I'm a PC

  • Article

Today was the annual Microsoft Company Meeting, where all the Seattle-area employees get together in one of the few places big enough to hold us all, Safeco Field (home of the Seattle Mariners).  This year, the event was hosted by Rainn Wilson (https://movies.msn.com/celebrities/celebrity-biography/rainn-wilson/), a Seattle native.  It was appropriate enough then that we got to see the premier of the new "I'm a PC" commercials that were shown during The Office this evening, part of the new "Life Without Walls" advertising campaign.

The YouTube version:

Or, if you prefer a version not hosted by Google, the MSN Soapbox version:

 

There are a total of three commercials out now, plus billboards and other adds.  If anyone is going through JFK airport and sees the video screen ads there, tell us what they look like :-)

We talked about all kinds of new technologies, but many are still secret (and impressively enough, we were all trusted to not spill the beans).  There are a few exceptions, though, for items already out in pre-release forms:

  • Internet Explorer 8.0 Beta 2 (https://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/beta/default.aspx).  I installed this last week and already can't live without it.  Yes, a few web sites choke on it, but with one more click the compatibility mode fixes things up.
  • Live Mesh tech preview (https://www.mesh.com/Welcome/Welcome.aspx).  I've been playing with this one for a few weeks (installed it during a Live Mesh session at TechEd Australia) and see lots of potential, even beyond the current Live Desktop and folder synchronization features.  It's a whole platform.

Since the release of Windows Server 2008 and Hyper-V I've been going through withdrawal as I wasn't running any beta software.  Now things are ramping up again - lots of things to look forward to.