Robert and Julie have already mentioned this. I've been hard at work all week helping a good friend in Bali - Susi Johnston - put together an immediate relief effort for the Aceh province called the "Aceh Aid Bucket Brigade". Susi credits me with the name, but let's just say it was a group effort. One of the things I can take credit for was setting up her blog on MSN spaces (good suggestion Robert!) to which she can post via email (they have embarassingly slow connections over there). I still have to do the pictures manually though...
Susi's NGO (non-gorvenmental organization) on Bali - IDEP - was resonsible for much of the recovery work from the Bali bombing and the irony is that much of the organization around that disaster is being put to use immediately to bring relief to the Aceh victims. Lee Downey - one of the lead volunteers on the trucks taking in the aid was in fact the volunteer who managed the morgue from the bombing. He's got a digital camera and 2GB of media, so there should be some "on the ground" images available soon.
As you might imagine, getting funds physically into Indonesia can be a bit problematic. So we've set up a PayPal account through the Tides Foundation to channel money to IDEP. Tides is not taking any fees for the service and is a 501c3 non-profit for tax deductability. And on the approved Microsoft gift matching list <nudge>. We are also applying to EBAY's foundation to cover the PayPal fees <fingers crossed>. We're working on getting some additional documentation online, but in the meantime you can send donations via PayPal to acehaid@tides.org with the assurance that the money will actually be in Indonesia, purchasing direct aid, within a few days. Now, quick like a bunny! You've only got 10 more hours (PST) to make it a 2004 deduction!
I used the phrase 'marketing slime' today when talking to a friend in, er, Microsoft marketing. They'd never heard that phrase! So I hit dictionary.com: http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=marketing%20slime, which came back with
Somebody left these "ASK ME about Visual Studio Server" buttons in the VIP lounge at VSLive/NYC in July. Nobody confessed to knowing what they referred to, so nobody would actual wear one (which sort of defeats their purpose, right?). Six months later, Google only turns up references to "Visual Studio Server Explorer". Hmm.
These two posters went up around Microsoft's Redmond campus a few months ago. I was part of the team that designed the (then-new) Architecture portal (http://www.microsoft.com/architecture) but - even with that "perspective" - I think these posters can be difficult to grok. I like the mountain image, but if I understand the symbolism here - is a physical architecture that is literally "carved in stone" a good thing?
