James Edelen wrote a plugin for SharePoint that plugs into News Gator. Freaking A! Now I can post from NewsGator to SharePoint. I gotta try this out. I wonder if I could load it on the SharePoint server at work?

The Register: Skype: Putting the Hype in VoIP.

Ole Eichorn is pushing Microsoft to make development tools easier.

InternetWeek: Is Microsoft Evil? Readers state their case.

It's the Talking Rain that's evil. Of course, since stopping drinking the stuff (it's the carbonated water Microsoft hands out) I've gotten flamed multiple times, my wife is mad at me for weblogging too much, and my readers say they can't keep up. What can I say? If I can't drink anything carbonated I get grumpy.

One of the criticisms I've been hearing lately about my weblog is that I'm just a "gee whiz kid" who only links to new stuff without regard to how well it works. Well, I've been using the Windows XP Power Toys, which aren't new, and do indeed work well. I've been using the photo resizing one. Thanks for Jeff Sandquist for telling me about this great tool.

Intel is giving away free wireless tomorrow. Hey, or you could all come over my house and steal mine!

Scot Gellock talks about a review he had with Jim Allchin. Funny, during lunch I was talking with a coworker that had a review with Jim Allchin yesterday and he wore a heart-rate monitor during the whole review. Unfortunately, I can't tell you the results, or why he was doing that, at least not until after the PDC. Let's just say that meeting with execs isn't for the faint of heart.

There's another hard-core CLR blogger to give Chris Brumme a run for his 9000-word posts. His name is Jason Zander and he works on the .NET CLR team.

Joshua Allen analyzes CNET coverage of Bill Gates.

Wanna make a comment, email me at robertscoble@hotmail.com. My comments are down. Hope they come back up.

Hey, I just heard Marc Canter is coming to the PDC!

There's a new .NET Rocks show up (it's not the usual thing, this week they went to the bar and started drinking beer -- hey, it's free and done for fun) and they have new mugs and things to buy too. Perfect gift for the geek in your life.

The PDC people decided I was doing such a good job of overhyping the PDC that they put me on the PDC site. Heh.

Rayne Today says he's not a connector or an A-List blogger. Well, he writes better than I do, so he better watch how long he can say that. Makes a good point, too: the market for weblogging software is writers.

M. Keith Warren: "All this hype in the run up to the PDC really confounds me."

You can blame me for that.

Weblog Community News: Russell Beattie hates Scoble AND Microsoft.

I don't know where he got the idea that it's a weblog war. I had great respect for Beattie and his weblog. In fact, when I link to him, I mean it as a compliment. I don't link to crap. I watch more than 500 websites and Russell's had been one of the best out there. I'll keep reading and keep pointing at him if he has something of interest to me.

Update: I'm not linking to his site, because he's redirecting any links from my weblog. If you wanna see what he wrote about me, you'll need to copy and paste this into your browser: http://www.russellbeattie.com/notebook/1004379.html

Yes, he's redirecting my links to the US Government's findings of fact in the DOJ case against Microsoft. He said I didn't have the guts to link to that. I was just bored by it. I've read it several times.

Sorry, my comments are down.

Smoking and business ethics and rudeness all add up to make an interesting conversation.

The guy who told me this story just amplified it a bit. The reason the execs walked out wasn't that they were asked to put out their cigarettes. It was because the employee was rude (didn't say please) and because he dissed their product (called it trash).

Here's what I'd do if I came across a room of smokers on campus. I'd ask who they were. Learn what they were on campus for. Find out who their contact was on campus (every third-party on campus has to be escorted by a Microsoft employee). Then, I'd ask that person to take care of the problem. If he didn't comply, then I'd talk to my boss about it. If that doesn't work, I'd talk to my boss's boss about it. We're all on IM. The culture here is to answer escalations fast.

