Well, I’m glad that is over. I broke the XP installation on my test system. So I decided that it was time to build a nice clean XP partition. And since I was rebuilding XP, I decided to replace the Windows 98 partition with Windows 98SE for firewire support to boot.

Umpteen many reboots later, with umpteen many visits to Windows Update and Office Update under my belt; I’ve got a pair of clean 98SE and XP partitions. A little time with Drive Image and I’m good for the future.

Yes, I know that the Outdoor Life Network has Tour de France coverage out the wazoo. But since I’m not one of the lucky few who receive OLN, I’ve come to rely upon ESPN’s nightly half-hour TDF show. Gone.

Lance is looking strong in his quest for an unprecedented 6th TDF victory. And I’m not going to see it. Phooey.

If there is justice in sports; then Kobe will spend the rest of his NBA career with good personal stats, an also ran team, and no big man inside. I’m not a Lakers fan and I was indifferent to their latest three championships. But the idea of a petulant superstar forcing the breakup of a still potent lineup while not making a personal commitment to improvement is repugnant. Shaq goes East in a trade that Kobe and the Lakers will regret.

As a developer, it’s tempting to believe that you know more than your users. Resist the temptation. You usually don’t. And in many of the cases that you do, your knowledge now is not going to exceed their knowledge later. Case in point, input validation. You may know more about legal values now, but what you code today may not apply forever.

I first encountered this several years back when I was a customer of PayMyBills (now Paytrust). I was in my bi-coastal phase, and I was using PayMyBills to view and pay my bills online. Then PayMyBills established a new payment center, with a new zip code. Unfortunately, some clever person at Sprint PCS decided to validate zip codes. With no way to override the validation, even with an irate customer insisting that the zip code was correct. The problem was compounded because the system discarded the old address before validating the new, and I had forgotten the old address.

I just encountered it again. I was going to switch my cell phone plan to Cingular. And I was going to buy my phone from Amazon, who offer some impressive rebates on new phones. Unfortunately, someone decided that they knew all the legal street types (Avenue, Boulevard, …) in the United States. And that someone decided to enforce that knowledge on all potential Cingular customers at Amazon. And that happens to make it impossible for me to enter my correct billing address. So much for that purchase.

While I’m thinking about it, I wish that I could find the people who started the trend of #666666 (dark gray) for text and slap them around a bit. Maybe it’s a sign of old age, but I like a bit more contrast in my reading.

The default weblog configuration should be black text on a white background and a full text RSS feed. It’s okay to be different. Just have a reason to be different.

Good news, Feedburner got funding while I was on break. I love the concept, but I don’t see a way to back out once I’m in. Since the best way to eliminate objections to switching is to make it easy to switch back, I hope they consider adding feed recovery (redirects back to my feed upon leaving) and feed escrow (redirects back to my feed if Feedburner goes under) to their service.

Unfortunately, my concept of URL Escrow seems to have fallen on deaf ears. In it’s absence, I’d settle for a statement from a standup guy or gal that they have access to the domain name registration and funds to provide redirect services if Feedburner should suddenly disappear.

8pm: Via email, Dick Costolo suggests that I use temporary redirects. That would work for me, but doesn’t do much for TypePad and Radio Userland hosted weblogs. Plus, it just doesn’t feel right to use a long-term temporary redirect to get around the lack of feed escrow. But it’s good to know that the CEO is reading the feedback email.

The Olympic motto is Citius - Altius - Fortius, the Latin words for Faster - Stronger - Higher. Once upon a time, the Olympic games were the pinnacle of sports. Then came the propaganda of the 1936 Berlin games, the US boycott of the 1980 Moscow games, the Soviet boycott of the 1984 Los Angeles games, and the current doping scandals. I don’t know how we got here, but I would dearly love to get out.

That being said, this is not the answer. The US Anti-Doping Agency’s shift from a reliance upon a positive drug test to documentary evidence of drug use is a step in the right direction. But the US Olympic trials are going on now. Don’t try doping cases in the press. If the USADA has a case, then make the case. If the press has hard facts in place of hearsay, then let’s see them. Otherwise, would everyone just lie low until they have something real to say.

I think I carry the recessive couch potato gene. I know I watch too much TV. So while it’s impressive that Tivo recorded Sliders and 7 Days for me, I really do have better things to do. Unfortunately for me [and fortunately for Tivo], my partner is getting into it. And while we’re nominally a democracy, Sam and Mark never vote against her. I wonder if there is a local chapter of Tivo Potatoes Anonymous.

One of the first steps in any marketing campaign is to establish who you are [and who you aren’t]. It’s not easy to establish yourself as B once the market decides you are A. But that is the problem facing NewsGator. They built the market for Outlook RSS readers, they are established as the market leader, but now they need to establish an identity for NewsGator Online Services.

It’s good to see their VC help by writing Why did we invest in NewsGator? I just wonder if this is the harbinger of a new VC capability. Industry relationships are a factor in selecting a VC. A well connected Venture Blog can initiate and explore customer conversations that a Startup can not. Will we ever see customer relationships via Venture Blogs as a factor in selecting a VC?

Yesterday, the folks at 37 Signals asked CRM: What does it mean to you? Here’s what CRM means to me (all following statements are to be preceded by an implicit in my opinion).

CRM manages the processes by which your company interacts with customers, providing a comprehensive view of the customer relationship and identifying paths to increase customer satisfaction and company revenue.

CRM provides the raw capabilities of a good sales person. Assuming that you had a good sales person who never took a day off, believed in process, was available for consultation 24/7 and could scale to handle hundreds of clients.

Would a good sales person ever call on a customer without reviewing outstanding issues? Or pitch a product which the customer already owns? Or a product which they have already rejected for cause. I think not. And using a CRM system, no one else would either.

Would a good sales person constantly review customer activity to identify additional products that build upon existing purchase patterns? Or keep tabs on why clients reject proposals in anticipation of changing conditions? I think so. And using a CRM system, everyone else would too.

Every company needs a CRM system. It’s just a question of what form that system should take. A micro business working out of a single room might just need a filing cabinet. A small company with tightly integrated teams might just need a wiki. Larger companies need more.