Geoff: yes. I hate embargoes. It ends at 6 a.m. Pacific Time. :-) - Robert Scoble

Geoff: but, when I left Microsoft four years ago, it was a company that didn't get the Web at all. Today? Bing. Silverlight. Azure. And other things we can discuss in the morning are showing that they've turned a corner away from strategy taxes and toward embracing the web again. Will this continue? Microsoft still has a lot of work to do. IE sucks, so does its mobile phones, but I find I'm excited about Microsoft again and that's a big change over the past four years. - Robert Scoble

And the echo chamber feeds itself once again. Sounds like it should be interesting - Chris

Chris: yes, I doubt my words will be found on USA Today. By the way, if it's such a nice echo chamber, why are you here to deride it? An echo chamber should be clean of that. ;-) - Robert Scoble

sonic imperfections. Polish up the echo-chamber a bit more and me and chris won't be heard :) - martin english

I heard its Alto Cumulus Office which is a name i made up on the fly. I agree with you though Robert MS is really putting some great stuff out there. Win 7 is great, Bing surprises, and I'm going to go a step further and throw in that XBOX Live proves they really do "get it" about the internet. - Geoff Schultz

I keep coming back to the words someone once told me before I worked at Microsoft "never count Microsoft out." I am afraid I have done that a few times in the past four years and now it's clear Microsoft is coming back in. - Robert Scoble

i can't believe i'm saying this... having been(and still am) a microsloth (there i go again :) basher for more than 12 years... but if they have turned a corner... not just in terms of technology, but in terms of attitude and innovation, i wish they do bring about great things... competition for google in a way that advances technology and innovation can only be a good thing... its getting too lopsided in the market again... - simran

Geoff: yes, XBOX Live was a great example for the past few years, but easily written off because it was from a weird group that wasn't even on the main campus. But now other things seem to be happening back on the main campus. I wonder if Bill Gates leaving had anything to do with this? - Robert Scoble

I think if Microsoft decides to get IE to go standards compliant (big change) that would be the true icing on top for them to be turning the corner. I think Google is the new Microsoft in terms of attitude because they seem to capture everyones mind into thinking there not evil whatsoever. I'm going to like tomorrow alot. - Rahul Krishnakumar

Windows 7 will be free. - Shaun McDonnell

Rofl that would be a funny announcement. Thats the sort of thing you save for a Friday, right after stock market closes to prevent a run on the "bank", Shaun. - Geoff Schultz

All this excitement because Office in the cloud? - gui ambros

Microsoft Office 2010 http://www.office2010themovie.com/ - Johni Fisher

Until SB steps down,,,, thought i do like it when GK and SB fight with each other.http://www.youtube.com/watch... - James Hunter

Wait Robert, you're using Silverlight as an example of *embracing* the web? - Michael R. Bernstein

http://www.microsoft.com/office... - Rahul Krishnakumar

Silverlight 'rebooted' the Web and pushed every Web 2.0 developer away from Flash. - Shaun McDonnell

Morning should be interesting, as reading between the lines of your posts here, it's not Office in the cloud. PDC, and minimsft have talked about that in detail. So, therefore it must be something else. Cool. :) - Nick Wade

Shaun: There is no way Microsoft could do that. Scoble: The echo chamber is completely anti-mainstream and the problem there is that every new amazing thing loses perspective, such as some who are crazy about Friendfeed. Anyway, on topic, you've got me enticed to see what this is S. - Chris

I liked MiniMicrosoft question about who would you combine right now to make for a CEO replacement. I agree on his choices, would add Bob Muglia to that mix of Sinofsky and Bach. For CSA would mix Allard and Guthrie into one. - Avatar X from FriendFoo

Don't know if you've covered this before, Robert, but it might be interesting to blog about how you prepare for that embargo release time, besides dropping lots of juicy hints to whet our appetite. What sort of things do you have lined up, ready to go once the gun sounds? - Ron Schott

I have a funny feeling this announcement's not going to be as big a deal as I would like it to be. MS have a gift for taking something good (like windows 7) and screwing it (like charging waaay too much for windows 7). I will be happy to be proven wrong - lets see :) - Jim Connolly

So, Will you tell us your secret today? At 6 a.m.? - Bernaldo Barrena

The Borg is back in town. And there's a lot of road kill out there who thought Microsoft would never pass them... - Bob Morris (polizeros) from iPhone

Oh, is this the Microsoft+Apple merger? I didn't realise it was tomorrow. - Ian Tindale

Ian LOL - Bernaldo Barrena

Jeff Sandquist showed me lots of new stuff he's doing to keep his teams involved in Twitter, Facebook, and friendfeed worlds. I'll try to get a video up that I did with him, but gotta run to the airport in 30 minutes. Might be later tonight. - Robert Scoble

