Two totally differnt topics today:

1. We are having training for Serena Partners in Sao Paolo, Brasil. There are quite a few partners here – our training for Serena Business Mashups was filled to capacity. And of course we locally introduced the new 2008 Serena Partner Program, and folks are getting excited about what they can do in this new year. Next week partners will do training on Dimensions, which is doubly interesting to them given the new performance advances. Last, but not least, today the “Just @#$% It” campaign went live on Serena.com.

2. I discovered that if you copy all the flickr uploader files to the right directory, you can automate exports to flickr.com. There are instructions out there, but if you’re trying this, remember that you need to copy not only the uploader.exe file, but also the supporting files. I tried per the instructions here, but nothing happened until I copied the whole Program Files uploader directory – i.e not just the exe file, but also the supporting files. Then things were peachy.

After some digging around in the used microphone selection up here in Seattle, I came across a steal of a mic for voice-overs: the Neumann BCM104. It took me about two hours to get the oh-so-obvious “first thing you should do” when you then install an external Audio Capture Box: disable the existing sound card in your current OS!  I can confirm that the firewire port on my Lenovo / IBM X61T does work with the Edirol FA-66 firewire box, and runs on Vista 32-bit without a hitch. I had to unscrew the base of the microphone cable attachment to flick a tiny switch to ensure that the base defeat was off, etc, but other than that it’s a fantastic tool, with breathtaking clarity.

The same can’t be said for the  M-Audio Fast Track Pro USB, which I never could get to work on Vista, and promptly, and to my complete satisfaction, returned. In comparison, the Edirol is a solid aluminum device with solid switches, dampened dials, and perfect stability. It’s funny that with all these external devices, the only ones that seem to have any track record as a Vista-compatible audio interface are the Edirol line and the E-MU line, which I did not get to try.

I also picked up the O.C. White microphone broadcast boom with the gold springs, which is also a great, silent, and handy boom. One warning though – the internally supplied mic cable is only terminated on one end, so buy your own end, and get ready to crimp!

MashupCamp6 is going on right now (March 17-20), and Serena is here presenting about Serena Business Mashups and Mashup technology, as well as the Mashup Exchange. You can find out more about MashupCamp here, which we sponsor as a sustaining member.  I will also be uploading photos to Flickr here.

As Dave Berlind said as he started, Mashups are Mainstream!