Inside the Insiders is a series of interviews with some of the most recognized and outspoken Microsoft influentials, journalists and enthusiasts I know. I plan to go around interviewing as many of these peers as possible to find out more about their background, life outside of Microsoft and their darkest Unix fetishes. At least that’s what I tell them. Little did they know their answers will help me annihilate them and my other competitors. Everyone’s still falling for it, even when I tell them outright.

She’s so full of karma, she glows of a warm shade of gold.

In an era of journalist-wannabes, there are only a few who can claim they actually studied journalism or worked as a professional journalist for much of their lives. Mary Jo Foley, or otherwise accurately nicknamed the “Microsoft Watcher” has done both. She’s been in the business right from the beginning when Steve Jobs was just a guy with the turtleneck. She probably knows more code-names than exists. And she’s broken several quite infamous Microsoft stories over the years, most negative – but that’s what people want to hear. I also had the pleasure of meeting Mary Jo at CES this year and so did Maryam Scoble who did an excellent video interview. Here’s my not-as-good-as-Maryam’s interview.

Hello Mary Jo. If you were a car, which one would you be?

Long: Hey Microsoft, if you want to hide secrets from MJ, hold meetings in a car park!

So you are the official Microsoft Watcher. How did that title come about? Or do you have a really big telescope pointed at Redmond?

Long: The whole world’s gone soft.

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Microsoft today updated two of its most popular resources, Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) and TechNet with a fresh new look and new navigation capabilities. While changes are not groundbreaking by any aesthetics standards – the layout is nearly identical, however it does remove a share of the eye-sore across these extensive resources. But understandably there is just so much content and residue from updates stacked on updates, it will never be perfect.

There’s no denying the update brings a lot of Web 2.0 components to these sites, for example: auto-complete searches; tabs; drop-down navigation and a-hell-a-lot-of white space. But it’s not quite there. There’s no rounded corners, no extra-large input fields or even pastel colors. However, bonus brownie points for using Silverlight for the video-ticker on MSDN.

Just to put things into context, here’s a comparison between the old and the new. The “old” screenshot is not entirely accurate because it is from Archive.org, but it gives you a pretty good idea.

Update: Added 0.05 points for Silverlight implementation.

Inside the Insiders is a series of interviews with some of the most recognized and outspoken Microsoft influentials, journalists and enthusiasts I know. I plan to go around interviewing as many of these peers as possible to find out more about their background, life outside of Microsoft and their darkest Apple fetishes. At least that’s what I tell them. Little did they know their answers will help me annihilate them and my other competitors. So far my plan is working, and no one suspects a thing.

Brandon LeBlanc (right). Clay model (left).
Or so he tells me.

This time, I chat with Brandon LeBlanc who has a gift for multi-tasking. He used to blog for himself at MSTechToday as the Sidebar Geek (he’s very fluent in Sidebar I might add), which later implode, forcing him to blog on Live Spaces instead – a bold move. More recently, he joined Microsoft’s official Windows Vista Team Blog, writing for The Windows Experience blog – creating a-blog-in-a-blog paradox. If that wasn’t enough, he’s also Twitters. This interview would be considered counter-productive because he’s only responding to 1 question at a time.

Hey Brandon, sorry to take a bit of your “Halo 2 on Vista” time. Don’t worry, Master Chief will still be there when you get back.

Long: You can count that towards community service.

Who are you? And how do I know you’re not really a 65-year old sitting behind a computer?

Long: But you could have had a very clever disguise. Wonders what those anti-aging creams can do these days.

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You might know of Cannes as the prestigious event where all the movies you’ve never heard of are screened and judged as some of the finest work in the industry, but you might have not heard of the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival of equal status and prestige. At this event, 42Entertainment, AMD and Microsoft hopes to win an award in the Titanium and Integrated Lions category for the hugely viral Vanishing Point marketing campaign for Windows Vista.

Vanishing Point was one of the most intricate, challenging and rewarding puzzle games ever devised. Like something straight of the “Da Vinci Code”, puzzles and spectacular events were placed all over the world touching on topics ranging from science to arts and history. Players were invited to participate to win out-of-this-world prizes including a trip to sub-orbital space. The best part was seeing how communities formed to work together as one with unpredictable efficiency and accuracy. Last but not least, it generated the positive buzz Microsoft was hoping for to help launch Windows Vista.

The Cannes Lions – International Advertising Festival is a celebration of the best minds and creative mix in the advertising industry, a bit like the Oscars for ads. The Titanium and Integrated Lions are newly introduced categories at the Lions festival in 2007. This combined category recognizes breakthrough and innovative ideas as well as integrated advertising campaigns which utilizes at least three media.