If that didn't work, then I still have more choices. I could escalate it further, maybe even going to Ballmer. He does answer his email and he takes it personally when employees are unhappy. If that doesn't work, then I still have choices. I could write about it on my weblog. I could talk to the press. I could quit.

But, if I did feel impelled to be "smoke cop" on campus, I'd at least be nice about it. I know where the smoking areas are. I'd be apologetic and polite. I wouldn't make them feel like crud.

Is being right about being anti smoking worth losing your job over? Is that how people decide whether or not you're ethical? Come on, give me a break.

I'm reading an APress book right now called "In Search of Stupidity: Over 20 Years of High Tech Marketing Disasters."

Recently I was talking with a guy who used to be an IT guy for a super huge tobacco company, and he gave me a story that clearly would be a contender for the next edition of the book, if it gets written.

I wonder how many business deals get blown this way?

This was in the early 1990s. I've been asked to keep the names outta this post.

But, anyway, super huge tobacco company was looking to buy new telecom equipment. They had a deal ready to sign with a Silicon Valley-based company. Multi-hundred million dollar deal.

The execs flew to the Silicon Valley company. Were in the boardroom. And they lit up and started smoking. Hey, it's a cigarette company. (I'm an avid anti-smoker, by the way).

So, what happens next? Some junior guy smells the smoke, and proceeds into the boardroom to tell off the group of smokers "put out that trash, this is a non-smoking business."

The execs immediately get up, leave the building, and take the contract to a competitor.

Along these lines, my source told me another story. Turns out a major computing company (not Microsoft, but one you all know) would email everyone when this tobacco company was planning a visit. "Just a quick note to let you know that XYZ company will be here tomorrow. If you are rabidly anti-smoking, please stay home tomorrow as there will be people smoking on in building xyz tomorrow.

Then they'd make sure that they took down all the no-smoking signs before the execs arrived. Ahh, life in non-smoking California.

The lesson my source was teaching me by telling me these stories is "know your customer and don't do things that are anti his world view."

I guess some people will say that it's immoral to take money from a tobacco company. But, I see it as it's immoral to make a decision that might put thousands of your coworkers on the unemployment line. You could also take the profits from that kind of deal and give them to an anti-smoking charity, if you wish. But, by screwing up the deal, you make it more likely you'll have to lay off people, and you make it impossible to turn around and do anything positive with that money.

Scott Mace, journalist that watches the ISP market, moved his very excellent blog to here recently. Gotta resubscribe.

Same link as below, but thought I'd emphasize it. Jim Blizzard is asking "why do you blog?"

I blog for a few reasons:

1) I'm a geek and love telling people about cool things I've found.

2) If I put them on my blog, I know that Google will be able to help me find them later on.

3) It lets me have a conversation with a wide variety of people every evening.

4) After reading me, readers of my blog often teach me more than I knew on a specific topic.

5) I've been given a certain amount of "Google Juice" and I enjoy pointing at people and sharing my GooglePower. Even folks I don't always agree with (you do notice that by linking to Microsoft's competitors I'm helping out their ranking in Google, don't you?)

6) I like telling stories about people and situations I've been in thanks to my view of the high-tech industry.

7) I am impelled to write it. Translation: I'm addicted.

8) I want to write down some of my history and keep track of interesting things I've done so that I can go back and enjoy them later on (and so my son, wife, and family can stay involved in my life too).

9) I enjoy learning about conversational marketing. I really do believe that blogging will someday be a "new PR arm" of most major corporations. By blogging every day, I can learn a set of "best practices" that I can teach to others at Microsoft and at other corporations.

10) I'm a news hound and enjoy reporting things before other people (or now, services like Technorati or Daypop) can get to them.

So, why do you blog? If you don't blog, why not?

Jim Blizzard: [Scoble] is way too prolific for me to keep up with.

Come on dude, I read 533 RSS news feeds every evening. Seriously (I'm probably gonna post the OPML file so you can see the feeds I watch). So, why can't you keep up with my massive amounts of blogorrhea?