Happy ClickYear!

So, I'm a few days late. If you were at the New Year's Party I was at - you'd just be coming alive as well.

Really. Not kidding. (Thanks Jaap and Lee!!!)

After taking a couple of days off to shake off the cobwebs and to get "that hungover taste" out of my mouth, I woke up to a bright new year, and a couple of interesting tidbits along the way:

1. Microsoft is bribing bloggers with laptops;
2. Hitachi is coming out with a 1 TERABYTE hard drive (under $400!);
3. Microsoft came out with a cartoon about their own crap software;
4. Amsterdam (the city) is ditching MS Office for OpenOffice;
5. The Crackberry is getting Push-To-Talk (PTT)

Microsoft is giving "evaluation" laptops with Vista on it to select bloggers in the hope they would write something nice about Vista. The only problem is - they didn't give on to everyone with a blog, so the whiny 6 year olds who didn't get one (i.e. "That's NOT FAIR") got their panties all in a bunch.

So, Microsoft, being the stand-up company (ah-hem) it is, then sent out a notice to all the people it gave the laptops out to saying when you're done with the eval you can send them back, or keep them or give them away.

THAT'S NOT FAIR! (Hey, I can try....)

Hitachi has announced that they will ship the world's first 1 terabyte hard drive in 2007 - get this - for $399! Damn. I remember when they came out with the first 20 MB hard drive and I didn't know what I would do with all that space. With the Video and photo explosion, probably in 2 years that will seem like a 20GB drive does today.

Still, 1TB for less than $400?? Nice.

In a "bold" bid to help educate John Q Public understand why the hell they changed the UI on the world's most-used office productivity software - Microsoft has created this jewel: The Enchanted Office. Much like Office 2007, the site is a cartoon. How fitting.

A cartoon. Really. Not kidding.

The city of Amsterdam (or the "country" of Amsterdam) in The Netherlands has announced that they are spending about $400,000 on servers, software, training and services to move their users from MS Office to OpenOffice (I'm still using it - and LOVING it). They are one of 5 Dutch cities that are working together to actively move users off MS Office - citing licensing costs and greater flexibility and greater "control over their own destiny."

And finally, RIM has licensed the Java version of Kodiak Network's Push To Talk application to inclusion in its new Pearl phone on Cingular wireless. The application offers BlackBerry Pearl users an array of features such as:

• Availability: Allows users to view the status of their business colleagues and see if they can receive a wireless call
• Call me alerts: Using the PTT button, a business professional can notify others that they need to talk to them
• Convert to cellular: Allows BlackBerry Pearl users to convert an individual or group PTT to a standard cellular call or instant mobile conference call by using the PTT button

Very, very hot! I know what I'm asking for next Christmas...

Thought For Today: If you need a frickin' cartoon to explain the benefits of your software to your target audience, DO NOT sell to that target audience. They will NEVER get it - and you'll just be more ridiculed than ever (remember the BOB OS?)...