You might have heard the news that Jim Allchin retired today from running the Windows team at Microsoft. But, you might not know that he’s an accomplished guitarist.

Well, now that he’s retired, I’m sure he’ll want to play with Don Box, or Steve Ball, or some other Microsoft musicians (geeks are often great musicians).

Well, on stage at Demo as I type this is “eJamming” which hooks up band members all over the world. Really cool. They have a guitarist on stage that’s playing with other musicians all over the world.

OK, if you like short videos you won’t like these. Move along. Click “J” if you’re using Google Reader.

But, if you’re a real freak like me you’ll probably enjoy two hours of Mac vs. Windows Vista debates with four experts. I love how Maryam ends the second video.

Fred Davis has the details. Yes, we’ve posted about four hours of videos with me and Fred in them in the past two days.

I invited four geeks, representing both sides of the OS aisle. First is Fred Davis, co-founder of Wired Magazine. Second is Harry McCracken, editor in chief of PC World. Third is Sam Levin, founder of Stanford Mac User Group, among other Mac things. Fourth is Jeremy Toeman who worked at Sling Media when I first met him.

This was filmed in my living room. I’m rewatching it now and it’s actually quite fun. Hope you enjoy it, even though it’s two hours long.

It took a while to get into the Windows Vista stuff that’s good (the second hour has more of that, including discussion of .NET 3.0 and what’s good about that). If you actually do watch the video you’ll get quite a bit of historical context behind why these two operating systems have the business positions they do.

I split this up into two parts. Here’s the first hour, and here’s the second.

Congrats to Microsoft on shipping Windows Vista. We did this debate just for you.

UPDATE: Daily Kos has 700 comments on a debate about whether you are a conservative or a liberal just because of your OS choice.

It’s Fred Davis week on ScobleShow. The OSX-vs-Vista-two-hour-debate-to-end-all-debate video will be up later tonight. In celebration of Microsoft shipping Vista. It’s not nearly as fun as Bill Gates getting on Jon Stewart’s show, but it does have its own bandwidth-sucking delights.

In the meantime, have dinner with us!

In the first part of this we made dinner. Now we sit down and eat it and talk, talk, talk. Geeky stuff, of course.

Geeks involved are: Barney Pell, CEO, Powerset; Mary Hodder, CEO, Dabble; Henri Poole, founder/director, Civic Actions; Kathleen Lyman, Co-founder of Wired and CEO of LaunchMedia; Steve Gillmor, founder of GestureLab (damn, he’s not invisible). Our co-hosts were Robert Scoble and Fred Davis, co-founder of Wired Magazine. Videographers are Eddie Codel and Glenn Gullmes. Chef is Rozanna Ogneva of Are You Being Served Catering. Our host is Jeannine Barnard.

Wow, Jim Gray, Slashdot reports, is missing.

He’s one of Microsoft’s smartest researchers. I did a video interview with of Jim back when I worked at Microsoft.

He helped build the internals of SQL Server, one of Microsoft’s most profitable products. Among other things. In the database world Jim is regarded as a God.

Ahh, I see over on TechMeme that Google’s founders say that being in China hurt its image.

So, why won’t Google just leave China and improve its image?

Easy: there are too many smart engineers coming out of Chinese Universities. Leave China and you not only leave a market with more than a billion people in it, but you leave all those smart people to join other companies who haven’t taken an oath to “do no evil.”

When I worked at Microsoft the most amazing software was being done in China (face detection, speech recognition, and video search, just to name three, are being worked on in China, and those are among the hardest things to build).

Why should we care about the quality of our educational systems here in America?

This is precisely why.

I personally support Google and other companies (a bunch of Silicon Valley companies are there, and have been there for years) being in China.

I was in China several years ago and realize that most Americans really have no clue about what’s going on over there. I sure didn’t, before visiting.

I want to visit China again to cover this ongoing story.

OK, I think I made about 50 enemies yesterday. Telling people they don’t link, I learned, is one way to get everyone’s panties in a bunch.

Ryan Block, who is one of the main guys at Engadget, responds to yesterday’s rant with a long piece. Basically says that they went through an editorial process and found my video yesterday didn’t have any news value to Engadget’s readers.

Now, that’s new information. I disagree. First of all, I had the news out at 9:00 p.m. on Friday evening. Half an hour before Engadget had its news out.

Second of all, I had quotes DIRECTLY from Intel’s top management about the new 45 nm processors and how they did it ON VIDEO. This is something that Engadget didn’t have, and doesn’t have. That alone is news value for Engadget to link to.

In my two videos (and a third really cool one that PodTech.net did) we get the news about Intel’s new 45nm fab, and go way beyond what Engadget put up.

But the news of my videos isn’t WHAT was discussed in them, but rather the TOUR itself. I expect at least a few of Engadget’s readers would love to see the place where the chips inside many of their gadgets are made and hear from the people who make those chips directly instead of reading just something that sounds like a press release rewrite. Maybe that’s just me?

