The second part of the Engadget interview with Bill Gates is up. Interesting stuff about the Tablet PC.

PBCliberal is a wonderful podcaster. Subscribed. I'd love to talk with him about video blogging (he claimed on his most recent audio show that video blogging might take over podcasting).

After watching two kids playing videos on their Sony PSP machines at the movie theaters the other night, I'm inclined to believe him.

Dori Smith: Microsoft -- go break something. Then you'll be interesting.

And you all thought that I was gonna be able to turn Dori's mind to mush by inviting her to campus and giving her a free meal or two? Yeah, right.

Turns out I'm open for dinner in Minneapolis. Anyone want to meet at 5 p.m. Thursday for dinner? The bar crawl is still on too at 9 p.m.

Where should we meet?

The usual suggestions apply:

We should pick a place that's:

1) Scalable (ie, you can add tables easily in case more people show up).

2) As affordable as possible so no one feels pressured to stay out because of cost.

Everyone is invited. You don't even need to be a geek or a blogger.

When you see a company from the outside you often don't realize that what you are seeing is the work of people and that those people's attitudes, perceptions, beliefs, philosophies, lifestyles, behaviors, theories, ideas, are reflected in what you interact with.

Tonight I understood just why Target is such an interesting chain of stores (second largest in the United States). I had dinner with some of the PR and marketing folks tonight. They were interesting. Personable. Friendly. Fun to be around. Authoritative. Inquisitive. Trend setting. Creative. Attractive. Warm. All attributes that their stores have.

And, yes, all during dinner that red circle logo peered over their shoulders. Oh, sorry, out the window of the restaurant we were at was Target's headquarters. It was a branding experience over dinner. Heh.

I told them about how smart blog readers are, especially when you have hundreds or thousands of readers. I told them how they keep me honest and how they "fact check my behind."

So, I wonder what you'd all say to Target?

What would your advice be on blogging? Do you want them to do one? Why or why not?

What kind of blog? What would they get out of it? What would YOU get out of it?

Should they advertise on blogs? On RSS feeds?

Should they engage with bloggers? If you're a blogger, how would you like to see Target work with you? If you're a Target guest (their word for customer) what would you like to see them do?

Jerry Michalski and I will be presenting tomorrow and I'll have them check out the comments here. Your comments will be read by lots of marketing and PR folks at Target.

I'm inspired, though. This team is doing some awesome stuff and is so passionate about creating great shopping experiences.

One cool thing? They hired an artist to draw the meeting as it happens. That's so cool. I'm gonna give the artist a demo of ArtRage tomorrow on the Tablet PC.

Microsoft Watch: Will Microsoft's Aero get Walloped?

Cute headline and congrats to Lili Cheng. Can't wait to see her work on Longhorn's user interface (and beyond).

More on geek meetups. Microsoft's map master, Chandu Thota, is getting a mapping get together in Las Vegas on May 11. Chandu is doing some cool stuff (and on his free time did the "blog map" that I have on the right side of my blog).

Sean Alexander is putting on a London Geek dinner tomorrow. Details here.

There's so many dinners and meetups going on, that we need a better way to get the word out. Any ideas?

I'm getting tired of Geek Dinners. How about a Bar Crawl?

Minneapolis Geek Bar Crawl. Tomorrow night. I'll be there at 9 p.m.

Where? Keegan's Irish Pub.

I hear the Minnesota Organization of Bloggers might be there too. Anyone know if they'll have a meeting too? (They usually meet on Thursday nights).

Dave Winer asks if my ego could stand any more inflation?

It's easy to keep my ego in check. I haven't built a new product. I haven't cured cancer. I haven't increased Microsoft's stock price.

And, everything I've gotten has been due to other people helping me along. Including Dave. I told him the other night that if it weren't for him I wouldn't be here. He tried to brush it off, but he not only was one of those first two people who asked me to blog, but he continually encouraged me over the years and protected my back.

No matter how big my ego gets, I'll never forget where I came from. I'm just a blogger. No more, no less. That said, when life gives you a gift, you need to use it for good. I'm trying to use it to increase people's freedom, increase human rights, and increase our product quality. If there's a cautionary tale from the blogosphere for corporations, it's that if you don't build better products and services, you'll see less adoption, and lower profits (and a lower stock price).

Today I'm off to visit the marketing and PR teams at Target at their headquarters in Minneapolis. I'm trying to get a geek dinner going too, but it looks like they might have other plans.

Aside: My wife doesn't think that being a geek blogger is cool, but she thinks that Target is cool. There's a lesson in there somewhere. I wonder what Target could do with blogs? My wife would subscribe to a Target blog if it had coupons and deals, that's for sure. Is Target ready for building such a tight relationship with its best customers? We'll find out.