I just found this and boy was I surprised!  jkOnTheRun has been bouncing around the top 3% on PubSub’s LinkRanks for the past 30 days.  Wow!

In response to my letter to Microsoft requesting the inclusion of the Windows XP Pro Tablet Edition 2005 OS disks with every Tablet PC sold, jkOnTheRun reader Edward Greve has started an online petition so Tablet owners (and prospective owners) can add their vote to the request to Microsoft to make this happen.  Have a look at the petition and sign it if you agree with this premise.  Thanks.

My thoughts are with those in New Orleans and other cities in the path of Hurricane Katrina today.  May the impact be as light as possible and everyone have a safe outcome.  One of the most vivid and frightening memories from my childhood revolved around a hurricane that made a direct hit on the Houston area when I was quite young.  My father made the decision that our family would prepare the house and ride out the passage of Hurricane Carla when I was five years old, something he admitted immediately after the storm passed over us was a big mistake.  He had carefully covered all the windows with tape and plywood and while we were lucky our home suffered no appreciable damage those few hours we were huddling in the house were absolutely terrifying, and not just to me as young as I was at the time but also to my other sister and parents.  The noise– I can’t describe the noise the constant winds made ripping against our house.  It was so loud we couldn’t even speak to one another because we couldn’t hear over the wind.  And the rain.  It sounded like our house was being pelted with bullets the rain hit so hard and so relentlessly.  My entire family was absolutely terrified the entire time.

After what felt like an eternity the storm finally subsided and I tried to get my parents to let me go outside and see what happened but they wisely said no because they knew what I didn’t, the eye of the storm was over us and it would soon begin anew.  And it did with a vengeance and it was just like before.  What made the storm even more scary to me was the inability to see what was happening due to having all the windows boarded up.  I’ll never forget that experience as long as I live.  When my father judged the storm had passed us by and we tentatively went outside to assess the damage we were glad to get out of the enclosed house but scared what we would find.  Our street was flooded which was enjoyed by all the kids but my parents were watching it warily out of fear it would rise up far enough to get into the house.  It didn’t but the aftermath of the storm seared mental images I can’t escape even today.

We had a big pine tree in the front yard and every tree in the yard looked like a porcupine with brown pine needles embedded in every one of them, sticking out parallel to the ground.  Debris had been blown everywhere and we found more than a few dead squirrels that had been thrown who knows how far.  The single most frightening thing we saw that day was the VW bus in the driveway of our neighbors across the street.  It was sitting in their driveway exactly like it was parked and seemed to be totally unaffected by the monstrous storm.  Upon closer inspection (the neighbors were the smart ones and fled) we saw a trash can sitting in the back seat, standing up as if put there deliberately.  You remember those old solid metal gray trash cans that were quite heavy and sturdy.  As we approached the bus I was asking my dad why they had put the trash can in the bus, that didn’t make sense even to a five year old.  My dad looked at the roof of the bus (he was almost six feet tall) and silently lifted me up on his shoulders so I could see the roof.  There was a perfectly circular hole where the hurricane had shot the trash can right down through the roof. 

So I am thinking of the people in the path of Katrina today– may you get through this safely and with minimal affect.  Don’t try to ride it out– even if you do so successfully the terror is not worth it.

Dear Whomever at Microsoft is responsible for determining requirements for OEM recovery system distribution:

I trust that you follow the blogosphere (as mandated by Robert Scoble) and the myriad of complaints about the difficulty owners have with recovering from various problems that Windows XP creates for Tablet PC owners.  Eric Mack has detailed on his blog his problems with an operating system failure while travelling and his inability to recover from the problem.  This letter is not about Eric Mack as similar problems are encountered by hundreds if not thousands of Tablet PC owners all the time.  The heart of the problem has a simple solution that only you, Microsoft, can address and rather easily.

Microsoft Windows XP Professional Tablet PC Edition 2005 is considered a premium operating system.  That simple designation is the crux of the problem that makes recovery from operating system failures very difficult for Tablet PC owners.  Somewhere along the line someone at Microsoft decided that the Tablet Edition is a premium operating system so access to the actual operating system CDs should be restricted.  The only entities that can get their hands on this vital tool for recovering from problems are OEMs and software developers who have a valid MSDN license.  This means the only group that cannot get their hands on the means to easily recover from operating system problems are end users.  End users are the ones who purchase Tablet PCs.  It doesn’t take a big jump to realize that end users do not have the ability to affect simple recovery from these types of problems and the reason is the lack of Microsoft directives to OEMs to supply this tool.  In fact, I suspect it’s even worse than that and that MS has in fact restricted OEMs from distributing a set of Windows XP Tablet Edition install sets to end users.

