I'm trying to catch up from the PDC. Right now I'm running up to two weeks or more behind in some email (I categorize email from very important -- like from my boss -- to not so important -- like that from my mom). Not good. So, if you've sent me something and haven't heard back, be patient, I'm getting to it.

I like these church signs. Hey, I +am+ an evangelist, after all!

John Porcaro and Steve Ballmer helped out an irate customer today. Yeah, I wish we never had situations like this, but I'm glad to see that things got taken care of. I'm sorry too that they weren't before this customer needed to write Steve Ballmer.

Dana also told me about Tapestry, a RSS feed for Comics. He said he found it through Bloglines, which is an online RSS aggregator. Looks cool, but I'm not giving up NewsGator.

Dana tells me his favorite comic is UserFriendly.org. Here's a pretty funny series about Microsoft attempting to buy Google.

More proof that I can't escape technology. On the ferry ride from Seattle to Victoria, I was sitting next to a linguist that worked at Microsoft (she worked on the team that translates Windows into lots of other languages) as well as an attendee of the PASS conference. He told me that he's concerned that SQL Server isn't scalable enough and that he was interested in hearing about 64-bit versions of SQL Server.

The hype on 64-bit is getting to be hard to ignore. Problem is most users really don't need 64-bit. Only people who run apps and OS's that need more than 2GB's of RAM really should even care. That's very few people. But, this guy sitting next to me (sorry, didn't get his name) worked for Chevron. They have some really big databases. Lots running on Oracle. They want scalability. They want performance. Will SQL Server give it to them? How about it? Anyone going to the PASS conference this week wanna let us in on it? Maybe the webloggers over at SQL Junkies or SQL Team will tell.

Newsforge: Longhorn enters the witching season.

ZDNet Anchor Desk: Why Microsoft's hacker bounty is wasted money.

How can you tell the PDC is over? Chris Anderson and Don Box are blogging more.

Mike Deem, who works on the WinFS team, is blogging now. Cool! How did I know that WinFS was gonna make the big time? Some attendee, who'll go unnamed, came up to me at the PDC and said "I'm gonna convert my porn collection to WinFS." Is it really true that all technology adoption curves start with porn?

It's really weird having another blogger sitting four feet behind me on my couch while I blog. Dana Epp is the voice behind me saying "tell them about the security focus article." Wait a second, why do I need to do that when Dana already has?

Oh, no, Steve Wallace has the digital images to prove that we did, indeed, have some fun at the PDC. Don't tell my wife, OK? Oh, hi Maryam!

I was just over at the Longhorn Blogs (which are getting to be quite interesting) and saw what possibly could be the first Longhorn application. Do the 36 screensavers entered in the Avalon Screen Saver project count as applications?

Mary Jo Foley has more on the Wallop project.

Dan Gillmor is pointing to "MyWallop" a set of social software coming from Microsoft's Research division. I've been getting TONS of inquiries about this. It's research. I am not yet on it. I'm trying. Will report when I know more. I hear I'll be on soon.

When I used to attend Comdex, the Spencer the Katt party that eWeek used to hold was the hot ticket in town. Something tells me that Loren's Tablet PC party is gonna be even bigger.

I'm missing one of Joi Ito's famous parties. Tomorrow. Sigh.

Shel Israel has a new blog and starts out with a whopper: Gates hating.

"Why is there not more praise for Gates in this effort?" he asks. Good question.

Thank you to Mitch Ratcliffe who talked about me at length on the WebTalkGuys Internet Radio show.

Hello, had a nice relaxing weekend with Maryam. Visited Victoria and Vancouver.

Now, I'm sitting with Dana Epp who has totally freaking me out regarding NTFS's file system. He's a security expert and is attending the sold out DriverCon that's on campus this week.