I just signed up for the next big conference, PDC '05, that's going to kick off right here in LA in September. There are some great sessions planned this year on Longhorn, Office 12, IE7, WinFX, and so on. Once again, expect lots of information, pictures and possibly even video clips this time. I'll set up a blog here on OSNN and post the link closer to the event date. Stay tuned. :) Update

Think you know someone who would be able to relay your feedback to Microsoft? Someone passionate about computers, and someone trusted in your community? If so, make sure you post your nominations on Channel9, and let them know why he/she would be a good choice! It looks like the Longhorn information floodgates are officially open—again. Microsoft employee and Longhorn evangelist Robert Scoble

The wallpaper that everyone's been looking for. ;) Removed at Microsoft's request (04/29).

Here are some topics that I couldn't cover in-depth during WinHEC due to time constraints, but that are worth noting. Steven Bink - "Metro", Longhorn's new print technology. More information about Metro can also be found at Microsoft's WHDC page, as well as through web searches. Steven Bink - Fail-over clustering in Longhorn Paul Mooney - Virtualization in Longhorn (Part 1, Part 2)

I concluded my time at the WinHEC last evening with a session called "Internet Explorer - Today and Tomorrow" presented by Margaret Cobb, an ISV Group Manager. Most people who decided to attend the session hoped that we would be able to find out more about Internet Explorer 7. Unfortunately, we left the room feeling like we didn't gain anything substantial. Almost all of the session was focussed

Robert Scoble had the opportunity to interview Jim Allchin, the Group Vice President of Platforms at Microsoft, and had the link sent out by email last night to everyone who attended the blogger lunch on Tuesday. The video begins with some casual talk and moves onto Allchin's view on WinHEC 2005 and the response that it generated. Jim then talks about 64-bit computing and finally moves on to

This doesn't have anything to do with WinHEC, but I thought I'd post it while on the topic of Avalon. Channel9 posted a new video in which Karsten Januszewski, a technical evangelist, showcases lots of very cool demos of Avalon's capabilities, including: XAML file presentation app.3D composition appSkinning your appAvalon notepadMedia Mania (you've seen this app on Channel 9 before, but here you

I attended a session on "Advances in Display and Composition Architecture for Windows" this morning. Kam Vedbrat, whom many of us have seen before in a couple of Channel9 videos, talked about Avalon and Aero in Longhorn and gave us a few neat demonstrations. We noticed a really nice-looking, new reflection-like effect in the upper glass border that we didn't see during the keynote presentation on

I was invited to a bloggers lunch at Tulio's this morning, where I had a chance to meet and mingle with fellow-bloggers and folks from Microsoft, including Joe Peterson, VP of Windows Product Development, Shanen Boettcher, Director of Longhorn development, and Clyde Rodriguez, Group Product Manager of Windows x64. Some of the bloggers I met included Tom Warren (aka creamhackered), Ryan Hoffman,

Next up, I went for the "Trends and Opportunities for Tomorrow's Mobile PC" session. Bill Mitchell, the VP of the Mobile Platforms Division began by talking about how the growth rate of mobile PC's is increasing rapidly as compared to the growth rate of regular desktop machines. The "Today" section of the presentation looked at the Tablet PC Experience Pack that was released recently as a free

I attended the "Connectivity and Future of Computing" session this morning, where Javad Khaki, the VP of Windows Networking and Device Technologies talked about some of the new connectivity features in Longhorn. I got there a little late, but he was talking about qWave (Quality Windows Audio and Video Experience) which offers better multimedia streaming over variable bandwidth connections (like

Many of you had questions about Longhorn that you posted on the forums. Based on what I saw and heard today, I think I might be able to address some of them. Tuffgong: For Security purposes is there going to be a difference between how XP handles user accounts and how Longhorn handles user accounts. I attended the "Redefining the PC Opportunity" breakout session this afternoon where they

From the keynote this morning... WinHEC 2005 (April 2005) - Drivers frozen Beta 1 (Summer 2005) - Fundamentals frozen PDC 2005 (September 2005) - API's frozen Beta 2 - Consumer/end-user features frozen RTM - Holiday season 2006

Just got a whole set of pictures up from the x64 street marketing campaign and the Bill Gates keynote presentation this morning. The keynote was awesome. I'm not sure if the video is up yet, but when it is, make sure you check it out. There's a lot of very interesting stuff. Gates looked back at the industry's progress over the last two decades, then moved on to 64-bit and multi-core computing

We just did some street marketing with the x64 crew this morning. I'll try to get the pictures up at noon today. Woke up at 6AM and got here around 7:30. I'm now waiting in the Press Room. The BillG keynote kicks off in a little while. The StartSomethingPC site has now opened up. As many of us expected, it's a competition of sorts to design the next-generation Windows-based PC's. We should be

That was a blast! Yes, we actually got an AMD Athlon64 4000+ and a 256MB nVidia GeForce 6800 GT in that kick-ass briefcase! It also included Windows XP x64 Pro, FarCry, Chronicles of Riddick, Unreal Tournament 2004, Shadow Ops, the obligatory T-shirt, a x64 sticker and a 64MB USB stick. It's just the first night, and I'm already convinced this thing was well worth the trip. :D More coming up

As many of you already know, WinHEC 2005 kicks off next week in Seattle. This year's conference focuses on Windows Codename Longhorn, as well as Windows XP x64 and Windows Server 2003 x64. Microsoft has sent out invitations to Featured Communities like OSNN, and since E-Punk is unable to attend, I will be representing our community at the event this year. In addition to receiving the registration