Category Archives: General

Beyond all the travel tales, tradeshows, product launches and whatnot was Sling Media’s most important asset: it’s people. Some of the people I worked with while at Sling were some of the best I’ve ever worked with in my career. As I observed in my post on the acquisition, I believe the talent is a huge asset that Echostar gets in the deal.

It’s extremely challenging to put together an all-star team. I’m not exactly sure how it was pulled off, but virtually every player in the Sling lineup was extremely well suited for their role. Some with 20 years experience, others with 2. For some it was a major learning curve, for others it was like riding a bicycle. Not to say it was all perfect, there were certainly hiccups along the way, but by and large it was a pretty impressive cast of characters.

I could probably write another 10 pages worth of individual stories and escapades. I’ll attempt brevity:

• Driving to San Diego with Blake and Jason (luckily I passed on the drive to Vegas – there’s only so much Carl’s Jr a man can eat).
• Gregg Wilkes educating me on the right beverage to drink when out with the sales guy (answer: vodka soda)
• Stogies on the balcony with Rich (truthfully there are dozens of great times I had with Mr. B., but the times at the tiki bar were some of my favorites)
• Handing off IR programming responsibilities to Brian M (sorry!)
• Lunches with Judy
• Time spent in the dungeon annex with Teresa, Jeff C, and Chris B. Do the phones work there yet?
• Mutual venting with Dee
• Tami putting together CES so efficiently that all I had to do was show up (a personal first in 8 years of going)
• Sharon, who I got about 3 weeks of time with, and Dave, who accepted, then rejected, then accepted the gig, after I left.
• Handing off SlingPlayer Mobile to Vicky (sorry!)
• Indian buffet with Raghu, Alex, Bhupen, and John. Many more joined after, but they never made it to Sneha.
• Little Mattie Whitlock, who wasn’t an employee, but still had to put up with my antics.
• About 100 stories with Brian J, especially trying to find a cab in NYC at 5:30pm in the rain on a Friday outside of Javitz (we walked about 2 miles until we found one); and trying to figure out why our waitress couldn’t calculate 60% of a bill without freaking out. But especially for our unique style of walking tradeshow floors.
• and countless others – Slingers, please do leave comments if I’ve left something out that you remember fondly…

Thanks again for the memories everybody. If you need me, I’ll be at the colo.

I have one final post for the SlingMemories series, but I decided to switcharoo the order. I left Sling Media in October 2006, and unlike all my ex-girlfriends, we managed to break up and remain on good terms. This was really important to me, as I felt (don’t laugh) pretty emotionally tied to the company. Even today when I talk to clients and talk about “how we did it back at Sling” I still use the word “we” not “them”.

At CES 2007 I was reunited with the crew as I lingered at the bigger, better booth Rich and Tami had put together. I sat a row away from the team when Blake was on stage during the CBS keynote to announce Clip+Sling. I saw their impressive partner pavilion. And I had my chance to hold the Emmy the Slingbox won. That too was a great moment – how often does a tech/product/marketing geek like me get to be part of something that wins an Emmy?

Over the course of 2007 I’ve watched (and often blogged) Sling’s news (here’s my highlight of the year). I still check on the display of the units when I walk into a Best Buy. I IM with someone from the team every few days, and love seeing them pop up on TechMeme when news comes a-flying. Actually, as I read this, one could almost accuse me of being a stalker.

There are many ways to look back on the ventures we’ve participated in; the products we’ve built. Most of the people I talk to seem to reminisce with negativity, either toward “the management” or to the product/service/company itself. After all, it’s easy to do this, as odds are fairly decent the relationship came to an end at a low note. Heck, we all remember the past either rosier or darker than it once was.

For me, watching Sling in 2007 was generally with pride. I wondered if they’d pull off Clip+Sling. I remained curious about the SlingCatcher. Were there doubts? Yup, I don’t deny. But Sling remained true to the first description I gave my friends when I joined the company: it’s going to be like a rocket ship. I don’t know if it’ll burst into flames on the launchpad, go massively off-course, or make it into orbit, but no matter what it’d gonna be a heck of a lotta fun to watch. I certainly wasn’t wrong about that!