UPDATE2: Today Engadget has an article about a cancer patient getting their Xbox ripped off. You telling me THAT has more news value for Engadget’s readers than a tour of Intel’s factory which also included discussion of Intel’s new chips coming out later this year and how Intel got that breakthrough done? Give me a break.

Another point? That I’ve become less interesting since leaving Microsoft. Well, I think that’s because Engadget isn’t watching ScobleShow.com. Including an interview with the Zune team that wasn’t linked to by Engadget or Gizmodo, either.

Over there, in just four months, I’ve posted more than 120 videos, gotten more than 70 interviews with Silicon Valley CEOs, and had some real interesting ones with Retrevo and gang at CES, among others. But, nah, that’s not as interesting as seeing inside Microsoft, is it?

Oh, Gizmodo DOES link. Dan Farber, of ZDNet DOES link.

So does Alex Torex.

Frederic, in the Last Podcast blog, says this is part of a bigger blogger backlash (he sees it in places like Digg).

Jason Calacanis (the guy who founded Engadget) says the real “non-linking” enemy is the mainstream press. Ahh, but Jason, that’s why I was so pissed off yesterday. Every blog was linking to the New York Times (or, not linking to anyone, like the Engadget and Gizmodo pieces didn’t do) but they weren’t linking to the blog that ACTUALLY got the real news, straight from inside the Intel fab (the New York Times didn’t get you that). The truth is, if bloggers don’t link to other bloggers and, instead, link to the New York Times, they are just reinforcing the mainstream media’s position.

Michael Letterle says “I think the real problem is bloggers producing unique content.” Oh, that indeed is a problem, but on ScobleShow.com I’m producing one to two videos a day and finding it very tough to get links. Even when I’ve gotten something really exclusive. Seems most bloggers would rather link to the New York Times than start up a blog search engine and look for something really unique coming through.

Munir Umrani remains above it all, saying, “Does it bother me if another blogger doesn’t link to The Blogging Journalist? No. Am I appreciative if someone does? Yes. “

But, Munir, how would anyone find you if you never are linked to? Especially if bloggers and journalists demonstrate they won’t do a simple blog search to see what else someone has written about a topic?

Scoble: pissing off the blogosphere so you don’t have to.

UPDATE: TechCrunch’s Mike Arrington writes “Wow, Scoble just threw himself under a bus.”

I should update my last line, then to: Scoble: throwing himself under busses so you don’t have to.

Thanks to Ze Frank! (I stole the “so you don’t have to” line from him, which is where I heard it first).

UPDATE2: It’s funny to watch more bloggers come online and link to the New York Times, without linking to anything else. BloggingStocks does NOT link.

UPDATE3: Slashdot links to a CNET tour of Lucas Film’s datacenter, but they won’t link to my tour of Intel’s 45nm fab. Interesting editorial judgment at these big sites.

I remember having great discussions about Microsoft vs. Apple back in the 1980s and 1990s. We all survived those years without too many hurt feelings.

So, I thought it’d be fun to do it again in 2007 now that Microsoft is shipping Windows Vista. Yeah, fresh meat for the whole debate! (Or was that just the burritos we were eating?) This presented an interesting opportunity to invite four interesting people over to the house last night who would give me insights from both sides of the aisle. Of course Maryam and I gave them some social lubricant and Tres Amigos’ burritos, and recorded it. We burned through two tapes (almost two hours). One thing that’s a given in our industry: we’ll never tire of talking about Apple vs. Microsoft. Even, when, as Fred Davis points out below, there’s not all that much to talk about (the discussions were a lot more fun back in 1989 when there was a truly huge difference between the two OS’s).

Oh, yeah, my Media Center disconnected six times in two hours (I was playing pictures). Something is wrong with my wifi and I gotta figure it out. Sam enjoyed that a lot. It’s always fun when the other guy’s stuff isn’t working right.

So, who were the players?

Fred Davis. Co-founder of Wired Magazine. Here’s his report of the evening.
Sam Levin. Co-founder of the Stanford Mac user’s group, and the guy who does Cool Mac Picks.
Harry McCracken, Editor in Chief of PC World. Also does PC World’s Techlog. Don’t tell anyone, but he admitted to being a Mac user.
Jeremy Toeman. He used to work at SlingMedia and is very knowledgeable about all sorts of HD video stuff. Here’s his report of the evening.

I’ll get the two hours of video up on January 31st, which is when Vista launches.

Oh, and Loren, if you say my videos are long and boring, I’ll just make them longer and more boring, OK?

Actually, you can skip right to the end for Maryam’s definitive word. I’ll remind you of that again when we get the videos up.

It’s just amazing to me that Microsoft has continued with a failed search strategy, even after it’s apparent to EVERYONE (including Microsoft’s CFO) that what they are doing isn’t working. Hint: it ain’t gonna work, even if they flush another billion or two down the “copy Google” toilet.

