Patrick's space

I recently took the splurge and purchased a new Zune 80 (in Red), and man is it awesome! I've been a fan of Zune since day one, when I received my original Zune 30 (in black).

Zune is an awesome device and one that I can't sing enough praises of. The v2 line of Zune improves upon it very well. The Zune pad is great, and the 3.2 inch screen is beautiful, as is the candy apple red (and glossy) color.

I can't wait to see if the Zune team will be releasing anything new this fall. I'm hoping to see a 16 or 32 Gigabyte flash Zune. That would absolutely rock!

Enjoy the pics of my Zune collection.

Wow, what can I say. It was an amazing Summit. I spent a few days with the Zune team and learned a lot of really cool stuff that's going on at Microsoft. The best part was making new friends and establishing new contacts with other MVPs. We got together on Sunday night for a geek-fest at Gameworks. I met Cesar for the first time. Monday and Thursday was spent at open sessions and keynotes from several interesting people, namely Ray Ozzie and Steve Ballmer (no chairs were on the stage). Tuesday and Wednesday we spent with the Zune team. It was awesome. That's all I can say about that, as I'm under NDA. Simply awesome!

Aside from that I made a connection with another MVP from the Philippines. He runs a streaming radio station service, and has tapped Independent Music Online, for it's catalog of artists. This is extremely exciting because they have over 1 million page views per month at their site, which will be linking to ours.

Awesome times!

Microsoft has awarded me the 2008 MVP Award for Digital Media. I'm really excited about it. I was nominated for the award based on my participation in the Zune forums, as well as my ZuneTracks music blog.

I love the Zune. I think it is a great device, and I'm excited at the potential it has.

For winning the award, I receive a year subscription to TechNet Plus and MSDN. As well as some letters of recognition from Microsoft, to add to my portfolio/resume.

I hope this can lead me to an opportunity to expand my work in the realm of digital music. It's all very exciting, and I'm very honored that they chose me as the recipient.

I took the plunge and downloaded Windows Vista SP1 today. I didn't use BitTorrent or any other illegal means. I downloaded it from the Microsoft servers by tweaking the registry on my machine. (the same method we used to get the Beta version from MS).

I ran into a little bit of trouble installing it, as I forgot to disable my anti-virus program (actually I had to uninstall it completely). Once that was done, I re-started, downloaded and installed the service pack with no problems. I can already tell a big difference in my computing performance. My boot time is shorter, my program load time is shorter. Overall it feels much smoother than the RTM Vista I purchased.

So from me, Microsoft gets 2 thumbs up for SP1 for Vista. I'm pleasantly surprised. I just wish they would release it to the general public, or at least make it available via Download Center.

Today's post has nothing to do with Music. This post has to do with Politics. I went and voted Absentee today. I voted for Ron Paul. I voted for him because I believe he TRULY wants to change America, and for the good of ALL Americans.

Ron Paul wants to change the way our country handles foreign affairs, he wants to change how we spend money. He wants to change how we PRINT our money. These are ALL necessary. I don't know about you, but I'm sick and tired of bringing home (if I'm lucky) 50% of my paycheck each week. 30 percent of it goes to Taxes/Social Security (Federal and State). Ron Paul wants to abolish income tax, and the IRS. He wants to secure our borders, and repeal the most invasive legislation ever created, The Patriot Act.

I believe Ron Paul is a man that can change our country for the better. I believe George W. Bush and Dick Cheney should be impeached for betraying the Constitution, and for allowing Big Business to rape our country (and for destroying others).