Some of you may have noticed that I’ve got a special background on my Zune profile page…and that when you add me as a friend, I accept right away. Well, I wish I were that quick to respond! But actually, what you’re seeing is our one-way friends feature. As many of you as want to can add me – but I don’t have access to any of your personal information or play data. (You can add Cesar too, but we’re in a race for the most one-way friends…and I’m winning, so please help me keep it that way.) This was...

Back! Hope everybody had a happy holiday. Kicking off another year of blog posts: this cool story from Wired . The folks at Wired chose "Academy of Dreams," as one of The 10 Best Gadget Ads of 2007 . Zune actually took the number two spot, losing out to The Bourne Ultimatum , which Wired thought was the best gadget ad of 2007. On a related note, Zune also got a quick mention in the number 10 entry: Transformers , saying, "We've got our fingers crossed for a transformed Zune/iPod brawl in the sequel...

This week's episode of Paul Thurrot and Leo Laporte's Windows Weekly features David Caulton, fellow Zune staffer - and author of the Zunester site. You might remember Leo Laporte from this video , which I thought was hilarious when I first saw it . Fast forward to now: the three of them have a great conversation, talking about background on the Zune project, about podcasts, the Zune platform, the Universal deal, and more. Check it out here .

Interesting discussions going on about DRM today. Theoretically, it seems like both Steve J and Bill G both agree that the model - at least in its existing form - needs to change. It's one thing on which both executives seem to agree. The difference seems to be in the approach. Rather than issue a manifesto/mandate, we (Microsoft) will continue with our label partners towards our long-standing vision: enabling seamless playback of content in whatever scenarios make sense for the consumer. Of course...