Jeff Maurone

MLK weekend in pictures

Maggie and I spent the weekend of Martin Luther King day wandering around old mining towns in southeastern Arizona.  The first shot you see above is Café Roka, a surprisingly impressive café in Bisbee. 

We also visited Tombstone, the site of the original gunfight at the O.K. Corral.  This shot was from the daily reenactment that was so corny that for me to even admit witnessing it is a significant sacrifice.

From touring the Queen Mine on the outskirts of Bisbee, Arizona.

Tombstone may be as authentic as "old west" towns come but I still can't stop kitsch from being the first word that I associate with the town.

Ten steps to starting a company

At MIT Venture Lab we've been revising and refining our upcoming series and are set to launch our Ten Steps series with an event with Jonathan Roberts scheduled for next Thursday the 7th.  The official marketing text is below and you can register here.  Hope to see you there!

Thursday, February 7^th, 2008
6:00 to 8:00pm
Doors open @ 5:30

"Ten Steps to Launching an Early Stage Company"
(Part one of the Ten Steps series)

One Union Square Boardroom
600 University St., First Level
(Lower lobby, 6^th Avenue level, behind the escalator)
Seattle, WA 98101

Join Venture Lab speakers Jonathan Roberts, Partner and Founder at Ignition Partners, and Stan Shull as they identify and explain ten steps to successfully launching an early stage company.

If you are planning or in the process of launching an early stage company this step-by-step information will be extremely useful.

Jonathan Roberts – Partner - Ignition Partners

Jonathan is a Founder and a Partner of Ignition. He invests in business application and services companies and represents Ignition as director on the boards of Airwave Wireless, Docusign, Entellium, Intelligent Results, Clearsight Systems, and Spoken Communications.

Prior to Ignition Roberts spent 13 years at Microsoft, most recently as General Manager of the Windows CE Intelligent Appliance Division, where he was responsible for developing new WinCE products, product marketing, business development and long-term planning for the Windows CE platform as well as the retargeting of the Microsoft's PocketPC effort.

Roberts led the marketing and business efforts for Windows 3.1, 3.11, Windows NT 3.51, NT 4.0, BackOffice 1.0, Windows 98 and NT 4.0 on the Desktop, and finally all of Windows CE including embedded, Pocket PC, Auto, Phones, Set-top, Games, etc.

Roberts received his B.A. in history from the University of Washington where he was also Student Body President. In addition to his Ignition boards, Jonathan serves on the board of Epiphany School and the University of Washington Foundation Board.

Stan Shull

Stan Shull has nearly 20 years of experience in business development and marketing in software and high-technology.  Stan was most recently the senior vice president of business development at Intelligent Results, a provider of analytical software and services.  In this role, he was responsible for developing the company's partner ecosystem and creating strategic alliances which were critical to product development, publicity, revenue growth, and ultimately the successful acquisition of the company by First Data Corporation in 2007.

Previously, Stan led strategic alliances for IBM's Rational software division, a provider of application development tools. There he negotiated critical contracts worth millions of dollars and supervised relationships with some of the industry's leading players including Microsoft, Hewlett Packard and Intel.  Before joining Rational Software, Stan was vice president of marketing and business development at NCompass Labs, Inc., a Web content management software company. At NCompass, Stan developed key alliances and marketing programs that helped drive the company's rapid growth and its successful acquisition by Microsoft in the spring of 2001. Prior to IBM, Stan was director of business development at Boeing Enterprises, the investment arm of The Boeing Company. There he led a multi-billion dollar initiative to create a data services and application hosting company for the aviation vertical market through joint ventures and acquisitions.

Stan has been a frequent speaker at industry events and executive forums on new competitive strategies enabled by technology developments, including such topics as customer relationship management and analytics, e-commerce, and web services.  Stan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in aerospace engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Master of Business Administration from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.

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Picture is another hummingbird within Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum [Link]

See the grid in action

In the past few months I have blogged both here and on the company Alpha Channel blog about the grid, the component responsible for rendering top story regions on msnbc.com.  The power of the grid lies in its flexibility and efficiency and the animation on this post shows you exactly how our cover evolved over the night of the Iowa caucuses.

Do not use Xdrive.com

I'm sitting in my office catching up on a number of items and waiting to watch Dubya's last State of the Union on our great internal NBC feeds.  I suppose now is as good a time as any to finish a post I've been waiting to publish.

