Finally getting around to watching the CES keynote … From Gary Shapiro, Microsoft is a “national crown jewel” … makes me feel good about having a blue badge today. Nice pick me-up…

Happy New Year! Very busy, but I thought I would share…I needed a Tag Cloud control for some demo work I’m doing so off to my favorite search engine I went. Without disparaging the many results this one in particular was tres-simple (high on my criteria...

The family is moved, not moved in, just moved. So that’s the reason I’ve been way off the grid for so long. I have to say…moving is hard!! Last time I moved was 14 years ago and I’m quite amazed at the amount of “stuff” we’ve accumulated over the years...

If your a developer-type go check out Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 First Look . I just installed a VM with it and I have to say my first impressions are pretty good. Looking forward to trying some actual development with it.

Absolutely can’t wait for this to hit the streets Xbox.com | Project Natal . I think this trumps the Wii, but to be honest, I think having something in your hand helps to play the game. Of course, I haven’t tried this yet and I have played the Wii with...

Well it seems the new Live Search is Bing . Internally at Microsoft, we’ve had it for sometime as is common with our “ dogfooding ” of new stuff. Personally, I haven’t had much interaction with it as I’m not on the corporate network that much. To be honest...

Keep an eye on the Windows 7 Beta Customer Preview Program site to download Windows 7 RC publicly on May 5th. As many tech sites have noted, installing the RC gives you Windows 7 for a year for free. Of course, the Windows team is hoping you’ll like it...

Check out BlogMS - Official Microsoft Team Blogs for a list of Microsoft Team Blogs, many of which I had no idea existed. 237 or them…wow!

Internet Explorer 8 Final Available Now . Here is an important snippet for me: Anyone running Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows Server can get 32- and 64-bit versions now from http://www.microsoft.com/ie8 . (Windows 7 users will receive an updated...

Also at TED, Bill Gates unplugged | Video on TED.com talking about the work his foundation is doing to fight malaria and to create great teachers. Next time I have a presentation to give, I’ll have to work out releasing mosquitoes as part of the “interactive...

Is this what pocket protectors will look like in the future? Pattie Maes demos the Sixth Sense | Video on TED.com

As a heavy user of VirtualPC, Virtual Server, and Hyper-V in my daily work, I’m really excited about the Windows 7 Boot from VHD feature. I do almost all of my customer related in work in virtual environments and when I need to focus on the task at hand...

If you use Outlook 2007, by choice or by force – doesn’t really matter; go get the Outlook Feb Cumulative Update right now and install it. The performance improvements are fantastic! Go read the 20 page whitepaper, or see what Jimmy says about it – he...

Over the last month or so, I’ve been working on some SQL Server optimizations to address performance. If you are in the same boat check out Jimmy May’s blog for lots of great information on making SQL Server perform as well as possible. Also don’t forgot...

A friend of mine yelled at me for not blogging lately, so here goes…. After an odd convergence of some goofy behavior on my Vista machine and the release of Windows 7 Beta 64-bit…I made the jump. I’m up and running, but I’m still discovering stuff I forgot...

I know next to nothing about Windows HPC 2008, but you have to admit this is pretty impressive November 2008 | TOP500 Supercomputing Sites .

I recently discovered PlayOn - available for XBOX 360 and PS3. I really like being able to watch some of the network shows I "subscribe" to off-schedule.

Check it out and download today. Xbox.com | Xbox.com Home . Been using it for a while and I have to say I really like it. Been enjoying the instant streaming from NetFlix and the kids like making avatars - in fact they've made a bunch of local user accounts...

Even if you are not going to PDC this year, keep an eye out for .NET Framework 4.0 and “Dublin” . I've been using Windows Server 2008 and Hyper-V lately so I'm excited to see what's next (if you haven't picked up on it yet..."Dublin" is the next version...

I just received my Kicker - zKICK for Zune and fired it up. Pretty nice, good sound quality and it definitely lives up to the "Livin' Loud" slogan. I enjoyed watching the subwoofer on the back of the unit vibrate ;) Also includes line-in for connecting...

Finally....this is the kind of commercial we've been waiting for. I'm a PC .

If you do presentations for a living, or at least as a regular part of your day job, I like having an option to do something different for presentations now and then. pptPlex from OfficeLabs is kinda cool. Nathan Dunlap and Robby Ingebretsen did something...

Well I finally found the release for Windows Mobile 6.1 for my Blackjack II....no thanks to AT&T. The directions and downloads were available on Samsung's site. I have to say, finding it wasn't easy, and reading all the warnings scares the crap outta...

So Google Chrome is all the buzz. There are definitely things I like..."tearing" off a tab and making a window out of it is at the top of my list. One feature, the "omni bar" actually exists today in both IE and Firefox. So I'm not sure why everyone thinks...

Micorosft Live Labs has released Photosynth . Pretty cool if you take a lot of pictures ... unfortunately, I'm don't :(