Matt Williams talks about blogging inside a big company (in this case Microsoft). I totally understand. My eyes are still bugging out from my secret meetings this week. There is unbelieveable stuff coming out. The kind of stuff that makes the transition from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95 look pretty minor in comparison. It is gonna be damn hard for me to keep my mouth shut. I'm still "moo'ing" four days later.

Is there something in the water? Quite a few of my friends and people I know are having relationship troubles (some, who read this blog regularly, are in quite deep emotional and relationship pain this morning). As you all know, I had my own set of these troubles just about a year ago. I don't wish them on anyone.

It's weird, too, that I'm being confided in as a friend in a way that never happened before I got a divorce and got remarried. I hope I am doing a good job as a friend, but I don't know what to say, really, so I just listen and urge people to take the high road. But, I have some thoughts:

It's unfortunate that we can't bottle up the feelings we have for each other at the beginning of a relationship and bring those along with us as we grow used to each other.

One bit of advice I'd give people: switch modes and get out of ruts. If you are totally not into sex, sit down with your partner and say "let's switch modes and I'll be totally a wild sex partner tonight." If you're totally not into eating sushi and your partner really loves that, switch roles and say "I'm really craving some sushi tonight."

That's really hard, though, because it requires you to do something that you've taught yourself you don't like. It requires you to be unpredictable. It requires you to take risks.

It's really hard. I know. I find I'm already falling into ruts with Maryam and we've only been married for a few months. There's no rule that says you have to stay in the rut, though. Life ain't fun there, believe me.

Why is being newly married fun? Cause you haven't buried yourself in ruts yet. Everything is different and the human spirit enjoys change (even though it fears it).

Who is more alive? The person who does something different every day or the person who does the same thing at the same time everyday?

So, my advice to those who are suffering relationship troubles? Change yourself. Do something unpredictable. Just be nice to the one you're with. Even if you've decided to not be with him or her any longer, believe me, in a year you'll look back at yourself and if you treated your partner badly, your guilt will burn.

On that track: work very hard at not emotionally or physically beating up the person next to you. It's so easy to do. It's so hard to undo your words of hurt.

To my dear friends who are in a world of hurt this morning: I wish you all the best. All we want is for you to be happy. It breaks our hearts when we see your hearts in pain.

David Stutz wasn't the first person to leave Microsoft's Rotor team, Eric Albert reports. How does he know? Cause Eric was the first one to leave.

Does it need to be said again? This weblog is my opinion and mine alone. My boss, my employer, my wife, my son, all have their own opinions which may, or may not, match mine. I'm a "weblogger that works at NEC" not an "NEC weblogger." Just to keep it clear.

Dave Stutz leaves Microsoft and gives some parting advice. "Recovering from current external perceptions of Microsoft as a paranoid, untrustworthy, greedy, petty, and politically inept organization will take years," he says. I was discussing just this issue with a friend of mine the other night "it's impossible," my friend said. "Nothing Microsoft does will make them seem like warm cuddly stuffed animals."

Steve Ballmer clearly disagrees and is trying to turn Microsoft's public image around (that's not my words, that's straight out of CRN magazine, which gave him its top executive award last year).

I said last week that I would give Microsoft credit if I see a reason to give them credit. Ballmer deserves some. He listened. He admitted he personally (and Microsoft at large) made mistakes and I take him at his word that he's gonna fix the problem.

Time will tell, though. Microsoft does have some serious disadvantages in the public perception arena. I'm going to do some more thinking and get back to him and you with some ideas. Right now I'm too drunk with the Microsoft wine to really be objective.

Hmm, I note that Kevin Lynch is blogging (he's the CEO of Macromedia). Hmmm#2: what happens if Microsoft buys Macromedia? Will Kevin be the first Microsoft executive to keep a weblog? It wouldn't be the first time that Microsoft does something innovative by acquiring another company. Oh, where do you think FrontPage, Hotmail, PowerPoint, Excel, Internet Explorer, DOS, etc came from? Microsoft's own developers? Nope. So, it'll be interesting to see if they acquire their first executive weblog before one of Microsoft's internal executives starts his/her own weblog.

These machines are probably compiling a new build of Windows right now. Windows 2003 Server ships in about 68 days and is in its final development stages now. It's interesting to note that this many computers takes five hours to compile a full version of Windows (and, that they constantly update these machines to run the latest builds that just were compiled).

When I visited the Windows build lab, I noticed this "Don't Fail" sign on the whiteboard right above where the folks work who produce the builds. That sounds like a good motto to have.

Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, gave me a buck and signed it. Unimpressed, huh? Well, I'd tell you why he gave me the buck, but unfortunately I signed an NDA and if I told you, I'm afraid that little green men will come out of my computer and kidnap me.

Seriously, if you wanna see some nice pics I took of Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, visit my MVP 2003 Summit photo gallery here. Oh, I'm donating the copyright to these photos to public domain, so if you'd like to use these pictures for any reason, feel free to do so. If you can give me credit, that'd be great. These are commercial-quality pics of Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. Oh, if you want to send me a signed dollar bill, that'd be awesome too -- I'll add it to my collection of "geek bucks."