One of the co-inventors of Cleartype runs a great blog here: http://billhillsblog.blogspot.com/ - Mark

He too left Microsoft recently and is critical of the company and their innovation - Mark

Comments on Dick Brass's NY Times Op-Ed Piece: http://www.nytimes.com/2010... Fears with Mary Jo Foley It seems like Microsoft is shedding a lot of its Allchin-era employees all of a sudden Coincidence or not? And what about the fact that Microsoft is no longer the tech industry's provider of the future Apple, Google, and others are filling that gap Is Microsoft on the way down? Related: Microsoft just posted record revenues for the most recent quarter and sold 60 million copies of Windows 7 in a little over two months Related: Windows 7 success hasn't helped Microsoft's other businesses or its PC maker partners Related: IE 8 is now the world's most often-used web browser. But IE share, overall, is falling. - Leo Laporte

Bill Hill says the company does not make consumer devices it makes COMPUTER devices on the blog. - Mark

Bill Hill, co-inventor of Cleartype and who worked on the tablet platform at M$, believes Apple's success is found in these consumer quality devices which are not at all like computers. - Mark

He also talks about the politics of getting features shipped. It took him ten years to convince Windows team to stop BURYING his Cleartype technology behind a half dozen menus. - Mark

Yes Paul, sooo right. Everything is overcomplicated in Windows World. - Mark

From Dave Winer: The Dick Brass piece on Microsoft screwing themselves should give you a clear picture why open standards processes are such disasters. - Mark

Not sure what Winer means. Anyone know? - Mark

Item 2) Windows Home Server "Vail" details arrive Rafael and I have installed the leaked build and examined it using Rafael's internals tools Raf wrote up a nice blog post about our findings http://www.withinwindows.com/2010... - Leo Laporte

Item 3) Windows Home Server "Vail" details arrive Rafael and I have installed the leaked build and examined it using Rafael's internals tools Raf wrote up a nice blog post about our findings http://www.withinwindows.com/2010... - Leo Laporte

Item 4) Microsoft: Bing will be successful, Dammit And profitable too! The key: Getting the Yahoo deal done - Leo Laporte

Windows 7 feature of the week: Homegroup Put simply, a way to share Library-based content (documents, music, photos, videos) as well as printers over a home network. Requires Windows 7 and does not replace legacy sharing methods or workgroups, which are still present in Windows 7 as well. It's super-simple, with a single Homegroup password that provides global access to all shared resources. Fun fact: Microsoft's use of the word HomeGroup may seem inconsistent because the word appears variously as HomeGroup, Homegroup, and homegroup throughout the Windows 7 user interface. However, Microsoft says this is by design. The word HomeGroup is a trademarked term and refers to the Windows 7 sharing feature. A homegroup, meanwhile, is the generic "thing" that is created by the feature, as we will see. And if you see it spelled as Homegroup (with a capital 'H' but a small 'g' that's just because it's a title or other place in the UI where an initial capitalization is required. - Leo Laporte

Audible pick of the week: Conspirata: A Novel of Ancient Rome by Robert Harris http://www.audible.com/adbl... Author of Fatherland "On the eve of Marcus Cicero's inauguration as consul of Rome, the grisly death of a boy sends ripples of fear through a city already wracked by civil unrest, crime, and debauchery of every kind. Felled by a hammer, his throat slit and his organs removed, the young slave appears to have been offered as a human sacrifice, forbidden as an abomination in the Roman Republic. For Cicero, the ill forebodings of this hideous murder only increase his frustrations and the dangers he already faces as Rome's leader: elected by the people but despised by the heads of the two rival camps, the patricians and populists." - Leo Laporte

Windows 7 Tip of the Week: Run Windows Live Messenger from the tray as God intended Windows Live Messenger spews unnecessary buttons all over the Windows 7 taskbar. Fortunately, you can fix this behavior. Thanks to Rodrigo Gómez Morales Note: Anyone who provides a tip that I use here and on the site will get a free, signed copy of "Windows 7 Secrets." And I've gotten so many tips that I will back-date tips for each week to the beginning of the year so I can get this thing rolling more quickly. - Leo Laporte

Tip of the week: Zune HD price drop 16 GB for $199 (was $229), 32 GB for $269 (vs. $299) Save a bit more at Amazon.com - Leo Laporte

Software pick of the week: EASEUS Partition Manager http://www.partition-tool.com/persona... Thanks to Patrick Robichaud - Leo Laporte

Tease: Paul and Mary Jo Foley discuss the revelations in today's New York Times by former Microsoft VP Dick Brass, - Leo Laporte

freind feed has ben down 2 day :0( good show - daveccorey

Cc: Twitter (settings) Hi. Updated Blackberry apps page on my website http://appsunlimitedsite.com/ - Joe Pawlak

Disagree with Paul RE: WAT being a nonevent for legal users. The WAT update also periodically "phones home" source here: http://lauren.vortex.com/archive... - soupmonkey