The latest rumor is that Longhorn won't ship until 2008 (helped along by Ziff Davis Internet's Jim Louderback).

Personally, I'm all into letting the expectations slip. That way we can exceed the expectations. Personally, Longhorn is a long ways off. There will be lots of rumors. I understand how frustrating waiting is. I remember interviewing Bill Gates back in 1994. He told me Visual Basic 4.0 would ship on the Macintosh. It never did. That created market expectations that weren't met. I think it's always better to go the other way. Create expectations that it'll never show up. Then when it does everyone's happy.

Right now we're in a messy period of development. We got a ton of feedback at the PDC and from other places. People now have had a good chance to look at our Longhorn plans. Now the teams are trying to react to that feedback. Which features are really important? What does the market need?

Which ones, gasp, will get cut or reduced? Yes, that happens too. The exec calendar is booked as teams figure out how they are going to ship. What they are going to ship. And how it'll be finished and tested.

If there's a time that it's frustrating to work on a software project, it's right now. Why? Because everyone wants their pet feature to ship, but if you want to stay on a schedule you've got to look at available resources (yes, even Microsoft has resource limits) and time left to develop (we're down to a few hundred work days before we want to launch). You'll hear a lot of rumors over the next few months. It'll be a bumpy ride. When something significant happens, I'm sure it'll be blogged. Until then, get ready for the rumors to get even more sensational.

Kevin Schofield has another take on what's going on in computer science. He has a unique view. He travels with Bill Gates to college campuses and he is in charge of moving technology out of our research division at Microsoft and into our products.

Jeff is all over the blogosphere tonight. Jeff Sandquist's idea to have networking sessions on a virtual golf course (the good old boys' network is back, just online) is gaining some strength. Greg Reinacker says "A friendly game of golf, between folks from Microsoft and ISV's. Friendly banter. Competition on the course. Relationships are made, which are the foundation of a successful business. I wish I had thought of it. Count me in."

Amanda Murphy joined in the fun too. She says it's a good way for her to participate in the geek community since she gets left out of all the fun geek dinners.

Oh, Motorola videos of the next MP phone are leaking out (scroll down on that page for the videos). Dang, I want this phone running the Microsoft SmartPhone OS and software. First one to get my boss and me one will be our friends for life! Not to mention I'll write about it here and put photos on my photoblog.

Remember when I was fighting with the designers a week ago or so? Well, one of my excellent readers went off and designed me a new look. I haven't had time to figure out how to use it, but my co-worker Jeff Sandquist was looking for a new design for his new blog, so took the one that Foo did for me (and, Foo, I did appreciate the designs you did for me). So, now, you can decide just how important a role design has in a weblog. You can read Jeff, or you can read me. :-)

Seriously, someday I'll upgrade my design. I do appreciate a good design, although even with my ugly design, several thousand people have shuffled through here today. That's as many as walked through the new Apple store in SF on Saturday.

InfoWorld Special Report: Does Microsoft .NET measure up?

Dave Winer, yesterday, theorized that fewer students were choosing to major in computer science because of Microsoft's industry dominance.

Dave, you're a friend, but that's the biggest stretch you've made recently.

First off, Google is mostly a software company. They aren't owned or controlled by Microsoft. Yet their founders just got named to the billionaire list. Google was started five years ago. Yeah, I guess there's no opportunities in software anymore.

Second, Tivo is largely software and is even younger than Google. More than a million customers. Founders well on the way to being rich.

Third, the 3500 people who walked through Apple's SF store on Saturday all agree with Dave, right? That Microsoft owns and controls the software industry and that there's no opportunities, right?

Fourth, do I need to go all night?

Fifth, Microsoft was named to the top 10 of Fortune magazine's most admired companies (sorry, subscription needed for that link). Plus, I get my own office (most of my prior employers stuck me in a cube farm), excellent benefits, and a stock plan that guarantees to pay something (I've had stock options three times before joining Microsoft and never made a dime from them). Plus, Microsoft is the only large company (of more than 10,000 employees) that has more than 300 employee bloggers. In any industry.

There's a lot worse places to work than Microsoft. Microsoft consistently gets named to the "best place to work" lists.

So, what's the real reason that students aren't choosing to go into computer science?