Scoble BBQ
Dave took some pictures at Scoble’s BBQin his honor. You know a party is a success when my daughter says, ?we should come back every day!?. I’m not sure if it was Maryam’s desserts or Jeff Sandquist’s dog that got her attention, but she was impressed.
I spent some time talking with Dave about uses of RSS; something he’s been discussing with others at Microsoft this week. The interest in RSS at Microsoft is definitely deep and wide, as Dave says. On the other hand, it is something I don’t discuss in detail much. First, details are often NDA for competitive reasons. But just as importantly, my experience ofMicrosoft is thatit’s best not to get my (or other people’s) hopes up before a product actually ships. Details, schedules, and plans can change.
Dave also talked in some potential doomsday security scenarios and what Microsoft can do about them. I tend to agree that the potential for problems is quite large, and the scenarios he describes are not at all far-fetched. However, mitigation is really tough. Better sandboxing will help, but ultimately I think the problem of computer security is similar to the problem of terrorism. It’sa systemicproblem, and will take systemic changes to adjust the profit equation that currently attracts hackers(who are very professional these days). It will take coordination of governments and law enforcement around the world, along with cooperation at all layers of the technology stack to start to make these crimes unattractive.
Scoble reports that he was forced to clean floors and toilets in order to prepare for the BBQ. This is why I never host parties, quite honestly. I rented the equipment and cleaned and waxed all the floors a few weeks ago, and the toilets are always clean, but the overall situation is hopeless. The last time the place was clean enough to have people over was when Dare and Doug visited more than two years ago. We’ve even discussed getting professional help, but the professional cleaning agencies require a certain level of stability before they take on the chores. So we just entertain outside our home. Dim Sum tomorrow should be fun.