I've mentioned before that Centrro uses shared office space. It's great because it's month to month, relatively cheap, and allows us to make use of conference rooms, a reception desk, a kitchen, and free internet access. Well today, you can scratch one of those off the list. Internet access has been down all morning so I packed up and headed to Peet's. It's actually a great day outside so I don't mind.
 
The one other benefit of shared office space is that you get to meet some really interesting people outside your company. For instance, one of our cube mates is a lawyer for the adult entertainment industry. How cool is that? For that reason, I think places like JellyDesk are great. If we didn't have partner/board meetings, I'd be fine working in that environment.

This morning, I dropped off the car at Downtown Toyota and decided to walk the rest of the way to work. That was actually a good work out (by my low standards). If I walked directly from home, it would be another 15 minutes and 0.8 miles for a total of 3.5 miles and 68 minutes by Google Maps standards (it was actually pretty accurate for today's walk time).
 
I'm definitely feeling the pains of being overweight and old. I think I'll incorporate this walk a couple of times into my week's sparse exercise schedule. One thing I'll definitely NOT do is lug my backpack with a laptop in it. My legs and knees are fine but my shoulders are killing me.

 
I recently saw the above ad for ZunePass, Microsoft's unlimited music service. Basically, you're renting music as opposed to buying it. I'm not against the concept of a music subscription service, I just think they could have done a better job in the ad of promoting the pros versus always comparing/contrasting with Apple. At some point, Microsoft just needs to go in another direction with its advertising strategy. Always comparing yourself to Apple is a sure fire way of constantly reminding people that a highly competent (not necessarily better in all cases) competitor exists. Same thing with the latest Laptop Hunter commercials.
 
So here's my free advice to Microsoft. Pitch your strengths versus the strengths of your competitor. Stick to the fact that there is more choice in hardware for PCs, they almost always cost less than Macs, Microsoft Office works much better on a PC than on a Mac, Exchange is better than whatever is available for Macs (is there anything available?), and the fact that most IT folks hate supporting Macs.
 
The good folks over at Penny Arcade made a very insightful and hilarious comic mocking the latest ad.

Having lunch with mom and bro at Koh Samui. I think I just saw Garry and Sachin having lunch. Cool!

So I just downloaded the Slingplayer Mobile app for the iPhone. It's pretty darn amazing. I had bought the original Slingplayer Mobile for Windows Mobile and I thought that was good. This iPhone version blows it away. Below is my quick video demo (apologies for quality - I only have the MacBook iSight camera available). There are a ton more things in the app, just didn't have the time to go through them all. I'm running this from my original Classic Slingbox (which isn't officially supported). Supposedly for the full effect, you need to buy one of their newer Slingboxes (how convenient, no?). The only drawback I can see so far is that the app was hobbled by Apple/AT&T to only run on WiFi. At least the original Slingplayer Mobile for WinMo worked no matter what connection you had. If you already own a Slingbox and either an iPhone or iPod Touch, this is probably the best app you could ever buy. Well worth the $30 price. Let's hope that AT&T gets their act together and allows the 3G connection so this app can be used to its fullest.