So, what should their strategy be? Go for a little cut against Google. Don’t try to attack Google’s castle head on. That won’t work. Instead, flank them.

Start by surrounding Google with lots of niche engines. Technorati showed the way three years ago, even though Google has largely caught up now, by doing Blog Search, which was something that Google didn’t do well (still doesn’t really: if someone wants to find a blog on, say, Scrapbooking, what search engine really gives a nice set of blogs? Neither Technorati, nor Google’s blog search engines do.

But, there’s another engine that’s showing a way to start building a more successful search strategy: Krugle.

Buy it, and buy it now.

Why? Cause it’s a search engine for developers. Go talk to Steve Ballmer about that one. Remember him screaming “developers, developers, developers?” Well, Krugle delivers.

Krugle does something demonstratable that Google does not do: searches code and indexes it and helps developers in a real, demonstrable way.

Here’s an example. If you’re a Windows programmer you probably will need to look up some API name, like “DestroyWindow,” to learn more about it. Krugle’s search for DestroyWindow not only has links to the proper MSDN page, but shows off book mentions and code, and links to examples of its use in code.

I keep hearing about Krugle from developers. They tell me it rocks for looking up stuff. Need shopping cart code? Search for it on Krugle. Now compare that to Google/Yahoo/MSN.

Now, I can hear you now “developers don’t matter to search engines.”

Oh, yeah? When I visit Google there’s a huge plasma screen that shows every Google search done in real-time (it only shows that a search was done, not what the search was about). Everytime I look at that screen Redmond, WA does more Google searches than most other large cities in the world and does more Google searches than the entire continent of Africa.

Hint: there’s not much in Redmond except for Microsoft. So, what are all those Microsofties doing on Google?

I bet they are doing searches for technical information and looking for code samples, error names, algorithm tips, and API names.

I remember talking to tons of developers on the Windows team about why they love Google: it was the best engine three years ago, by far, to look up information on Microsoft’s own Web site!

That brand love for Google spread from geeks and developers to others in society. Don’t underestimate the influence that developers have here. YOUR OWN DEVELOPERS MICROSOFT!!!

So, start small. Don’t try to be Google. Why don’t you buy Krugle, get a position in search, then build on that?

It sure couldn’t hurt. What you’re doing now sure ain’t working.

I see a lot of people coming here from a Forbes list of who they think are the top 25 Internet Celebrities. I’m very honored to be #9 on that list, but a couple of things I’d like to correct. First, I’m a tech blogger, the article says I’m a political blogger. Both my blog here, and my video show at http://www.scobleshow.com (more videos coming today), are mostly about the tech industry. Second, there’s no mention of PodTech, which, is more important to me now than leaving Microsoft. A good place to learn about me is on the Wikipedia page about me. Oh, and I have a Wikipedia policy. I will not edit my page, nor will I pay anyone to edit that page on my behalf, and if I ever want something changed on that page, I’ll just blog it so it’ll be out in the open and transparent. I have not written a single word on that Wikipedia page and I’m quite amazed at how complete and accurate it is. Thank you to whoever contributes to that page.

I agree with Mike Arrington: I can think of 100 people who are more deserving (and who are more interesting than me). I also am not real happy being on a list where the #1 person is a fictional person. Personally, I’d rather give up my spot on that list to someone who actually DID something for the Web. Tim Berners-Lee or Dave Winer or Tim Bray come to mind (the first Tim invented the Web, Dave invented RSS/OPML/XML-RPC, Tim Bray co-invented XML).

I’m still mostly taking this week off of my blog. I’m totally snowed under with email and other tasks. Did four interviews yesterday that you’ll really like. And on Tuesday I got a good look at the Stanford Linear Accelerator and interviewed the team that did the first Web site in the United States. Really amazing people there.

Oh, I wish I could get to Lunch 2.0 today at Meebo. You’re invited. So was I, but I have to chew through my task list.

Rick Selby writes on his blog: “I like trains.” He better, he’s helping to build another version of Microsoft’s Train Simulator.

I remember first seeing Microsoft’s Train Simulator back in the late 1990s at a train show.

Maryam, tonight, was telling my dad and my step mom how I took her to Tehachapi Loop on the way to Las Vegas on the trip I asked her to marry me. “He was chasing trains,” she said.

Oh, give me a camera, and a train to catch.

By the way, I blame this on Steve Sloan, my former boss at San Jose State. He’s a far deeper train freak than I am.

It’ll be a load of fun hanging out with photo and train geeks on Sunday. Can’t wait.

And can’t wait to get the new Train Simulator. I thought the coolest thing was being able to put my own photos and logos on trains. Here’s one I did for Scripting News.

One thing I hope Microsoft lets me do is to run Train Simulator in a Window. If you’re really a simulator freak, you want to load up a big train and then head across country. That’s pretty boring as game play goes, but it sure makes killer eye candy. Put that up on Vista’s sidebar and watch everyone rave when they pass by your cube!