocably changed, as have many lives. I pray for those immediately affected and find myself remembering the night that the remnants of Hurricane Camille (the last great hurricane to devastate the Gulf Coast) then downgraded to a tropical depression dropped so much rainfall on central Virginia that the mountains literally gave way and over 200 people died in the mountains and valleys in mudslides and flooding.

It was the summer of 1969 and I was getting ready to begin 8th grade. There was no 24 hour coverage and indeed what coverage that did exist was centered on the area that is so devastated today. It took several days for word to get out and our little county to understand the enormity of the devastation that had been visited upon us. It took many months for life to begin to return to normal then and this is what fills my mind when I see these pictures today. The struggle ahead.

What we are witnessing today is beyond my comprehension in terms of the immediate destruction. It drives me to my knees when I think of the suffering to come.

We have all been changed by this and it will still be days before we can begin to know how much.

Not So Good News From Microsoft Watch

Mary Jo Foley, an admitted Tablet PC skeptic, reports that some market researchers are revising downward their projections for Tablet PC growth. Here's a link to her column, and here is a link to the eWeek article.

UPDATE: Sometimes, I'm just in too much of a hurry. This article in eWeek is pretty sobering news. While we've heard a lot of the info before, with conflicting analysis, I think that simple fact points to confusion all around that can't be a good thing.

Could Apple Increase Tablet PC Sales?

Another First Family of Tablet PC member, Loren Heiny, has posed an interesting hypothetical. Would Apple Increase Tablet PC Sales? He's got two views.

Regardless of which side of the coin comes up, the question still points to the fact that Tablet PCs need to be in front of folks for the market to take off. In the post below, Lora links to David Coursey who calls that a no brainer. I agreee.

Lora Has A Couple Of Fascinating Tablet PC Posts On What Is New

Lora, the First Lady of the First Family of Tablet PCs, has a couple of great posts on What Is New. 

On the recovery disk, CRAPWARE, reinstall issue, she relates some great info from her previous experience as an OEM System Builder that I think folks who make these decisions should pay attention to. (And Lora, I'll accept the euphemism, but I think CRAPWARE drives the point home more.)

She also as a great link to David Coursey's article Tablet PC Is Stronger Than Predictions Suggest. Here's an excerpt:

My expectation has been, and continues to be, that Tablet PC will only sell in large numbers when it becomes a no-brainer to buy. That requires the price premium to come down to $50 to $75—a level many customers won't notice or, if they do, won't have trouble justifying. That is happening, though more slowly than I'd like

The entire article is well worth the read. As is Lora's blog if you are interested in Tablet PC info. Check it out.

Podcast: The techADDICTION Show #20 Is Now Live

Kevin Toffel and James Kendrick are back with The techADDICTION SHOW #20 podcast. Show notes and listen here.

Sign On-Line Petitiion To Include Install Media With Tablet PCs

There is now an on-line petition where you can sign up to support an effort to encourage Microsoft to mandate that OEM's include install media with each Tablet PC. Here is the link to read and sign the petition.

I would hope you consider signing this if you are a reader of this blog.

Podcast: The Tablet PC Show #22 Is Now Live

Those Tablet PC Podcaster Guys are back with a new Tablet PC Show podcast. Show #22 features co hosts Jame Kendrick and Marc Orchant and lot of Tablet PC info including an editorial regarding this week's ruckus over the ridiculous Microsoft/OEM policy of not including boot disks with each Tablet PC (or computer.) Give it a listen here.