Duncan blogged that the PDC sessions are available as streaming audio with synchronized PowerPoints. For those who couldn’t attend PDC, or just couldn’t get into the room, be sure to check out the Architecture Symposium track featuring Pat, David and Keith. If you just want the PowerPoints, you can get them here, here and here.

I think everyone read Duncan’s post since the performance is horrible right now. Don’t worry, Duncan said they’ll be up there for six months.

Talking about the Matrix movies and game got me thinking about the way I am entertained. I’m used to being entertained on opposite ends of the interactivity spectrum: passive movie watching and active game playing. I think you could generate more interesting experiences by intermixing those two extremes. For example, my favorite games are ones with a great story. You could watch someone else play Halo and still enjoy the experience. I hear Crimson Skies is the same way. So why can’t you choose to passively experience the story without getting involved in the game play, if I only care about the story? My wife has no interest in playing Enter the Matrix, but she’d like to see the story.

I also really like sports games (esp. hockey). Many sports games are adding “owner” modes where hire staff and sign players but don’t control the game play on the field. That’s pretty cool. Microsoft’s XSN Sports lineup doesn’t have those modes, instead the focus on online leagues and tournaments. While most of that experience is very interactive, how about having a XSN “SportsCenter” where you can see highlights from other games in your league? Maybe even cut away during breaks in the action to show highlights from other games in your league that may be going on at the same time. Those features are passive, but they would add immensely to the game experience.

Some of these techniques start to get into the realm of Machinima – making movies using gaming engines.

Anyone else interested in this? What are the good tools and engines that work with Managed DirectX?

I finally got to see The Matrix Revolutions. My whole division saw it on opening day, but since that was during SAF, our team couldn’t go. So we went en masse on Monday. I guess I’m in the minority, both in blogsphere and on the team, but I really enjoyed it. I also just finished playing Enter The Matrix. Funny coincidence, I reached the point of the game that corresponds to the end of The Matrix Reloaded on Sunday, saw Revolutions Monday, finished the game Tuesday. The game got somewhat decent ratings, but again I liked it. Probably because I was more interested in it as an adjunct to the movies than as a game. One review I read complained about the amount of action that took place during cinematic cut-scenes rather than in the game itself. But since I played the game primarily for the story, I didn’t mind.

My hardware issues remain unresolved. Apparently, HP has decided that my two month old laptop with the cracked display is not covered under warranty. Of course, since I have a wide variety of accessories compatible with this machine, I’m unlikely to scrap it even though they are charging my group a significant portion of the original cost (> 50%) to fix it.

As you can imagine, this is the last HP machine I will ever use. Granted, that doesn’t mean much to HP’s bottom line – I just got this machine when I switched jobs so I’m not due for a refresh for a while. I don’t run the lab, so I don’t have any say over the hardware they run in there. But I am in the market for a Media Center PC – luckily there are a variety of other OEMs who offer MCE (the Viewsonic looks cool).

People like Scoble scour the ‘net to find people who have “fired” Microsoft. We are doing a better listening to them (note, I’m not suggesting we’re done listening or that we’ve fixed all the issues – just that we’re improving). I hope HP has someone looking for people who have fired them.

I’ve finally updated the SharePoint Syndication project to support the RTM version of Windows SharePoint Services. Since I’m in process of updating my blog software, I haven’t updated the project page, though I have updated the GDN workspace with the release bits, source code and readme file. The workspace even has a freshly minted url: http://workspaces.gotdotnet.com/spsynd. Enjoy.