Do you ever look to the past to see what the future holds? You should. I cut my computer teeth long before most people. My computer heritage goes back to my diapers. Dear Dad was a career IBMer and I was playing with IBM Selectric typewriters and dictaphones long before most people had ever seen Lotus 1-2-3 . During a recent discussion with Rodney Clark, a rising Microsoft executive and the leader of my org, I found out he and I have very similar roots in that regard. His Dad was also a career IBMer.

Well I got all excited… I was poking around on the MSDN developer site and noticed they have this enticing link to become a member of the Windows Vista Beta program called the Windows Vista Beta Experience . The link takes you to a site where you can pick your country. Of course I looked for the country of Texas and to my horror it wasn’t listed. So I picked the United States and ended up at http://www.microsoft.com/betaexperience/enus/ . On that page they have a registration link that

An unique opportunity to get one-on-one time with our Windows Vista application compatibility experts during the Windows Vista Readiness Applications Compatibility Labs at TechEd 2006. Bring your own Applications to test and troubleshoot and/or try out our self paced labs to test and catch up on the exciting new enhancements and opportunities Windows Vista has to offer – all in a single room. Windows Vista Readiness Labs TechEd06 June 12th – 16th, 2006 Room 108, First Floor Boston Convention