Author: Ed Bott

Tech journalist. Author of 25+ books. ZDNET Contributing Editor since 2006. Contact info: https://edbott.com/contact-me/

SNARF your e-mail

This sounds very, very useful:

SNARF from Microsoft Research

Microsoft Research’s Community Technology presents SNARF, the Social Network and Relationship Finder.

SNARF was built around the notion that social network information that is already available to the computer system can be usefully reflected to the user: a message from a manager might be seen differently than a message from a stranger, for example. SNARF applies this idea to email triage: handling the flow of messages when time is short and mail is long.

The SNARF UI is designed to provide a quick overview of unread mail, organized by its importance. The UI shows a series of different panes with unread mail in them; each pane shows a list of authors of messages. Clicking on a name shows all messages involving that person.

People use a variety of strategies to handle triage; there is no single “best” ordering of email messages to produce an optimal outcome.

SNARF gives the user the freedom to build their own ordering. Each person in their inbox is assigned a set of meta-information: “number of emails sent in the last month,” for example. These metrics can, in turn, be combined to create an ordering across all contacts. For more information, check out the CEAS paper on SNARF.

I don’t believe there’s a “magic bullet” for organizing e-mail, but this concept has a lot of potential for helping to prioritize interesting stuff. I’m especially interested in comparing it with ClearContext.

Some Windows Vista updates

I’ll have a lot to say about Windows Vista later this week. For now, here are a few news updates.

From the Eye Candy department, XPSource has images of new Windows Vista wallpapers from Build 5259. (No, this build will not be available to beta testers.)

More substantive news is in eWeek, which reports on a new feature called Restart Manager, slated to appear in an upcoming test release. As Microsoft Windows honcho Jim Allchin explains, it’s designed to overcome a longstanding Windows frustration:

“If a part of an application, or the operating system itself, needs to [be] updated, the Installer will call the Restart Manager, which looks to see if it can clear that part of the system so that it can be updated. If it can do that, it does, and that happens without a reboot,” he said.

“If you have to reboot, then what happens is that the system, together with the applications, takes a snapshot of the state: the way things are on the screen at that very moment, and then it just updates and restarts the application, or in the case of an operating system update, it will bring the operating system back exactly where it was,” Allchin said.

A brief article on Microsoft’s developer site adds a few more details:

Restart Manager works with Microsoft Update, Windows Update, Microsoft Windows Server Update Services, Microsoft Software Installer, and Microsoft Systems Management Server to detect processes that have files in use and to gracefully stop and restart services without the need to restart the entire machine. Applications that are written to take advantage of the new Restart Manager features can be restarted and restored to the same state and with the same data as before the restart.

Good idea.

One newspaper down, a gazillion to go

Big, big kudos to the Houston Chronicle for eliminating the requirement that visitors register:

[T]he Houston Chronicle Web site has stopped requiring visitors to register by providing personal information before reading online articles.

[…]

Before abolishing mandatory registration, Chron.com had, for one year, intercepted online readers after several page views and asked for personal information, including their names, addresses, dates of birth, and household income. Weis said that Chron.com quietly eliminated the registration requirement in May as part of a site redesign, and has since “seen a very steady increase, and in some cases a jump, in site traffic.”

The paper didn’t publicize the move until this week, when it posted a note to readers explaining the redesign and the site’s new features. Registration is still required for certain offerings, including free access to the archives.

Great move. I wish every newspaper would stop this pointless exercise. Do they not realize that a huge number of their visitors are using phony identities and that some are choosing not to visit at all?

Windows Vista to ship next August?

Business Week claims to have found a leaked internal blog post from Chris Jones of Microsoft’s Windows team with detail on the Windows Vista release schedule:

[T]he company has been mum on the date, saying only that Vista will launch some time in the second half of 2006. Analysts have taken that to mean a shipment date some time near Christmas.

It turns out, the company plans to ship much sooner. According to an internal blog by Chris Jones, one of Microsoft’s top Windows execs, the shipping target is Aug. 31. To be clear, that’s not the day Vista will land on store shelves or be available on computers. Rather, that’s the target to have software code complete and sent off to computer manufacturers. That way, they can test the software and start to build PCs in time for the holiday season.

[…]

If Microsoft keeps Jones’s schedule, Vista could be available in October. The code for Windows XP, Vista’s predecessor, was complete on Aug. 24, 2001, and launched on Oct. 25 that same year.

For those who are trying to match the Windows Vista and Windows XP schedules and wailing about the lateness of Windows Vista Beta 2, it’s worth noting that Windows XP Beta 1 appeared in October 2000 and Windows XP Beta 2 was released on March 27, 2001. Windows Vista Beta 1 appeared in July 2005, which puts it well ahead of XP’s schedule.

That August date is not a fantasy at all.

(Via LonghornBlogs)

I’ll be covering CES this year

What a difference a year makes.

Last year, the organizers of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) refused to issue press credentials to bloggers. This year, they’re welcomed with open arms. I have my press pass already and will be at CES for four days.

A note to PR people trying to arrange meetings with me: It really helps if you make at least a slight effort to personalize the pitch. I’ve already received a half-dozen requests to set up meetings to see and discuss:

  • A handheld MP3-based karaoke stick.
  • Four amplifiers for automotive sound systems.
  • A kiosk system for retailers that want to add photo printing to their lineup of services.
  • An in-depth discussion of why one company’s batteries are better than the competition’s.

I think I can safely say I won’t be writing about any of these topics after CES.

Update: Looking for press credentials? Apply here.

Listen up, Sony!

In the comments to an earlier post, Ben Edelman makes a very smart suggestion:

I share your assessment that “Sony still has a long way to go.” In addition to the problems you raise, there’s also the question of whether and how Sony will provide meaningful notice to affected users. In http://www.benedelman.com/news/112105-1.html I show something of a novel approach — using Sony’s own “call-home” feature to send users a special banner ad describing the situation and users’ rights. Turns out Sony can do this with only a few lines of XML code placed on their web server. And I already ran a demo — using a HOSTS file to make one of my PCs look like Sony’s web server — to confirm that the banner system works as required.

Go look at Ben’s page. This is one of the best solutions anyone has yet come up with for the conundrum of how to recall a defective product that most users don’t even realize they have.

Get the new Windows AntiSpyware Beta

No, this isn’t the long-awaited Beta 2; it’s yet another refresh of Windows AntiSpyware Beta 1:

The latest beta refresh, build 1.0.701, extends the Windows AntiSpyware beta expiration date to July 31, 2006 and provides new signature updates to help protect against recently identified spyware.

Existing users of the beta (Build 1.0.615) will receive a software update that includes the new beta refresh. The latest beta refresh is also available for download through this site.

Microsoft would like to encourage all Windows AntiSpyware (beta) users to download and install the new update (Build 1.0.701).

If you already have Windows AntiSpyware installed, it should update automatically. If you’re thinking of installing this program, this is as good a time as any. It’s lightweight, effective, and free.