Loyal Michael's Minute readers might have noticed that a couple weeks have gone by with no postings from me which never happens except for the Christmas holiday period. I'm not on vacation - in fact quite the opposite. Each of my companies is in the midst of an enormous project that I'm focusing on to ensure the biggest impact. I've been so busy that I haven't even taken the time to write about Google's kowtowing to Chinese government pressure to rewrite history. These links say it all:

Search Tiananmen at Google Images: http://images.google.com/images?q=tiananmen
Now search Tiananmen at Google China: http://images.google.cn/images?q=tiananmen

Sigh. I guess profits are more important than freedom even to the "Do No Evil" company (Google's company slogan).

Here's how I'm currently spending my time:

5% - Linspire
They're working hard on this year's Desktop Linux Summit which will be the biggest one ever with top caliber sponsors like Novell, Red Hat, HP and some great speakers like Doc Searls, Nat Friedman and an extra special guest they will be announcing later that you won't want to miss. They're upgrading to a new venue this year and at a $75 pre-registration price it's the best value for a technology conference and a refreshing contrast to the $1295 conferences on the technology circuit.

25% - SIPphone developers of Gizmo Project
Gizmo Project voice calling and IM is booming on Macintosh, Microsoft Windows, and Linux computers because Gizmo Project works well and connects with every type of device like WiFi phones, other VOIP and IM directories like GoogleTalk and even the popular open source Asterisk PBX software. I think people are beginning to understand the difference between Skype who walls their customers in and won't play nicely with anyone and SIPphone who connects to everyone making it possible to have just one address. Next week SIPphone will announce closing of a major venture capital deal which will help the company grow even faster.

45% - MP3tunes
Over 10,000 people have signed up for Oboe lockers some with massive size lockers! (See: Lockerenvy.com ) Our goal is to make sure you can access your music everywhere on any device. Many customers have been fooled into thinking they're buying music from iTunes when of course they're just renting it until their computer breaks is stolen or they exceed the number of devices they are allowed to use and their music is gone. Already today Oboe makes it possible to have all your music and playlists on multiple computers and access from any web browser. We'll be publishing APIs so you'll soon be putting music on your phone, PDA, tablet, car and Internet alarm clock. (Ok this product doesn't exist yet, but it will and when it does we'll make sure you can wake up to a playlist of your own music!)

25% - Ajax??
If you haven't heard of Ajax yet, you will and I don't mean the bathroom cleaner. Ajax is a new style of programming which makes it possible to have the advantages of web services with a responsive interface like traditional software. In the past web based tools have been handy because they load quickly, are free and are always up to date. But web interfaces are limited and operation can be slow as the slightest changes forces the entire screen to redraw. Ajax makes it possible to have full featured software like the applications you are familiar with on your desktop, but that load over the internet. Early examples are Gmail and Google Maps, but they have just scratched the surface of what is possible. A new venture I've been working on for awhile will change what people think is possible with Ajax.

Watch for some big news from each of these companies in the coming months!

-- MRThe Michael's Minute Meter

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