Lonestar (Tablet PC Edition 2004) is getting a lot of hype from the Comdex attendees, but it looks like it deserves it. Jim Allchin's technical assistant told me today "the handwriting recognition rocks." She said that it actually works with her handwriting where the first version didn't. I got a demo today and it does look awesome. I wish someone would give me a few of these new Tablets so that I could write about what's good and bad about them, but in the meantime we'll just have to visit sites like TabletPCBuzz, TabletPCTalk, and WhatIsNew.

Mike Sanders: "only a fool would ignore what businesses are proclaiming loudly from their desktops - we want more browser apps now."

Hey, did Mike just call me a fool? OK, point taken.

Peter Rysavy got the Comdex rundown on the new Tablet PC "Lonestar" update. Great report and I love the fact that I didn't need to go to Las Vegas to get it. I really don't miss the lines of people.

By the way, Peter's blog has lots of great Tablet stuff on it. Including some hints of an ink blog coming soon.

Heh, did he already hear the rumors that the Tablet PC team has signed me up to do an ink blog? Seriously. Coming soon. It'll be lame. My handwriting sucks.

Ahh, just in case you think we hyped up Longhorn too much, looks like the "anti-hype" has started (ZDNet ran a rant about "Wronghorn" today). I'll reply to this tonight. Was this guy even at the PDC? Doesn't sound like it.

Someone asked me "how do you find those great links?" Well, a variety of ways. Sometimes readers email them to me. Othertimes I find them on another weblog (I try to send some GoogleLove if that's how I find them). Othertimes they get emailed around inside Microsoft on one of the many mailing lists I belong to (that's how I found the Sand Artist last night). Yet other times I hear about things on the radio (like last night I heard about spray-on tanning for the first time on KGO radio -- here's a link that says that's potentially bad) and yet other times I see things at geek meals (Tantek, for instance, showed me a cup-stacking-contest video that was unbelieveable at breakfast the other day).

How do you find cool links?

My Haloscan comments don't work right. They only show the number of comments for today's posts. If you look at last month's posts, you'll see that the comments aren't showing up right. I wonder what I'm doing wrong. Any ideas?

Bill Gates announced a bunch of stuff last night at Comdex.

I'm trying to put titles on my items now, which should help out my RSS feeds. Hope they work OK. I'm looking for other ways to improve my weblog's usability. Any other good ideas out there? Of course, if I forget to put the titles on, then what's the use? I really hate having to do more work, but I think it's worth it.

Interesting marketing for the new Elf Movie: a virtual Etch a Sketch.

Loren Heiny challenges me (and Microsoft) to do more in the "give and take" of Corporate Relationships by contrasting the recent PDC with an Intel marketing event.

Loren: the PDC was just the start of a multi-year process where we'll equip you with tools to build a vibrant ISV business.

Here's one program: I've been enabled with an "ISV Buddy" program. I can sign you up and adopt you as my ISV buddy. You'll get some goodies if I sign you up. If anyone is interested in having me be their "ISV Buddy" drop me a note at rscoble@microsoft.com -- I'll give you the details. The program is designed for everyone from a shop Loren's size to Adobe or Macromedia.

It's easy to get jaded and think "there are no original ideas." But, take a look at this spectacular video of a guy who uses nothing more than an old overhead projector, some sand, and some simplistic music to create art. Sorry, I could only find a Windows Media version of this. If anyone knows of other formats, please let me know.

Back in the 1980s I met some guys who designed and built the Hubble Space Telescope. This slideshow demonstrates just how much that device has helped us understand the universe around us.

A new group blog forms around regular expressions.

Silicon Valley's Past and Future

I love juxtapositions!

After I heard 23-year-old Andy Ruff had just moved to Silicon Valley to take a job with Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit (he's a program manager on the Entourage team) I knew I had to get a picture of him next to one of the oldest things in Silicon Valley -- the famous garage where Hewlett and Packard started their business and gave birth to the geek-run world.

So, here's the picture (the garage is behind Andy over the fence).

23-years sounds pretty old, though, doesn't it? Remember, Ruff has never known a world without Apple computer or Microsoft. I was in high school when he was born.

One thing I remember. Ruff told us his dream is to meet Steve Wozniak. My smartass son Patrick said "I've already done that and I'm younger than you." I think I have to teach that boy a little humility. But, it was a funny comment at the time.

Ruff and I were guests at a geek breakfast hosted by Web gods Tantek Celik, Derek Powazek, and Eric Meyer. Very interesting weekend. They tried to spank Tantek for letting a bug get into IE for Mac. Hopefully no one will post pictures. :-)