I was thinking today about Microsoft, and what it means to me specifically. Oddly enough, I have no stake in the company, but it has a stake in me since I buy its products and its products have largely been the reason for my financial success. First off, Microsoft has done a lot of things right. The...

Now that Mix06 is becoming a distant memory, I have to admit that a lot of the excitement I felt there has gone away. The reason isn't what you'd expect though... it's that I got sick the very next weekend. For four days I had a ridiculous fever, coughing etc., a combination of a respiratory and sinus...

Sadly I couldn't stay for all of today's sessions in order to get home at a reasonable time, but I did finally get to meet Rob Howard from Telligent (former Microsoft) after conversing with him for years by e-mail, forums and blogs. Good to finally match a face with a name. There were really two big...

Interesting keynote. Kinda cool to be ten feet away from The Bill, despite the scary secret service types near by. Anyway, the speech started with the typical marketing stuff, which isn't that interesting, and honestly I think Gates himself wasn't that interested in it. He's a geek first I'm sure, but...

I'm sitting here on the floor outside of the ballroom where the Gates keynote is happening in about 45 minutes. Let me paint you a picture... There are scary guys in suits with earpieces and lapel pins that look like movie secret service people. They're everywhere. I'm not sure why that surprises me...

My publisher tells me that, despite a lot of good press and strong reviews, my book hasn't sold particularly well. That's so frustrating... because throughout the editorial process there was a lot of relief that a book like this was finally being written. And with all of the people out there that I've...

Even though I develop software on Microsoft's platform, I'm still astounded at some of the stupid things they do. Now they're saying that you can't use your Windows license on a new motherboard when you upgrade . That's stupid. What moron in Redmond thinks this is OK? Since I bought Windows XP, I've...

Quite unexpectedly, I got an invite to attend Mix06 in Las Vegas next month. Normally this conference costs a grand to attend. So I'm in, no matter what it costs to get there and stay at the Venetian (where Blue Man Group also lives, I might add). The thing I'm most excited about though is seeing Bill...

There are a lot of little businesses on the Internet. Some are electronic extensions of real-world things like garage sales (eBay "workers") while others are totally new ideas that have reached critical mass ( Digg ). The important thing to note here is that there was little to no cost involved in getting...

I noticed a link to this Waterfall Conference that also a keynote called "Put Testing Where It Belongs-- At The End." I'm in awe that anyone would say something that, to me at least, is so fundamentally stupid. And yeah, I know this is a joke, but people out there actually think this way. Let me start...