Alan Reiter finds all sorts of geeky things like a sewing machine running Microsoft software, and a refridgerator prototype. Can't that idea go away?

Oh, speaking of which, on Monday morning I'm getting a tour of Microsoft's home prototype. That should be interesting.

If you see a bunch of Tablet PC-toting people tomorrow somewhere in Redmond at noon, that's our Flash Mob. Wanna participate? Send me email. robertscoble@hotmail.com.

Michael Gartenberg says it's time for me to ditch my Tivo.

Clay Shirky on the conference backchannel.

Some incredible break dancing (Windows Media file).

Stuart Charlton: "the "all standards, all the time" attitude drives an amount of naivety and blindness to the principles of delivering quality software."

Cute Flash things: Bunny (play with it with your cursor); and floating man.

Interesting stat. Check out Friendster vs. Slashdot in this Alexa.com traffic survey. (You'll need to type slashdot.org into the form to see the result).

Interesting updated J2EE vs. .NET case studies (updated to take negative feedback into mind) from the Middleware Company.

OK, you all know that I spend too much time at Cold Stone Creamery, but nitrogen ice cream sounds really geeky and really good. I gotta try this.

Looking for a way to put your coding skills up against someone else? Check out Topcoder.

Here's a time-waste: fun copter game. Sorta reminds me of spending hours in high school playing Choplifter with my buddies at Prospect High School in Saratoga.

Brent Simmons: "Reporting bugs is your civic duty."

Thanks to Misanthropist for admitting that Microsoft isn't the only one that writes code with security troubles.

I've spent a bit of time learning about security problems lately, and the truth is, it's very hard to consider all the ramifications of how your code will be used. I remember someone telling me "what's the only secure computer? One that's turned off."

Oh, oh. Mark Fletcher says that he has proven that I have 48 subscribers.

Mark Fletcher asks "why hasn't Scoble tried Bloglines yet?"

Cause I'm lazy, that's why. You know how hard it is to keep up with a wife, a move, and make you all think that I'm some A-list blogger?

It ain't easy, let me tell you. Maryam is chasing me around the kitchen right now. Thank God for wireless.

Oh, so Chris Pirillo gets to leak features in an upcoming News Gator, huh? Well, I have the future version too, and I can say that Chris is right.

Hey, Tablet PC folks, what kind of Tablet is this German cop using? Thanks to Scott Hanson for pointing me there.

Tomorrow I'm gonna hand in my employee badge and go home and cry to mommy. After all, Scott McNealy says that Microsoft has lost the operating system war.

Harvard Business School: Secrets of Successful Idea People.

Dang, all my secrets are out again. Gotta find new ones.

RSS Magic is a .NET Class Library that lets you add RSS features to your .NET application.

Ross Rader: "I'm beginning to wonder what the collective age of the participants in this entirely silly [RSS] discussion is."

I wonder what Microsoft should do. I just wish the "format-that-must-not-be-named" guys would just finish the spec, ship it, and then show users like me why to use it.

I think I missed Paul Thurrott's "Road to Longhorn Part II" but wanted to point to it. I'll try to point to anything Longhorn related between now and launch. I've been reading Paul for decades. He doesn't always get it right, but he's always given me a point of view on Microsoft that I can't get anywhere else.

Paul Robichaux: "My Acer experience so far has been terrific."

Don Box: "Shipping a platform seems to take forever."

Heh, if he is shipping a floral arrangement, I wonder what you'd call Longhorn?

Maybe an entire Tulip farm?

Ken Levy: "Welcome to the Visual FoxPro Developer Center."

Yesterday I posted a bad .NET Rocks link, so today I'm reposting it. Carl Franklin is doing a great job. All for free.

While we're at it, check out Franklins.net and the "Sunny Day" videos. That's the most unique way of explaining what .NET that I've seen so far.

Calling all Flash Mobbers in Seattle Area. I'm setting up "Flash Mobs" and our first one will be held this Friday at noon in Redmond. You gotta email me to find out where. robertscoble@hotmail.com. Only bug me if you're interested in showing up.

I'll be there. We'll meet someplace for 15 minutes, chat amongst ourselves, and then disband. It could be fun!

Lawrence Lessig: "But I have been struck in reading these posts [done by Howard Dean], and the passion they inspired. They revive a feeling I had as a kid — that ideas could matter, and that there could be people who would make them matter.

Amen!

I got some awesome headphones today. I'll write more about them after I get a good idea of how they compare to others, but Buzz Bruggeman recommended I get a pair (he says they are the best he's ever had for the less than $100 range -- sure there are better noise cancelling sets out there, but these are darn nice).

They are from Etymotic Research and they block out external noise. Very helpful when you have neighbors who play Strong Bad really loud. Not that I mind, my neighbors at work give me most of the funny stuff that gets on this blog.

By the way, if you haven't checked out Strong Bad yet, what the heck you waiting for? An invitation from Dave Winer?

Ev Williams of Google: "I'm getting so sick of browsers."

Chris Sells has more on Alan Cooper.

It's so weird working at Microsoft. My floor has dozens of offices. Sometimes I just walk around and talk to people and ask them "what do you do?" Today I found out a weblogger worked on the aisle next to mine. Rebecca Dias. She's on the marketing team for WSE 2.0 and she uses Sharp Reader to keep up on the blogs.

Loren tells us how the Tablet PC team is working to get the word out about Tablet PCs.

John Porcaro pointed me at this quiz and book: The Five Patterns of Extraordinary Careers.

I took the quiz and it said I'm a successful professional (above average). But, not executive level yet. The book sounds interesting.

Vic Gundotra told me to check out the new Napster because it's a great viral marketing campaign. The Flash movies are hillarious. Napster escaping from jail is a hoot.

MadGeek has a nice resource for .NET programmers where you can find companion tools and components: the Sharp Toolbox.

Harry Pierson tracks my sleeping habits. Gotta get to bed earlier!

Julie and Marcie are also talking about the dearth of women as speakers at tech conferences.

Oh, don't forget Dori Smith. She's the one responsible for getting me to blog!

Jennifer Lerman points out that Ari Bixhorn's live demo of the next version of Visual Studio (code-named Whidbey) is online.