DigitalWeb interviews Andy King about Web optimization. Good stuff for folks who build Web sites to read. Particularly high-traffic ones like microsoft.com. Hint hint.

Hey, the wife and I will be meeting Anita and a few others to eat dinner and watch the Matrix Reloaded on Saturday night in Seattle. Come on along! We don't bite.

Brad, the .NET Guy, takes up on the "how do we learn?" theme.

Gartner recommends avoiding Microsoft Passport until November 2003.

I should probably try to give the company's position here, but I know no one would care about that anyway. If the answer is to avoid using software because a bug was found, well, then, are you going to apply that rule equally to all software vendors?

Dave Winer gives me some good ideas for the PDC.

I think it's a good idea, but what if we went further? What if we put the audience on the stage all the time? In reality they are anyway. Every audience member is already able to publish a weblog. Plus, like you said yesterday, the trick is to get the right person in the room to listen. What if we remove all distinctions like "rooms"? Everyone at the PDC will have 802.11. As they say in the Matrix: free your mind.

Well, my week of no wife has come to an end. So, too, must my week of late-night weblogging. Oh well, gotta go to bed.

What am I doing at Microsoft? Looking to create a killer community of folks who use and/or develop for Microsoft technologies.

It's fun that I am actually gonna get a chance to help create some fun new ways to use WiFi at our conferences.

Just what does that mean? Well, it could be everything from weblogs to newsgroups or even a common interest group meeting over dinner at night.

About all I know at this point is I have a hard and set deadline. Whatever I come up with has to be done by mid-October so it'll be ready for the PDC.

One thing is that I'm doing a lot of listening to people who'll be at the PDC. Are you going? Tell me what you'd like to see there.

Found another event newsletter. This one is called Tradeshow Blues and has useful articles for folks who go to tradeshows hawking their wares.

Bill Thompson: "This isn't about not liking blogs. It's about not liking unaccountable concentrations of influence."

Actually, Bill, I think you're just copying Andrew over at the Register who took an original stance, found out that many people feel that blogs aren't worth the bits it takes to download them, and now you're trying to jump on the bandwagon.

Ahh, I can just hear the editors around the world now. "Hey, how come we don't have a story about how bad blogs are for the world?"

Speaking of which, am I unaccountable? Seems that if I do something to piss off my 18 readers they'll go elsewhere. In other words, if I want to remain relevant, I need to write something of interest to my readers.

Just like you.

Last night Joi had dinner with John Markoff and John C Dvorak. Joi sure gets around.

Doc is talking about the usefulness of live weblogging at conferences. I agree. I find that I no longer take live notes because I don't think the live notes are all that interesting (and other people do a better job). Instead, I try to understand what the speaker is trying to teach me, and then I'll apply my own thinking to that and try to add some value.

This is a real problem I have with meetings too. I need to learn to take better notes in meetings, but I find I would much rather engage my brain fully in the meeting and worry about only taking down action items that are assigned to me.

Microsoft has so many meetings, though, that taking good notes is an art form and I see that notes have value later on for spurring discussions via email.

I gotta figure out a methodology for taking notes. I think I'll play more with OneNote.

MSN 6.0 is coming with webcam chat. Oh, that'll be fun to use with my son.

ScottGu has posted all his DevConnections slides and demos. (Scott runs the ASP.NET team).

The Geekout: "Chris Pirillo emailed me about my comic." Good comic strip, done online.

There's a new Halo coming for the Xbox, says Rob Bennett (he points to video of a preview).

Keith Ballenger: "Working at Microsoft is so cool."

Shhhh, Keith, don't tell anyone. Let them keep thinking we actually do work around here trying to dominate the rest of the world instead of listening to book authors or watching the latest sci-fi movie.

Vibe looks like a cool way to share your photos with your friends.

Joe Bork found some kick ass .NET tools. (CLR Spy and Reflector).

David Weller takes the iLoo PR disaster as far as it can possibly go.

Sean and Scott heretically say that Access is still a viable development tool when compared with SQL Server.

A comment I saw on Kuro5hin: "Blog is not a word. It is a manifestation of the pent up sexual frustration of millions of losers (read: geeks) out there furiously masterbating their own little world trying to make it significant. The more they wank, the worse it gets until the point where the word itself is synonymous with masterbation.

My comment? This poster doesn't even know how to spell masturbation.

Don Box has a new design and I like it! What's this about Mickey Mouse? Heh.

I've gotta try this Sharepoint RSS generator (by Harry Pierson). Oh, it generates OPML too? I gotta show off Radio to the Longhorn groupies.

Hey, the internal weblogs at Microsoft are available in both RSS and OPML. Stick that in Radio and smoke it!

Just to prove that the implants aren't working at full strength yet, I bring you this link to the "Halloween memos." Lots of anti-Microsoft conspiracy theories here. Oh, oh, Agent Smith is knocking at the door, gotta go...

What's a nice thing about weblogging? You can always get your point across. Just like Dare does here, when he takes on Dave Winer.

David Bau says his code is being stolen. Interesting story, not sure who's right, but how would a judge decide? Is there a judge in the world who understands C++ code at a level to decide whether someone's copyrights are being infringed on?

Oh, how did I miss a new SharpReader release? This is one of the better RSS News Aggregators out there.