Please understand one simple fact– wiping your Tablet PC clean and starting over from scratch every time you have an operating system problem is just not acceptable to the end user.  Why should a user with a duly licensed copy of the OS be confronted with starting over every time there is a problem?  This is a constant source of frustration that owners feel with both MS and the Tablet PC and is enough of a hassle to cause Tablet owners to turn to something else the next time they are in the mood to purchase a replacement computer.  While they may cite the OEM as the source of the frustration you, Microsoft, are in the position to correct this if you would, and you are the ulitmate losers when your platform is abandoned.

Some OEMs ship recovery CDs with the Tablet PC so owners at least have the avenue open to wipe their system clean and starting over when they have a problem.  As previously mentioned, this is not a real solution to anything but at least the option exists.  Other OEMs don’t ship any media at all so the end user either must purchase a set of CDs or run a system utility on the Tablet to create them on their own.  The main problem with this is that many Tablet PCs don’t ship with optical drives.  For these Tablet PC owners they can’t even make a set of recovery CDs which will only enable them to wipe their system disk clean and start over which is not a reasonable solution to begin with.

I have heard from numerous end users who have typical Windows XP problems such as an OS file gets corrupted and they cannot recover from it.  What is the purpose of putting such roadblocks in the way of end users who are having a problem with your product and then making a radical solution the only way out?  The OEM is not going to be blamed for this, only Microsoft.  Every time.

You can eliminate this problem by mandating as part of the OEM licensing agreement that regular Windows media must be supplied with all Tablet PCs.  Not just recovery media because in many cases these are overkill and just foment frustration for the owner with a valid license.  If you are determined to continue the policy that the Tablet Edition is just too “premium” to allow customers to obtain then at least mandate that OEMs must supply those recovery CDs.  These would go a long way to help out your customers in the time they need it most– system failure.

The ineffectiveness of the current OS supply situation was something I was hoping would be addressed in the upcoming WindowsVista as early indications from various teams at MS made public statements that the Tablet functionality would be rolled into the core of WV.  Steve Ballmer’s most recent public comments that the Tablet Edition would still be a premium version of WV were not what we Tablet owners wanted to hear as it implies the current unacceptable recovery situation will likely continue far into the future.  Come on, we are a loyal user base who are being hammered by this ridiculous situation and only you can fix it.  We are counting on you.  Thanks.

Michael Connick shows us on his blog.  Pictures speak louder than words:

Microsoft MVP and Incremental Blogger Loren Heiny has been working on a Tablet PC program that allows editing of documents with ink gestures.  His latest post about this program has those of us who do a lot of writing in Word drooling for the release of this program.  He has an animated GIF on his blog that shows how powerful this program has become in a very short time.  Take a look at just a few of the editing chores Ink Gestures in Word can do.  Come on Loren, we need this already! 

Stylistic ST5000

Fujitsu realizes that prospective Tablet PC customers have a big choice to make right up front, convertible or slate.  To that end they recently introduced two new models in their Tablet PC line which cover those choices quite nicely.  The Stylistic ST5000 is the newest slate series and it has a lot going for it that slate lovers can dream about.  Weighing in at a measly 3.5 lbs. and less than 1” thick the ST5000 packs a lot of punch.  The viewing options are as diverse as you’ll find on any Tablet PC as the 12.1” screen comes in three versions, indoor wide-angle, indoor/ outdoor, and indoor/ outdoor wide-angle, all of which display in XGA (1024×768).  The ST5000 uses a Pentium running at 1.2 GHz and can be upgraded to 2 GB of memory.  Prices start at $2099.

LifeBook T4000

Convertible lovers are covered by Fujitsu too with the introduction of the LifeBook T4000 series. The T4000 is a full 12.1” convertible with a Pentium processor up to 2 GHz and RAM up to 2 GB.  The screen options are just as exciting as on the ST5000 with three available: indoor wide angle, indoor/ outdoor wide angle, and an indoor high resolution (1400×1050) such as that on the Toshiba M200.  Too bad there is not a wide angle version of the high-res screen, that would be killer.  The ST5000 runs normally at 1024×768 resolution without the high-res option.  Prices start at $2149.

Japanese electronics OEM Thanko has introduced the Thanko USB Radio in Japan which looks pretty cool.  The USB Radio draws all its power from the USB bus and is slightly bigger than a key chain flash drive.  Why would you want a radio on your notebook or Tablet PC?  Thanko ships the Radio with software that performs radio tuning and allows recording of the streaming radio signal directly into WMA format.  You can even program to record a specific station at a given time.  Cool mobile tech!