USA Today: Worker blogs raise some company concerns.

Oh boy, another 15 microseconds of fame all used up.

Ahh, Dave Winer is talking about getting flamed for using the word "BigCo." I used to work for a BigCo before starting at Microsoft. That was NEC. 115,000 employees. Now I work for a smaller BigCo. 55,000 employees. One of our competitors, IBM, has something like 300,000 employees. But that is dwarfed by WalMart with more than a million employees.

But, I don't get why Dave would be flamed about that. Is it that there's something implicitly wrong with BigCos whenever he uses that term?

Oh, and Dave, congrats on completing the BloggerCon this past weekend. I listened in on a bunch of sessions and found many to be very interesting. The one on weblogs and law was useful to this "BigCo weblogger". The politicians session was interesting too. I'm bummed I wasn't there.

Oh, I see a few people talking about the shindig we threw here Saturday night. Yeah, that was fun. I always feel guilty when I have a bunch of people over. Why? Cause I can't invite everyone. We'll have more parties though and I'll try to spread around the love. Maryam and I have been blessed with a great house and will share it with more people. So far Robert McLaws has stayed here. Who'll be next?

InfoWorld: OneNote makes Tablet sing.

Totally agreed. I'm a OneNote junkie now. I find myself using it more and more. Beth Goza showed me her OneNote system, though. If you ever meet her, ask her to show it to you. She's completely arranged her life in OneNote. She even was one of top winners in an internal contest for best OneNote user at Microsoft.

A friend tells me that Intel is giving away stuff to schools and that they still have allocation left in their "Model School" program. So, here's a good way to get your school some modern equipment.

Ingo Rammer has a new .NET Remoting Newsletter out, this time with an article titled "SOAP is not a remote proceedure call." No Longhorn hype in that!

By the way, I do think Longhorn is getting overhyped. I'm responsible for a lot of that. Maybe even all of it. Heck, when all else fails, blame me for all of Microsoft's excesses. A man with a blog can really blow things outta proportion.

But, people are excited about the prospect of getting something new and better. I remember the first time I saw Longhorn, back before I was a Microsoft employee. My eyes bugged out and I said "mmmmmoooooo." Seriously -- I even wrote about mooing when I came back from that meeting. The group I was with started "mooing." I wonder if the PDC attendees will have the same reaction.

But, the folks who are taking me to task for overhyping Longhorn are absolutely right. Let's dial it back. Let's not forget that there's real work to do for the next couple of years and that that work will be done on Windows XP. On that front, what else are we announcing at the PDC? How about Yukon (SQL Server)? How about Whidbey (Visual Studio)? How about a new set of very cool watches? (SPOT/MSN Direct) They'll be in the exhibit hall.

Real soon now there'll be a new version of Office shipped, too. That's something you all will want to evaluate at the PDC exhibit hall. Oh, and on Friday I was at the SmartPhone's US launch. I was very impressed. I hear a few of those will be at the PDC too.

What else will we be bringing out of our bags? I hear the XBox team will have some XBox's for you to play with. I don't know if they'll have any of their new stuff to play with, but I'm ready to be suprised. Susan Bradley tells me that Microsoft is announcing the Small Business Server on October 9th too. That's something worth checking out too.

So, everyone, forget about Longhorn. There's plenty of other things to see and learn about this month -- and I bet I haven't even covered all the cool new stuff. Plus, I keep hearing about a new security initiative coming as well. Whew, how can anyone keep up? Heck, forget the hype about stuff we won't ship for two years, soon you'll all be crying uncle asking us to delay shipping some products so you can catch up!

Hey, we even shipped something the other day: The Visual Basic.NET Resource Kit. Tons of cool stuff for the guy tired of the PDC and Longhorn hype. Download that, it'll make you feel better until October 27! :-)