The end of the year is a quiet time at work, but I've been busy. Not only am I still picking up the pieces after last week's power failure , but now there are lots of new toys for Christmas, and everything needs to be installed and configured. The most...

For the past six months whenever I want to know something about Vista, I've consulted a thick book we used to call "The Book of Longhorn". It's a nice summary of all the important features, written by people in the product groups responsible. I'm pleased...

You don't need to ask your boss for a raise at Microsoft, because each year we have an annual performance evaluation where managers review employee accomplishments in a process used for deciding things like salary increases or bonuses. So that's how it...

Bill Gates wrote an article for the January 2007 Scientific American predicting that robots are the next big thing . One of these days I'll download the Microsoft Robotics Studio so I can play with the technology a little more.

What a storm! Work was cancelled today, and my home on Mercer Island has been completely in the dark since 9:30pm Thu night. My DSL works and I’m using my UPS to get online here and there. My house is fine – a fallen tree knocked over part of my fence...

Many of us are going to be taking off soon, but for those of us (like me) who are still going to be in town, I hope to have some time to look at this new site from MSDN: Tons of neat coding ideas that anybody can try. They also mention the StreetDeck...

While talking with Rob today, I was surprised to hear that he hadn't yet downloaded Window Live Search for Mobile Beta . Usually he's the first person to try this stuff, so clearly the word hasn't spread as far as it should. If you're using Google...

I mentioned last month that I've been in the market for a new car. Well, I've talked with lots of people, gone on many test drives, and read every review I could find. Here are my conclusions so far. First, StreetDeck is amazing. I want something just...