This Week's ShadowRAM

Whidbey/Yukon hype fest.

It was unclear how many of the 6,000 to 7,000 attendees were actually not affiliated with the company. One reporter seeking "developer on the floor" comment was astounded when three out of four people interviewed turned out to work for the big "M." One was Steve Swartz, Indigo project architect. Guess his "Team Indigo" T-shirt should have been a dead giveaway.

Bill Gates' Monday keynote came perilously close to his 48th birthday, which was Oct. 28. One time-honored reporter remembered attending the big shindig for Bill's thirtieth in Redmond, when Gates rented out a roller rink and hosted 20 to 30 Microsofties.

The PDC was, in fact, well-attended. Many sessions on Yukon and Indigo were beyond standing room only, with programmers, architects and what-have-you crouching, kneeling, sitting and blocking the aisles. But one contingent was strangely missing. Although Microsoft reportedly tried with all its might to gather 115 to 120 ISV-type partners to man their own booths, it got about 65. Part of the dearth is doubtless the moribund economy, but many would bet that you could count right now the number of ISVs doing real Win32 fat-client applications on two hands. Those developers are prime candidates for the Longhorn mishegas. Back to the fat-client future Microsoft used to foretell.

Microsoft is getting "super-fied" again. If one more exec uses that term to describe some feature that remains more a gleam-in-its-developers' eyes than real, I'm gonna puke. Eric Rudder slipped the "S" word into his keynote six times. On the plus side, other top dogs seem beyond superification. Bill Gates undoubtedly started the trend based on the copycat behavior. Ever notice how many at Microsoft ape his haircut, glasses, demeanor? But, according to a perusal of his transcript, Gates uttered the dreaded word just once.

A PDC highlight was watching Jim Allchin don his reading glasses and do some on-the-fly programming. "I'd be honored if you'd be my code monkey," said Don Box, Avalon architect at Microsoft, in his introduction of Allchin.

Larry Ellison is at it again. The Oracle czar has snapped up six primo lots of Malibu beachside for 65 million clams and will build a palatial estate with the requisite Zen garden, complete with imported boulders. Probably much to the consternation of the local glitterati. Good, now Larry can alienate a whole new industry.