Via Cheap Stingy Bargains I note that Buy.com has the HP MediaSmart EX470 1.8GHz Home Server for $400 after $150 instant discount, with free shipping. That’s 50 bucks less than Amazon.com’s price.

[Update 14-Nov-2008: Well, that didn’t last long. As Dan notes in the comments, the deal seems to be dead now.]

Last year at this time, I reviewed this little device for ZDNet and called it “small, smart, and impressively simple.” I’ve been using one of these boxes for over a year, and I can attest that it is a superb device. The software bug that got so much publicity early this year has long since been fixed and the current Home Server code base is rock solid.

Regardless of where you buy this, you will want to beef up the default 512MB of RAM to 1GB or more (follow the links here). You will also want to get another drive or two to complement the single 500GB drive that comes with it.

If you’ve been looking for an excuse to get a home server, this is your chance. The small form factor and headless operation (no monitor, keyboard or mouse required) makes it preferable, in my opinion, to a homebrew box. For any household or small office that includes more than two PCs, it is absolutely essential.

Via Todd Bishop comes the reminder that “Monday marked 25 years since the unveiling of Windows 1.0.” As Todd notes, it took another couple years before the product actually shipped. And of course even the most rabid fanboi has to admit that it was roughly seven years (Windows 3.0 in 1990) before Windows was really worth using on a daily basis.

I know I have shrink-wrapped boxes of Windows 3.1 here, but I am pretty sure the earlier versions long ago disappeared from my garage.

Anyway, Happy birthday, Windows

Last weekend I was part of a fun panel discussion where the main topic was what went on at Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference in LA. You can listen to me and fellow guests Paul Thurrott and Rafael Rivera as host Leo Laporte tries to keep things mostly on track (and mostly succeeds). We talk about Windows 7, Azure, and a few other developer-related topics.

Listen here: This Week in Technology, episode 167

Bonus media: a shot of me at a PDC press event, taken by Paul Thurrott:

An incredible likeness, don’t you think?

It’s been almost three years since DirecTV announced its intentions to release a digital tuner that would allow Windows Media Center PCs to receive, record, and play back high-definition satellite programming.

Since then, the DirecTV tuner has become almost as mythical as Bigfoot or Nessie.

So imagine my surprise when I found a signed device driver for the DirecTV HDPC-20 in the pre-beta release of Windows 7 given to attendees at PDC.

Details over at ZDNet.

CNET’s Ina Fried, today:

In a presentation on its somewhat secretive Velocity program to improve PC quality, Microsoft director Doug Howe showed a slide saying that the Vista Velocity program would continue through next spring as Microsoft worked to improve Vista machines that ship in next year’s back-to-school time frame. He went on to say that Microsoft would continue the Velocity effort with Windows 7.

The slides and Howe’s presentation appeared to confirm what has been widely speculated–but something Microsoft has not outright said–namely that Windows 7 is aimed to ship around mid-year, in time to be on machines that ship for the 2009 holiday buying season. [emphasis added]

Huh. Imagine that,

Since I got back from PDC, I’ve been doing two things: working as a volunteer in this year’s election campaign (including 14 hours at the polls on Tuesday) and shifting among five separate Windows 7 installations to see exactly what’s new and different. And I still have two additional installations on my to-do list.

I’m mostly recovered from the double whammy of a PDC followed by the end of the world’s longest Presidential campaign EVER. (Sleep is a marvelous thing.) Next week I begin posting some of my Win7 discoveries. Meanwhile I’m curious to hear from you all. If you’re using the pre-beta PDC build of Windows 7, what do you think? If you’ve read about Windows 7 but haven’t used it yourself, any thoughts, reactions, and questions? Is there anything you’ve heard about in Windows 7 that makes you want to upgrade?

I’m especially interested in hearing from XP users who plan to skip Vista. Is there anything you want me to look at it in more depth so you can decide whether it’s worth upgrading?

The comments section is open…

If you’ve been following the Windows 7 beta sites, you probably caught the buzz last night when Within Windows blogger Rafael Rivera demonstrated how to unlock the flashy new Windows 7 taskbar in the PDC build.

Props to Rafael for some A-level sleuthing. But before you get too excited, hop over to ZDNet, where I explain the crucial differences between the unlocked interface and the one that Microsoft was showing off in its PDC demos:

That “unlocked” Windows 7 taskbar is also unfinished.

After nearly a week of using the pre-beta PDC release of Windows 7, I’m starting to notice the little things. Like this:

See that number in the lower right corner? In Windows Vista, the maximum value for any subscore is 5.9. Clearly the scale is now higher, as that 6.3 (solid-state drives are fast) indicates.

So how high is the upper limit? If you’re running the pre-beta Windows 7 build, share your Windows Experience Index scores in the comments.

In today’s PDC keynote demo. Media Center got no love at all. It also got no love at the reviewers workshop I attended over the weekend. Fortunately, Microsoft’s Charlie Owen is on the case, with a very detailed and thoroughly illustrated  look at Windows Media Center in the PDC Build of Windows 7.

High points:

• All the good stuff from TV Pack is in this build.
• H.264 playback is now supported out of the box with Windows 7 — including on Media Center Extenders.
• There’s a desktop gadget (no more Sidebar) that shows TV and recorded shows in the order they are recorded.
• Music playback is greatly improved.

And, drum roll…

Rating your content has never been easier in Windows Media Center. By enabling Rating Shortcuts you can press the 1 through 5 buttons on the remote or keyboard to rate the music (or picture as this is one of the shared features) in real time.

If you’re a Media Center fan, this is a must read. If you’re a Media Center developer, be sure to read the follow-up post, which documents changes to the Media Center platform.

Awesome stuff, Charlie. I can’t wait to begin using this.

My ZDNet first look is now live:

A first look at Windows 7’s pre-beta PDC release

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Image Gallery: See features from the pre-beta release as well as later internal builds not yet publicly released.

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