For months I evangelized Xdrive.com and, more broadly, the notion of storing all of my files in the cloud on a hosted drive service (post here, here, among others).  I have always been a big proponent of the notion of a hard-drive in the sky, so much so that I collaborated with a friend back in high school to win a web development concept with an online drive we built and named Hyper-Drive.

For months I was happy to store and retrieve all of my critical files on my hosted drive (for which I paid $9.95/month).  Then I tried to download a file I had spent the better part of a year revising and refining and found it completely corrupt.  Don't fret, I thought.  Xdrive.com has racks of backed up storage clusters and a simple email should get the last working version of my file restored shortly.  I could not have been more wrong.

What ensued was an enormous thread of completely useless emails without a single resolution (does it surprise you that Xdrive is owned by AOL?).  I've published the entirety of that email thread below.  Nearly three months later, I still do not have a working version of that file.  Obviously I've now canceled my account and moved to storing my files on an external drive with physical backups (DVD) stored at a different location.

I write this post as a Caveat emptor to folks considering trusting all of their photos, documents, financial data, notes, contacts and other digital ephemera to Xdrive.com.  The files you think you've safely archived may not be there when you need them.  And if you call and ask for backed up versions, if you even get a warm body, you're likely to emerge empty-handed.

A pity, indeed.

...

From: "Jeff Maurone" <jeffmaurone@hotmail.com>
Received: 10/30/07 3:36:55 PM PDT
To: <AOLxdrivesupport@aol.com>
Subject: Help with corrupt file

Hello,

Upon downloading a file that I uploaded in good condition (on 10/23), I found the file to be corrupted.  Can someone please provide me the last-known-good version of this file? It is okay if the version sent is one version older than the one I uploaded but it is important that I get a recent intact version of this file.

The file: 'My X-Drive\...\documentrenamed.doc'

Thank you,

Jeff

...

From: aolxdrivesupport@aol.com [mailto:aolxdrivesupport@aol.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2007 3:12 PM
To: jeffmaurone@hotmail.com
Subject: Re: Help with corrupt file <<#1036037-3401325#>>

Dear Jeff,
Thank you for contacting AOL X-Drive support.
My name is Annalyn.

I apologize for the inconvenience that you have been experiencing. I appreciate your patience with this matter and I want to assure you I am here to help you.

I understand from your recent e-mail that the files that you have uploaded on Xdrive is corrupted.

There are just a few pieces of information that we need in order to better assist you with this problem, if you could please email us back with the following information:

   1. Description of the steps you take that result in the problem
   2. Error messages you receive, if any, and where they appear
   3. Frequency: happens every time or only occasionally
   4. Version of Windows that you use and if you have upgraded the operating system since you bought your computer
   5. Proxy servers, firewall, or pop-up blocker
   6. Version of Internet Explorer
   7. Log in client (desktop or web)

I hope my response proves helpful.
Please let us know if you have any additional questions or concerns.
Thanks again!
Annalyn
Features and Premium Services Consultant
AOL LLC

....

From: "Jeff Maurone" <jeffmaurone@hotmail.com>
Received: 10/31/07 5:44:21 PM PDT
To: <aolxdrivesupport@aol.com>
Subject: RE: Help with corrupt file

Annalyn,

Thanks for following up.

1. Simply download the file and you'll find that it's not a viewable Word document (which it was).

2. No error messages, just bad characters in doc.

3. Happens every time.

4. Windows XP, tested on two separate XP machines

5. None

6. Tested in IE7 and FF

7. Tested in both the desktop client and the web-based tool.

The fix for this should be simple.  I'm hoping you can just email me a restored version of that file.

Jeff

...

From: aolxdrivesupport@aol.com [mailto:aolxdrivesupport@aol.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2007 6:12 PM
To: jeffmaurone@hotmail.com
Subject: Re: RE: Help with corrupt file <<#1036037-3401325#>>

Incident Number: 3401325

Dear jeffmaurone@hotmail.com,
Thank you for contacting AOL X-Drive support.
My name is Annalyn.

I understand from your recent e-mail that the files that you have uploaded
on Xdrive is corrupted.
Thank you for writing back and allowing me to further help you with this issue. I recommend you save or print a copy of this e-mail for future reference.
I know how something like this can really try your patience and I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.

I assure you the report has been forwarded to the appropriate technical team to best handle the situation. Your ticket number is 272034.

Even if I cannot give you an exact timeline when the issue would be resolved, our ongoing efforts to improve our service continue round the clock.