CES 2006 was so big for Sling that it needs it’s own post. Team Sling began arriving over a week before the show to build the booth, which expanded from the 4-foot-wide table/pod in ’05 to a 20′ x 30′ massive area for ’06. To add a little spice to the event, both Rich and Tami had foot/knee problems during setup, which is precisely the time you really want to be flexible and mobile.

The demo was more than just a demo. We had an actor (Eldon(sp?)) who did a phenomenal job soaking in the Sling “vibe” and literally packed the area full of people every 30 minutes. At first our neighboring booths in the Sands were a little annoyed at our traffic pull, but once they realized they were able to benefit from the spillover, we were all BFFs.

CES 2006 was the first time we publicly demonstrated SlingPlayer Mobile and was the announcement of the PAL version of the Slingbox (more on that later). It was also the “now-that-we-can-look-back-with-20-20-hindsight-the-way-too-early” announcement of SlingPlayer Mac.

Personally it was a really fun show. The whole team from SlingCommunity was there, helping with demos and hanging out with us at the booth. A half-dozen original Slingbox beta testers showed up, which was a nice treat as I’d never met them in person. I also met Jeff Chiusano, the first (registered) Slingbox owner. Other Slingbox owners/fans were there, as well as tons of people new to the world of Slinging. I had a blast, even with the 18ish-hour days that were spent entirely standing and demoing (the same thing, over and over, for six days). I love CES.

I know a lot of people in the marketing field who hate the show (or all tradeshows). They hate talking to random people who walk up. They hate the grind. They hate the pace. I’m not one of them. I love it. I love the chance to talk to everybody I can, especially if its about a product I built. I love to get the “win” during a demo/pitch. For me that “win” is someone getting why the Slingbox is cool – I don’t as much care about the specific close/sale, I care more about that moment. Probably explains why I’m not in sales…

When the product actually launched I was up in Beaverton with the CSR team. I remember a few of us hopping in a car and driving to three different Best Buys looking for Slingboxes and asking the blue shirts questions (I had helped prep some of the training materials for the staff). That first day only a couple of them knew what we were talking about, but the ones who did were extremely excited about the product. The next day I spent a little bit of time on the phones myself, answering questions from the “earliest” adopters. I’ve always been a big proponent of providing outstanding customer service, and I think having direct interactions with your customers is one of the only ways to do it.

The Summer of 05 was a bit of a blur. We put out a few software updates to boost the video quality of the product quite significantly, and began work on new features and the SlingPlayer Mobile software. All the while we enjoyed watching the growth on SlingCommunity.com and tracking the sales stats from the retailers. At this point, I was still the VP of Product Management but was also running all the community/viral activities, and flying around to speak at conferences and events. I was stretched a bit thin, so when Rich Buchanan (VP of Marketing) came around and asked to me to pick just one of the two jobs I was doing, I decided to try something different in my career. After about 8 consecutive years of product management/marketing/development roles, I took on a full time marketing position as the VP of Market Development. My role was basically “evangelist” but since (a) I was doing a lot more than just that and (b) the term has so many different meanings, we decided Market Development was more appropriate.

The last product I worked on before taking the full-time external role was the SlingPlayer Mobile software. This was a very interesting challenge as there were plenty of people getting TV/video onto mobile devices at the time, but our task was trebly hard as we also had to deal with networking/latency issues and the ability to provide an interface to remotely control a connected device (like a TiVo or a cable box). I also like to think we hit the nail on the head for this one, as I may be biased but I still consider the software the best mobile TV experience I’ve seen to date. Special kudos to Vicky for taking the ball and running it into the end zone (and then some)!

For those of you who have only “attended” CES, you should know that for a consumer electronics company, planning starts many months earlier. The months of November and December (yes, including holiday times) are spent fairly dedicated to the humongous tradeshow. Rich and Tami spent many days and nights planning the booth to perfection, while Brian J lined up the back-to-back press meetings for Blake, Jason and myself. But even with those capable hands, there was always things that had to get done to be ready for the show. And we knew CES 06 was gonna be a doozy!

