Once in a while a remarkable young person writes me. Tonight is one of those nights. I discovered that Christopher Putnam runs LAN parties every weekend, plays several instruments, and is getting to be an accomplished Web designer and programmer. I get a demo of his Web app tomorrow. It senses when he's playing at his electronic piano, and will let me listen along as he plays.

Think his world is different than ours? He's 16. He already has a quite nice digital photo collection. Shares MP3s. Has a very nice web design. Oh, and he wants to change the world. I'll bet he does.

What were you doing when you were 16?

Lee Felsenstein talks about Adam Osbourne's death and the lack of details about it. Lee worked with Adam in the 80s.

One additional note about Beattie's comments: Russell says that Microsoft copied Java. Um, wait a second here. Did you know that Bill Gates was a proponent of interpretted and pseudo-code compiled languages for FAR LONGER than Java existed (know known as "Just In Time" compilers)? I remember talking to Bill about this in spring of 1994, way before I ever heard about Java (Java was introduced in 1995). Oh, and remember Visual Basic? It came out in 1991. It ran on a runtime. Just like Java. When Java came out it had many of the same features of Visual Basic. In fact, if Microsoft had released a Macintosh version of Visual Basic (Gates promised me one in that interview I had with him back in 1994 -- but it never shipped) then Java would never have gotten the big hype it has today.

So, who stole from whom? Isn't copying the best form of flattery anyway? Geesh, if we're going to knock folks who copy, then I guess we gotta throw out the entire open source movement. Lindows (and other distros of Linux) sure looks like a copy of Windows to me -- down to the same boring grey UI that Microsoft developed in 1995 (er, copied from Apple who copied it from Xerox PARC). Heh.

Christopher Coulter, in my comments, makes several good points about riding technology waves. Be early, he says, but not necessarily first.

Russell Beattie responds to me. Sorry for misspelling your name Russell. I fixed that (I can edit my posts too). He makes it very clear that anyone with a brain should oppose Microsoft at all costs. Well, sorry, we'll have to disagree on that point, but you should check out Russell's rant. His viewpoint is very popular here in Silicon Valley.

Another Microsoft blogger joins the fray. This time it's Sean Alexander. He's the Lead Product Manager of the Windows Digital Media division. The folks who bring you Windows Media.

Roy Osherove writes a scathing letter to his boss. Roy, you aren't alone, believe me. I know many people who hate where they work and are stuck there because of economic circumstances. I read Duncan's comment in response to Roy's letter too. He has good advice. Employers in the future will definitely do a Google search on you to see who you are. Anyone I hire will be put through such a search, that's for sure.

That said, I'd still hire Roy if I were considering him. I want someone who is going to kick ass for me and expect the same from his managers in return. If Roy were going to be in a public situation for me, I probably would discuss the appropriateness of taking dirt into public, though. If he explained himself in the interview well, it wouldn't be a hindrance. It is a minefield his building, though.

Every manager should read his note, though. It's this kind of stuff that destroys companies. Now, compare this note to the video of NVidia's founder and how he approaches employees at NVidia. I listened to that today and now I understand why NVidia's employees are working their behinds off (their parking lot is always packed, even on weekends). If you are a great manager, you can get more out of your people. You're paying them anyway, don't you want to get more out of your investment?

Cory Doctorow says we should attend the O'Reilly Emerging Technology conference. Unfortunately I don't have $700. The taxman made sure of that.

Sun's founder Scott McNealy says that being controversial is good for business. Um, Scott, being controversial does get you onto News.com, but what's good for business is having something to sell to folks once they find their way to your company. Do you have anything to sell me? I didn't think so. How is that good for business? Heck, sounds like Scott should get himself a weblog. Then he could tell the world about hist hatred of Microsoft 24-hours a day. It still won't help you increase your revenues, make profits, or keep from laying off the rest of your employees.

Adam Osborne, one of the pioneers in the personal computing industry, has died Dave Winer says. Sad news on an already sad news day.

Microsoft Senior Vice President of the Windows division, Brian Valentine, says "[these] are all the things that we can overlay on top of Windows 2003 and deliver with the Longhorn wave that allow the ecosystem to start going hard." Oh, I didn't even realize that Brian is already talking about Longhorn as a "wave." Glad to see we're on the same wavelength. Heh.

Doc Searls asks "is Intel's Centrino Techno Latin for "No Linux?" He credits Lindows.com's founder Michael Robertson for starting that meme.

John Dvorak is wrong. Apple has decided against Intel. I'll bet John $100 that he's wrong. John, you out there? Bad guess. I can't tell you how I know that he's wrong (it'd give away my source) but he is.

Chris Pirillo answers my ICQ challenge: "144832." Well, that makes sense. He's the guy who first told me about ICQ.

Another good IM point: XXXXX says: no one sitting around waiting for what Microsoft is doing? Entire News INDUSTRIES and Tech Reporters earn major living reporting on WHAT MS is doing...Corporates don't MOVE until they know where MS stands.

Who's XXXXX? I'm not telling you (but he doesn't work for, nor is affiliated with Microsoft). He's my best secret weapon. He knows more about what's going on out there than anyone I know. I gotta find a good gift to send him. I love Instant Messaging. It's the way to keep up to date on the industry. My IM address (Windows Messenger) is robertscoble@hotmail.com. Hey, do you have a lower ICQ number than this? 163561? Only 63,560 people do.

