A telescope and a magnifying glass

After much prodding from various friends and coworkers I've decided to start blogging.  I plan to write about Microsoft's platform technology, interoperability and other topics of interest. 

I've been thinking about what I want to say and do with my blog, and this quote from "One Hundred Years of Solutide" by Gabriel García Márquez came to mind:

In March the gypsies returned. This time they brought a telescope and a magnifying glass the size of a drum, which they exhibited as the latest discovery of the Jews of Amsterdam. They placed a gypsy woman at one end of the village and set up the telescope at the entrance to the tent. For the price of five reales, people could look into the telescope and see the gypsy woman an arm's length away. "Science has eliminated distance," Melquíades proclaimed. "In a short time, man will be able to see what is happening in any place in the world without leaving his own house." A burning noonday sun brought out a startling demonstration with the gigantic magnifying glass: they put a pile of dry hay in the middle of the street and set it on fire by concentrating the sun's rays.