In March 2005 we kicked off our original beta program. We had 100 pre-production Slingboxes painted bright orange ready for testers in the US and Canada. Our testers spent three months performing various tasks such as “try Slinging from 5 different ports to 5 different locations” and “hook up the Slingbox to every gadget you have in your home, and let us know if the IR codes work”. Our testers not only prevailed, but became absolute advocates for the company on various online communities. My friend Brian M did a great job managing the beta program, keeping the community actively engaged while managing the early version of SlingCommunity and having a baby at the same time. Also, a special shout-out to Jim D for the being #1 bug reporter of all time (you’re all in my memories, but I can’t very well list everyone’s names here now, can I?). I still wear my “I had an orange one” t-shirt with pride, and hope the rest of y’all do too.
Right in the middle of beta we had come to the point where the first production units were about ready to roll off the assembly line. I flew to Xi Xiu, China, a small town (100,000 people) near Shenzhen, and spent a week with the factory workers perfecting the appearance of the Slingbox. I learned a heck of a lot about plastics, molding, tooling, and more while there, but thankfully after 5 long (long!) days they had it perfect (okay, close). It was an odd trip for me as I spent the entire week only having one person to speak with, and not seeing a single other foreigner in the town. I was literally gawked at in the shopping center. Thanks again Kelvin for being a great host, and introducing me to delicacies like Kung Pao Frog as well as Sweet and Sour Chicken Knees. Okay, I made up the names of the dishes, but you get the picture…

Our official launch was June 30th, 2005. In all candidness, I have never ever seen a team come together more tightly than we did in those 4 weeks leading up to launch. Blake was pushing us all extremely hard, constantly raising the bar on the quality he wanted. I remember one Saturday afternoon he wanted to make sure we really were compliant with the UPnP implementations on most routers. So he went to Best Buy, Fry’s, and CompUSA and picked up every different router model he could find, and hand-tested each one. Needless to say, the bar was, shall we say “high”? But he felt that the only way a startup could really win was to make absolutely excellent products, and good just wasn’t good enough. I have to say, I may have kvetched about it at the time, but looking back there’s no question he was right. I’ve never seen the insides of Steve Jobs’ lair, but I have a hunch there’s the same pursuit of excellence. But would Jobs take you out to the local Red Robin to celebrate the launch? I don’t think so!

The last few days before launch had each team double- and triple-checking its work. We, along with the beta testers, shone the flashlights into every nook and cranny of the setup wizard, the packaging, the documentation, the Web site, the community, everything. I personally flew out to Beaverton Oregon to train our customer service representatives in those last few weeks and showed them every last detail of the way the box functioned. We talked about how to make sure the customer support experience was nothing like how “other” CE companies handled it. Again, massive attention to detail. By the way, while I’m at it – Blake, you were right about the D10.

I first met Blake and Jason Krikorian at CES 2002, while working for Mediabolic and demonstrating the Pioneer “Digital Library”, a home media server device that was way ahead of its time (and unfortunately never shipped). I still recall the day in May 2004 when Blake called my cell phone and said “what are you doing for lunch?” and upon hearing I had no plans, told me he’d pick me up 20 minutes later. Odd, considering he lived in San Mateo, but that is exactly what happened. We went to Johnny Rocket’s in San Francisco then followed it with a coffee in a Starbucks. About 30 seconds later, Blake’s pulled out his Thinkpad, connected to the WiFi, and started watching and his controlling his TiVo back in San Mateo. By the time I heard the first “do-doo!” sound, I knew I was in (although my buddy Ron repeating the phrase “take the job, take the job” to me about 15 times certainly helped).

My first actual day of work as VP of Product Management was almost three months later, in August 2004, after my wedding and honeymoon. I shared an office with Blake, Jason, and Dee (the uber-executive assistant), and was immediately tasked to write the spec. A couple of hundred pages and a week later, I had a draft. I believe that was the last time that document was ever viewed, but needless to say, we built our product. Our first semi-public showing of the “Slingbox” was at Fall RetailVision 2004 where we won the Best Hardware award, despite not showing the hardware to a single person during the show. Very good times.

