So I said that we'd done a lot while I was away , other gems now sifted from my inbox include.

• As well as all the other Server "SKUs" I mentioned before, we've announced HPC Server 2008;  (formerly called Compute Cluster Server - CCS) the beta is downloadable now.
• Staying with servers, Home Server has released holy deleted expletives Batman ! How did I miss that one ?
• Also in the home, X-box live is marking it's 5th brithday and there are free downloads available for Today and Tomorrow (pacific timings, so if you're in the UK you have until early Saturday morning). Some original x-box games will be up for (chargeable) download from December 4th.
• While I talk of live, Windows Live released a major update, including Writer (it failed to install on my PC over the beta ... will have to try again later) and Photo Gallery, and there is a new Calendar beta
• We also released the Windows Live™ Messenger IM Control which lets people on the Web reach you in Messenger by showing your Messenger status on your web site, blog, or social networking profile (or any other page they can see in their browser.
• IE 7 Pro released a new update. Sadly  a bug has come back which means IE is prone to crash when I close a tab.
• We launched Technet Edge, A new video site for IT pros. I'm pleased to see it uses Silverlight and lets you download in a range of formats. One of the first videos is my old friend Giovanni explaining HPC server 2008
• A new IT cartoon blog got started that it looks like I might have to subscribe to.
• The CTP for Powershell 2 has been made available. Jeffrey Snover has made several posts about it - be sure to read the one on beta vs CTP software and being a CTP user.  I will quote the last four lines of that in future (no not his signature !)

Here at Tech-ed IT-Forum I went to dinner with some people from the PowerShell community. I heard someone say afterwards something to the effect "If anyone in Microsoft has a right to a huge ego, it's Jeffrey, but he's really nice and wanted to hear what I had to say". I interviewed Jeffrey the following morning, and his philosophy about listening to customers came out in the interview (which will be posted early next week - it probably on Edge). When I go to these events I'm usually "man on a mission"; this time I've not got quite the same sense of purpose - I'm just networking with people at random: I'm not exactly Mr Smalltalk at the best of times, and I'm only just over my jet lag which has made me feel even less inclined to chat. But I think my interview with Jeffrey is a good one, and one of my highlights of the show. The weird moment of Tech-ed was meeting Hugh Macleod: not so much for meeting him, but I happened to be wearing a Blue-Monster Shirt at the time. So our evening of drinks was one long round of Eileen saying to people "This is Hugh" [pause] "He drew the that" - [pointing to my shirt] and Hugh getting the reaction "Ohmygod ohmygod - you're him !"