Lisa Padilla on Media and Culture

eWeek says: For those who wish to take advantage of all of Vista's new features and run a full-blown version of the forthcoming OS, a so-called Premium Ready PC will require at least a 1GHz processor, 1GB of main memory and 128MB of graphics memory, along with a graphics processor that meets numerous requirements, those familiar with the plan said. To be sure, Vista will run on most PCs produced in the last several years. So-called Vista Capable PCs, Microsoft is expected to say, will require an 800MHz processor, 512MB of RAM, and a DirectX9 capable graphics processor, the sources said. Most recent PCs meet Vista Capable requirements. But in order for Vista to display its most advanced features, namely its three-dimensional Aero interface, a PC must meet Microsoft's Premium Ready guidelines, the sources said. Forced upgrades are brutal. But they say that we'll be able to use Vista without upgrading our computers, just not be able see its true colors (at least on half of the...

My client this week is attending the largest conference in their industry. For this, I have been preparing materials and redesigning their website. As happens sometimes at the last minute with websites, software didn't come through in time (they aren't a start-up remember) and we missed the launch. Yet all of the executives and materials are at the conference. And the website launch goes into a list of Post-Conference Tasks. There is no contact form, no tracking, no optimized keywords, the list goes on. My demand generation dream just turned into a nightmare. I half want to go to the conference and tell everyone I see, yes I'm the marketing manager but that's NOT my design. Yes I have materials to send to you on their products. No, they won't look like anything you've seen from the company. Yes there is an 800 number, but no we can't post it yet. For a moment, I miss the light stepping start-ups, get-it-done-now environment. Not the 4 page change control doc...

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This is Vincent who provided me a sober conversation about some of the challenges of software building. More commonly discussed at this conference ( http://onhollywood.goingon.com ), this being the last day, has been the power of advertising and marketing and it's role beside software development, adoption and all of the journalism surrounding technology. The most fantastic discussion thus far and by far was with David Nordfors ( http://www.innovationjournalism.org . This current focus within journalism and within the ever-growing grassroots, user generated media is to me the most interesting thing happening in the industry. I guess there are other discussions of interest right now, we still see content management or advertising conferences. But I feel a real fire inside the media meshing; the large, powerful and sometimes threatened traditional journalists and the perhaps more street aware, tapped in but less committment-oriented bl-/vl-/phloggers (photo bloggers). I had the plea...