Katchup Before Lunch

We didn't have Internet access from the conference room yesterday. Whoever says Microsoft isn't secure has obviously never visited their campus, where it was impossible for anybody without credentials to get online. Anyway, we saw some really cool stuff – including a demo of the latest Visual Studio. The guy ported a Windows XP application over to Windows CE with a quick copy / paste method. I think I've figured out what .NET is supposed to be: invisible compatibility. And that, my friends, is cool. We also saw a Tablet PC demonstration – although I was only able to catch the tail end of it, as I had to do a hit on TSS in the late afternoon.

Last night, they took us over to the “Microsoft Home” (or whatever they call it). Wow. Awesome. Of course, it was littered with their products – but one could hardly complain. We got to test drive Mira (their new Smart Display technology) and play Xbox games on a gigantic television screen in a sound-proofed room. I met the product launch coordinator for their new multimedia-centric PC. Ya know, the one that will play all of your MP3s, JPGs, WMVs, record live TV (and now allow you to burn those recordings out to DVD). At first, I was giving him a hard time. But when I saw that the machine (from HP) had a front bay for CompactFlash, SD, etc., I was sold. I'm going to get one of these things in conjunction with an eBeam. Sweet stuff, man. Very sweet stuff.

Then, this morning, I was lucky enough to hear Doc Searls speak. It's really odd, actually. I published my interview with pt in an issue the other day, not realizing that he would be at Mobius this weekend. pt loves Doc's blog, and this Searls-addiction was shared in our interaction. Doc blogged the mention, but I didn't realize that Doc was keynoting this event, either. He was invited to speak only because Beth Goza (the most energetic Microsoft employee on the planet – ever) saw him speak at Gnomedex. It's a small world after all. It's a small world after all. And damn, it just got a whole lot bigger. They need to make Cluetrain trading cards. “I've got a two Weinberger rookie cards in mint condition!” That, and Rageboy needs to sell “Lockes” of his hair. That is, if he can learn to keep his hands off of my wife. Anyway, Doc is… right.

More to come when I have time to log it.

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