No work, all play.

Today was an exceptionally fun day at the office.

As part of Microsoft's effort to promote Engineering Excellence and Trustworthy Computing, I attended talks given by Steve Ballmer, Scott Charney, and Ken Moss.

It was uber cool getting to see and hear what these guys had to say up close. Watching Steve B speak candidly about competition was just awesome, and the whole room cracked up when my friend Dan decided to ask him something to the effect of "Does it piss you off that my college friends don't think Microsoft is cool?" (Yes, he used the words "pissed off", at least three times - and his question was better worded than I'm letting on, but anyhow, Nicely done Dan.)

MSN Search is something that fascinates me, mainly because search is an incredibly complex and challenging problem, and also because it's an area in which Microsoft is the underdog. So listening to Ken talk about his group's efforts and plans was just incredibly fascinating to me - so much so that I sent him an email with some follow-up questions afterwards.

I'd have to say that one of the coolest things about working for "the borg" (a la Scoble) so far is the access I've gotten to excellent people. It's awesome watching people I've admired from afar for some time shoot informal emails back and forth on topics ranging from search to blogging to social networking.

Now, off to prepare some powerpoint slides on mates for a meeting at the University of Michigan on exploring campus-wide IM. Chug chug chug.