Next up was CES 2005, where we formally unveiled the Slingbox at a small “pod” booth in the Innovations Tent. Yup, that’s right, Tent. That was a great CES – the entire team (9 of us) worked together really tightly staffing the booth, doing demos, getting food and beverages, and working the typical18-ish hour days. We captured some phenomenal media attention during the show, and were truly overjoyed when we learned we won the Best Home Media Device award in the Best of CES Awards. This was a very gratifying moment for me personally, as the previous year another product I had a big hand in building and demonstrating (the Denon NS-S100 home media server) won the Best of Show (overall!) award. It’s not quite like the Habs winning 5 cups in a row, but it’s probably about as close as a geek like me will ever get!

My next big demo was a month later at the Texas Instruments Developers Conference, where I joined VP Greg Delagi on stage to demonstrate the Slingbox to about a 1000 TI developers. I demoed after SawStop but before Wakamaru. Nice placement, I must say. Now to properly set up the moment you have to understand, we only had a handful of working Slingboxes at the time, and they were a little delicate. While hauling around my demo kit, the connectors slowly got loose enough to the point where the cables didn’t always fit in right. During my demo, as is the rule, everything was going wrong. When a VP from TI came over to help hold in the cable, he accidentally broke the connector off. I like to think that I didn’t even stutter as it occurred, but something was clearly amiss in the demo. Either way, I still did better than Wakamaru-san.

Just to set the tone properly right off the bat, it’s been pretty good.  Overall, the things I like and use outweigh the things that frustrate me.  Fundamentally computing today shouldn’t be a frustrating experience, but it was exactly that which led me from my ~$2500 (top of the line) Sony Vaio SZ460N (don’t buy it!) with Vista (don’t upgrade to it!) to my ~$1000 (bottom of the line) MacBook.

Now all gushiness aside, while I’ve gotten a lot further into learning how to use OS X, I still find myself wanting some things to function different than they do.  More than anything, it’s the use of keyboard shortcuts and menus.  Yes, there are tons of KB shortcuts (this list was very helpful) that you can learn and gain greater control over the environment, but I find them unintuitive and hard to learn.  Shift-Apple-4 followed by the Space Bar is “take screenshot” – how the heck am I supposed to remember that?? Also, I don’t understand why there isn’t a way to use the keyboard to navigate pull-down menus.  Just seems odd that I can’t push “Alt-F” and use the arrows to find whatever I want.

Switching back to some of the things I do like.  Force-Quit is just great.  Sure, it’d be swell if nothing ever crashed (hah) but it does (in fact, so far I’ve had to force quit iTunes, iMovie, iPhoto, NeoOffice, Firefox, and Photo Booth).  With only two exceptions, force quitting has worked – perfectly and instantly.  This is leaps and bounds above the equivalent in Windows (XP or Vista).  I also am impressed with the integration between applications.  If I create an album in iPhoto while working with Comic Life (fun!), the album is there without any needed refresh in either app.  Nice.

Most importantly I feel like I am computing with more confidence.  I am confident that my computer is available within 10 seconds of opening the lid; with Vista I wasn’t.  I am confident that I can close the lid and when I open it, I won’t lose data; with Vista I wasn’t. I am confident that my applications will not stop working when I download some third-party plug-in; with Vista I wasn’t.

This confidence is of huge importance to me, since my livelihood is made by using the computer.  Would I prefer to still have the same comforts of XP?  Probably.  I like QuickSilver, but Google Desktop Search was better.  I like iPhoto, but I prefer knowing where all my files actually are on the hard drive.  iMovie is a better experience than Windows Movie Maker, but it actually is less reliable for me (read why).  Office XP was still, hands-down, the best office/productivity package I’ve used, so I’m hoping that ’08 will be similar.

So, a month later, I’m definitely a happy camper.  The transition is still in-progress, but if you are considering making the switch, it’s not quite the uphill battle I thought it would be (some of these helped a lot).  I would not recommend picking up the same model I use, definitely spring for the bigger HDD and RAM (2GB minimum).  I’m happy with my MacBook, though will continue to wait patiently for my MacBook Touch.

I got into a great chat with Robert Scoble tonight.  We were talking about what’s interesting to blog about.  Covering “news” has gotten a little stale – any big topic that comes up can get dozens of links on TechMeme alone, not to mention the huge host of blogs who don’t get covered there.  I’m not exactly sure where the conversation train started, but it took us to an interesting spot, which I’ll try to summarize as best as I can.