I hope my response proves helpful.
Please let us know if you have any additional questions or concerns.
Thanks again!
Annalyn
Features and Premium Services Consultant
AOL LLC

...

From: "Jeff Maurone" <jeffmaurone@hotmail.com>
Received: 11/5/07 4:22:10 PM PST
To: <aolxdrivesupport@aol.com>
Subject: RE: RE: Help with corrupt file

Annalyn,

Can you provide an update as to when I'll have this file? 

Jeff

...

From: aolxdrivesupport@aol.com [mailto:aolxdrivesupport@aol.com]
Sent: Monday, November 05, 2007 4:45 PM
To: jeffmaurone@hotmail.com
Subject: Re: RE: RE: Help with corrupt file <<#1036037-3401325#>>

Incident Number: 3401325

Dear Jeff,
Thank you for contacting AOL X-Drive support.
My name is Annalyn.

I apologize for the inconvenience that you have been experiencing. I appreciate your patience with this matter and I want to assure you I am here to help you.

This issue has been forwarded to our Engineering Team and they have a few questions for you.  These are:

1. Are any other files affected?

2. When was this file uploaded to account? Was it using desktop or web browser?

Please let us know if you have any additional questions or concerns.
Thanks again!
Annalyn
Features and Premium Services Consultant
AOL LLC

...

From: "Jeff Maurone" <jeffmaurone@hotmail.com>
Received: 11/5/07 5:28:59 PM PST
To: <aolxdrivesupport@aol.com>
Subject: RE: RE: RE: Help with corrupt file

Hi Annalyn,

Thanks for following up.  My answers:

1. As far as I can tell, this is the only file affected.

2. This was uploaded on 10/23.  So I need any version before 10/23.  Unfortunately I don't recall whether desktop or browser were used as I switch between the two frequently.

Thanks.

Jeff

...

From: aolxdrivesupport@aol.com [mailto:aolxdrivesupport@aol.com]
Sent: Monday, November 05, 2007 5:46 PM
To: jeffmaurone@hotmail.com
Subject: Re: RE: RE: RE: Help with corrupt file <<#1036037-3401325#>>

Incident Number: 3401325

Dear Jeff,
Thank you for contacting AOL X-Drive support.
My name is Annalyn.

Thank you for answering the questions that I've sent you.
I know how something like this can really try your patience and I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. I already made necessary follow ups to help resolve the issue.

I assure you the report has been forwarded to the appropriate technical team to best handle the situation. I've requested them, as well, if it's possible to e-mail you directly regarding this issue.

Even if I cannot give you an exact timeline when the issue would be resolved, our ongoing efforts to improve our service continue round the clock.

I hope my response proves helpful.
Please let us know if you have any additional questions or concerns.
Thanks again!
Annalyn
Features and Premium Services Consultant
AOL LLC

...

From: "Jeff Maurone" <jeffmaurone@hotmail.com>
Received: 11/9/07 12:39:38 PM PST
To: <aolxdrivesupport@aol.com>
Subject: RE: RE: RE: RE: Help with corrupt file

Hi Annalyn,

I've tried to be as patient as possible regarding this issue.  It's been a while now, though.  What's the current status of this?

Jeff

...

From: aolxdrivesupport@aol.com [mailto:aolxdrivesupport@aol.com]
Sent: Friday, November 09, 2007 2:47 PM
To: jeffmaurone@hotmail.com
Subject: Re: RE: RE: RE: RE: Help with corrupt file <<#1036037-3401325#>>

Incident Number: 3401325

Dear Jeff,
Thank you for contacting AOL X-Drive support.
My name is Annalyn.

I apologize for the inconvenience that you have been experiencing. I appreciate your patience with this matter and I want to assure you I am here to help you.

I'm sorry Jeff as the Engineering Team haven't sent any update on this issue yet.

I totally understand that it's frustrating for you and I'm really sorry.

I hope my response proves helpful.
Please let us know if you have any additional questions or concerns.
Thanks again!
Annalyn
Features and Premium Services Consultant
AOL LLC

...

From: "Jeff Maurone" <jeffmaurone@hotmail.com>
Received: 11/14/07 2:02:21 PM PST
To: <aolxdrivesupport@aol.com>
Subject: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: Help with corrupt file

Annalyn,

I need you to help me here.  Solving this problem is very simple:  Someone needs to email me a version of the file I cited below that is *older* than the October 23^rd one that's stored on my Xdrive.  Can you please see to this as resolved?  Should I escalate this issue?

Thanks.

Jeff

...