Whilst Integrated Lions will honour high standard state-of-the-art integrated campaigns, the premise for Titanium Lions remains the same: Titanium celebrates work that causes the industry to stop in its tracks and reconsider the way forward. Titanium stands for breakthrough ideas, it might be a brand new idea, or it might use an existing idea in a brand new way. Titanium is for work that is provocative, that challenges assumptions and points to a new direction.

The 54th International Advertising Festival will be held 17-23 June 2007 in Cannes, France. Guess where the name comes from. The Integrated and Titanium Lions will be presented to the winners in Cannes on Saturday evening, 23 June 2007.

Credit where credit is due, hats off once again to Microsoft’s Aaron Coldiron who coordinated such a clever campaign, the brains and wizards at 42Entertainment for making it all happen, and AMD for just being a good sport. They deserve the recognition for putting together not only for something fun, but something every single person is invited and able to enjoy. Hopefully all the other entries in the same categories will too, vanish. Good luck Loki.

I received something special today in the mail, a copy of the Expression Studio Commemorative Edition given out at last month’s Microsoft MIX 2007 conference in Las Vegas. Not only is it one of the first retail copies of Expression Studio on the market, but it has the priceless value of featuring one in a thousand or so limited edition designs. The standard edition retails for $599, so I can’t help imagine this is worth well over $600. The essence of this truly unique gift can be described as the “thank you” card writes.

Design is everywhere, from the car you buy to the place you shop. Great design is a differentiator that will continue to drive innovation, taking us to places we’ve never seen before. Simply put user experience matters. With Expression Studio, we set out to build tools that spark your creative passion and help you create better experiences. To reflect our belief that design is essential, we hope you enjoy this Commemorative Edition of Expression Studio, complete with the first version of Expression Studio and the one-of-a-kind artwork.

Special thanks to the nice people at Waggener Edstrom for providing this product sample. I’m currently considering giving it away because I’m sure someone out there deserves this much more than I do. But don’t hold your breathe, this is a pretty special item.

Today, a trademark application in Australia which looks to be for a video-on-demand service from Microsoft yet to be identified has been made available publically. Trademark application #1176435 lodged on May 16 2007 contains an emblem design featuring “arrowheads diverging from disc” which also contains references to a video-on-demand service over internet. The classification provided are as follows:

Class: 9 Computer software for delivery of broadcast-quality video and television programming over broadband, cable, satellite and wireless networks; computer software for providing video-on-demand services; downloadable films and TV programs provided via video-on-demand; computer software for transmitting personal photos, video and music over broadband, cable, satellite and wireless networks; computer software for digital video recording; and computer software for providing a programming guide to display available video and television broadcasts and downloads

Class: 38 Broadcasting services, providing video and television programming over broadband, cable, satellite and wireless networks; and video-on-demand services via broadband networks

Class: 41 Entertainment services; providing information concerning television and video programming; providing online user guides featuring information on television and video programs available over broadband, cable, satellite and wireless networks and available via video-on-demand services; provision of non-downloadable films and TV programs via a video-on-demand service; and distribution of television shows, movies and videos for others

Points to note, the classifications specifically suggest broadcast-quality video, which rules out a YouTube-style video service; downloadable films and TV programs, leads me to think of the iTunes video store; and also personal photos, video and music, a “create-your-own-TV” channel perhaps? If it delivers everything these classifications suggests it would, then Microsoft is on the right track to give the VOD market a little shake.

Currently, Microsoft has an IPTV solution on the market ingeniously named Microsoft TV. However, Microsoft TV already has an existing trademark and logo design which suggests this could be a variation of the same service or an entirely different service all-together. Maybe we’ll see a new video-on-demand service similar to Joost from Microsoft this week. Keep your eyes glued.

Update: I’ve contacted Microsoft and Waggener to comment, but they haven’t responded and its 2am here. I’m going to predict they’ll say something like “Microsoft does not comment on rumors or speculations”. In fact, I’ll even bet on it.

Update 2: I’m flattered to have Ars Technica source quote reference appreciate my work on a higher level of appreciation invisible to the naked eye. Although they had problems understanding the difference between VOD and IPTV – they’re two different acronyms for a reason.

Update 3: Microsoft TV’s press agency Weber Shandwick had this to say, “Microsoft regularly files new trademark applications. We have nothing new to announce at this time.” They’re such teasers.