Instant Messenging is becoming more and more important. Last night a Vice President at a major PR firm pleaded for help. "My friend deleted my domain and now I can't get into my stuff." I didn't know the answer, but my brother Alex was online too. I joined them in a conversation. I loved his answer: "you're screwed." But, the exec appreciated the answer from someone who definitively knew. Where else you gonna get tech support like that at 10 p.m. on a Saturday night?

A friend on IM just wrote me "if Dave doesn't think there's any ISVs, then what the hell do you call all those folks that Chris Pirillo points to every day on his Lockergnome newsletters?"

You know, I'm finding I learn a lot from my readers when they post in my comments. For instance, here's Al who points us at a speech at Stanford by NVidia's founder (Microsoft Windows Media file). I never would have happened across that if Al hadn't posted it in my comments.

Dwight Shih: "Microsoft needs to wake up and smell the coffee. Nothing that they ever do again will match the success of their two great platforms: Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office."

Update: Russell changed his post. He took out the sentence where he admitted that he hated Microsoft. Hmmm.

Sasha P. Corti points to more Scott McNealy "visions." I thought the quote that Sasha pointed to was interesting. You know, I have a fingerprint scanner on my laptop now. To get access to my corporate data, I need to scan my fingerprint. Guess what, it does just what the Java card will do. Only I can't lose my finger. I can't destroy my finger (well, I could, but it'd be painful, much more painful than if I sat on a card and bent it or something).

Simon Fell says "the sooner OSX runs on Intel hardware, the better." Um, Simon, I got some bad news for you. Apple decided NOT to go with Intel. They are basing their entire future on the IBM series of PowerPC chips. The first one of those is rumored to come in June. Apple decided against Intel. I think that decision will be made clear this summer.

Microsoft hater Russell Beattie: "ANY company/person who wants to ignore M$ is being stupid."

Russell Beattie turns down an invite to the Microsoft Mobius insider event.

My comments? He's a better man than I am.

He raises some good points, though. How can a blogger remain impartial if he/she is getting free goodies from companies. The "professional" journalists have rules against taking gifts. Dan Gillmor, at the San Jose Mercury News, for instance, would never let me buy him dinner. Why? Because he wanted to avoid even the perception that he's on the take, not to mention that Knight Ridder has strict rules.

But, Russell screwed up. He wanted to remain impartial, but then he admitted he IS partial. He says he hates Microsoft. Obviously we're never going to see anything good about Microsoft in his weblog and his Mobitopia site (which is quite good, by the way).

Personally, if I hated Microsoft, I'd go for the free trip. For one, he'll be far more up to date about Microsoft stuff than, say, me. For two, when he says Microsoft sucks, it'd have more of an impact. After all, he would have just gotten a $3000 trip out of Microsoft.

I think his reasons for turning down Microsoft weren't what he stated. There's a disconnect there. It's not to remain impartial or credible (he shot his credibility when he said he hated Microsoft).

Disclaimer: I wasn't invited to Mobius, but I've gone on other Microsoft events like this where Microsoft paid for me to go.

I feel like Eminem today. The only reason I'm here is to create some controversy.

Some controversy is going on in my comments. Dave Winer made a couple of points in response to my technology wave effect thesis yesterday.

1) He says no one is sitting around waiting for what Microsoft is doing.

2) There are no ISVs.

3) You can't will waves into existence.

OK, let's break these down.

First, regarding the existence of software ISVs. I disagree strongly that there aren't any ISVs anymore. At NEC we get approached often by vendors to put stuff on our machines. For instance, on our Tablet we put demos from Adobe, Alias, Colligo, Corel, FranklinCovey, and Zinio.

Franklin Covey's planner is very nice, by the way, and I know Dave doesn't know about innovation in this space since he doesn't have a tablet yet.

But, yeah, the usual Silicon Valley farm system is broken at the moment. That'll take care of itself soon.

Regarding no one sitting around waiting for what Microsoft is doing. Absolutely patently false. More than 100,000 $2400 tablets have been sold worldwide since November 7. If that's "no one" then I wanna market to "no one." What other company has 100,000 customers who paid $2400 to buy their product in just the past three months? Did you miss the part where I said my company has sold out of its Tablets? In a freaking Silicon Valley recession? Dude, a technology wave is hitting us right now. I'm trying to slap you upside the head to wake you up to that fact.

Regarding the claim that "you can't will waves into existence." True. But there are two waves that I see going on (Tablets, the wave has already started to hit the industry) and Longhorn (which hasn't hit yet, no one has a clue about what Microsoft is doing). Neither Dave, nor other people, have seen Longhorn yet. I wish I could talk more about it, but I can't. Time will bear me out. There is another wave coming and you can either get on board in time, or you can end up like Borland, Word Perfect, or Novell and get on board after the wave has already washed over you.

There are opportunities. I believe VCs are about to come back into the software business. There are real customers paying real money and creating real business opportunities. 100,000 buyers a quarter is nothing to sneeze at. Apple would LOVE that business.