From: aolxdrivesupport@aol.com [mailto:aolxdrivesupport@aol.com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2007 10:22 PM
To: jeffmaurone@hotmail.com
Subject: Re: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: Help with corrupt file <<#1036037-3401325#>>

Incident Number: 3401325

Dear Jeff,
Thank you for contacting AOL X-Drive support.
My name is Annalyn.

I apologize for the inconvenience that you have been experiencing. I appreciate your patience with this matter and I want to assure you I am here to help you.

I'm sorry as we at E-mail Support don't have access to your account that's why I've escalated this to our Engineering Team.

I've forwarded your recent e-mail to the Engineering Team.  Your ticket number is 272034.

I hope my response proves helpful.
Please let us know if you have any additional questions or concerns.
Thanks again!
Annalyn
Features and Premium Services Consultant
AOL LLC

...

Photo is licensed under Creative Commons from Flickr user Topato [Link]

Gawker is my favorite iconoclast

"At Scientology’s request, YouTube and other sites took down the copyrighted video, but Gawker refused, instead posting and mocking the reproachful letter sent by a Los Angeles lawyer representing the church."  The vigilance is appreciated, Nick Denton.  From today's NYT.

Syndicated Client Experience Starter Kit

When we built Times Reader, we ended up with a smooth, clean and, we thought, beautiful experience.  But it was expensive -- months of Microsoft developers and New York Times designers expensive.  The cost of building Times Reader was, no doubt, far beyond what could be considered feasible for most moderate-budget publishing. 

The Microsoft answer to this is the Syndicated Client Experience Starter Kit.  This kit provides a number of tools for building TR-like experiences on the cheap: you supply the content and design, Microsoft supplies the gears under the hood.  SCE just shipped last week.

My good friend, and now MSNBC.com colleague, Bryan Wheeler has a great post with a set of frequently asked questions that explain the Syndicated Client Experience Starter Kit much better than I can.

...

Photo is a hummingbird from within Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.  [Link]

Does Bill still use Windows XP?

Not so surprising: I'm a Windows Vista Cynic.  Surprising: Bill Gates is a Windows Vista Cynic.

My year in cities -- 2007

Here is my take on the "year in cities" meme that is sweeping the web.  My rule was to include every city in which I, at least, enjoyed a meal.  I've italicized those where I spent a night.

Vancouver, BC
Seattle, WA
Redmond, WA
Bellevue, WA
Woodinville, WA
Ashford, WA
Roche Harbor, WA
Friday Harbor, WA
Woodinville, WA
San Francisco, CA
Berkeley, CA
Palo Alto, CA
Los Angeles, CA
Pasadena, CA
Tucson, AZ
Scottsdale, AZ
Green Valley, AZ
Phoenix, AZ
Alamogordo, NM
Carlsbad, NM
Dallas, TX
San Angelo, TX
Denver, CO
Boulder, CO
Dillon, CO
Breckenridge, CO
Vail, CO
Mantua, NJ
Atlantic City, NJ
Ocean City, NJ
Cherry Hill, NJ
Secaucus, NJ
Hoboken, NJ
Philadelphia, PA
Villanova, PA
Malvern, PA
Havertown, PA
Royersford, PA
New York, NY
New Haven, CT
Kennebunkport, ME
Portland, ME
South China, ME
Pemaquid, ME
Bar Harbor, ME
Washington, DC

Wowzer.  I wish I logged all of my miles in flight; I am certain my total is over 100,000 miles.

...

Photo is from the Moshulu in Philadelphia, where we spent New Year's Eve. [Link]

Short takes for January 7th

If you're one of the seven people who haven't seen this video from Bill Gates's final CES keynote, it's an instant classic.

...

Illinois says that those with broadband tend to use libraries more often that those without.  Of course, if you consider that those with higher household incomes (willing to shell out the cash for nifty-fast connections) tend to be more literate, this whole study becomes rather pedestrian.

...

I've got a bunch of catching up to do with regard to my travels over the holiday, but a short hat tip is due for Hwang's Yellow Face, which we saw at the Public Theatre shortly before the new year.  Worth a visit, in this final week of performances.

...

Friend Andre Vanier, formerly of 1-800-411-SAVE has a new gig with a catchy new name: Rondee.  The take: free conference calling done right.  Here's a recent interview with Andre and -- shudder -- Robert Scoble.

They report...you decide

Seen on Friday's FOXnews cover in, ahem, the lead graphic story position.

Of course, no FOXNews cover is complete without the word "Spears."