Nice. - David Wilson

Works better than the submit to digg ones ive tried to use. - Simon Wicks

Would love to see the Tips Robert!!! - Eric Gehler

All the PDC videos have them too. He told me to watch the Windows 7 keynote here: http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008... - Robert Scoble

For me, channel9 got very boring after you left Robert. Wonder if it has changed? - James Beake

James: I think Microsoft got boring. Windows 7makes it a little more interesting. - Robert Scoble

for something interesting check out descry -- http://www.visitmix.com/lab... (more in robert's video tonight). - Jeff Sandquist

I've just noticed now. - Tyson Key

Here's my feedback. http://friendfeed.com/e... - Alan Le

I just hope he doesn't dance again LOL But I miss Gates. :( - Mona Nomura

Windows 7 needs to do more than just be better than Vista, it has to offer a compelling reason to stick with Windows through 2010 and beyond. As it is, if Adobe were announce it was going to support linux I'd be writing this in Ubuntu rather than windows right now. - Eric P

People can say what they want about MSFT (usually for good reason), but I would NEVER bet against them. I honestly hope Ballmer pulls it off well. - jason l baptiste

I've heard nothing but positive feedback about Windows 7. I'm excited. - Mona Nomura

And MS seriously needs to figure out wtf it's doing on the web, with a more coherent strategy than "buy Yahoo". - Eric P

Saying it don't make it so. However Ballmer performs doesn't change the fact that Microsoft seems not to have the skills to survive and prosper. They're on borrowed time. - winckel

You don't think a CEO people believe in, have confidence in, doesn't impact sales, Henry? *wow, double negative. - Mona Nomura

I wonder how many people were saying "never bet against IBM" in the 80's. I know they're still around and all, but it's not like anyone talks about them anymore. Microsoft can survive for a long time on inertia alone, but I'm honestly not sure they have what it takes to stay relevant. - Eric P

@Mona: I've never bought a product with a CEO in mind. End of the day they either have stuff I want to use or they don't. Right now MS only makes stuff that I grudgingly use, and would abandon if another viable option came along. - Eric P

I've been running Windows 7 in virtualbox. It's ran surprisingly well on the limited amount of ram I've provided it. For being in a VM, it's quite speedy. It does look a bit like KDE, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. - Jason Shultz from twhirl

I've been using the PDC build of 7 for awhile now on my main machine. Fast and functional. I miss several of the features when I go to work. - Jordan Hofker

Devs are already excited by stuff like LINQ, extension methods and the like. Stuff like F# too. And we look forward to .Net 4 and C# 4.0. VS2010 beta is already out too. MSFT are doing well in this area, but then again it is their forte. - Roberto Bonini

The problem I have with ASP.Net development is the cost. I know that their is significant licensing fees especialy compared to LAMP. But, still, it just costs a lot more to do a .net project especially when you have multiple domains. - Jason Shultz from twhirl

Roberto: yeah, but those are the same folks who did Visual Basic back in 1993. :-) - Robert Scoble

Robert, I'm excited by that stuff and I definitely wasn't programming back in 1993. :-) Jason, what costs are you talking about? The cost of buying and OS, etc? Express versions of the tools are free and nice, and BizSpark gets new companies going. - Jordan Hofker

I don't buy the marketing buzz around windows 7. I've heard it too often from microsoft that the next version will be the big thing. Just have a look at http://www.infoworld.com/article... - Peter Hoffmann

@Jordan I'm referring to costs of hosting. Not actuall costs of the tools. - Jason Shultz from twhirl

Jason, my mistake :-) Here's to hoping Azure will take care of them in a lot of cases (once the pricing is announced)? - Jordan Hofker

I agree. they're getting closer to bringing the cost down. I'm sure that's always been a detriment to asp.net development. I can host multiple sites with databases on mediatemple for $20/month. Or I can host one site with one SQL db for $20/month on discountasp.net - Jason Shultz from twhirl

Looking forward to Media Center with Windows 7. - Thomas Hawk

@Robert, it sounds like the first beta will be the first build to really try out. The PDC build doesn't have the new taskbar as well as other features. When the beta comes out you may want to try to be first in line to get it because it looks like Windows 7 is on the right track. - Loren Heiny

2010 though, right? That's a ways off. And will there be any incentives (as in $$$) for the VoVs (Victims of Vista) to migrate? - Jim Hearts FF

Jim - a discount for users upgrading from Vista perhaps? But if you consider yourself a "Victim of Vista" isn't that incentive to switch? - Aram Zucker-Scharff