My advice to Robert was that he should use his influential position within the technology industry to tackle some important topics, things that can actually make a big difference out there.  Here are a few of the topics I suggested:

• Copyright legislation.  Pick up a copy of Lessig’s “Free Culture”.  If you can finish it and not be utterly convinced that something’s gone wrong in the media and content industries, I’d be stunned.  Simplest food for thought – why is it that the punishment for downloading 10 tracks is assessed at $1.5 million, when shoplifting a 10-track CD is penalized by $1500?  If someone reading this is a person of influence, please help draw attention to this issue, and let’s get Congress (we elect and pay them, if you recall) to put the power back in the hands of the people, and tell the big-5 media companies they need to evolve their business models.
• Green tech.  I have a 3-month old, and I become more and more aware every day that he will inherit a world in peril.  I don’t have to wear hemp clothing to recognize that we have a looming resource, energy, and water crisis.  Maybe not the next 10-20 years, but most definitely the next 20-50 years.  Why isn’t the technology industry actively pushing to fix things from their side, rather than build endless streams of servers to provide endless streams of content distractions?  Again, how about we call on our government to put power consumption constraints on server farms at a corporate level?  How about we put a simple law in place that would require building owners to use motion detectors on all office building lights after 7pm?  Not hard to do, no massive cost structure, and easily tangible benefits.
• Privacy Policies. How about holding companies and individuals truly responsible for selling private information to listmongers?  Better yet, actually hold ISPs responsible for spam that comes through their networks?  If we made the fines big enough and put the proper deterrents in place, change would happen (and fast).  I firmly believe we have built more than enough technology to enable better privacy filters, decrease (or even eliminate) most spam, properly block phishing attacks, and cut way down on identity theft online.  But nobody is really incensed to make these things happen.
• Good old fashioned volunteering.  I also suggested that the next photowalks start or end at a soup kitchen, or a habitat for humanity.  When I get back from Montreal next month, my consulting company will begin taking on non-profit organizations and helping with their marketing strategy and outreach.  I’d love to encourage others to consider their skills and how they can apply them to those who are truly in need.  Not sure how?  Then pick up a hammer and help build a house, or read a book to a kid, or find any other opportunity that interests you – who knows, you might even live longer because you did.

Robert asked why I never blog about these things. Maybe a simple question like that is all it takes to motivate someone into a little more action.

Back in high school and college, the provided computers were all Macs, but I always had PCs at home – most of which I built myself. After leaving school I picked up a Toshiba Tecra laptop, and have stuck with Windows-based laptops ever since. I’d put myself into the “power user” territory, with Windows experience dating back to my first installation of 3.0, from floppies. Over that time my feelings about Macs have waxed and waned, but I was always one of those guys who couldn’t ever picture myself switching, not for any negative reason, just that PCs worked for me.

Along came Sony with their VGN-SZ460N Vaio laptop, powered by (and I use the term loosely) Microsoft Vista, Business Edition. In 10 short weeks, that combination has dropped about $1100 squarely into Apple’s hands, and unless some phenomenal shift occurs, I don’t see myself switching back anytime soon (and I’m not the only one). Granted, it’s only a single week, and no, I’m not gushingly in love with OS X or anything, but I am so much less frustrated than I was with the Vaio.

Let’s start on the negatives, the things I (so far) don’t like about the MacBook/OS X:

• Terribly inconsistent and lacking keyboard shortcuts. I was so used to Alt-F, N for “new …” and there’s no equivalent here. Further, every different app uses a different combination of alt-arrow, ctrl-arrow, apple-arrow to skip words left/right. My friend Michael Gartenberg pointed me to this article on how mouse usage is faster than keyboard shortcuts, but it’s almost twenty years old now and I don’t think it’s accounting for the expertise one gains after 10+ years of doing anything.
• No hard drive activity light. I’m a big multitasker, and often launch a few applications simultaneously, and however sluggish Vista might be, the HDD light is a handy way to know how busy the computer is. I’ve often found myself wondering if the Mac is doing something, idle, etc.
• Can’t open the screen to 180 degrees. However terrible (and its terrible) the Vaio may be, it can be opened such that the screen is totally flat. I’m sure the designers had a reason – I just don’t know what it is.
• Proprietary video connectors and no card readers. What the heck is this silly mini-DVI thing, and where’s an SD slot?
• Files, folders, and applications. When I install something, why do I have to drag and drop it into Applications? How come ‘save as’ requires two different pull-downs to pick a location to save a file? It just seems like the objective to simplify has created extra burden for those of us who really want an organized file system.
• Missing NTFS integration. This seems like a bit of a “childish” development decision, OS X is way too incompatible with the Windows file system. I hooked up my Drobo and my Seagate FreeagentGo drives, and neither worked well (if at all). Considering how much Apple is trying to get people to switch (successfully) you’d think they’d make this work properly.
• Right click? I know it’s there, but c’mon…
• I also don’t like the iCal/Mail/”meh” combo, but that’s really a comparison of Office, so I’ll hold off for now.

Now for the things I do like:

• Sleep/resume. Oh my, is this impressive. In fact, coming out of sleep mode is so fast and works so well, the guys in Redmond should be utterly ashamed at how bad a job Vista does. It’s actually a very empowering feeling, knowing that if I need something off the computer, I can simply open it up, and in a few seconds, there it is. All computing should be this elegant and work this reliably.
• Force quitting really quits. No, OS X is not immune to crashes, I’ve seen quite a few already. But, when I force quit something, it actually goes away, and does it instantly. When I relaunch it, the application loads fresh. Vista again, doesn’t even come close in this regards.
• Parallels. Despite some weird glitch that had me waste about 4 hours on the first install, it’s otherwise one of the most impressive pieces of software I’ve ever used, on any computer, ever. It’s so well integrated I am surprised it was built by a third-party, and am surprised that Apple hasn’t bought em (maybe MS should!).
• Battery life and performance. As far as I am aware, this ~$1100 MacBook has the same CPU, RAM, and screensize as my $2500 Vaio, yet it appears to run about 25% faster for multitasking or running comparable applications. The battery is 45-90 minutes longer (easily) and in standby it’s not even comparable. Last weekend I went away camping, and put both into sleep mode at the same time. When I got home, the Mac had about 3 hrs of juice left, the Vaio had shut itself down into Hibernate after having 5% battery life left.

That’s where I am so far. I haven’t really tried iLife or iWork yet at all. I’ve spent most of the time in transition and getting comfortable with the new interfaces. I’m still “uncomfortable” with a lot of the OS X nuances. But I am using a computer that I’d call reliable, and that alone is worth the $1500 LESS I had to spend on the MacBook than I did on the Sony. Check please!

I bought a MacBook.

No, I’m not kidding.

It’s Sony’s fault.

I couldn’t take it anymore.

Seriously, I started counting the amount of seconds-to-minutes of “waiting for Vista” I was spending every day. 30-120 seconds from sleeping to awake. 5+ minutes to dock/undock. 10-60 seconds to go to sleep. 5-10 minutes from hibernate. 2-3 minutes to connect to a new network. Utterly intolerable.

I don’t know if it’s Sony’s fault or Microsoft’s, but I don’t care. As Joe Wilcox stated so clearly, Vista is, for lack of a better word, broken. I’ve spent about 5 hours on the phone with Sony since purchasing the laptop, most calls ended up encouraging me to reinstall the OS (I did it once, which worked for a few hours).

As I debated what to buy next, I’d considered the new Dell M1330 laptop, but to really give it the specs I want, the price shot to about $2100, far more than I was willing to spend (again) on another risky proposition. So I bought the lowest-end MacBook.

When you see enough people you respect, from family to colleagues to coworkers to clients, you start to wonder. As I iChatted with Peter Semmelhack from Bug Labs then Michael Gartenberg today, it was clearly a better experience than MSN Messenger had to offer (not that I didn’t see numerous ways to make iChat better, but that’s not the point). I didn’t get to try iLife ’08 yet, as I apparently need to pay $10 to get it, but I guess I’ll have to give it a shot.

I haven’t drunk the Koolaid (yet).

I’m not in love (yet).

I don’t need to talk with my hands (yet).

As far as I can tell, I’m either moving into Mac-land, or will end up dropping about $100 to return it next week.